Giles sat on the edge of his desk, and his eyebrows rose expectantly as he looked at Gareth, waiting for him to say his piece.
“How’s Arlene holding up?” Gareth asked casually.
Giles felt like the rug had been yanked out from under his feet. It wasn’t exactly the line of questioning he was expecting. He also felt a pang of guilt rip through his chest. He’d been so caught up in his own grief, he hadn’t really been paying much attention to what she must be going through.
He cleared his throat. “She could be better,” he replied. “She’s taking time off of work to take care of Anne, but I don’t think she sees much of a purpose in any of this anymore.”
Gareth nodded in quiet acknowledgment. “It’s a lot to take in. She’s going to need people that she can lean on to help her get through it.”
Giles shifted back and forth on the edge of the desk. “She doesn’t answer my calls most of the time. Apparently she wants to be left alone.”
Gareth shrugged one shoulder, as if that decision made perfect sense. Maybe it did. Giles wasn’t exactly a therapist.
“It’s an awful situation to be stuck in,” Gareth said, before he settled a probing look on Giles. “And what about you?”
“What about me?” Giles repeated back, his tone turning slightly guarded.
“How are you holding up?” Gareth asked, perfectly patient despite Giles’s sudden swing into defensiveness.
“Fine,” Giles replied tersely, drumming his fingers against the edge of his desk.
Gareth’s eyebrows rose. “‘Fine,’” he repeated dubiously. “You’re sure?”
Giles shifted again, almost squirming that time. “Well—” He cut himself off, but Gareth heard him all the same, leaning forwards slightly. Giles sagged as he sighed. “It’s just—I mean, losing Molly—losing anyone, I guess—” He paused and swallowed. His voice was starting to sound like gravel and his throat felt tight, and he just needed a second to gather his composure before he lost it.
“It’s…hard,” he admitted. “I’ve been reevaluating some things. You know what it’s like.”
Gareth clapped him on the shoulder. “I understand. After I lost my wife, picking up the pieces took me…well.” He chuckled, though it wasn’t a particularly happy sound. “We’ll be charitable and just say it took me a while.”
Giles nodded slowly, in slightly distracted understanding. Gareth eyed him for a moment longer, waiting to see if Giles would say anything else. When he didn’t, Gareth turned and slowly left the room.
Giles was left alone in his classroom, staring at empty desks and empty chairs. He stayed there for a few more minutes, sitting on the edge of his desk, before he pushed away from it and headed towards the classroom door.
He turned the lights out as he left.
Giles’s Office, Skóli Uppstigs Academy, Spire, Estaria
The walk down the hall seemed to take twice as long as it usually did.
His footsteps sounded loudly on the tile floor.
Where was all the chatter? It was a university. It was a school. It was never supposed to be this quiet. He was pretty sure that was against at least a few of the natural laws of physics.
The sound of his office door sliding open seemed to grate on him more than usual, and the office felt much darker. Almost matching his mood, he mused to himself. Despite that, he still didn’t bother to turn on the lights. His eyes would adjust, and in the meantime it was an effort that he couldn’t see any point in making.
He leaned back against the door for a moment as he heaved a slow sigh.
“Quite a day.”
And apparently it was ending with him talking to himself.
Giles couldn’t even bring himself to be annoyed at that point. He pushed himself away from his office door and took the few steps to cross the room, and he dropped down into his chair behind his desk.
It was more like he was tumbling down into it, actually, like a puppet that had been put through a very long day. But there was no one else there to see him, so it didn’t really matter.
He leaned back in his seat, staring blankly at the ceiling. There was work he needed to be doing—days’ worth of grading on the holosystem—but he couldn’t quite bring himself to get to it just then. It would still be there later. Besides, if he graded everything, he would have to hand it all back. And once that happened, at least a few of his students were bound to have questions. At least some of those questions would be in-depth enough that it would be better to answer them in his office without taking up class time. So the longer he put it off, the longer he got to avoid inviting anyone into his office.
A necessary thing, really, considering the state of the rest of the room, he considered, casting his gaze around his immediate environment.
He hadn’t taken his trash out in days, there was still an old take-out container sitting on top of a cabinet and attracting bugs, and the entire room smelled faintly like a pair of running shoes that hadn’t been aired out since before the age of space travel. He couldn’t even imagine what his office would look like if everything was still handled on paper. It would look like a snowstorm had ravaged it.
It was an embarrassment, really, and he dreaded the day someone knocked on his office door and asked to come in. Because he cared about it enough that he didn’t want anyone else to see it, and yet not quite enough to actually do anything about it. Yet.
He kept adding that yet onto everything.
He wasn’t doing his grading yet. He wasn’t working on his lesson plans yet. He wasn’t planning the next quizzes or tests yet. He wasn’t cleaning up the mess that could be called an office yet.
He wasn’t talking to the university’s counselors yet.
