Ettie Ruiz Rescues the Past

By Sandra McDonald

Ettie Ruiz is the History and Science Officer for her spaceship, but she never imagined she'd get stranded in 19th century China with famous adventurer Isabella Bird. Now she's sailing down the Yangtze River, visiting the fabled city of Shanghai, and trying to save the planet from a rogue comet. With the help of her friends and the girl she'd like to kiss, Ettie's on a mission to rescue the past before the future itself ceases to exist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sandra McDonald
• Release date: Nov 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311258564

Sandra McDonald

SANDRA MCDONALD has been a Hollywood assistant, a software instructor, a bureaucrat, and an officer in the US Navy. Her short fiction has appeared in Realms of Fantasy, Strange Horizons, and elsewhere. Her novels include The Outback Stars and The Stars Down Under. She lives in Jacksonville, Florida.

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ETTIE RUIZ

Rescues the Past

SANDRA MCDONALD

Ettie Ruiz Rescues the Past

Copyright 2014 by Sandra McDonald

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Books by Sandra McDonald

The Outback Stars

The Stars Down Under

The Stars Blue Yonder

Boomerang World

Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories

Annie Wu Saves the Future

Books as Sam Cameron

Mystery of The Tempest

The Secret of Othello

The Missing Juliet

Kings of Ruin

This book may be victim of typo elves. If you spot any errors, please let me know at www.sandramcdonald.com and I will give those elves a piece of my mind. I will also correct the error and send you a replacement e-copy. Thank you! Elves are lovely creatures but somewhat troublesome.

Chapter 1

My name is Etibet, but call me Victoria. Or Mirabella. Maybe even Isabella. Anything but Etibet. The older I get, the more I hate my name. I often wonder why my parents (who I never met, but that’s a different story) decided to torment me with it.

You don’t look like an Isabella, says Artell, sitting in the Science Lab with me. Up on the main screen, a comet zooms across our solar system. It’s so late at night here on the ship Timeheart that we’re probably the only people awake. Artell’s head is resting on his folded arms on the console and his eyes are half-closed.

I don’t look like an Etibet, either. I adjust the video display of comet C/2013 A1. I’d watch comets even if it wasn’t my job, because they’re cool. Or cold, if you want to be exact. They’re icy hunks of frozen mud that sling in and around the sun at amazing speeds. Independent travelers.

I like that phrase: independent traveler. I’d like to be an independent traveler, too, but only if I had my friends with me.

How about Leilana? I ask.

You’re not a Leilana, either. Artell blinks at the screen. Is this the comet that’s supposed to hit Mars?

The statistical chances are extremely low.

But it’s possible. You're just trying to look on the bright side.

It's not going to happen. I glance at Watchdog, who is right now shaped like big black Newfoundland dog. He’s curled up on the deck and looks half-asleep, too, but computers don't sleep. If you’re really worried, maybe Watchdog could slip us ahead about ten months and we’ll double check.

Watchdog yawns. Only the captain can give that order.

I know that. We’re on a spaceship and Annie Wu is our captain. She’s pretty new at it. Right now we’re parked on the moon. There’s not much to look at here unless you like gray rocks.

Artell says softly, I’m not really worried about Mars.

I know what’s he not saying. He’s worried that everyone hates him. Because he was sort of a traitor, and we all could have been captured or killed by our enemies the Praetorians. If you want to know the gritty details, Annie wrote a book about it.

Mars will be fine whether C/2013 A1 hits it or not. Nobody lives there now. In the future there will be human colonies spread across the planet. We've seen it. The big danger is if a comet or other large space object ever hits Earth. That would be catastrophic. The last time it happened, all the dinosaurs died.

I go back to watching the comet on the screen. It’s been shedding water and dust as the sun heats it up. Maybe I should change my name to Caroline. Caroline Herschel found a lot of comets, you know.

Annie and Koren met her, Artell says. When we were in London.

I know. And I’m trying not to be jealous, really, but that totally wasn’t fair. I’m the Science and History officer. I’m the one who figured out how to find iridium in the British Museum and fix the ship. But no, Annie took Koren, the First Officer, when she went to visit one of the most famous female astronomers in history.

Annie, Koren and our engineer Lea are all white. Artell’s black and I’m Hispanic and Mayan. I’m not saying anything about that other than history is full of prejudice, right? I watch a lot of documentaries.

