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Lunden Towers pulled himself from a fog of confusion to consciousness, awakening with a mouthful of salt water. He opened his eyes to blinding sunlight and blurry, cloudless blue sky and jerked his head to the side, spitting water, coughing uncontrollably for a moment.

He felt a soft paw against his bare chest and his coughing eased somewhat enough for him to lift his head weakly and sit up, looking at the dark-brown sea-otter kneeling naked and dripping-wet beside him.

"Lani!" he exclaimed and hugged her tightly, nuzzling at her nose and churrring excitedly. "Wh-what happened? I remember-"

She smiled, her green eyes twinkling. "You...in trouble," she explained in the whisper-soft churrr he'd come to fall in love with. It did not matter to him that she hardly spoke English, preferring her native Tahitian tongue. "You try swim, no swim. You grab me and we sink. Lani-" She looked uncomfortable suddenly and then shrugged. "After Lani help, you no move...thought sea goddess take you."

The other otter looked at her carefully. "Lani, what did you do?"

She giggled suddenly, waving a paw in dismissal. "Lani help...you hold Lani, Lani hold you. Hold this..." She dropped a paw down to touch his sex and the tubed flesh of his sheath seemed to jerk a bit. "Lani hold this hard, Lunden-Otter let go Lani. Lunden-Otter happy. You...remember?" A bit of a pout started through her whiskers as she read his expression like a book, just as she always could. Whether or not she was truly limited by the lack of words, she was a very intelligent and observant girl all the same.

Lunden's eyes widened as he realized something. "I felt you pulling at my..." He flushed and looked down at himself in the sand, still naked, his brown body dotted here and there with golden sand. His sex had pulled back into its sheath but the tell-tale milky white bits of dried semen about his stomach-fur and groin told him enough. He'd obviously panicked, suddenly thrashing about in the cold depths of the sea after his jump, and Lani had eased his fears with a quick pawing at his sex. He remembered cumming very hard into her paw and then blacking out.

Lani smiled and leaned in close to kiss his mouth, parting her lips briefly with his to curl her tongue a few times around his in an exotic, sensual dance. Her wet, paw-sized breasts nestled against his chest, the stiff black nipples of the Tahitian already in full arousal. "Lani do more next time..." she whispered as their mouths pulled away, sharing a lick of one another's taste. "Lani surprised see Lunden-Otter. Not while Lani dive." She started to lose herself in laughter, shaking all over, and hugged him again.

Reality suddenly hit him. "Holy...dammit, I could have burst into pieces!"

The sea-otter looked at him strangely and he kissed her. "It's nothing, I'm being scientific. I'm sorry, Lani. You're right. From now on, I'll stick to the beach when I appear." He softened and pressed against her, pleased to feel her embrace again. "I just wanted to surprise you this time..."

"Mmm...Lani happy." The island-girl blushed. "Very happy Lunden-Otter return." And then she was pushing him gently down into the sand. "We talk later...yes?"

Lunden felt familiar, soft warmth nestling snug around his sheath and the urgency of a thick erection pushing out of it, lovingly massaged and stroked by the sea-otter's webbed paws.

"Yes..."

--

Lunden jerked himself awake at the beep of the cell-phone next to him and realized he was back.

"Dammit!" he shouted to the empty room and staggered from his office chair, quickly streaking over to the closet as a loud knock sounded.

"Mr. Towers? Are you there?"

He fumbled with pants and a shirt, digging his feet into black loafers. "Be right with you, Penny! Just don't-"

The skunk opened the door as he was zipping up and she caught a peek of his brown groin fur. She cleared her throat loudly and Lunden nearly tripped and fell. He'd put the loafers on opposite feet. "Come in?"

Penny Abreva smiled smugly and padded towards him in high-heels and a short blue dress that showed off fantastic legs, giving his chin a playful tail-pat as she walked past and unceremoniously dropped a stack of papers on his desk. "So...wild, unbridled sex again..." she sighed as she turned back to face him. "Honestly, Lun. That's the third time this week...and it's Tuesday! Must we rent porn movies for you?"

