Priorities

I stood looking into my sister’s kitchen window; I couldn’t help but smile at the look on my younger self’s face. I remembered this night; it had been the end of my whole world and the beginning of a brand new destiny for me. I watched myself as I tried for the back door and my brother in law Dan blocked my escape...at inhuman speed.

This was the night that Dan had told me of the long running plan by an alien species to eventually breed out another species called the Lenai.

He had told me how all of the fringe science theories were only half right.

I drifted back to that conversation in my mind and found much more clarity then I had at the time.

I remembered the cliff notes of his relentless monologue.

Dan wasn’t human and his people, the Anukai, came to earth along with the Lenai and 2 other species on a prison ship that crash landed.

The Anukai swiftly overtook the native species of earth and then hunted down the other aliens from the crash one by one.

Except for the Lenai who had already adapted to earth and had begun assimilating;

The Anukai had thought the Lenai weak due to the species adaptive and emotional nature, but the Lenai quickly overtook the spot of dominant species on earth. A spot which the Anukai had felt entitled to.

So they began an incredibly long cold war, finally realizing that they couldn’t win against the Lenai they decided to breed them out.

Many Anukai were against this plan due to racial prejudice, but facts were facts. The Anukai would die off soon if they did not adapt.

The Lenai’s ability to adapt gave things like bright flashes of inspiration......this led to things like time travel.

Dan had bitten into another cookie in the kitchen and was telling me how his people were going to kidnap me and use my time travel equations to go back to the beginning and subjugate the Lenai.

How my sister, his wife and I were half Anukai and half Lenai and how my sister knew all about it and was loyal to the Anukai. I knew that she wasn’t...I had lived this night.

Dan continued his cookie munching while jovially explaining how he was slowly poisoning his half-breed wife and their two children, my niece and nephew, and how they would die in sequence.

I shook myself, I knew what came next and I didn’t want to be here for the horror show, even though Dan deserved it, it still gave me nightmares; I didn’t come here to watch this again!

I waited until my sister had made her way into the kitchen to join Dan and my younger self and then made my way along the side of the house until I was under the kid’s bedroom window.

I stood and judged the distance, and then climbed up the trellis...I pushed their window open and crawled in.

Neither was sleeping, I wasn’t surprised, and they were both frightened.

"Hi guys, do you remember me?" I smiled and made a llama shadow puppet.

Ronnie blinked and Conner just looked confused. They took after my Joyce, blonde haired and green eyed.

"Happy llama, sad llama, dead llama, zombie llama??"

"Aunt Kare!" They chorused in surprise

I grinned "Yep, Karebear in the flesh"

They broke into smiles and took breathes to start quizzing me when I held a finger to my lips " guys, I will answer every question that you have...but right now I need you to come with me and stay quiet. It’s not safe for you guys here right now. We will come back when its safe."

"What about Mommy? They said in unison. They looked worried as hell, which I didn’t want but there was no help for it.

"Mommy is going to be fine; she has your Dad to protect her. But we have to go. So will you guys go on a short trip with Aunt Kare? Please?" Joyce had the kids Dad, who incidentally was not Dan but the man that she loved, Russell... who was an Entru, one of the species that the Anukai had supposedly gotten rid of...but nobody was supposed to know that yet; and they would be fine.

But the kids would not. The children’s true identity would be found out very soon, and if I didn’t act fast Ronnie and Connor would die after enduring countless torturous experiments.

I had promised myself that I would not let it happen again, and I wont.

The Anukai special operations team was coming and my sister Joyce had badly misjudged her ability to keep her children safe.

We would come back when all of the dust settled and Joyce and Russell were living happily off of the radar.

The kids must have sensed my emotions because they nodded in unison; they hugged each other and said "Ok"

I smiled and nodded.

I pushed up my right sleeve, uncovering the bracer that was strapped to my arm. It housed my two inventions simultaneously. One to move through time; and one to instant transfer from one place to the next.

I aimed at their bedroom door, it’s always easier at a preexisting port way. At my touch, the crystals with my bracer began to glow a violet purple, then the glow shot toward the door and a glowing violet rift appeared.

The kids gaped, their eyes wide.

I smiled and said "Ok lets go!" I held out my hands and they grabbed their stuffed animals - Ronnie had a bunny and Connor had his Teddy bear and then walked over and latched onto me.

I hoisted them up, good thing they were still light, and walked into the swirling rift.

Joyce would be scared out of her wits, but it was better than losing her kids.

I had a place about 15 years in the future where we could all hang out for a while on the beach and enjoy some downtime.

My priorities were the kids. That was all there was to it.