After we had looked at the beautiful harbor in front of us for about five minutes, the rest of the group moved into the hotel to get our bags checked in. Luna and I were the last two people in the line to the check-in desk. I could see that Luna was just a tiny bit overwhelmed.

  “What’s up, love?” I said as I took off my aviator sunglasses and hung them from my shirt.

  “What do you mean? Are you not feeling so… moved… by all of this?” She motioned around us. “We are more than a hundred years back in time on your home planet. How are you not getting emotional?”

  “Ah… Well, I didn’t say I’m not.” I smiled.

  “You don’t look very emotional to me.” She replied.

  “I suppose it still hasn’t sunk in that well yet.” I admitted. “But then again… I don’t want to get too attached either as we still need to go back to our own timeline after this little holiday is over.” I looked at Amicia and Sam who were standing right in front of me. “What do the two of you think? You are from the future as well.”

  “Not that far in the future to be honest.” Sam replied. “But it definitely feels special, that’s for sure.”

  “I think we should all cherish this experience while we have it.” Amicia added. “So maybe let you get attached to it. Let yourself get emotional. That way the memories will stick to you better…” Amicia started to blush a little and looked away. “...At least that’s my opinion…”

  I smiled. “Well, you are making a good point though.”

  Sam and Amicia both smiled and Sam continued with a question. “Is there anything already that has made you go ‘wow’ about this time period?”

  “Hmmm.” Luna scratched her cheek and mainly looked at me for a reply.

  “Let’s see.” I cupped my face in my hand. “All these gasoline cars are pretty novel I suppose. Traffic in our time definitely flows better too. Do you still have fossil fuel cars in your time?”

  “Not many.” Sam shook her head. “They are really rare. I have not driven in one myself in any case.”

  “Hmm, I have only driven along on a solid fuel motorcycle.”

  “Ah with Hilda.” Sam nods acknowledgingly. “I almost forgot about that.”

  “But apart from that, not really.”

  “Hey, this is a random question.” Aurora suddenly joined in on the conversation. “But do you think we are all from the same time-line?”

  “I actually don’t know.” I replied. “I hope for you that it isn’t the same time-line in all fairness. The unification wars weren’t fun…. and considering your immortality…”

  “I sincerely hope you live in a parallel universe at the very least.” Luna added.

  “Same is true for us to be honest.” Sam raised her hand shyly, looking at Aurora and her girlfriends. “People had to flee away from central Europe because of climate change in our time…”

  “Oh shit, that’s where we live.” Aurora commented.

  Sam nodded. “That’s why our story is set in nondescript Scandinavia after all.”

  Aurora looked up, above my head and called out. “Kathy, if you are listening, don’t you dare put us all in the same timeline. You hear me? Otherwise I’ll come and beat you up with my bat.”

  “Do you think threatening the boss-lady will help?” I chuckled.

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  “It’s better than doing nothing.” Aurora shrugged.

  “I suppose that’s true.” I then turned around and looked up at the same angle Aurora had been looking to. “Boss, please listen to the youngsters. Do me a favor.”

  Luna softly pulled on my shirt and leant in. “Lauren… you do realize she is writing this, don’t you?”

  “I do.” I nodded with a wry smile. “But it will make for great cinema if these stories ever get filmed.”

  “Ah yeah, that’s true.” Luna then suddenly put her finger on my cheek, guided my gaze in her direction and then planted a kiss on my lips.

  “Wh-what?” My cheeks started to glow tomato-red.

  “That will look great in the cinema too.”

  Aurora had covered the eyes of Ria who had been staring in our direction but from the look on Corelia’s face it was clear she saw what happened.

  “Look what you are showing to the youngsters, Luna. Behave yourself.”

  “Shush.” She giggled and gave me another kiss. “Besides, you are not that much older yourself.”

  After all this tomfoolery we got ourselves checked into the hotel and situated in our rooms before we headed out for the remaining part of the evening to get us some food. We were all starving, with the exception of Aurora of course, and had decided to go to a pizzeria in one of the charming little streets nearby. They had sat up their seating outside as many Maltese establishments tended to do in the evening. Quite precariously for that matter as one thing I had quickly learned about Valletta is that it has quite a lot of height difference. So while setting up your seating and tables in a walkable street might not sound very special, it is if you consider that these streets were basically made up of staircases.

  That being said, it did look outright incredible with the height difference. To top that all up, the pizza that was served was also incredibly well-done. The reviews were definitely not lying about this place at all when they said it was the best pizzeria in Valletta.

  After our meal we retreated to the hotel as tomorrow we had to rise early to catch breakfast and then head out exploring, however a little jazz bar right next to the hotel stopped that plan in it’s tracks as the terrace they had set up looked even better than the one we had just been seated at. This one giving a clear view of Fort St Angelo, marvelously lit up on the other side of the harbor.

  So to summarize, we spent another two hours drinking something at the jazz bar because the Maltese are pretty good at making attractive terrace locations on somewhat impractical spots. Considering we had a lot of walking to do the day after, maybe not the best idea, but eh. We were here to enjoy us after all, or so I had been told at least.

  The morning after we had a great breakfast at our fancy hotel after we set out in the morning sun, which was already quite warm if I had to be honest. We were heading out to walk to Fort St. Elmo which was at the tip of Valletta’s peninsula but first a couple of us wanted to stop by a pharmacy. Apparently summer in Malta attracts quite a few mosquitoes and some people didn’t manage to catch much sleep because of it, among which was Luna.

  Amicia and Corelia had also fallen prey to the insects so they were also asking party for some kind of insecticide, which the pharmacy gladly provided.

  Armed with a couple of bottles of sunscreen too, we moved back to the edge of the ramparts to follow the edge of the peninsula towards the Fort. It was a nice walk, luckily shaded by a couple of trees with a fantastic view of the sea.

  “What’s there to see at the fort?” I asked the group while we walked along. “Apart from the fortifications themselves of course.”

  Aurora, who was leading the group, replied. “There’s a big museum inside. Actually most fortifications here have museums as it seems.”

  “All about different subjects?” Luna asked in return.

  “Most of them are about Malta of course, and are in some part war-related. But some are more war-related than others.”

  “I read a flier about a house owned by a noble family close by which you can visit. It looked really cool. Are we going to visit that too?” Corelia, who was walking next to Luna, asked our now defacto tour-guide.

  “I don’t see why not.” Aurora turned around and smiled brightly at her girlfriend. “If anyone else has things like that to suggest, feel free. We don’t need to follow Kathy’s plans by the letter.”

  As I was thinking about the implication of that reply, Amicia raised her hand enthusiastically. “I really want to try riding those little boats.” She then pointed over the rampart into the harbor below where little boats were ferrying a couple of people across to the other cities.

  “Don’t want to ride the bigger ferry? Looks like a more comfortable ride.” Sam proposed but Amicia almost immediately shook her head to that.

  “I want to try the small ones. It will look way cooler as we move past the fort on the other side of the harbor. Its scale contrasts way better and I really want to make a couple of pictures in it so I can use them for reference in art pieces.”

  I chuckled. We’d definitely have our hands full during this trip. We are not going to get bored, that’s for sure.