The otter sighed, shaking his head and ignoring her teasing. "Something went wrong this time. Nearly got myself killed."

The skunk finally showed some concern. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, yes I'm fine. I just didn't take into account the instantaneous pressure change. Dammit, why was I so foolish?"

"Not sure I'm following, otter..."

Lunden sat down, tying his loafers. "Remember when we flew to Jamaica for the meeting last month, and you mentioned you had a desire to try scuba diving? And I said you had to wait at least 18-24 hours until after the plane landed? Pressure changes. Your body needs time to re-adjust to everything. Had you gone diving too soon, going from so high up above sea level then below, your whole body might have..." he grimaced, looking up at her.

Penny hugged herself and shivered. "Yuck. Don't tell me. You decided to be romantic and tried to surprise your girl in the sea."

"Well, she's always there. She visits that beautiful reef so often, I thought I could time the jump somehow."

"Well, no damage done anywhere was there?"

"No, I was careful. Same as always. Same island, same place, same gir-" He caught his assistant's look and quickly finished, "same people. No chance of any other interaction. That island's about as barren as the Sahara save for the sea-otter tribe."

Penny's smile showed through and her blue eyes sparkled. "Was she surprised this time?"

Lunden swallowed hard, remembering how he had appeared to her, almost right beside the sea-otter. She had been patiently cutting oysters from a deep bed of bright coral and rocks, and was just swimming through a clump of floating fronds and sponges when the other otter materialized in a churn of bubbles and blinding light. Thankfully Lani had spotted him and...

His eyes glazed a bit, remembering the surprised look on her face, and then the soft smile and green eyes twinkling as she floated in front of him naked, long dark hair drifting about her like an angel's halo - before she kissed him...

"Very..." He shook his head quickly, reluctantly pulling himself out of the daydream. He looked down and noticed an uncomfortable erection pressing up against his slacks and quickly stood up, turning his back to the skunk. "I shall continue to experiment only at the island for now and only 1926. It's far too dangerous if a trek takes me to a more populated area...or another year."

"Well, you can't even be 100% sure you're not affecting anything going back and forth to Tahiti, can you?"

Lunden nodded. "Theoretically I could wind up in any time, any place and affect something. But, here I still stand in front of you, and you are here..." He smiled and gave her paw a gentle pet. "And as far as I can tell, since my name is still on the plaque over there on the wall, I'm still CEO of Tyrex Industries." The otter took a long look outside the window towards the cityscape below, his thick tail bobbing to and fro. "The world still seems as it should, Penny. One colossal mess but...livable."

His assistant chuckled and padded over to hug around him from behind. "You miss her already...why don't you just admit you love her?" She sighed, stroking his stomach slowly through his dress shirt and tracing the buttons. "Besides," she nuzzled the side of his neck, "we can't really be expected to have the Board approve of our...let's call them 'dates'."

Lunden laughed and glanced over his shoulder. "Right. Dates. You coming in, closing the door behind, walking to my desk, lifting up your dress and riding me like a wild stallion during lunch hour. Dates..."

Penny nibbled against some of the otter's smooth pelt and traced a paw down his front, swiping over the hard, throbbing arousal tented under his pants. "Come..." she whispered into his ear, "you'll forget all about that girl in about a minute..."

"Penny," Lunden sighed and nuzzled at her mouth, already reaching for the buttons of her dress. "I know it's purely sexual between us; you're married and all...but...I very much doubt that you can make me forget Lani. Of course...you're welcome to try..."

Penny did.

Lunden didn't.

--

Lani was just pulling her morning's catch from the sea, a beautiful group of lobsters, crabs and other crustaceans wiggling and jerking about in a hemp bag, when Lunden appeared with a huge splash in the waves right behind her. The sea-otter instinctively reached for the knife strapped to her thigh, then her face broke out into a grin and she ran to him, nearly knocking him backwards in a tight hug.

