Eric plucked the paper from her hand, unable to restrain himself. On the one side, in his own handwriting, was the message:
Strem,
If you get this note it means, no matter what you are told otherwise, the Kaulikans got the graviton and hyper drives, and that I have been exiled aboard their fleet. If this is now the case, I believe The Tachyon Web will eventually come down. Let’s set up a rendezvous point, say the third planet from Lira – the Kaulikans’ original destination. I’ll be there every spring break, until we meet again.
Eric
PS – The above information must be kept secret.
He turned the paper over and read:
Eric,
They're getting ready to tow us out of here. Got to write fast. I’m glad you got Griffin to choke. What the hell, I guess there is plenty of room for everybody. If you got the goods on the drives, have the Kaulikans build you your own private starship. Next spring break, or the one after that – whenever – sounds fine with me.
Strem
PS – Give Green Eyes a big juicy kiss for me.
Eric calmly folded the note and put it away. Then he burst out laughing. Strem's suggestion was in keeping with his own ideas. After all, Rak owed him one. Before the Kaulikans finished outfitting their fleet for supralight travel, they could whip up a small cruiser for him; nothing fancy, just something that could get him where he wanted to go, like the other side of the universe.
“Good news?” Vani asked.
“Vani, once you…once we get settled on our new world, how would a trip sound?”
“Is this Strem's idea?”
“Sort of.”
She was interested. “To where?”
He looked out of the window at the soft glowing body of The Milky Way. “I've always wanted to see the center of the galaxy.”
She nodded. “So have I.”
“Great, that will be our first stop.” He sat up with a start. The stars in the vicinity of The Patrol ships had begun to ripple and blur. Griffin was readying his cruisers for a hyper jump. Eric hurried to the telescope and was in time to catch a close-up view of the Earth Fleet, and Excalibur, as they bent space inside itself and blinked out of sight into another dimension. This time he experienced no stab of loneliness nor did he even feel the need to say goodbye once more. He would see his friends again. It was written in the stars.
“Did Strem say anything else?” Vani asked, leaning into his side. Eric put his arm around her. He owed it to Strem to fulfill his last request.
“As a matter of fact, he did.”
The Tachyon Web Page 17
