Relative Strangers (book 3) Nature VS Nurture

28. Science Lesson

E was not alone in her lab for long, because Matt came to collect her shortly after she arrived.
He then took her to the medical bay, where they picked up Kieran, who had spent the night the night there, healing from his leg wound.
The three of them then made their way to the one of the parts of the ARC that E didn't spend much time in.
The space contained several offices of people whom E didn't interact with, so she never really went down there.

When they arrived at their destination, Matt ushered Kieran inside, but held E back.
"What is going on?" Questioned E, as she peered inside the large room, which looked like a lecture hall.
The rest of the team, including the guardians, were already inside, sat in chairs, facing the front of the room, as if waiting for their school teacher to arrive.
"You're going to explain the mission to everyone. And inform the newer team members, why it is important not to mess with the timeline" revealed Matt.

E's jaw dropped, "I can't do that".
"Yes, you can. You understand this stuff better than anyone, which is why it will be best if you give the lecture. You're the one who always has all the answers" replied Matt.
"I'm sure Connor could explain it just as well as me" admitted E.
"Well, you're the one that has been chosen. So it has to be you"
"You want me to go in there, and tell a bunch of middle aged men and women, what to do?"
"Isn't that what you normally do? You like telling people what to do"
"Yes, but not like this. Not in a class setting. I am no teacher"
"You can do it Ellie, I have faith in you. And it's time you had a little faith in yourself".

Matt then walked into the room, leaving E to make her own entrance.
She took a deep breath, and stepped inside, heading towards the interactive white board at the front of the room, which had been set up for her.
"Right. Well, I'm in no way prepared for this. And I don't want to be here any more than you do, so let's get this over with" started E.
Matt gave her the thumbs up, so she picked up the pen and began writing on the board.

"As I'm sure you have all been told, we have a difficult situation on our hands. This all started when I took Connor with me to Vancouver on January the 11th, to talk to a man who knew about the anomalies. We stayed for about a week, before returning home. I hoped that would be the last we saw of Evan Cross. But unfortunately I was wrong. Any questions so far?" Quizzed E.
One of her guardians raised his hand, so E called on him.
"How did you know he had found out about anomalies?" Asked Luke.
"Because I keep tabs on things like that. It's one of my many jobs. Also, you should never ask why I know things. Just accept that I know everything because I've been to the future" answered E.

"Did this Evan guy promise to stay away from the anomalies?" Questioned Becker.
"Not exactly, no. I just warned him that messing around with them was dangerous. I watched how he dealt with his first one, and I decided that he wasn't a threat. So I came back home, planning to keep an eye on him once I got back here" revealed E.
"What went wrong then?" Asked Jess.
"A man named Lieutenant Ken Leeds and his superior Colonel Hall. But we'll get to them later" replied E.

E wrote the date her and Connor first went to Canada, on the board, before turning back to the group.
"Yesterday, me, Connor and Kieran went through an anomaly in town, which lead to an anomaly junction, which contained a dozen or so anomalies. One of these anomalies lead us to Canada, but Canada in the future. The date through that anomaly was the 9th of June" continued E.
"That's a few months from now" pointed out Rachel.
"Yes, it is. Which is why we had to return through the anomaly, instead of flying back home" replied E.

E then wrote the date in Canada on the board, before writing the date they went through the anomaly on there.
"When we reach the 9th of June, we will all be travelling to Vancouver, to deal with things over there. But until that date, we cannot contact anyone over there, or have impact on the events we know are going to happen. We cannot change things that we know are supposed to happen. That's one of the hardest rules of time travel, leaving things be" admitted E.

"But Matt came from the future, and we changed his future by stopping Philip Burton" reminded Emily.
"That was different, because Matt came from that time zone originally, so the situations are not the same. These two dates we travelled between, are so close, which complicates things" replied E.
"Didn't you and Helen travel to the future and then come back to try and stop the future from happening?" Questioned Connor.
"We did. But if you remember, we failed to save the future. Besides, we didn't exist in the 21st century, so it didn't matter as much, because we wouldn't end up meeting another version of ourselves. But me, you and Kieran exist here, and in that future in June. Which is why we can't change things" answered E.

"This is all very confusing" admitted Luke.
"I know. Which is why I'm giving this presentation. I'm trying to make things simpler... All you need to do, is not change anything. You don't need to know why you can't change things, just don't do it" replied E.
"Me and Ellie will be doing all the planning for this mission, so it shouldn't really concern you. Just don't go researching anomalies in Canada, or looking up Evan, as we don't want you to accidentally change anything, even slightly" added Matt.

"Matt's right. The 9th of June is already full of paradoxes and problems, so we don't want any of you making things worse" informed E, as she thought about the many versions of her that are going to be there on that day.
The paradox concerning Mac Rendell also worried her, but she decided not to bring it up and confuse the team even further.
"So, you just want us to behave as normal, and not do anything or think about that future we saw?" Questioned Kieran.

"Yes. Sometimes not doing anything is the hardest thing to do. But in this situation, that is what you all have to do. Me and Matt will be planning this very carefully and cautiously, and we can't have anyone interfering. Keeping the timeline the same, is the most important thing in the world. And it's the reason we dont kill the creatures. We don't want to do anything that we can't undo. So just leave it to the professionals; me, Matt and Connor" answered E.