Departure

I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.

- Jules Verne

Fred nodded to the two officers behind him. "Pick him up. Oh and tie off that arm, he is making a mess of my deck."

The guards flashed a few grins and a couple of "Yes, sir's" later, Gregson was on his feet being dragged back towards the doorway. Gregson struggled against them, ranting about saving humanity. Fred, sporting a fresh bandage on his head, walked over to us.

"Looks like I am saving your ass again, Finder," he said, smiling. He turned to Leena, "And I assume that you are the shadow that has be plaguing the criminal element of my station. I would like to thank you, and also ask that you cease doing so. Station security is my job, and I don't much like competing with vigilantes."

"Fred," I said. "This is Leena."

His eyes widened. "Well then! It is a pleasure to meet you. You have caused a lot of people a lot of trouble."

He looked over to the alien ship, "And this is yours, I assume?"

"Yes, what is left of it. It is mine."

Her voice had the same effect on Fred as it did on me. He looked at me. "You have interesting friends, Josh. Now if you'll both excuse me, I have a murderer to track down. I don't suppose that either of you know where to find my former employer?"

Leena looked down, refusing to make eye contact.

"Fred, she's gone. Markham took her out the airlock."

Silence. And then Fred said, "Poor Barb."

Leena put a tentative hand on my shoulder. Leaning down she whispered, "I must leave soon, or I will miss the perihelion. I do not wish to spend another 80 years here." She had retrieved the small black object from the box and pressed its end.

Behind us, the ship came to life. I turned to see the outer patterns glowing faintly. Even the dismantled parts started glowing and emitting faint sparks. Near the upper left side, one of the spheres split open and a smaller sphere floated out.

I heard a scuffle, then a shot. I immediately dropped into trance, and spinning I could see the trails of everyone's past and future actions. Gregson had wrestled a gun from one of his guard and had fired back at us. His shot went wide, but he was still shooting.

Darwin was bounding in his direction, but he was too far away to keep Gregson from firing at least six more shots.

I attempted to push Leena behind me as I raised my own gun, but she forcefully pushed me aside and stepped into the line of fire. Not all of the shots that Gregson let off would have missed us.

Then, Leena glowed.

In my vision state, I could see it happen gradually, but in real time it must have seemed instantaneous. She went from black, through purple, to a bright blue, to a blinding lightning white. As she changed, the heat from her transition burned the air around her and instantly converted her clothes to ash. The crack of the change of air pressure sent a shockwave through the bay. I could see the flechettes burning into dust as they approached her body. And as soon as it started, it was over, her naked body once again black as night.

Then there was one more shot. I could see it approaching, but could not move fast enough to save her. It was a chance, a fluke, but it hit Leena in the stomach, and she folded to the ground. Darwin reached Gregson and tore through his left arm, disabling him permanently.

But Leena was bleeding. The flechette had done what all flechettes were made to do, explode on impact. Her bright red blood was covering the floor as she lay folded up on her wound. This was much worse than Synthia's injury, for Leena's whole side was missing. Her phage was stopping the bleeding, attempting to heal her, but the damage had obliterated organs.

I knelt beside her, the vision still on me. Fred had raced over in slow motion. I followed the trails that led to and from us, and Leena's was leading to the small life boat that was floating a few feet away. Her trail faded to nothing before it reached it. The black object tumbled from her hand.

I stared at Leena, watching her die. It was happening again. Once more, I was losing someone. But this time, for some reason, it was different. I could think of Joanie now without pain. I wondered if I could do what was needed, giving her up again. I knew what I had to do.

I picked up the black object Leena had dropped, placing my thumb on the end as I had seen her do.

"The ship," I said to Fred.

A door at the side of the pod opened and Fred helped me carry her in. There wasn't much there. The interior was bright white and the walls were covered with inset geometric designs which dizzied the eye. Near the front three long benches stretched out. Darwin jumped onto one of the side ones, and the trails of cause and effect solidified.