I could be Rosa, I say. Rosa Parks.

You’re not a Rosa, Artell replies, and closes his eyes.

Up on the screen, comet C/2013 A1 zips through space at more than one hundred thousand miles an hour. Its trajectory will take it past Mars and around the sun and then back toward the very far edge of the solar system. Comets are too dark to see until they pass Jupiter and enter the inner solar system. Getting closer to the sun makes the nucleus, or hard inner part, start to shed vapor and gas that make up the long glowing tail.

As I watch, a tiny white piece breaks away from the nucleus and arc away.

Watchdog, what was that? I ask.

He lifts his head quizzically. What was what?

Something broke away.

Probably ice or rock.

I replay the image. The comet right now is between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, which is pretty far. I can’t zoom in close enough to see what exactly broke off.

Can’t you analyze it or track it? I ask Watchdog.

Not from this distance. Watchdog stands up, turns in a circle, and then plops down again. It’s very small. Also, Captain Annie has asked me to ask you if you’re going to stay up all night. You have a meeting at 0800.

I glance at the clock. It’s already past midnight.

What’s she still doing awake? I ask.

She didn’t say.

I replay the image. Comet C/2013 A is also known as Comet Sliding Spring, named after the observatory in Australia that first found it. Sliding Spring is a nice name. Much better than Etibet, anyway. Maybe I could give myself a crazy name like Spring or Rain or Sunshine.

Our meeting in the morning is about our utter failure to figure out the cryptic message that someone sent us: FIND ORGANON AT THE PORTAL OF NEPHRITE. We think it’s connected to the Praetorians and keeping them from vanquishing Earth. Annie, Koren, and I have looked all over the databases and can’t figure out where exactly we’re supposed to go.

Okay, I’m going to bed, I tell Watchdog. But not right this minute. Maybe something else will break off the comet. Maybe I’ll discover something cool and unusual, and one day win a big prize for it.

When they give me the award, it’ll be etched out to Vanessa or Mirabella or Spring. But definitely not to Etibet. Did I tell you how much I hate Etibet? It is exactly the opposite of a good name.

As it turns out, I did discover something unusual that night. But I didn’t know it for a long time, and only after it was almost too late to save the past.

Chapter 2

At our meeting, Annie says, I think we’re going about this all wrong.

What’s wrong about it? Lea asks from the end of the table.

Lea’s the prettiest of all of us. And the smartest. But also the prettiest. I’m pretty sure I like girls more than I like boys, but I can’t say for sure. Maybe I like both. I haven’t kissed anyone yet, so it’s only a hypothesis at this point. When watching movies, however, I'm always more interested in the girls than the boys. They're more interesting, and look like more fun to hang around with, and always seem smarter.

Maybe we're reading the message incorrectly, Annie says.

The message we received flashes on the wall: FIND ORGANON AT THE PORTAL OF NEPHRITE. The words ORGANON and NEPHRITE are sparkling gold.

Koren taps his coffee cup. I don’t think Aunt Zan would approve of him drinking coffee, but she’s still in ancient Greece. She’s a robot, but that’s a different story.

We think Organon means Aristotle’s works about logic, Koren says. While Auntie Zan is there talking to him, we’re supposed to be keep looking for Nephrite. Except there’s no city, state, country, museum, planet, moon, mountain, or building named Nephrite that we can positively identify.

Annie taps her fingers on the table. We’ve visited Nephrite Restaurant in Cairo in the year 1990, the Nephrite Bookstore in Paris in 1901, and Nephrite Studios in Hollywood in 2219. I think ‘Nephrite’ might be a code for something else.

Artell said the same thing a few days ago, but he’s not here now. He’s not allowed in staff meetings. He’s on probation until we know he can be trusted. Lea and Koren, especially, aren’t sure he’s back on our side. Annie is being careful about it because she wants everyone to get along.

Lea is looking at Koren’s coffee cup as if she wants some of her own. If it’s a code, we need a key to unlock it.

I don’t think it’s a code, I say. Nephrite is a kind of jade. That’s very clear. We should start looking at the world’s largest jade mines.

Koren says, That’s the where, but not the when.

That’s the trouble with a timeship; you can’t just aim it a set of geographic coordinates. You need a specific date as well. If you say, "Meet Bob at the top of