He wasn’t sure if it actually meant anything by that point, but examining it from other angles didn’t feel especially pressing in that moment. So he told the little voice reminding him that he should be working to stuff it, and instead he leaned down to the cupboard under his desk. He pulled out a glass and a half-full bottle of Yollin whiskey, and he poured himself three fingers. He left the bottle on his desk. There was no sense in putting it away just yet.
He held the glass for a moment, tipping it this way and that way for a moment to make the amber contents swirl. Finally, he took a sip and opened up his holoconsole.
He had heard rumors of an archaeological dig starting up in the ruins of Gresshone over in the Orn System, and another in what remained of the city of Weishrei on Plantasica-8. They were both far enough away from everything else that had happened that he would have a chance to just decompress and absorb everything. If he decided to go, at any rate. His students weren’t going to cease to exist within the next few weeks, after all. He supposed he would be rather concerned if they did.
And he supposed he could do a little more research before he came to a final decision. Not quite yet. That would just be the responsible thing to do, after all. It would set a good example for his students.
He tipped his head back to drain his glass.
Bailey Residence, Spire, Estaria
The doorbell rang and Arlene rushed to answer the door. She heard chattering, giggling and cooing on the other side. She knew who it was without looking. Unlocking the door, she swung it open with the biggest smile that she could muster. “Paige! Maya! So good to see you both,” she chimed, trying to match their levity.
The two girls stood there beaming, half their attention on the sphinx basket carried between them. “I don’t think he wanted to come,” Paige confessed. “It took the both of us half an hour to track him down, and then another half an hour to get him in the basket.”
Arlene waved them in. “Well that’s just sphinxes for you,” she explained. “They’re ferociously independent, and march to the beat of their own drum.”
“You’re not kidding,” Maya sighed as they placed the basket down on the floor. “This one certainly has a mind of his own. Do you want us to let him out now? Here?”
“Yes, yes,” Arlene
confirmed, fussing about the clothes and things that were lying around the apartment. She gathered up some take-out dishes and shipped them into the kitchen before her guests could look too closely at the state of the place. “Let him out so he can start getting used to the place. In the meantime let me put some food out for him,” she called through from the kitchen.
Maya and Paige set about letting Neechie out of his container, and Anne appeared from her room, having heard their voices.
“Neechie!” she squealed in delight. Taking one look at her, however, Neechie flashed out of realm and disappeared. Anne stopped in her tracks, arms outstretched, while the others collapsed into heaps of giggles.
Arlene appeared from the kitchen laughing too. “Come on, Anne, you know not to scare him.”
“It’ll take more than me to scare that thing,” Anne grumbled, hurt.
A moment later the sphinx appeared on the sofa behind them.
“Slowly now,” Arlene warned as Anne made her way towards him, stalking like a snuggle-predator. This time Neechie allowed her to approach and she started petting him.
“Can I get you anything?” Arlene offered to Paige and Maya. “A mocha or something?”
Maya checked her holo and then slapped at Paige’s arm. “We’re going to be late. We’ve got to get going.”
Paige checked her holo too. “Shit, you’re right. Rain check on the mocha?” she asked, glancing up at Arlene.
Arlene nodded, half relieved that they wouldn’t be inspecting the state of the apartment too closely, but also half disappointed that they wouldn’t be staying to keep her company.
“Arlene, if there’s anything that we can do, though, just shout,” Maya insisted. “We’re staying pretty close to campus now, so barely a stone’s throw away.”
Arlene nodded as she walked them back towards the door. “Thank you, I will. OOoh, was this your sphinx carrier?”
Page shook her head. “No, it belongs to Neechie. Best keep it with him… Just in case you need to transport him anywhere else.”
“Thank you,” Arlene repeated as the two girls headed out the apartment and down the corridor towards the stairs.
“See you soon, Arlene,” Paige chirped. “We should do drinks together soon,” she added.
“Good idea,” Arlene called down the corridor after them. She stepped back into the apartment and headed back into the living room to see Anne carrying Neechie through to her sleeping quarters, chattering away to him as if the previous snub had been forgotten.
Arlene wandered back into the kitchen to carry on tidying up. Maybe ten minutes had passed before Anne reappeared again.
This time in tears. “He’s gone. He’s gone again, Arlene. I think he’s gone for good,” she sobbed.
Arlene stepped towards the crying girl. “Hey come on, that’s not true. Sphinxes do this. It’s perfectly natural. They disappear, and then they come back. Remember, they have more dimensions to explore than we have. They realm walk. They see more than us, and sometimes they tell us things. That’s why they’re good to have around.” She smiled weakly, trying to reassure the fragile girl.
“You don’t understand,” Anne sobbed. “He’s gone, just like everyone else. Just like everyone goes.”
Looking at the tears streaming down her face, she recognized her own vulnerability at her recent loss.
“That’s not true,” Arlene tried to reason with her. “Is this about Ben’or?”
“No,” Anne lied through her tears. “It’s just he’s gone, and now Giles has gone. And Paige and Maya have gone, and they’re not coming back.” Her voice increased in volume and aggression as she ranted.
“What makes you—”
“And it’s all your fault!” Anne concluded, working herself up into a state, talking through tears.
