TROUBLE DOG
We bade farewell to the Fleet of Knives and set course for the Intrusion. I had the access codes, vouchsafed to me by Sofia Nikitas, and I had my pack—the captain, Nod and George, the bizarre dual consciousness that called itself Lucy, and Preston the medic, who had insisted on staying aboard. He claimed he had nothing to go back to, and besides, knowing us, we’d probably need his services as medic before very long.
I think he’d even forgiven me for my prank in the museum.
As for the captain, I’d like to tell you she had an easier life once we’d ditched the past and passed through the portal to another realm; but the truth is, she still drank most evenings, and still spent the majority of her nights curled in the life raft in the cargo hold, wrapped in a survival blanket while she brooded on the losses she had incurred. However, during the days, she gradually became more animated and excited by what we found on the other side of the wormhole. And eventually, once we caught up with the Plates, she even found love in one of the cities, with a woman who came on board and lived as her partner for the remainder of their days— days in which we all had grand adventures and blazed a path through the darkness of an almost virgin universe.
But that, as they say, is another story—and it was all still in the future as we left the Fleet and spiralled in towards the Intrusion’s waiting interface like a kingfisher pitching towards the surface of a lake.
All my life I had been running. Not from conflict, but from its aftermath. At Pelapatarn, I did something unspeakable to end one war; at the Gallery, I unleashed something dreadful to prevent another.
Sometimes, the price we pay for peace and security is freedom. Sometimes it is our very souls.
Now, I was about to run further and faster than ever before. But this time, I wasn’t fleeing. This time, it wasn’t about aftermaths or endings. This time, we were starting again and taking a second chance at life. Because, when the dust settles and the fires die down, isn’t that all any of us really wants?