The Sphere: A Journey In Time (25 page)

Epilogue

Noah laid in the grass, staring up at the glass of the dome. His eyes automatically went to the spot that had been shattered in the attack. The glass had been repaired months ago, and Jim repeatedly told him that it was exactly the same as the other glass panels now, but Noah swore it looked different. A constant reminder of what had brought him to this state.

He had not anticipated this sort of fear when he and Addy tried to take over the lab. In fact, until the crowd had come after him, he had no fears at all. Now he had nightmares all the time. If it wasn't the lab being attacked again by the Gardians or by Doctor Lancing somehow finding his way back to this time, it was worse: getting stuck back in a time period he couldn't stand and resorting to living a normal life.

He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. Addy had tried to convince him that if he ever got stuck again, Daphne would recognize it, and we'd come back for him. Daphne, his odd, surrogate daughter. He didn't understand why she clung to him so much. Addy said it had to do with another version of Noah from the future being a father figure to her. Noah laughed once at the idea. The sound disappeared in the massive space.

There she was, running across the open space, calling for him. No, he thought, sitting up. Not calling, yelling. Frantically yelling. Noah was on his feet and sprinting toward her. "Daphne! What is it!" he yelled as he closed the distance.

She stopped and waited for him to approach. "Something's wrong with Addy. When I brought her back, she seemed frightened. She said to get you, she said you'd understand."

The two of them were now racing across the lawn. Noah tried to work out what would have Adelaide frightened. She made it back, so she must not have gotten stuck. Perhaps she had seen Doctor Lancing. She had sent him back to the early 1600s, and her current mission put her in 1933 and later. Could he be over 300 years old? Adelaide said he looked exactly the same when she saw him in the future as he did just a few months ago.

They went through the glass doors of the entrance to the time travel lab and down the halls to the return chambers. "In here," Daphne said as she stopped in front of a door and opened it.

Adelaide was pacing back and forth, but stopped and ran to Noah when he entered. "Noah! I saw him again, he was there!"

It was just as Noah thought, Doctor Lancing had tracked her down. "What was Doctor Lancing doing in the 1930s? How did he find you?"

She shook her head. "No, not him. Byron!" She whispered the name as though saying it out loud would call him to the present.

The name meant nothing to Noah. "Who's Byron?"

"The man I saw in Shakespeare's time. The one I suspected of not belonging there. I was right, he didn't." She looked at him frantically.

It jogged his memory. He remembered the conversation with Adelaide so many months ago as they ate lunch. He gasped slightly as the implication hit him. "There's another time traveler."

Special thanks to Sean for introducing me to Nanowrimo and daring me to do it. To PS, who gave me reason to push myself nearly every day in the end. To my sister, Heather, who filled my head with visions of glory after it was over. To my other sister, Nicole, who corrected my grammar and tried her best to point out my plot holes (and who probably has something to say about that sentence). To St. Elmo's Coffee Pub for providing me with my weekend morning ritual writing space and the best chai lattes in existence. And to Nanowrimo for sending me those motivational emails that I didn't believe until it was actually happening to me.