The Great Altruist (17 page)

           
Jadzia never felt the brief flicker of pain the French soldier undoubtedly did as Adolf Hitler squeezed the trigger and ended his life. Genesis fulfilled her pledge at the last possible moment and transported Jadzia back to her body in the clearing.

           
Jadzia fell to her knees as she emerged from the stream and clasped her head.

           
“Are you all right?” Genesis asked.

           
“I’ll be fine. Thank you for getting me out of there.”

           
“Sorry it took so long. Something was holding me back.”

           
“Me too,” Jadzia said. “I couldn’t pull the trigger. Do you really think the future can’t be changed?”

           
“I’ve never actually done something this involved before. Maybe the momentum of the stream is too great to alter its direction. Perhaps the hand of God
is
involved. Or maybe the future can never be altered. If that’s the case, I’ll have to come to you for nothing.”

           
“I thought you said you weren’t going to give up.”

           
“I won’t,” Genesis said.

           
Jadzia climbed through the hatch in the roof and sat atop the shelter as a steady drizzle descended. Genesis left her alone since there was nothing left to be said. But as the hours passed and the rain intensified, Genesis grew concerned for her friend. She opened the hatch and saw Jadzia sitting with her closed eyes, a stoic expression on her face as she remained motionless. Genesis climbed onto the roof and knelt beside her and faced the storm as it descended on the clearing. Lightning struck nearby trees and thunder shook the shelter, and yet Jadzia refused to move - even after Genesis petitioned her to go inside.

“Come inside, Jadzia,” Genesis said. “We built this thing so we didn’t have to be naked in the rain.”

           
“I’m not going anywhere!” Jadzia said.

           
“But why?”

           
“How do I know you won’t leave me?”

           
“Leave you? Jadzia, we’ve been together for ten years. When have I ever left you?”

           
“What are you talking about?” Jadzia shouted. “I’ve only been here a few days!”

           
Genesis said nothing. She sat frozen by Jadzia’s words, terrified that her memories had faded so quickly. She climbed back onto the roof and sat next to Jadzia until the rain stopped an hour later. Neither of them said anything. Genesis read Jadzia’s mind and watched the fear and rage course through her. Jadzia was scared of being abandoned, afraid that her inability to control her actions in the past was related to her failing mind. But Genesis sensed something far more sinister at play: the future may really be set in stone, and there might be nothing she could do about it. In that case, Jadzia would die for nothing, as not even her parents’ fate would change.

           
Jadzia sighed in frustration as the sun emerged from behind the clouds and forest canopy. She climbed through the hatch in the roof and collapsed onto her bed, soaking the mattress of leaves. Genesis poked her head through the roof.

           
“Are you feeling alright?” she said, trying to mask that fact that she already knew what was wrong.

           
“I feel like I’m going crazy. All these memories keep coming and going at the same time. I’m so confused.”

           
“How long have you been here with me?” Genesis asked.

           
Jadzia looked at her incredulously. “Ten years, of course. Why?”

           
“Because an hour ago you yelled at me and said you have been here a few days.”

           
“I don’t remember saying that! What’s wrong with me?” she cried.

           
Genesis could hold back her secret no longer. She descended from the roof and landed on the small stump beside Jadzia’s bed she used as a table. “There’s something I need to tell you. And I’m afraid you’re not going to like it.”

           
A knot formed and twisted in Jadzia’s stomach. She had never seen an expression on Genesis’s face that was so hopeless. She could only assume it meant the worst. “I’m dying, aren’t I?” Jadzia asked plainly.

           
Genesis nodded and bowed her head.

           
“Why didn’t you tell me?”

           
“I didn’t want to scare you.”

           
“Is there nothing we can do?”

           
Genesis shook her head. “I’m not a surgeon. It doesn’t matter. I know the truth.”

           
“What’s that?”

           
“It’s my fault,” she said. “I did this to you when I forced all that information onto you. There’s no other way to explain it.” Genesis began to weep. “I can’t believe I let this happen. I was so careless; so confident that I knew what I was doing. I should never have come to you,” she said as she burst into the air and prepared to storm out of the ceiling.

