The Lonesome

THE LONESOME DID not reappear near Earth. Far from it, in fact.

Gloria, even in that hurried and frantic escape, remembered enough of her training not to point the Scipios right where they could go to find a new home world to conquer.

“No,” Gloria said, “I’m afraid we’re adrift in the middle of nothing, a billion miles from anything of note.”

She noted the crestfallen expressions on their faces, save for that of Xavi and Beth, who knew the score. Gloria smiled, and let the other shoe drop. “Well, that’s not exactly true. This is a staging point, one well known to the fleet. There’s even a supply cache here, and a small space station where we can rest.”

“Oh hell,” Prumble boomed. “I like you.” He turned to Vanessa, seated beside him. “I like her quite a lot.”

“You like everyone,” Vanessa said, laughing.

The big man laughed right along with her.

In the days that followed they rested, ate, and partied. They spent many hours recounting all that had happened, and mourning the two they’d left behind despite the circumstances of their deaths. Some of them made love, were even quite…spirited, in those endeavors. Samantha was not the sort of person one asked to keep it down.

Some merely lay in each other’s arms.

Tania rested her palm over Skyler’s heart and felt the rhythm of his pulse. Her cheek rested on his shoulder, allowing her to gaze past his strong chin and out the expansive window of the magnificently appointed outpost. She and Skyler did not make love. He couldn’t, not yet. “I’m no longer just me, Tania. There’s someone…something else…in here, and I can sense it observing through me. It’s too strange. For now. I’m sorry.”

She did not mind. It was enough for her simply to be in his company, and—though she felt rotten to admit it—without any competition or romantic politics to consider. They didn’t talk about Tim, save a toast with the group to mourn his death. Prumble said kind words, as kind as could be found, at least. In the end the poor young man had been blinded by affection for her, and so she felt partly to blame in a strange way. She knew she should not, that this was a false line of thought of the worst sort, but there it was.

After sixteen days spent in recovery, conversation, and somber celebration, a blip appeared on the radar exactly one million kilometers away. Tania knew from Gloria’s smile that this was not a pursuing Scipio warship, nor even Eve come to give a more proper and proportional thanks.

It was a ship from Earth. A beautiful, sleek thing. Tania sat beside Skyler and watched it approach, and it swelled her heart to know that humanity had made such a brilliant recovery since the plague had been eradicated.

An hour later they went aboard, Tania with one arm around Vanessa, grinning like she hadn’t been able to do in a very long time. Another hour and space was folded over on itself once again, and this time they punched into a deep orbit out beyond Neptune and began the long, leisurely cruise toward Earth.