But first, she had to see Admiral Renford. She had to at least make an attempt to convince him of what had happened. She would first go to Fleet Base.
Again she thought of her mother and father. She still found it hard to believe that she had been responsible for their deaths. But she had been; she knew that now. And she had survived those forty-seven years in her past-now!- protected by their bodies from the crowd's trampling feet.
Suddenly, Susan realized she was crying. There had been nothing she could do about her parents' death. She had been powerless to influence the events she had known must happen. Yet she wished with all her heart she might have been able to change those events. She wished she could have somehow saved her parents.
She shook her head sharply. She didn't have time for tears now. There was still too much she must do.
Wiping her eyes on the frayed and dirty bandages covering her prosthetic hands, she formed a thought in her mind.
Instantly she stood in the corridor outside Admiral Renford's office, just as she had less than a week ago. But it seemed much longer than a week. So much had happened since she had last talked to the Admiral. Her life had been turned literally inside out.
The snowflake pattern formed in her mind and the mumbled mantra came to her lips. This time, however, they seemed to have absolutely no effect on the headache. The pain in her head still flared like fire, unaltered by the pattern and the mantra that had worked so often before.
She stepped to the door, and it irised open. The reception desk in the outer office was empty. Krueger was gone, just as she had known he would be. She walked to the door to Renford's inner office and it, too, irised open. She stepped through.
Renford sat behind his desk. His eyes became wide with surprise as he looked up from his paperwork.
"What in hell are you doing here?" he said. Then he noticed that her uniform was soiled and scorched, and that her prosthetic hands and arms were bandaged. In places the bandages were coming off, exposing the burned through plasti-alloy and the electronics and mechanics beneath. "What happened?"
"We need to talk," she said. "We're in trouble."
"I know. Krueger's body was found in a hospital room in the Survey Service compound less than an hour ago. A hospital room registered to you!"
"Then he's dead?" He had been alive when Susan left the hospital room.
Renford nodded.
Had Hyatt finished him off? she wondered. Or perhaps her double had. Would it do any good to tell the admiral what had happened? Would he believe her?
Probably not. If it hadn't happened to her, if she hadn't actually experienced it all herself, she would never have believed it.
Still, she had no choice. She had to tell him, had to try to convince him. She needed help, and he was her last hope.
"Will you listen for a few minutes before turning me in?" she asked. "And will you at least try to believe me?"
"I'll try," Renford said. He motioned her to the chair by desk. "I owe you that much."
"Fine." She sat. "It all started with the attack in my quarters here on Fleet Base, the one I told you about before…"
She told him everything. She told him about her double from the future and about Hyatt's double. She told him how she had found Hyatt dead out at the mining camp-a mining camp that should still be in full operation but was now closed. And she told him how Krueger had tried to kill her. Showing him the pendants, she told him how she had jumped from one place and time to another. She even told him about the death of her parents in a riot she had caused.
Throughout her story, Renford gave no indication whether he believed her or not. He simply listened quietly, his expression blank.
Even after she had finished, he remained silent for a long moment. Then, finally, he spoke.
"I'd like to believe you," he said. "I'd like to say I believed everything you just told me. But it's all too incredible. You're asking me to believe you're from another world, a world in which Bill Darcy is not Luna City's mayor, but his brother is-a brother who has been dead for a number of years. You're asking me to believe there is a universe where the mining camp is still operating, and the solar power satellite has been destroyed. Is that right?"
"Yes." And immediately Susan felt the absurdity of it all.
"You're asking me to believe that a future Hyatt, aided by a future Susan Tanner, bought my personal secretary with promises of power?"
Susan looked down at her bandaged hands laying limp and lifeless in her lap, and nodded. Somehow, she could not meet Renford's gaze.
"And you're saying that you can instantaneously jump through both time and space, ranging from Luna to Earth, and from the past to the future?"
Again she nodded.
Both were silent for a time. Finally, Susan looked up, into the admiral's eyes. He really was trying to believe her-it showed in his expression. He wanted to believe. But he could not.
"I know how impossible it all sounds," Susan said. "I know you can't believe what I've just told you. In your place, I wouldn't believe it, either."
"There's simply no proof," he said.
Susan nodded with resignation. He was right, there was no proof. Yet, somehow she had to prove it to him. Somehow she had to make him believe.
How could she do it? There was just too much to it that was absolutely unbelievable.
Still, she knew she had to convince him. If she hoped to clear herself, she had to somehow verify her story. She had to establish at least the possibility of her story being true.
Her LIN/C would do her no good. Its record could be altered.
Then, suddenly, she knew what she must do. It might not work-and even if it did work, it might not convince him-but she had to try.
As she formed the thought in her mind, she felt all three pendants hanging from their chains around her neck become hot, even through the heavy fabric of her uniform. The headache increased, and instantly she stood behind Renford as he gazed at thin air before his desk. She reached out and touched his shoulder.
He tensed, then turned around, his eyes large and round with shock. His mouth worked silently for several seconds as he tried to speak, but he made no sound.
"I know," Susan said, stepping around the desk, to its front. He turned slowly, his gaze following her, still unable to respond. "I felt the same way when I began to realize what was happening."
After a few seconds, Renford closed his eyes and shook his head. "That's…something," he said when he finally opened his eyes.
Susan nodded. "Now do you believe? Can you believe that what I said happened actually took place?"
"Let's say I'm a lot closer to believing you than I was a moment ago. At least now I can believe in the possibility of it all."
"Is that enough for you to help me?"
He stared thoughtfully at Susan. Finally he said, "Yes, I'll help you. You know orders have been issued to shoot you on sight?"
"No, I didn't know. Then what do I do? How do I get out of here?"
What made me say that? she wondered. She knew she could leave any time she wanted. Although she didn't know where on the lunar surface Photon was located, all she had to do was think herself aboard, and the pendant would do the rest.
Then, she knew why she had asked.
"You can't leave here wearing a Fleet uniform," Renford said. "They'll be looking for a woman in a Fleet Captain's jumpsuit."
He stood and went to the door on the far side of his office, and Susan followed. The door irised open and she followed him through.