"You return!" she churred happily, pressing against his nude form and kissing passionately.

Lunden looped his arms around the sea-otter and hugged back, rubbing noses with her. "Yes, this time I was careful where I landed. No more deep-sea diving for me," he laughed, caressing through her long silky hair.

"No?" Lani smiled, "No dive?" She pawed at her hair and shook it out, splashing a spray of water around them. Lunden's erection pushed completely out of its sheath, fully aroused after their firm embrace, and pressed against the sea-otter's stomach like a living, raging animal, needing soothed.

"Well," he managed to croak before swallowing hard. "I...wouldn't mind...a swim..."

Lani's eyes twinkled again. "Swim..." She pulled slowly away from the otter and giggled, running past him and diving into the surf.

"Hey, wait!" Lunden chuckled and turned to chase after her. As the girl stroked along the surface towards open water, she suddenly sucked in a whistling breath, flipped up her legs and dove down, splashing the otter swimming behind with her thick tail.

The waters here were incredible and Lunden loved them. So much warmer and deeper than any company pool, he thought as he stroked after his lovely companion, admiring the way Lani glided through several feet of turquoise blue. The deeper they went, the cooler the water became, though it was still silky-smooth against his pelt, like millions of the softest paws caressed him from head to toes.

His arousal bobbled free between his legs as he pumped them hard to keep up with Lani, who was showing her intense arousal just as much. With every sensual kick of her legs, he could see swollen pink folds nestled through tufts of dark pubic fur, ripe and full, instinctively opening and closing as the current of water running between them titillated her flesh. By the time they reached the bottom, Lani was already churrring bubbles of delight and deep pleasure, pushing her back up against a colorful, life-filled reef and holding her arms out to him.

He churred gently back at her, floating down into her waiting arms and kissing her passionately. He felt her paw reaching down his body, her webbed digits surrounding his length and giving it the firmest squeeze. Her full breasts nestled warm and pert against his chest, the dark nipples digging into his broad pectorals like two hard nails. He felt breath, a churn of her saliva and bubbles, as she blew against his mouth after each kiss. She spread her legs eagerly, working her body closer, and clamping them around his waist tightly, her lovely feet wrapping about his tailbase.

She wanted him, and now.

Lunden didn't hesitate; thrusting forwards, upwards, then deep into the girl's body, letting out a bubbly moan against her mouth as they started their familiar dance. Lani moaned too, her paws coming around to hold his head against her as they began to move with as much intensity and strength as the pounding surf high above them.

It was over far too quickly. Lunden hesitated for a moment, and as the walls of his lover's sex gripped around him once more, he teetered over the edge and lost his senses, gushing copious amounts of seed hard into her sex. The sea-otter let out a bubbly cry and followed with her own orgasm, climaxing wildly against his pumping sex as their juices mingled and started to tendril from between their bodies.

Quickly Lunden pulled himself free, made a cutting motion to his throat, and pushed off the bottom. Lani watched him go, then pushed off the reef and followed, keeping a paw between her legs and rubbing herself as she slowly rose up. She giggled a trail of bubbles as she caught up to the other otter and nuzzled him, still aroused, and pawed at his sex again, trying to position herself atop of it.

Lunden struggled to swim with the girl clinging to him, and their weight threatened to pull them back together into the depths. He pushed off her roughly, clawing towards the surface, his lungs starting to burn. He had hardly close to the same aquatic talents as the diver had. She had spent her life under the sea, at incredible depths, staying underwater for several minutes without a breath. He could hardly hold his breath in the company's luxurious swimming pool for more than a few minutes at a time.

He felt Lani's paws trying to grab at his kicking feet and then finally felt the heat of the sun as his head broke through the surface and he gasped in a deep breath, coughing it immediately out. Lani surfaced in front of him, panting a little, and hooked her paws around his shoulders, whimpering, spreading her legs around him and trying to mount him.

