I had sat in the same chair for an untold number of days. I sat facing John, and it was as if my muscles were disconnected throughout the day. I could breath and blink, but that was it. Every joint was locked. When it was time to use the facilities, I seemed to have no control of anything. I would stand up, go into the bathroom and do whatever needed to be done, then go to bed. I would fall asleep immediately, and get up seven hours later, have a meal, have sex with John, then we would sit.
Over and over, day after day. The only break we would get was switching sex, every few weeks. I had no idea how much time I spent as each sex. I couldn’t count. My brain was apparently locked from anything but staring at John. I could see everything around me, but I really couldn’t process anything, except John sitting, facing me.
I longed to put my arms around him, but even when we had sex, there was nothing in it. Just the action, then sitting. I felt empty, emotionally.
Then, one day, after an interminable amount of time, I was able to do something else. I could now remember all that had happened to me, and it was as if I had just come off a time of unbroken sensory deprivation.
Now, we were we were going through times of pain and period. We were able to move around and to think, but the pain was much worse. It was almost completely debilitating. The first two month time I was female and John was a male, and I don’t think I really had any idea of what he was going through as the cramps hit with such ferocity that I felt like I was going to pass out each time. I think if I hadn’t had the nanites keeping me awake and feeling things, I would have. I can’t imagine someone being able to stand that.
When we made love, I felt I was being stretched far enough to have a baby, the moment he penetrated. It was agony! I loved the man beyond reason, but I desperately wanted him to pull out. We both climaxed at the same time, and that was the moment we switched.
I felt like my penis was on fire. I wanted to pull out, but could not. I had climaxed as a woman, and now I had to as a man, before we completed. Again, I loved John as a woman beyond reason, and knew she was in agony, but couldn’t stop. The drive of my libido was controlling me, making me continue until I was emptied.
We got very little done during this time. We visited Marc and Kari twice, but couldn’t get out of our apartment except to get some food, although much of that was lost due to the pain. Neither of us could hold anything down.
At the end of eighteen months, the pain intensified again. As I had thought there was no way to stay awake before, I now thought there was no way I could possibly survive. But we did.
Thankfully, we hardly left the apartment, so we didn’t have to worry about switching if we touched anyone else.
The problem was, I hated John. I couldn’t even stand the sight of him. I couldn’t stand the thought of making his meals, and I certainly didn’t want to sleep with him. Although touching him wouldn’t hurt me, I wanted to throw up at the mere thought of it, and I knew he felt the same. Sharing the same bathroom grossed me out too. I mean, there were times his butt had touched the same toilet mine had to! How disgusting was that! And then, at three months, I could barely stand it, but there was an urge to have sex.
That’s all it was, however. Having sex. There were no sweet nothings whispered, no enjoyment of the act.
It was pure sex. I felt degraded and used, because he had to have me, the same as I had to have him, or we would die. We knew that beyond the shadow of a doubt, so I gritted my teeth and did the act.
Most of the time, I thought of Marc, Carter; even Roman! I fantasized about having them all. I thought maybe I would be good enough in bed without John anywhere around, that I could turn Roman straight.
I knew, however, that Marc was my best friend’s man, and I couldn’t hurt her. I sure wanted him rather than John, though!
Day after day, week after week, month after month.
And then something completely unexpected happened. I woke up one morning, and I knew it was the day for us to have sex and I wasn’t having a period. I couldn’t bear the thought of sex, however. I started to go through my thoughts. I was afraid of John. I didn’t hate him. In fact, I knew that I loved him beyond reason, but I was afraid of him. I thought about Marc, and I was afraid of him. I wasn’t as afraid of Roman, but I couldn’t begin to fantasize about him. Not with John around.
I got up and walked into the main part of the apartment, where John was sitting on the sofa. “Don’t come any closer, Rose” he told me.
“I don’t think I can.”
He nodded. “We got a call from one of the researchers. I don’t know how, but he was working.”
“What?!!?”
“Yeah. He made had made some kind of airborne virus and found out that it… God knows how… reset the nanites. He sent it into the air circulation system, and everyone on board the station is now starting stage one. The only problem is, I can’t get ahold of him now.”
He tossed me a pair of latex gloves like we had always used, called Marc and we headed toward the lab, keeping a respectable distance between ourselves.
When we arrived at the lab, a gruesome sight awaited. For years, the station had avoided a beheading, but now, the researcher had been killed just as Perl was.
Tentatively, I pulled off a glove and very gently, touched John’s face. Sure enough, nothing happened. I grabbed him, and hugged him as tight as I could. “I’m so sorry!” I cried.
“Why?”
“All the hate. The things I said!”
“It’s not your fault, Rose,” he told me.
“I said them with the intent to hurt you even more than you already were. I knew that the emotional hurt would make you ten times more miserable than you were with the physical.”
