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The wind high up on the peak whipped at her hair, but thankfully, even from that great height it was a warm wind.
Far below, the green and vibrant jungle sprawled, filling valleys and plains, here and there clearings breaking up the sheer endlessness of it.
He pointed at a valley that looked somehow familiar. “There, do you see them?” It was on the opposite side of the mountaintop they now stood upon.
She’d awoken from her slumber to find herself upon the summit, the view from atop the conical peak unlike anything she’d ever seen before. It was as she imagined birds might see the earth far below it, the land of men—and pixies—something they pitied, bound as they were to the cold, irresistible force of gravity.
Then she did see it—and her heart stopped.
It was her pod.
Sitting high up on one side of a broad grassy slope, it was exactly as she’d remembered it.
Which meant they had to be looking upon the valley of the pixies.
Far away, at the other end of the valley was the cluster of huts, the pixie village, the trails leading into the dense jungle beyond it chillingly familiar.
For it was the same trail they’d used to bring her to that infamous cave entrance.
“There’s more,” he said, his normally booming voice somehow softened, attenuated by the whipping wind. He pointed just beyond where the landing site of her pod was. “See them? Further up the slope?”
I’ve got to be dreaming this again.
She closed her eyes, opened them again.
It was no dream.
Looking up at Malcolm, she practically squeaked the words. “Is it?”
He nodded. His jaw was tight, and he didn’t return her gaze, instead staring down into the valley, intently, a touch of almost... sadness in his eyes.
There were four, at least. It had to be the other crewmembers, though from this great surmount, it was impossible for her to know who it was, exactly.
Movement about a kilometer up the valley from the opposite end of the pixie village caught her eye.
And she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
It was a rescue boat. One of the squat, heavy military ones with the atmospheric maneuvering thrusters paired with big escape mains, the nacelles so large they were like big rabbit ears, extended out diagonally from the body of the vessel. More figures—some of them exhibiting the tell-tale flash of metal denoting powered armor—milled around the rescue boat. Others seemed to fan out above and below the rescue boat.
Extraction teams.
They were searching for her!
She looked at the deep blue sky on reflex, even as she knew there was no way she could see the cruiser that was no doubt orbiting somewhere up there.
That cruiser—almost certainly one of the Francis Drake light cruisers developed specifically for hostile extraction—meant one thing above all else.
A ticket home.
Which is where, Selena?
The question vexed her, for now that she thought of it... she wasn’t so sure she knew what the correct answer was anymore.
“Why... why would you show me this? You could have kept me... with you.” She put her hands on his chest, going up on tiptoe. “Malcolm, look at me. Please.”
At first, he didn’t react at all, watching impassively, his expression as solemn as a funeral procession.
And incredibly, she was certain she understood the cause of his melancholy. That feeling—it was back. Something missing, something that didn’t quite fit.
She thought she’d banished it, during her time with Malcolm—someone who’d transformed from her captor to something far more precious.
But it was back... and she had no idea why.
He finally met her gaze. “If you truly wish it, I will allow you to return to them—to return to Terra, even. If that is your desire.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Um, what?”
“You’re going to deny your excitement at seeing the others down there? Your kind? I know you better than that, human.”
“You’re serious. You’d really let me go?”
He nodded so slowly as to be almost imperceptible, his lips curving into a frown for the first time since she’d met him.
He’s... sad.
What was even more shocking than that, was how his sadness made her feel. Which was awful. She wanted to do anything possible to banish it, to never have to see that painful frown ever again.
She wanted to please him forever to spare him that sort of pain.
Listen to you, Selena. Are you really contemplating this?
The answer was... yes. Maybe the fact that her ennui was back was precisely because she’d finally found somewhere that she truly did fit.
It just wasn’t Terra.
What if home really was with Malcolm? Had it been all along?
It wasn’t nearly that simple though. She wished it were. Because she wanted to see her crewmates. Needed to talk to them, if only to hear they were okay.
“I need to speak with them.”
“You want to do more than speak with them. You needn’t lie to me.”
“I don’t know what I want to do, Malcolm. But I know I have to talk to them. If nothing else, they need to know that I’m okay. Please.”
“You’re more than ‘okay,’ little human. You’re safe.” He sighed. “You’re where you belong. Even your heart tells you the truth of it.”
How did he know so much? Was she that obvious? That simple?
She wished she were that certain—either way. It would make her decision infinitely easier to make.
He touched her shoulders, pulling her into his arms. She hugged him fiercely, closing her eyes as she pressed her lips to his chest, the steady drumbeat of his heart both giving her strength and reminding her that if she made the wrong choice, she risked breaking that very same heart.
“You have a bond with me, little human. One that will never, ever be broken. We both know this. We can feel it within us.”
It was her turn to nod, even as tears threatened.
“Leaving this place... it will not break that bond. If it could, it would be a mercy to you. For as long as you’re away from me—from my planet—your body will ache for me. That need will color everything, you will always be left wanting. Never satisfied, always longing. For the rest of your days.”
She didn’t say anything. What he spoke was truth, and there was little point in disputing it.
If she chose to stay, then they both knew what that would mean. It would be because they both realized they were where they belonged.
And even if she was, she still wondered if she even had the courage to accept the truth of things. Or would she succumb to uncertainty, to her fear of having the one thing she’d never really known her entire life.
Happiness.
Or maybe this is Stockholm syndrome to an extreme degree... and you no longer know up from down?
On that score though, she was certain. It wasn’t that. Not anymore. She had free will here. She faced the proverbial ‘fork in the road.’
The choice she had to make was hers and hers alone.
There was something else though, a question that gnawed at her from the first moment she’d seen Malcolm. And before she had to make the most fateful decision of her life, she was damned sure going to get an answer to it.
She pushed herself back from his embrace, taking a deep breath.
“I want to know who you really are.”