"Lani...wait...w-" And then he was pushed under again, the sea-otter's hungry sex having found his arousal and swallowed it whole. She was now humping wildly on him, keeping her legs wrapped tightly as she whimpered, loving him as quickly as she could, bouncing in his arms. Lunden burbled and tried to hold his breath as the wild sea-otter threw her head back and an explosion of bubbles came from her mouth in an underwater scream.

Lunden pushed himself out from under her writhing form as the diver continued to jerk and convulse, having several hard orgasms in a row. He took hold of her arm and pulled, kicking hard, pumping his legs, and swimming back to the surface. Both otters took several hard, coughing gasps of air before Lani whimpered and nestled in against his muzzle, kissing him passionately.

"Mmm...Lani...love...Lunden-Otter," she cooed, still panting, starting to lick his whiskers of sea-water. "Lunden-Otter...love Lani?" She slid her arms about his shoulders and allowed her body to float up against his, still trembling.

"Yes, I do..." he whispered, and brushed his wet nose across her mouth before kissing her again. "Very much love Lani...I...oh no...nonono..." He pushed her away, covering his ears as the familiar high-pitched drone drowned out the waves and the soft, warm churrrs of his lover. "Not now, NO, not-!"

--

He was back in the office again, dripping wet, naked and breathing heavily. He sat up quickly on the carpet, his vision swimming and his head pounding, and crawled over to the closet door, shutting it behind him.

"Mr. Towers? Lun...?" Penny peeked her head inside the office door. "Are you here? The girls want to discuss your re-entry point again...Otter?"

"What!" Lunden called out from inside the closet and the skunk laughed softly, coming to the door.

"Mmm...can I come in?"

"Penny, this is really not the time..." he muttered, cinching up his pants.

"Sorry, boss." She waited for the disheveled otter as he stumbled from the closet and bent down to tie his shoes. "You did say you wanted it a little bit longer this time. You left at," she paused, studying a timer atop of her cellphone. "9:30 A.M., and it's just after 10:15. Still...45 minutes, that must have been long enough to see her."

"God, yes...it was fantastic this time. I've never...felt anything so incredible, not with anyone. She can stay underwater so long, I'd swear she's part fish."

Penny smiled warmly, nodding. "Sea-otter love. It's hard to understand their ways. Well...anyway, I monitored your stats when you jumped. Heart-rate was at 85, respiration 25, pressure 120 over 80. You were ringing the bell towards hypertension there, otter. You were much higher than your previous jumps, and also..."

"What? Wait, what are you talking about? What's wrong with me?"

The skunk gently petted his shoulder. "Nothing, sweetie. I'm just saying maybe that otter-girl is really starting to, um...affect you a bit more. You get stone-cold crazy excited just before you jump. If I could interrupt you a minute, I had something important to share..."

"Go on...I'm sorry." He kissed her cheek and sat down at his desk, watching her.

Penny continued, "We're seeing something else in the readouts. W-we're not sure exactly what this means, but it has to do with the time you're going back to."

"It's still 1926, isn't it...?"

Penny shrugged and looked at her clipboard. "That's what was calibrated, but we're noticing a glitch, a spike just as you jump. I'd have to re-check everything, and that requires a lot of code-hunting. But we're pretty sure it's 1926..." She glanced up at him again. "Why that particular year anyway?"

The otter shrugged, folding his paws on the table. "Do you remember the tsunami of 1926? December 21st? A large asteroid struck the ocean just south of Hawaii and sent a huge wave across-"

"Tahiti," Penny finished for him, her eyes widening. "Oh my God, I forgot all about that! I should have known. You're trying to save that girl, aren't you? Dammit, Lun, what did we talk about?!" Her blue eyes were now piercing and angry. "What did we train for?! Don't you remember all those lectures and meetings, the scientific repercussions, the ecological and sociological consequences?!"

"Lower your voice, would you?"

