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Epilogue
Mimi
IthinkTime'ssentient.I think it does have a plan. Some of us just feature more prominently in that plan than others. Jack was right. There is something about the Wyldes. Something that connects us to Time. Carrie knows more about Time now than anyone. She is a fount of knowledge. An encyclopaedia of facts. In some ways, my twin is more a Doctor of Time than I could ever be, but I don't do too badly on that front myself.
RATS — and the world — needed Sergei to take the fall, and Time needed me to balance Sergei's presence in the 23rd century. So, here I am. Thankfully, the new Prime Minister has educated herself well and agrees with Dr Crawford's recommendations.
He's gone home now. Following behind his son, Charles, who was returned at the same time my own family was returned to New Zealand in the 21st century.
We've all changed or been changed by Sergei's efforts and by Time itself. Most of us have survived, but those who still stand are different.
I can feel Time now. Surging and waning all around us. I can feel the sine waves, taste their colours. I often know when a rip will emerge before Dispatch does. And rips still emerge and will continue to do so. Carrie told Crawford that, and he told the world at that press conference. Once RATS existed in any form, courtesy of Sergei's first trip through Time, rips existed in any form, too. You can't have one without the other, but you can't eliminate either, because they simply would exist again. A perpetual causal loop.
So, RATS is here to stay, the new PM and her cabinet ministers are determined to keep it that way. And I am legally — temporally speaking — at RATS in the 23rd century.
I visit my family once a month. I'd love to leave Orion 0 with Carrie so she can time travel when she wants, but she says her time travelling days are over. She's doing her Ph.D in physics. I'm not sure her time, her world, is ready for her dissertation just yet, but this is Carrie. Living life, not just surviving it.
I know they're not my family, not really. I know I watched my twin die at Cape Canaveral and my parents drown in St Petersburg. But they feel like my family to me. So, we've all agreed to just let things be. To be a family. Even if I can only visit them once a month and from a different time period.
The fallout from Sergei's capture and Dr Crawford's speech is ongoing. Several of us received awards. Pratt got her medal, and surprisingly, it's made her a little easier to live with. She still bumps shoulders with me in the corridor, but I bump her right back. She seems to like the camaraderie. I haven't the heart to tell her that's not how comrades actually act.
Jessica's a little harder to make peace with. She's still in love with Jack. But Jack is in love with me and he wants the world to know it. He even shouted it from Shadowship's rooftop because Bryan won a game of poker in the library with him and that was the prize he demanded.
And that brings me to Bryan and Sally. My friend's heart is healing and Bryan, bless the alternate version of him, is giving her all the time in the world to heal it. He's there, constantly, but when she needs a friend, he is that friend, and when she needs a Surgeon, he acts like one, and when she needs something more, I'm pretty sure he is that too for her.
And Sally is a balm for Bryan.
We all watched Sergei's trial on TV. It was big news all over the country and throughout the world. There was sympathy for him, and a part of me was grateful to Dr Crawford for giving him that small thing. But there was more resentment for what he had done. Most of us had to give evidence. The case went on for months. In the end, though, there was only one outcome.
He was sentenced to life without parole in a maximum-security prison here in Britain. But his crimes were international in nature, so for the next few years, he'll be tried in various international courts around the world.
It's pointless, but it appeases the people, and it keeps the consequences of messing with Time in everyone's mind.
Time travel is not for the faint of heart and Time must be protected.
RATS is going through some changes, too. The British government has agreed to turn it into an international facility, setting it up to receive funds from international donations to offset the costs. The land the Academy stands on is already deemed international soil now. There'll be more changes, of course. We know this. But Jack is doing his best, and the PM is right beside him. And because the public demands it, they will ensure we're still us at the end of it all.
It helps that we're already a little bit international. We've got Bryan from Florida in the USA, Belinda Bauer from Hamburg in Germany, De Francillon from Haiti, Holt from Melbourne, Australia. And a kiwi from Auckland, NZ; Downunder.
There'll be more nationalities added to the mix in due course, but RATS will always be based at Shadowship. Unless someone blows us up, of course.
We've got a full complement of Orions now. Every plinth is manned. We've even got a few Luniks off to the side for the Techies to play with. Dean's especially happy about that. At least it gives him something to concentrate on as he gets over Sally.
Carrie gave up everything about Sergei's operation before she returned to her time. It was easy to dismantle it from that. Sergei had no idea that Carrie was intent on betraying him. She'd played her role well. Almost too well. I'd almost believed it.
But in the end, the Lunik operation has been shut down, Sergei dealt with once and for all, our Orions returned to us, and peace now blankets the world.
Well, almost. If Sergei stole our Interns, it was unintentional. We're still searching for them, but with my help, my connection to Time, I think we're closing in on them. That's my baby. My project. Technically, I shouldn't be flying with Jack — that whole shouting from the rooftop thing — but as this is a special project, outside of responding to rips and things, Jack can get away with supervising the flights with me.
Besides, if I get it right one day, and stumble upon a lost Intern, seeing a familiar face in Jack would go a long way, I think.
So, Dean's got his Luniks to play with, Sally has Bryan and him her, Rafe is finally studying for his Surgeon's exam, Jack's in charge of us all, and I'm heading up the search and rescue effort for our lost Interns.
It's pretty freaking cool if I'm honest about it.
I'm an Intern at RATS, in charge of a major project, and living in the 23rd century where I desperately want to be. Time paid up in the end. It did me proud. There were sacrifices, but I think Time likes to balance things.
I lost my original family and then gained an alternate one. They had to go back in time, but I get to stay with Jack and my extended family at RATS. Balance in all things.