“Why is it my fault?”
“You said something to Giles. Something to upset him, so that he doesn’t come back.”
Arlene took a deep breath and tried to console her. “What are you talking about?” she asked gently.
“He hasn’t been back since the memorial service. You said something to him, didn’t you?”
“No… No I didn’t.”
“So why has he gone? Why doesn’t he want to see me anymore?”
“Sweetie, he doesn’t not want to see you. I mean… of course he wants to see you. I think you’re just being a little bit—”
“A little bit what?” Anne shot back accusingly. Her eyes burned with tears now, red-rimmed and puffy. “Giles doesn’t want to see me anymore and it’s all because of you. He was my only friend!”
“That’s not true,” Arlene continued to protest. “None of that is true!”
“Well, why hasn’t he been around then?”
“He’s dealing with it in his own way. That’s Giles.”
“Well, he was around in the beginning. What did you say to him?”
“Nothing!”
“Liar. I bet you gave him a hard time and sent him away.”
Their voices could be heard down the corridor and in the adjacent apartments. The shouting continued for several minutes. One of the neighbors stepped out into the hallway to make sure it was nothing that needed the police called in on.
Then everything went quiet. The shouting stopped, only to be replaced by quiet sobbing.
Arlene sat down on the sofa. “Giles is going through a lot. I lost Ben’or, but he lost Molly. And he’s never been very good with emotions. Or losing people. His normal thing is to withdraw, and then take off.”
“You mean leaving? He’s leaving Estaria?”
Arlene blew her nose into a tissue that she pulled from her sleeve. “Maybe. Again, like Neechie, it’s just what he does. But he’ll be back.”
“When? Hundred years from now? Wasn’t that how long it took him last time he left you?”
Arlene exhaled, exasperated, pained by Anne’s words. Anne didn’t wait for a response. She just flounced back to her room, crying.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Unknown Location, Somewhere with the ARs
No one knows how long it was before the first heartbeat was detected, but it happened. And in that moment, the onlookers breathed a collective sigh of satisfaction.
She’s waking up, the entity reported. She has a heartbeat and brain activity. She’s… Alive! Oz watched as her vitals started to reinvigorate with life.
>Of course she is alive, they told him. What do you think all this is about?
I still don’t understand, Oz responded.
>You will. When she awakens, everything will make more sense.
The filtration system kicked on in the capsule and started extracting the excess moisture from the air within the capsule. Over several minutes, the condensation on the capsule’s window started to clear.
Molly stirred, as if waking from a nap. Not yet fully conscious, she tried to move in her sleep but found herself unable to change her position.
Where am I?
>You’re safe, the voice told her in her mind.
She wasn’t fully aware of her mouth or throat, or even if she was breathing.
>You’re not awake yet. You’re not using your mouth to speak.
This is like in my dreams.
>And when we talked to you, when we urged you to prepare your planet.
Yeah, about that… I think I failed.
Her brain activity spiked. Hang on! I died. We had a plan to keep everyone safe. But we died. We all died. Joel, and Jack, and Sean and—
Oz interrupted her thoughts. It’s okay. You’re not dead. They’re all alive, so I’m told. It’s the ARs. They saved us.
How?
I’m still trying to figure that out, but I think they had some kind of teleportation device where they pulled your DNA from the ship before it exploded.
But what about my memories? My consciousness? How did they pull that?
The voice in her head interrupted. We have technology beyond your comprehension. I suppose an easy way to explain i
t to you is that we took a photograph of everything: who you are, your essence, your DNA… Everything… And now we’re just rebuilding it.
Molly’s brow creased into a frown that would have been visible even through the capsule’s window, had there been anyone there to see. That means that consciousness is separate from the body…
Oz chuckled. I just felt your cortex light up as you started to try and figure this out!
Molly smiled, despite the bizarre situation.
So what’s the plan? she asked the AR.
>You need some more time to rebuild, but then when you’re done, we will let you go.
Let us go? Our ship was destroyed. You can’t just leave us in space. Our fragile bodies will—
>Yes, we’re well aware. It was, after all, us who created you.
It was? Giles was right all this time…
>He was.
So what does this mean for the system? Did the Estarians attack? What happened with the Zhyn? Did you survive okay?
>We did. Thanks to your sacrifice, all is well.
But… I thought we failed.
>You did no such thing. You showed the Estarians what it is like to come together. All being well, this’ll be a turning point in their evolution, and the beginning of a new era of cooperation between the parties involved.
You mean… You knew this was gonna happen?
>We had an idea. But we needed a champion. Someone to spread the word and show them by example.
You mean us?
>Yes.
But I don’t understand… How did you choose us?
>We saw who you were when you called us.
And what if someone else had called you? What if someone more warmongering had been at the other end of the communication?
>Well, then we would have acted accordingly.
What does that mean?
>We probably wouldn’t have allowed our presence to be known to them.
But to what end? Why would you want the more evolved people of Estaria to know that you exist? And why now?
Ascension_Age Of Expansion_A Kurtherian Gambit Series Page 18