“I did the same thing to you, but it wasn’t either of our faults. We were being controlled by the nanites. All I can figure is that the areas of our brain that linked us was somehow inverted. No one is sure how the nanites did it, but that was what happened.”
Marc and Kari entered the lab about that time. One look at John and I, and they removed their gloves. The looked at each other, and John took Kari’s hand.
I looked at them and all of the sudden I thought of something. “Oh no. John!” I exclaimed as I backed out of his embrace.
He cocked his head at me, as if asking for an explanation. “I just realized what I did! By touching you, I restarted the bonding.”
“Your point?”
“We had no time to explore how we felt about each other without the bond.”
He took my hands and asked, “How did you feel about me when you came out of the bedroom this morning?”
“I loved you more than I can ever explain.”
“Rose, I felt exactly the same about you.”
I thought about it, then told him, “We’ve been friends for so long. I never wanted our friendship to die, and then when I became a woman, you went out of your way to help me, even when you were afraid of every woman on the station.”
“Do you know why?” I shook my head as I observed Marc and Kari backing out of the lab. I guess they wanted to give us some time to ourselves.”
“As you said, we have been friends since we were kids. Remember how your mom said if one of us was a woman, we would get married?” I nodded, blushing. “I didn’t want our friendship to die either. I tried to keep it a friendship. I helped you because I didn’t want it to end by us being afraid of each other.”
“John, that doesn’t sound like a ‘bromance’ thing,” I said laughing.
“No, it doesn’t. Now that one of us was a woman, I found that what your mom said was true. We had so much in common that I couldn’t let you go. I was scared shitless of you, but I was determined that if we could beat this stuff, and you were still a woman, I was going to make sure we were together always. I wanted to marry you.”
“Wanted?” I asked.
“Okay, I want to marry you.”
“And that was all before we were bondmates?”
He pulled me close. “You damn well better believe it.”
Suddenly, Marc entered the lab. “I’ve got an idea. Hopefully, we’re not too late.”
“What,” I asked, suddenly excited.
Marc didn’t answer at first, but went to the researcher’s body. “I’m really sorry,” he said to the head, and then took a scalpel and cut a rather large section out of the man’s leg. It dripped blood as he put it on a tray. “The airborne virus gave me the idea.
He hurried to the same input the researcher had used to the air ducts, and we followed. “I found during my last pain cycle in stage five, that the nanites have an organic ‘battery’ as well. It uses the same type of energy as a sperm. The difference is, rather than spin a tail, it keeps them ‘alive’ for an extended amount of time, but it only seems to happen if the person has died in this way.”
He opened the grate and slipped the gory nanite supply inside the duct.
“So you’re going to try to cause stage two.”
“I know that is hurrying along stage three, but we’ve got to get rid of the fear.”
“We’ll have a year of normal time after stage three,” Kari pointed out.
“We need to try to stagger entering stage three so we always have someone awake to research,” I said.
“Agreed,” John said. He looked at me. “Think we can hold out a year?”
I gazed at him for a few moments. “No,” I said honestly. “I doubt I can wait a day.”
“I don’t think we should anyway,” Marc told us. “If one of us changes, we’re going to die. You know that.”
“It’s a chance we have to take,” John argued.
“It’s a chance we can’t take,” Kari said. “We’re the commanders of the station. We’re all needed.”
“I seem to remember you wishing you could commit suicide,” I told her.
“Yes, but I had time to think in the last few years. I realized that we couldn’t do that. It would be against the best interest of the population. Even if I’m not needed, Marc is.”
“John and I aren’t,” I argued, then I looked at John. “I’m sorry, Dear.”
“You’re right,” he said, smiling.
“No she isn’t. You three are needed as well. People look up to you and derive strength from your determination. I’m a glorified mechanic, but you three and Roman are all leaders. Don’t sell yourselves short.”
We were standing in the upstairs circle, and as we talked, I noticed that several people were making their way out of their homes, many holding hands.
“Looks like it’s working,” I told Marc.
John slapped Marc on the back. “Good job, my friend,” he told him.
“I’m glad. We really didn’t need the fear again.”
We had one glaring problem, that those of us in a leadership position hated. When the researcher died, his bond mate had no one to bond with anymore, and he was the second death this time around.
It was wonderful to make love that was not marred by hate or pain again. Granted, we hated changing during the third act, but the first two were incredible. Even when I was a male, it was wonderful. Not quite as good as when I was myself, but still…
It was three weeks later that it was discovered what the researcher had done to reset the nanites. There was a compound that was, in fact, airborne. It wasn’t understood what was being done to them but it worked. We had staggered our entering stage two as long as possible. John and I had entered stage four when we were ready to start again.
Since we were dealing with people’s possible deaths, we put it to an anonymous vote whether or not we were going to reset every time we reached stage five.
