Always & Forever by: Elsbeth Numbers of the Beast “Tristan and Iseult, two doomed lovers.”

Maggie flew up the stairs ignoring the elevator in Nadine’s townhome with Alexis on her heels. The couple had been in the south of France on vacation when Murine, Nadine’s assistant, had contacted them concerned about Nadine’s well-being. Maggie knew it was because of Josephine. It had been over three months since Nadine’s girlfriend left Paris.

“I’m sure she is fine, love.” Lord Alexis Bellamont had taken Maggie to the south of France to ask her hand in marriage.

He knew that marrying a twin might lead to issues in the future, but he would be the first to admit he really liked Nadine. She was like the little sister he never had.

Maggie shook her head. “She is anything but fine. Murine said when she found the letter on her desk, her face went deathly pale. Nadine then stood up and told everyone she was going home. That was four days ago.”

Besides being a lead scientist in ISA ( Imperial Space Administration), Nadine had moved into the private sector as a consultant for a major technology company. Murine normally handled all correspondence, but the letter had somehow ended up on her sister’s desk. Someone made sure that Nadine received the white envelope personally.

“So does anyone know what’s in the letter? I mean, would Josephine break up with your sister by mail?”

He was concerned about his fiancé’s well-being, as well. As soon as Maggie heard the news, they had rushed out of the resort, leaving most of their belongings behind. When Nadine didn’t answer her phone Maggie had become despondent.

The only small consolation was that Nadine’s security said the Comtesse was fine, but she was not seeing any visitors. All of the maids were given the week off with pay, and she even paid for Lia, her cook, to fly home to Italy so she could see her daughter, who was to give birth in a few weeks.

“Who knows what goes in that stupid girl’s head?” Maggie could hear the piano accompaniment for the Turangalála-Symphonie.

Music and math had always been a cornerstone of her sister’s life. When things were bad, she retreated to one or the other. She didn’t know why but when news of the letter reached them, Maggie understood immediately that her sister needed her.

Alexis recognized the music as well. “Tristan and Iseult, two doomed lovers.” He said sadly.

“Your Ladyship, it’s good to see you again.” Captain Kristen Moller, the head of her sister’s security, met them at the top of the stairs.

Lord Alexis noted that Nadine might have sent all of her help home but her security detail hadn’t changed. “How is she, Kristen?”

“I’m not really sure how to answer that, Your Lordship. She leaves for the market every morning and as always has a kind word for everyone she meets. If you didn’t know something was wrong.” She shook her head.

“My sister has always been very good at that. What happened with her Highness?”

The three members of Nadine’s security standing in front of the door all smiled. “The Princess Bonaparte visit lasted only a couple of hours, but when she left, she was furious. We thought at first it was directed at the Comtesse.”

Maggie nodded. “Her Highness chartered our plane apparently. It was also one of her people that tracked us down on the beach.” Maggie turned to her fiancé. “Alexis love, will you go down to Gabion’s and bring in dinner for the three of us.”

He smiled. “How much time do you need?”

“An hour.”

Nadine knew who was coming up the stairs long before her sister came through the door. Alexis had told her what he had planned to do on their vacation. She was there when he asked their father for Maggie’s hand in marriage.

When Nadine heard about the upcoming engagement, a heaviness pulled at her heart, but she knew it was wrong to feel that way. What was worse, her sister now looked exactly like Jack’s Maggie when they got married.

Pushing away those destructive thoughts, Nadine pulled a few strings making sure that the happy couple would be well taken care of at the seaside resort.

“Nadine.” Maggie was shocked. She had become used to seeing her sister dressing her age, using makeup to make her seem much older. Sitting in front of the piano was Nadine, without makeup wearing flannel pajamas looking every bit of sixteen years old.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in the south of France?” Maggie stood under the archway that leads into the formal living room.

Nadine was annoyed, her sister was supposed to be gone for three more days. With one hand, Nadine grabbed a bottle of wine with another, she embraced her sister. “Congratulations, sweet sister of mine.”

“Stop Nadine, what happened?”