Penny stopped talking altogether, puffed her cheeks in annoyance, then began again gently. "Otter, I love you, but...what in the world are you trying to accomplish saving just one girl from a disaster? Are you just going to go back to warn the tribe? Where are they going to go?"

"To the sea..."

She looked at him, not understanding.

"They can stay deep in the water until the wave passes. At least they'll have a fighting chance instead of suddenly being slammed by a huge wall of water and pinned to the bottom under debris. They'll at least KNOW."

Penny frowned and sat down across from him, laying a paw on his. "Otter...Lunden. I'm glad you told me this. Now I have something to tell you. You cannot go back there. I forbid you doing so..."

"Penny..."

"No, you listen to me, God-dammit. You're playing a most deadly game here. It's a mad style of Russian Roulette. We can control your entry-point to the year, but not the day nor the hour. You're jumping to Tahiti in 1926, but at different TIMES. How many times are you going to go back before you make an entry-point right as that wave destroys the island - and you with it? And Tyrex with it!"

"I didn't want to worry you. I thought if you knew my intentions, you'd think I was crazy. When I first met this girl, I...I just wanted to help her. I studied Tahiti because of her; hell, I've gone there so many times I'm getting a sun-burn." He stopped talking and took the skunk's paws tenderly into his, caressing them.

Penny was quiet for a moment, then replied coolly. "There's something else, isn't there?"

He nodded solemnly, still stroking her paws. "I want to take her away from there altogether..."

"Are you aware that could be an extremely bad notion as well? You can't take someone from the early 20th Century and expect her to adapt. We have no idea if she can even breathe our filthy air here, or swim in our putrid waters. You could end up killing her before you get to know her..." She looked at his face and softened her tone a bit. "Lunden, for God's sake, what is so special about this girl?"

"I don't know." His eyes looked into hers and he saw a mixture of concern and anger, and maybe a slight tinge of jealousy. "I dream about her. She's swimming alone in a world of nothing but deep, blue water, and she just...swims. She doesn't seem to have a direction, but she brings her arms out in front of her, as if she's reaching for me, wanting to be with me..." The otter swallowed hard, shaking his head a little to clear the fleeting images, and glanced at the skunk again. "I'm infatuated, aren't I? Even looking into your eyes, I see hers..."

Penny flushed noticeably. "You're smitten, yes. And you're letting her affect you to the point of endangering lives. You have to admit, were the Board to hear about something like this, they'd be none too happy. I'm already trying to convince them our time maneuvers are simple experiments to record past atmospheres and water samples - which I'm almost positive you haven't done at all since you hit that beach. They're going to want those reports soon and we have nothing to show..."

Her cell-phone beeped. "Yes? What do you mean?...Wait, just wait, I'll be right down..."

She snapped the phone and looked at Lunden. "There might be another problem..."

--

They stood around the time chamber silently, looking over the transparent canopy, the endless array of wires and networking conduits covered in iron and copper, and the series of stacked computer towers at the far end of the room. At one of the keypads, a harried grey rabbit in a yellow jumpsuit was frantically typing, checking a screen beside her, then typing again. Penny looked at one of the technicians beside her, who was scribbling on a clipboard.

"Tell him..." the skunk said simply.

The rabbit removed her glasses and spoke to Lunden. "We've succeeded in isolating a glitch we found in the code. We overlooked it in several tests and I practically screamed at Carmen a week ago-"

The rabbit huffed from the keyboard. "Don't put this on me. I'm not going to be held responsible for trying to keep track of 3 billion lines of code!"

"Enough!" Penny snapped her thick tail against a table to silence them, then motioned to the technician. "Go on, Susan..."

She continued, "The bottom line. We're getting strange readings on every transference which we didn't pick up before. And when we finally isolated the data, we came to a possible conclusion." The rabbit took a deep breath. "You might not be going to the year 1926. In fact...w-we're not really sure what year you're actually going to..."

Lunden's eyes widened. "I...I don't understand."