           
“Wait!” Jadzia called out. “I don’t want you to leave.”

           
Genesis stopped at the hatch in the roof and covered her face in shame. “I don’t know what to do.”

           
“Just stay with me,” she said. “I know you didn’t do this on purpose to hurt me. I pushed you. I’m the one who wanted to save my parents; to prevent the war; to learn all there is to know.”

           
“And now because of my conceitedness, you - an innocent woman from a death camp - are going to die by my hand. I can’t stand to be here when that happens.”

           
“What will you do?” Jadzia asked. “Will you leave me here to die alone without my best friend - my sister - to be here with me?”

           
Genesis shielded her face with her hands and cried. “I’m sorry,” she said, the tears streaming down her face. She floated back to Jadzia’s side. “I can’t do that. I need to find a way to save you.”

           
“And what if you can’t?”

           
“Let me try at least? I need to leave, but I won’t be gone long. I promise you.”

           
Jadzia smiled at her friend and reached out to lift her into her hands. “No matter what happens to me, even if I died tonight, I am grateful you came into my life. I wouldn’t trade the time we’ve shared for anything.” Genesis forced a smile and hovered away from Jadzia. She turned and looked back, etching the memory of her helpless and dying friend’s kind and beautiful face, and disappeared in a flash of light.

           
Genesis returned almost immediately to find Jadzia asleep. The rain descended in sheets outside the shelter so Genesis rested atop the branch above Jadzia’s bed. As the storm intensified, crashes of thunder became more frequent and soon Jadzia awoke. She looked about the room and saw Genesis staring into the distance as though the walls of the shelter were of glass.

           
“What did you find?” Jadzia said.

           
Genesis snapped out of her daydream and said: “I have to remove all the information I put into you. The war, the history I shared during our years together, everything.”

           
“Is it safe?”

           
Genesis shook her head. “I should never have been so arrogant.”

           
“Don’t talk like that,” she said. “You did what I wanted you to do.”

           
“I shouldn’t have listened. And now, look at you - no matter what I do, you might die. How can I live with myself?”

           
“Do your best,” Jadzia said. “That’s all I can ask. If I die from attempting to prevent the war, then I’ll have done better than all those people who served Hitler and did nothing to stop him.”

           
Genesis smiled, convinced that the altruism she long felt she possessed was insignificant compared to Jadzia. “Let’s get this over with then.”

           
The women disappeared into the stream.

           
Jadzia watched the stream of time flow past her the same as before. Genesis was close by and prepared a massive strand of threads to connect to Jadzia. Jadzia remained perfectly still and tried to keep her mind blank. Genesis maneuvered her way across the pathways in Jadzia’s mind and began the arduous process of removing the memories that no longer belonged.

           
Within hours, no traces remained of the information Genesis forced into her fragile mind all those years ago. Jadzia still remembered the years they shared together and their long talks, but many of their conversations were now just gaps in her mind. When the procedure was finished, Genesis pulled Jadzia from the stream and placed her mind back in her body.

           
Genesis emerged from the stream and expected to see Jadzia milling about the shelter. Instead, Jadzia was collapsed on the floor.

           
“Jadzia!” she shouted.

           
She didn’t respond. Genesis lifted her from the floor and placed her on the bed. Her pulse was normal as was her breathing but there was no sign of consciousness. Genesis panicked and leaped back into the stream. Jadzia was in the same place she was just moments ago. She reached out to talk and Jadzia said: “I can’t move my body.”

           
“I know. Something went wrong.”

           
“I don’t think the reversal worked,” Jadzia stated. “At least not all of it.”

           
“Why do you say that?”

           
“I still have one memory, but this one is different. I don’t just remember what was in the history books. I feel it like I was there.”

           
“What is it?”

           
“Did you ever link my mind to Hitler?”

           
“No, it was too dangerous. What memory do you have?”

           
“I have one of his memories, from when his mother died. I remember it like happened to me.”

           
“I swear I didn’t link you to him,” Genesis said. “I swear!”