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Authors: Arwen Elys Dayton
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when the touched her, of his face. She was thinking of the intimate moments they had shared in their years together.
She found that her head was against the tank and she was crying. His body was probably dissolved by now. There would be no trace of him, just a blanket floating in the biofluid. After another year of sleep she would be at their destination. Their whole mission lay ahead, and she was alone.
She moved to a putty control pad and found herself accessing Central’s speech controls. Almost in a trance, she commanded the computer to assume Niks’s voice. Central had hundreds of hours of records of them speaking, and it was a simple matter to execute her command.
“Central?” she asked tentatively after withdrawing her hand from the controls.
“Yes?”
Pruit’s heart jumped, because it was Niks’s voice coming from the walls. Some objective part within her recognized that she was not thinking rationally. It did not matter to her at this moment; she wanted to hear him, to speak with him, to know that she was not by herself.
“Niks,” she said, “I don’t know how I’m going to do this without you.”
“I—”
“Just let me talk, Central,” she said quietly.
Central fell silent.
Pruit took a deep breath. “I’m not sure I know how to live if you’re gone,” she whispered, embarrassed that she was speaking to the computer, but somehow still comforted. Even as she spoke the words aloud, she knew that they weren’t true. Without Niks, she could not see herself being happy, for he was the one who had taught her happiness. But that did not alter the purpose of her life. There had been a core of steel in her since she joined the Sentinel.
Her hand strayed to her arm, and her fingers moved over the medals pinned there. There were several for space missions she had flown prior to this one, most with the purpose of locating precious metals from asteroids. One medal was for finding a potential breach of the main city dome before a leak could occur. Her vigilance had saved thousands from radiation exposure. Her fingers moved to the topmost medal. This was a Star of Valor, for tracking down that Lucien spy.
She felt the grief of Niks’s death, but she knew this would not incapacitate her. The grief was real, but her determination was stronger. She would give her whole life to fight for her people’s survival. She thought of the words of their poem, and she knew her own heart.
“Pruit…” It was Central, with Niks’s voice.
“I know,” she said. “I don’t mean it. I can live. There is a chance for us, and I will take it. Even alone.”
CHAPTER 7
Present Day
“Africa. Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania…” Pruit recited the names as she jogged. The treadmill faced a large screen that displayed a map of the planet Earth.
Her ship was in orbit around the fifth planet of the system, a gas giant named Jupiter by the inhabitants of the third planet, Earth, her target.
She had reached her target star system and come out of stasis six months ago. Her mission was now in its second phase. From one of the control stations at the middle of the ship, she could hear the alternate crackle and blare of the frequencies Central was monitoring. Earth had fared reasonably well in the last five millennia. The planet was in a slightly more developed state than would have been ideal for Pruit’s mission, but the availability of fast transportation technology would be helpful.
She was allowed to make no transmission to Earth until her body was in shape and she had learned the languages she would need for the remainder of her mission. She had selected two languages: English, because it was the dominant language of the planet as a whole, and Arabic, because it was the dominant language of her target area.
With the help of Central’s language-learning facilities, she had achieved a good fluency in both over the past months. The languages had no common root and entirely different
She found that her head was against the tank and she was crying. His body was probably dissolved by now. There would be no trace of him, just a blanket floating in the biofluid. After another year of sleep she would be at their destination. Their whole mission lay ahead, and she was alone.
She moved to a putty control pad and found herself accessing Central’s speech controls. Almost in a trance, she commanded the computer to assume Niks’s voice. Central had hundreds of hours of records of them speaking, and it was a simple matter to execute her command.
“Central?” she asked tentatively after withdrawing her hand from the controls.
“Yes?”
Pruit’s heart jumped, because it was Niks’s voice coming from the walls. Some objective part within her recognized that she was not thinking rationally. It did not matter to her at this moment; she wanted to hear him, to speak with him, to know that she was not by herself.
“Niks,” she said, “I don’t know how I’m going to do this without you.”
“I—”
“Just let me talk, Central,” she said quietly.
Central fell silent.
Pruit took a deep breath. “I’m not sure I know how to live if you’re gone,” she whispered, embarrassed that she was speaking to the computer, but somehow still comforted. Even as she spoke the words aloud, she knew that they weren’t true. Without Niks, she could not see herself being happy, for he was the one who had taught her happiness. But that did not alter the purpose of her life. There had been a core of steel in her since she joined the Sentinel.
Her hand strayed to her arm, and her fingers moved over the medals pinned there. There were several for space missions she had flown prior to this one, most with the purpose of locating precious metals from asteroids. One medal was for finding a potential breach of the main city dome before a leak could occur. Her vigilance had saved thousands from radiation exposure. Her fingers moved to the topmost medal. This was a Star of Valor, for tracking down that Lucien spy.
She felt the grief of Niks’s death, but she knew this would not incapacitate her. The grief was real, but her determination was stronger. She would give her whole life to fight for her people’s survival. She thought of the words of their poem, and she knew her own heart.
“Pruit…” It was Central, with Niks’s voice.
“I know,” she said. “I don’t mean it. I can live. There is a chance for us, and I will take it. Even alone.”
CHAPTER 7
Present Day
“Africa. Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania…” Pruit recited the names as she jogged. The treadmill faced a large screen that displayed a map of the planet Earth.
Her ship was in orbit around the fifth planet of the system, a gas giant named Jupiter by the inhabitants of the third planet, Earth, her target.
She had reached her target star system and come out of stasis six months ago. Her mission was now in its second phase. From one of the control stations at the middle of the ship, she could hear the alternate crackle and blare of the frequencies Central was monitoring. Earth had fared reasonably well in the last five millennia. The planet was in a slightly more developed state than would have been ideal for Pruit’s mission, but the availability of fast transportation technology would be helpful.
She was allowed to make no transmission to Earth until her body was in shape and she had learned the languages she would need for the remainder of her mission. She had selected two languages: English, because it was the dominant language of the planet as a whole, and Arabic, because it was the dominant language of her target area.
With the help of Central’s language-learning facilities, she had achieved a good fluency in both over the past months. The languages had no common root and entirely different
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