Susan shrugged. "This is completely new software, Mr. T. You've been harping on us for weeks about implementation of it into your designs, and while it looked great on paper, I'm sorry to say this, but even though the year, while it was integrated correctly into the system, that figure may not have ever fully integrated into the database tables..."

"But...the machine works fine. I'm able to come and go quite easily into the past and-"

"Yes, but we're not 100% sure you're going back to 1926. And since you chose this particular year for your, let's call them journeys, if you're going back to the wrong year, your presence there can have an entirely different outcome..."

"Meaning?"

Susan snapped, "You're kidding, right?! If you're not going back to the year you calibrated and planned on from the beginning, it could be an entirely different world, literally! You can't keep wildly going backwards into time like that! Who knows? The whole system could hit a glitch and you might not get sent to Tahiti anymore. You could theoretically show up anywhere, at anytime! Does THAT sink in, Mr. T.?"

All were uncomfortably silent for a moment, and even Carmen stopped working at the desk to look over towards the group. "What do you want to do, Penny? You're senior here..."

The skunk looked at the others, frowning, then sighed. "Until we know exactly what is going on, I'm advising we cease operations immediately." She narrowed her eyes at Lunden. "the Board will likely back me up on this, especially given this new information. Carmen, how long before you can isolate the code and work out the data?"

She scratched at a long, drooping ear. "I'd need 72 hours and at least three more associates. Permission to hire out?"

"Denied. We can't let any outsiders of Tyrex know of this. Just get to work and tell me when you're done..." She turned to Lunden again and took his paws gently into hers. "Let's get some lunch, alright? We have a lot to discuss. You're obviously not going anywhere for a while..."

--

Penny broke the surface of the pool and let out a quick gasp, coughing a bit of water from her lungs as Lunden's head popped up in front of her, smiling and churring softly, rubbing noses with her.

"Can't..." she panted hard, sliding her arms around his slender neck loosely and hugging. "I'm just...not the right...species I guess..." She chuckled, pressing her mouth against his to kiss passionately, exploring his mouth deeply with her tongue before pulling her face away. "Mmm...but I can do a lot on the surface, you know..." Giggling softly, she reached down, sliding her soft paw against his arousal, the flesh still throbbing and pulsating. "That was bad of me...didn't let you finish..."

"I t-tried," Lunden lowered his chin a little to lick across the skunk's breasts. "I really thought you could last..."

"So try again..." she whispered breathlessly, slipping her legs around him. "Just...let me...signal somehow? When I need air?" Her soft body wiggled against his, the flesh between her legs becoming full and slick across his groin. "I want you..." She started taking several deep breaths, sucking in the last gulp of air quickly, filling her lungs, as the otter pushed her forward and dived.

Penny's cheeks bulged as she held her breath, kicking her legs slowly behind the otter to aid their descent to the bottom of the deep pool. She blew a few bubbles against his face as her body touched the cool, slick tiles and wrapped her legs strongly about his waist, letting out muffled whimpers as Lunden thrust himself into her sex, guided by nothing but hot lust now. She looked up at his face and tried to smile, her eyes squinting as each push of his member deep into her started having the effect she wanted. Her walls turned hot, then slick and oily as more and more of her inner juices built up, allowing the otter's sex to slide in and out of her folds easily.

Her paws grabbed around his shoulders as long black hair floated and trailed around her face, and sharp claws started to dig into the pelt covering his flesh. Lunden wrapped his paws around her buttcheeks and started thrusting harder.

"Mmmph!" Penny let out a bubbly whimper, fighting to hold her breath now as the otter hurled himself relentlessly against her, jamming deep into her sex faster and faster. She was going to lose it. She could sense her crotch turning into fire, matching the tightness and burning in her lungs. She could feel her inner muscles cinching around her lover's warm, hard sex between them, giving it rhythmic squeezes. She could watch Lunden's face as he strained, closing his eyes tightly, not even looking at her struggles anymore as he came suddenly hard and wildly into her sex in several hard spurts.

