The Wall of Time is a prequel to my sci-fi series, which I wrote as my first NaNoWriMo novel in November of 2007. I've edited the passage slightly because I don't want to give any spoilers to books in the series that precede it, but I like this exchange & wanted to share.
Wil's in a tight spot. The Council has hired an assassin to kill him. Valkyrie, is a former lover of his, and takes the contract to protect him, but puts them both in danger. Wil takes her to a safe spot, but has to leave in order to protect her. He goes to a remote planet to visit a spiritual adviser, Abudali. Wil has a weird problem. His daughter, who lives 373 years in his past, is able to talk to him through space and time. He wants to find out how and why. After telling his old friend about it, he waits, impatiently, while Abudali meditates. Finally, the old man returns from his meditative trance.
Wreathed in smiles, Abudali
came back to himself, poured a drink of cold water, and sighed
contentedly. "Fascinating," he breathed as Wil's annoyance
mounted.
"Well?"
"Patience, Lone Wolf. I
am still reveling in the delightful talk I've had with your daughter.
Hers is an astute mind. She has an amazing clarity of intellect that
you sorely lack. It must come from her mother. As does her alacrity
of speech and her understanding of the finer points of. . . ."
"All right! Enough of
the veiled insults, Abu.” Wil inhaled deeply, exhaling slowly to
calm himself. "What does she say?"
"First of all, you are
correct. Her mother is Siegra. They live in a time approximately
three hundred years in our past. Three hundred seventy-three, as a
matter of fact."
"Is the number
significant?"
"No way of telling
without extensive numerology research. I can do that better with you
gone. In any case, she says that she's trying to figure out how she
can communicate with you too. It's not common among her people, many
of whom have Hindersight, their term for psy powers. Theirs tend to
be chiefly connected to precognition. The other powers, we deduce,
came from your half of the genetic matrix."
"This isn't telling me
what I need to know. How can she communicate with me? How can she
know the things she knows?"
"I have no idea."
"Abu!" Wil was
frustrated and angry. He wanted to yell and break things. This would
serve no logical purpose, but would make him feel one hell of a lot
better.
"But her instructor had
a thought."
"Instructor? What is
she being instructed in?"
"Oh, in Hindersight, of
course. I thought she would have told you."
"It's not like we've
had time to chat. What does her instructor think?"
"Chyou is of the mind.
. . ."
"Chyou?"
"Her—instructor,"
Abu spoke slowly and loudly as if Wil was slow witted and hard of
hearing.
"Chyou is her
instructor?"
"That's what I said.
Now be still. Sit down, you're pacing again."
Wil had stood in his
frustration but hadn't moved from the spot. He sat with great
agitation and lit another cheroot. He'd already been through five
since this interview started. He began to suspect he hadn't brought
enough.
"Chyou is of the mind.
. . ." he prompted.
"That it is because you
and her mother are from different times. Much as a man can freely
travel within his lifetime, given the right instruction and correct
set of parameters. . . . You know, that's an interesting phenomenon.
I have been. . . ."
"Abu," Wil's low,
quiet growl was more ominous than his shouting.
The old hermit cleared his
throat and continued. "Be that as it may, we know that time
travel along one's own lifetime is possible. It's been done, it's
history. However, you may not be aware that it's been speculated that
a man can travel through the lifetime of his parents. The actuality
is theoretical at best. Outrageously incomprehensible at its worst.
"But," he held up
a hand to stay Wil's protests, "we think that is why she is able
to do this. She has been given the parameters of both her mother's
lifetime and your own. Because of the disparate times you come from,
she has much more leeway than a normal individual. And your daughter,
Lone Wolf, is far from normal. She redefines psy powers. She's
rewritten laws of contact! This should not be able to happen, but it
is. Chyou thinks that's because no one ever told her it wasn't
possible."
"So my daughter, whom
I've never met, can contact me across space and time just because
it's theoretically possible and she doesn't know she can't?"
Wil didn't know if he should
jump for joy or punch the old man in the nose. He chose to remain
sitting down and not react violently for the moment. He wasn't happy
either way.
"Do you have any idea
how confusing this is? You're talking about seventeen steps from
reality. I have an open mind, Abu, but even I am struggling with
this."
"Wil, I have made it as
simple as I can. Perhaps you'd like the scientific lecture?"
"Is there one?"
Wil asked hopefully.
"No, not really."
Abu replied offhandedly. "Nothing in science can explain this.
I'm truly sorry I can't make it easier to understand. I would if I
could. You daughter did what any child would do, she thought of you.
Because of her enormous psy power, she was able to make contact."
"And some of this comes
from me? A man who never had any psy abilities, no training. . . .
I'm a dumb grunt, Abu."
"Far from it, Wil."
The old man was quiet and serious now. Gone was the flighty behavior,
the eccentric mannerisms. "We both know the Marine doctors did
incredibly intrusive things to your body. What we don't really know,
as we haven't explored, is what they did to your mind."
©
2014 Dellani Oakes
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