"Put her on the middle bed," I instructed. We laid her there, and right away a glowing field encased her. It started to fill with a purple vapor.

Amazingly, Leena was still conscious. "Thank you, father" she said. "There is great hope for you. Perhaps we will meet again." Her eyes drifted closed.

"How far?" I asked.

Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled. "So many questions. Thirty-five light years or so. In Vela. I must sleep. Goodbye, father." Her eyes closed again.

I stood there for a moment. "Goodbye, Leena."

I touched the field, and passing my hand through it, I could feel the tingling of the healing gasses on my arm. I placed the black object in Leena's hand, then withdrew.

The walls near the front of the ship dissolved and showed the loading bay and its blood stained floor. The ceiling above Leena cleared as well we could see the top of the loading bay. A subtle change in the hum of the escape pod told me that the engines were starting in earnest.

"We should go." I said to Fred. He just nodded and headed out the door, still staring at the interior of the ship. After a brief look back at Leena's sleeping form, I followed him. As soon I stepped out, the door closed and the pod floated up.

"She needs a way out," I said to Fred. He looked around the loading bay.

"Ok," he said. "Follow me."

The three of us stepped through a door to a control room and it sealed behind us. Everyone was gone. A voice came over Fred's com informing us that Gregson had been taken to a secured section of the Station hospital, and was going to be kept under guard.

Fred passed his hand over the chip reader and it recognized his access. He flipped a few switches, securing all of the doors to the bay, then punched one of the two large red buttons on the console. Two grates opened up near the top of bay pumping the air quickly back into the station's reservoirs. Then one of the massive bay doors opened ponderously. It was a testament to the engineering of the station that we hardly felt it.

Once the doors were wide open, the pod raised itself higher. Every other piece of the ship also rose from the floor of the station, acting as one. The pod sailed out into space followed by the disassembled ship.

Fred reached out to punch the button again, but I held my hand out. He paused. The pod and the debris faded from sight against the darkness, then there was a bright flash.

"What was that?" Fred asked.

"I suspect that it was the derelict ship being vaporized. It wouldn't do to leave advanced tech in the hands of the children, now would it?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Fred smiled.

"Nothing, forget I said it."

We sat silently for a few minutes, trying to process the events we had just witnessed.

"Can you explain what I just saw?" Fred asked quietly.

"Which part?"

"All of it! Any of it! Who was she? What was that? Talk to me man. All of this happened on my station, and I feel like I was just a spectator."

I looked at Darwin who had quietly set himself up on one of the other chairs in the control room. Though his head was resting on his paws, he was looking at me with that 'don't screw this up' look.

"I really can't say Fred," I said.

"Can't, or won't?"

"A little of both, actually. I have very little understanding of what we were just a small part of. This is much bigger than any of us. I have a feeling that we haven't heard the last of Leena's people, and the next time we meet they might not be as friendly. But perhaps Leena's advocacy for us might temper their next visit. Time will tell."

The thunder and lightning boomed quietly in the distance, and the sea was calming, for now.

"Finder talk," Fred said dismissively. "You speak much, but say little."

"Honestly, Fred, I am really not sure."

He thought a moment. "Now what?"

We sat quietly for a moment longer. Then we did what humans immemorial have done when faced with something so massive that it beggared the mind. We ignored it and turned instead to things we could handle.

Darwin had dropped on to the floor and walked over to me. I reached down and scratched his head, and he leaned into my leg.

Looking at myself I said, "Do you have a spare shirt? I seem to have lost my bag."

Fred smiled as we walked out the door into the station corridors. "I don't know if they would fit. I have more muscles than you do."

"I doubt that very much." We headed back to the hotel lobby, Darwin at my side.

"Do you think Sam is done her shift?" I asked.

Fred's smile widened, "Let's go find out," he said, "I could use a coffee."

I laughed.