As she felt the otter's cum filling her, something clicked in the skunk's mind. As she lay on her back, pinned, writhing in a mixture of agony and ecstasy, she fought both the need to breathe and the losing battle for her own climax. She suddenly sunk her claws deep into his flesh like piercing knives as her orgasm was triggered. Her mouth erupted a torrent of bubbles in a scream - and suddenly there was no breath left to hold. Frantic now, she started scratching at him, her mouth opening and closing as she jerked and twisted underneath him, her legs kicking hard around his waist, trying to wiggle free somehow.

"Mmph! Mmph!" Another orgasm hit her, and then another, relentlessly yanking her body side to side as several hard gushes of her juices bathed his sex. With a last coughing explosion of bubbles, she finally succumbed to the sensations. Her eyes closed, her head lolled back and her mouth parted once more in a final sigh, a trickle of bubbles dribbling from her pale lips as she drowned.

Lunden opened his eyes once he finished, still hugged tightly around Penny, and looked down at her still face. "Oh God, no!" his mind screamed, and quickly pulled free of her, thick tendrils of their joining spurting free. He grabbed under her arms, pushed off the bottom and swam with her quickly to the surface.

He gasped and moaned as he pulled the bedraggled, still form to the steps at the shallows and lay her on her back, straddling above her and pushing his paws to her chest. "Oh Penny, come on, girl...come back, come on!" He leaned forwards to open her mouth, breathing air into her lungs as he continued pushing at her chest. "Penny!"

The skunk suddenly jerked her head upwards and coughed out a great deal of water, gasping hard and crying as Lunden quickly pulled her to sit up, slapping her back. "Penny! You're going to be okay...just breathe, just breathe, honey..."

Penny slapped away his paws, still coughing violently, and crawled towards her clothes on the lounger by the pool, looking back at him angrily. The otter watched her wordlessly put on her clothes, stumbling out of the pool area without another glance.

"What happened?" he said to the now-empty, still water. But he knew. He knew from the moment the lovely skunk had slipped her legs around him, boldly following him into a world in which she didn't belong.

As they had sex on the pool bottom, Lunden could do nothing but fantasize about Lani, and deep down, he was afraid Penny knew it too.

--

He was typing up a document when Carmen from the technician center stopped by his office. "Carmen, tell me you have good news." For the last week Penny had not said a word to him, but simply dropped off papers and small packages on his desk before leaving again.

The rabbit sighed, sitting down. "Well...about 75% of the code is accounted for. We've isolated part of the glitch and we're 99.9% certain that you're indeed going to the year 1926. I'll have absolute confirmation as to specific times in...give me 24 hours?"

The otter nodded then asked delicately. "Location is still not an issue, correct? That can still be controlled through latitude and longitude?"

"Yes, sir. However we did take out the co-ordinate information for land mass below sea-level, as you asked. No more unnecessary deep-dives." She chuckled but Lunden thought of Penny again, struggling against him to try to get air just before she drowned. "You okay, Mr. T.?"

He shook his head and stood up from the desk. "Just not feeling well today. Can you arrange for a jump this afternoon, about 4:00 PM? I want fifteen minutes."

"Sir, I'm not sure that's advisable. Ms. Abreva's orders were clear."

"Oh, but it is...I...need to say...goodbye to her. When I return, I'm ordering the entire project to cease operations. Permanently. No more trips...not ever. Dismantle the damned thing."

"Mr. T., if you'll give the crew just a little more time..."

"No, it's decided. And last I knew, Ms. Ortiz, I still pay your six-figure salary. So make it happen. That is all."

Carmen pursed her lips and nodded, getting up and closing the door quietly behind her.

--

He arrived at the canopy half-an-hour early, as always, and went through the sanitation and sterilization phase, shielding his eyes as a stinging shower of antiseptic covered him head to toes. He was just drying off when Penny went up to him, with a few other technicians in tow.

"Lunden, you don't have to do this..." she spoke quietly as the technicians behind her nodded vigorously. "We found out what's going on. You don't have to go there anymore..."