“No, Maggie, I want to hear everything before we discuss my problems.” She led her sister to the living room and produced a couple of clean glasses. “You know that the Jews believe that one always celebrates life before death. For example, if someone dies the night before a wedding, assuming it’s not the bride or groom, the wedding has to take place. A very practical people I always thought.”

“Has anyone died?” Maggie didn’t think Josephine had die if so she would apologize to her spirit for all of the bad things she had been saying about her for the past couple of days.

“Oh no, it just seems appropriate at the time.”

“Nadine,” Maggie whined.

“So tell me all about it.” Nadine grinned and passed her sister a glass of wine. “Leave nothing out.”

A half an hour later found the twins leaning against one another on the couch. “He even got down on one knee; I didn’t know that Alexis was such a romantic.”

Maggie giggled. “He looked like he was going to pass out. Silly man, did he really think I would say no.”

Nadine could still remember when Jack proposed to his Maggie. They even picked out the ring together, and even that didn’t help. Nadine could remember how nervous Jack felt in the days before he proposed.

“I’m sure they always feel that it’s a possibility. I’m very happy for you, sis.” She reached over and grabbed her sister’s hand for a better look at the ring. “It’s a big rock, is it real?” She turned her head to take a bite out of it, like biting a diamond proved its authenticity.

“Stop that, of course, it’s real, it’s his grandmothers.” Maggie pulled her hand away with a smile. It then disappeared. “Your turn.”

Nadine nodded, grabbed the wine out of her sister’s hand, and disappeared into her bedroom. A moment later, she returned with a large white vellum envelope. She passed it to her sister without a word and took a seat across from her. Maggie looked down, the enveloped looked like. No, it couldn’t be. She opened it up and started to read. “Iva and Roland Blanc have the honour of announcing the marriage of their daughter Josephine Blanc to Ian Durand...that stupid Bitch!” Maggie looked up at her sister horrified.

“Josephine called me, fairly upset when she found out that her mother made sure I was personally handed an invitation. She was planning on coming home to make the breakup all official, but her parents were concerned about her returning to Paris. Because of my fame, my personal connections. As I had somehow corrupted their poor daughter, she would instantly fall under my spell again if she returned to our apartment.”

Nadine forced out her evil scientist laugh. “Her parents were never overly fond of me. I mean, her mother actually blamed me for turning her daughter into a lesbian.” Nadine shook her head in disbelief. ”On top of all, my security is absolutely beside themselves because her parents could have easily left a bomb on my desk instead of a letter. It seems they paid someone quite a bit of money to deliver that invitation.”

Maggie didn’t want to even think about someone trying to kill her sister, and Nadine talked about it like she was telling the time. “I thought she didn’t like men,” Maggie whispered, unable to take her eyes off the gold writing on the invitation.

“Your right, she doesn’t like them, but ultimately she was given a choice between her family and me.” Nadine reached over and finished off her glass of wine.

Not that it mattered. She could enjoy the taste of wine, but alcohol held no comfort for her anymore. It was very practical; would you want a drunkard who could manipulate space-time?

“So, have you set a date?”

“Stop.”

“What?”

“Stop.” Maggie crossed the room and threw herself into her sister’s arms. “Don’t forget, I know you.”

Nadine was shaking. “You still love me, don’t you?” She whispered.

“Always and Forever.” It was at that point that Nadine finally broke down and cried.

Alice looked around the small green planetoid confusion written all over her face. The small humanoid race that reminded her of cats had been able to easily deflect the asteroid that had threatened all life on their planet.

The leader of the space miners who had ordered the horrific deed had been arrested and thrown out the nearest airlock. Once again, she expected a dimension devastated but found it barely harmed. So little damage was actually done. The Spiritual Detective could even repair it before she followed the beast again.

Alice looked around, ignoring the calculations and equations that floated around her until she found the one she needed. “The beast is moving so fast it doesn’t even seem to be hiding its tracks anymore.”

On a number of Earth-like worlds later, Alice walked among the sands of the Iraq desert as burning oil fields lit up the sky around her. Jumping on top of the remains of a Russian made T-100 Main Battle Tank, she leaned over to get a good look inside.

