Kepa threw his arms around the taller woman. “Am I glad to see you!” he said. “I didn’t want to have to do another one of these alone.”
Maite gave him a cold stare.
“You know what I mean,” said Kepa. “Alone, just the two of us. It would be nice to have more help this time.”
Maite sighed. “I know what you mean. And, yes, it would be nice to have more help.”
“Which Maite and Kepa are you?” asked Marina.
“What do you mean?” asked Kepa.
“Ah,” interjected Maite before turning to Kepa. “We’re in the future, right?” Kepa nodded. “Well, while for us, this is our third bubble, for Marina it could be our hundredth. She’s probably encountered other versions – future versions – of us in other bubbles.”
Marina nodded. “We’ve had, or will have, a number of adventures together.”
“Oh,” replied Kepa. “I guess that makes sense, but it’s all so damn confusing.” He then turned back to Marina. “How are we doing in the future?”
“Like I told you at the beginning,” replied Marina, “we can’t know what happens to our own history before it happens to us. I’ve certainly seen future versions of you, that much I remember. But what I saw, that part has faded away.”
“So,” mused Maite, her hand stroking the pink and green fur that covered her chin, “when we are done with this bubble, we’ll know we were in the future, we’ll know if we were successful in finding the zatia, but we won’t know the details?”
Marina nodded. “Bai. You’ll remember your interactions with me and de Lancre, at least impressions of them. But, you won’t remember any details about this time. It’s as if time itself is protecting itself from any kind of… what’s the word?”
“Paradox,” inserted Maite. “Otherwise, the time stream itself might break, if we were able to learn things in the future that we could use to change the past.”
“Precisely,” said Marina with a smile. “I have to say, recruiting you two has been one of the best things I’ve done since all of this started.”
“So what now?” asked Kepa. “Do you know where the zatia is?”
Marina shook her head. “Ez, not yet. But neither does de Lancre.”
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