"I'm really not going to hear it, Penny," he tossed the towel away and stood before her naked. "I almost killed you," he continued, tears welling in his eyes, ignoring the dumbfounded looks behind her. "I DID kill you. I need to just say goodbye to the girl and move on..."

"Dammit, Lun, you're not going back-!"

"Oh but I am," he pushed past her, heading towards the canopy and preparing the connectors to his torso. "I can't save her. Sooner or later, she'll die. I mean...I give her, what, a few extra days, a little time to love someone? It's not worth it, it's never worth it..."

"Lun, it's NOT the right time!"

"Who cares! Get away from me, all of you!" He started punching in co-ordinates on the keypad in front of him, hearing the turbines start to whine around him as electricity started to course.

"LUN!" Penny screamed, waving her paws frantically, "PLEASE LISTEN TO ME! IT'S NOT 1926!!"

The otter threw a salute and in a bright flash disappeared from sight.

--

He came up behind the startled sea-otter and hugged her tightly. Lani let out a panicked churrrip before she turned around and saw Lunden in front of her.

"Lunden-Otter!" She giggled, throwing her paws around him and hugging tightly. "So good see you! So long not see you!" They churred, welcoming one another with nose-rubbings and gentle nuzzles.

"Lani," Lunden sighed as they parted from a passionate kiss. "I...I need to tell you something..."

The sea-otter canted her head, smiling that heavenly smile, then touched his mouth. "Lunden-Otter sad. Lani see. Lani always want Lunden-Otter happy. No want Lunden-Otter sad." She brought her paw down to close around his, giving it a squeeze. "Lunden-Otter swim with Lani now," she churrred sexily, her green eyes lidding as she led him towards the waves, wiggling out of her sarong as they went.

--

"Ms. Abreva? It's...it's time..."

The skunk got up from the control center and sighed as she walked over towards the canopy, her paw wavering over the keypad console nearby.

Something made her stop and look over at Carmen. "What did he tell you?"

The rabbit shrugged. "I told you. He was going to make one more jump, fifteen minutes, and then he wanted us to dismantle the thing and cease everything. Said he wanted to say goodbye to her...he was visibly upset."

The skunk nodded. "He never knew about the glitch?"

"No ma'am. He has no idea about it. He still thought it was 1926, just as we thought was programmed and calibrated."

Penny looked troubled for a moment, looking from the keypad and then back to Carmen. "So, he has no idea he's been going forward all this time..."

Carmen licked her lips. "No, Ms. Abreva." She came forward close to her. "Shall I start the return sequence now?"

A tear rolled from her eye and she shook her head. "No...I want you to do exactly as he wanted." She nodded towards the canopy. "Dismantle it."

Carmen swallowed hard and started crying as well as she turned away, calling shakily to the other technicians.

Penny ran her paw across the keypad, and then started to chuckle softly as the digital readout, which had never been able to light up before, suddenly flashed in bright green:

::: 01 | 01 | 19,260 :::

Penny sighed deeply, folding her paws in front of her, and looked up at the ceiling. "Happy New Year, otter..." she whispered through a flood of tears.

--

Lunden opened his eyes, feeling familiar warmth next to him, and rolled over to see Lani curled up against him, still wet from their swim.

"L-Lani...?" he whispered.

The sea-otter opened sparkling green eyes to look at him. "Lunden-Otter..." she churred, pressing herself up against him, her legs wrapping around his waist. "Mmm. You stay with Lani..."

"Yes," he nuzzled her, tears welling and spilling down his cheeks. "I...I stay with Lani..."

He had no idea what had happened, or why or how he was still here.

And he no longer cared.

Whether the great wave would come today, tomorrow, or sooner, or later, he would at least have time with her, and to die with her.

They spoke not a word, snuggling together on the beach, churrring softly, exploring one another as the waves started to lap against their bodies. Not too soon after, relenting to their desires and passions, they made love in the bright morning sun, under a cloudless blue sky.

END