Clinically detached, the Spiritual Detective noted that the occupants didn’t fare very well when the 120mm tank rounds from the Israeli Merkava Mk. 5 penetrated the armor.

The commander had been the leader of a new aggressive Arab State, but he didn’t even survive the first battle to take over all of the Middle East. The beast should have made him almost invulnerable.

Actually, Alice didn’t understand why the new leader was on the battlefield in the first place. It was as if the beast was doing the minimum damage before it continued on. The damage to this dimension was almost inconsequential.

Alice plopped down on the rear of the tank and swung her legs back and forth. None of this was making any sense what so ever. What she knew from the Caretaker such beings were methodically destroying everything they touched. It didn’t skip dimensions, it didn’t do minimum damage; what it did was always an absolute.

Where was the beast going in such a hurry? Frowning, she stood and pulled up the current section of the multiverse, marking each dimension the beast had so far currently touched. The initial attacks were methodical, but then it broke up wandering in one particular direction.

“No, she couldn’t have.”

“Comtesse what you’re talking about will bankrupt the country. We have won the space race, have we not? Let us sit back and enjoy our victory.”

A room of influential men and women sat in a small auditorium discussing the future of the French Space program. Throughout the Empire, there was great pride in the accomplishments, but there was another group who now thought such money should be spent inwards on direr social issues.

“You mean we should rest on our laurels? I’m not talking about a moon base, Francis.”

“Yet,” Another voice said.

Nadine smiled at the speaker. “I’m talking about a space station. Our equipment and our astronauts need more actual time in space. I’m not talking about a week in space but thirty days, ninety days, even a year.”

“What about all of those probes you and Doctor Emir proposed that we should send to the other planets in our solar system?”

Several leading Cosmologists planned out a series of long and short-range probes that would be sent out to the other planets in the Solar system.

The first probe Amour I had been sent to Venus less than a year ago. It would orbit the planet a half a dozen times before plunging into the planet’s atmosphere. Its sister Amour II was launched a few months later would orbit the planet for years to come.

“There is too much science out there for us to ignore your Excellency.” Doctor Katherine Mercer spoke up. A professor from the University of New Orleans, she was also considered to be a disciple of Comtesse Nadine. “The science touches any number of disciplines from geology to meteorology to even biology.”

“You mean like little blue women from Venus.” A number of scientists laughed.

“No, I am speaking about terraforming,” Nadine spoke up as the room became quiet. “I have no doubt that there is perhaps microbial life on other planets, biologists have found life in the least hospitable places on this planet. No, I am talking about turning one of our neighbors into another earth.”

“You have large dreams, Comtesse.”

The young scientist laughed. “Of course I do. Otherwise, we would still be sitting here trying to figure out how to get a satellite into orbit.” The room was equally filled with satisfied smiles as well as unhappy frowns at that comment.

Duke Louis d'Orléans shook his head but had to smile. She always came straight to the point. Nadine had a good number of enemies, but there was no doubt even if she wasn’t a Peer of France that her word carried a lot of weight.

It was already a foregone conclusion that the projects she wanted to go forward would go with the Emperor’s blessing. Thankfully he wasn’t a scientist, he just had to play referee. “May I suggest that we stop at this point. I am sure everyone is already tired of hearing Nadine and myself speak. We have several papers that are to be presented after lunch.”

The room gave a good-natured laugh then started to empty out, all moving towards the dining room. Nadine remained in her chair, greeting people and talking to a number as they walked by.

“You’re not going to lunch, your Ladyship?”

“Hi Katherine, well, I’m not really a lunch person, and please call me Nadine.” Nadine reflected she wasn’t really a food person anymore. She enjoyed food, of course, but it was no longer necessary for her survival. She looked up to see the disappointment in the scientist's eyes. “However, I’ll be happy to watch you eat.”

Katharine laughed, but as the pair began to walk out the door, Nadine spotted a familiar figure. Time stopped as Nadine laughed and leaped over a table to throw herself on the small blonde girl. “Alice where in the world have you been.”

Alice broke the embrace and looked at her protégé. “Nadine, what have you done?”