I keep stopping abruptly, don't I? Well, this time I had to mail something over to a colleague, and then I didn't just keep writing.
So that night at dinner, Zyra noticed how quiet I was and asked me why when we walked back to her room. "Oh, nothing. Just a little bit tired. Probably work."
"You work too hard, sweetheart. I've told you before, I know what you're doing is important, but you need to have time to rest. I wish you would have come with me on that vacation."
"It was a work retreat, Zyra. I would have been on my own and it would have been pretty boring. Besides, I had some-"
"Research. You'll always have research to do, Sigma. But you won't be young forever. There is the time to work, but now's the time to play, okay?"
I nodded obediently, even though the knowing glance she shot me told me that we both knew I wasn't going to change my lifestyle for anything. We talked some more, and then she told her driver to take me home.
When I got home, I went snooping. I checked out pictures and files and whatever I could find in the house that. When I realized that dad still owned Norman Labs, an idea suddenly began to develop in my mind. I didn't need my father's approval anymore. I definitely did not need it now.
But if I could get it on a thesis about my success in time-travel, I'll be able to take it back to the future with me and show him, along with some video and audio recordings. Then I'd make him eat his words about how time-travel was a useless thing to waste I time on.
It was surprisingly easy to orchestrate everything. The Mellis name carried a lot of weight in this area, but I decided to go with a fake name instead. I used an image inducer that would change my looks, and then applied for the job at Lunarian University. I also changed to contact lenses.
I worked there for a short while, using the period to fine tune the thesis I wanted to submit to Norman Labs at a Science and Technology Conference. After a couple of months, I finally sent it in. Dad sent a personal email directly to me telling me—or well, Amy Meadows—that he wanted to see me for an interview.
It was the first time I was meeting my father in this time period, and at first I felt nervous. But during the interview, I got my confidence back. It was when he offered me the job that I stood up and turned off my image inducer.
Dad looked pretty shocked, but he wasn't angry like I expected. Instead, once the expression of surprise cleared off his face, he broke into a smile instead.
"Why am I not surprised?" He said.
"You were surprised," I threw back at him.
"Well, I did have a hunch that it could be you masquerading or something. You or your alter ego acted pretty much the same way."
"You always said that what I did didn't really matter, that it was all theoretical mumbo jumbo. But you are willing to hire someone else to do this. You even rejected my application when I applied to the family business using my own name!" My tone probably sounded really accusatory, bit I didn't care. "Why couldn't I be enough for you? I'm your daughter. You treat everyone else better, like my work doesn't matter. Like I don't matter."
"Yes, I know I did, Sigma. And I'm so, so sorry. I never meant to make you feel like you didn't matter. The truth is, you matter so much to me, more than anyone else. I pushed you so hard because I wanted you to succeed, but I never meant to take it that far. I'm sorry."
I didn't want to accept his apology, because he had been a real jerk to me all my life. My mother even left him because of irreconcilable differences—he's so dang stubborn! Still, I figured that two wrongs didn't make a right. I didn't want to be like my father. "I forgive you, dad," I said, and then walked out.
I figured I had done what I needed to do here. Dad had acknowledged my work in this past. It was time to go back to the future. I went back to my lab and set in the equations to take me back to the future.
Everything looks different when I got back. Changed. Panicking, I check through my house, my room, everything is different. I start reading through the documents I found on my electronic diary, checking through the files I had in the room.
I think I changed the future. I find documents talking about how General Mellis funded my time-travel research, and there was no mention of me getting other investors or things like that.
I also find no evidence of the fictional stories I used to write, not in any magazines or any such thing. When I go home after a long day at the lab, dad is there with my mom. When I tell them about the time-travel thing and show both the evidence, they tell me that they're proud of me, proud that I have been able to live my dream.
It's a pretty wonderful, how things are going now, don't you think?