Not surprisingly, no one wanted to go through the pain and periods of stage five and six ever again, so we determined that we would each be with their bond mate when we reset. Unfortunately, we knew that for someone to turn off the fear, we would have to lose someone. We hoped that we could overcome the fear of being with our bond mate before we dealt with the death nanites.
We had many thousand people on board the station, so losing one couple was tolerable, but we were each fearful that the next couple would be ours. I took solace every time we reset when it was neither John or I who died, nor Marc and Kari. After the twenty-seventh reset, Roman’s partner was the one who died. We didn’t know how to respond. He had become a good friend, and we knew he would die before stage three was done for all of us. He would never see stage four and normality again.
I wept when I got to my apartment that night. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing a friend, but the worst was to come.
Roman died approximately three weeks later. It was horrible. I was working with him as he was researching. He asked me to get him some more microscope slides. I went to a cupboard across the room. “Is this the right drawer,” I asked. There was no response. I turned to ask him again, and was horrified to see his body slump forward, and his head roll across the bench he was working at.
I screamed.
It was so hard to deal with. I had seen Perl’s body years ago, but I had never seen it happen.
I never thought again that losing one couple each year was acceptable. I couldn’t. Not when I had lost a friend to the situation.
No matter what I thought of it personally, however, we had to go on. I don’t know how long I mourned Roman, but when we reset again, I held onto my John almost constantly until we heard that the first death had happened. It was so hard. We couldn’t kiss, nor make love. We had to wear gloves until the death nanites were distributed. I was scared to death, but I still loved him. It was the most draining thing I have ever done, like letting spiders crawl over me. I had arachnophobia even when I was a man, but I had lived with it. What helped me with the fear was the fact that I knew someone was going to die soon, and if it was my John, I would never forgive myself for not being there when he died.
Another twenty five years went by, always safe for us and Marc and Kari. Until one day, we were working together in the command center. All of us were wearing gloves and I turned to ask Kari a question. She began to answer me, then the strangest look appeared on her face. She had stood up and was walking toward me when it happened. Her body was apparently following the last command that her brain gave it, or maybe it was her spinal cord making her walk from reflex. What happened will stay with me for the rest of my life. She tripped and started to fall toward me. He head slipped off of her shoulders and landed in my lap while her body sprawled on the floor in front of me.
“KARI!!!” I screamed. I’m not sure if I got her whole name out because somewhere in that yell, my voice broke. I sat there for several minutes, unable to move. John and Marc couldn’t either. They had both turned to face me, or rather, us.
I stared at the head of my best friend. I don’t know how long it was, but I heard a man crying. I looked toward the body, and there was Marc. He had somehow collapsed on the floor, and his head was on her back. I had not started crying yet, but that scene broke me. Those two had loved each other so much. I felt a weight move from my lap, and saw that my husband had moved Kari’s head, and respectfully placed it on the floor. He took me in his arms and kissed me ever so gently, then he moved to Kari’s body and cut the familiar piece of her leg out and left the room carrying it. A few minutes later, he was back and took me in his arms and let me weep. I wanted so much to hold Marc, but he was unbonded. To do so would kill both John and me. John did something I’d never seen him do. He gently picked up Marc and hugged him. Marc was still weeping over the loss of his wife. We started to ease him to his apartment, when the strangest thing happened. We received an incoming communication!
I hate my muse right now. As the words to this chapter came to me, I had to have a box of tissues beside me. Damned Muse! Don’t do this again!!!
John and I tried to move Marc from the control room, but it was no dice. He would not leave the incoming communication. I knew that our subjective time was incredibly slow for Earth, so how many thousands of years, or perhaps millions had passed on our world since we had left? John surreptitiously removed Kari’s body from the control room, as Marc answered the call.
“N21, this is N22 requesting permission to dock.”
Dock? What the hell? Marc must have been too far into despair from Kari’s death, and I couldn’t say that I blamed him, but we were just best friends. Marc was bonded with her. I reached around him and keyed the mic. “N22, say again. You’re requesting permission to dock?”
“N21, that is correct. I am currently off your port side.”
I looked at the screens that showed what was around us. They had showed nothing for years, except the reverse one, which still showed a galaxy that stretched beyond our view. The Port side screen showed something amazing, however. There was a station that mirrored ours beside us! I knew I was getting too excited, so I thought of Kari, and the fact that she had missed this. That put me into a serious state of depression.
“You… You’re here? Wha… How...” I started bawling.
“I am the AI controlling N22. I cannot help with the ‘Total Fun’, but I am here to take you home. At least I can offer you that.”
My cries became even more serious as I thought of all the people we had lost. Roman, Kari, Perl… Those were just some, but they were the closest to me.
I wasn’t sure if the person in N22 mistook my crying for relief or not. “I understand, Ma’am. To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?” he asked.
“This is Rose Carlson,” I told him.
“Ah… Congratulations on your marriage to John Carlson, Ma’am.”
“Thank you,” I told him, then I thought about things. “Wait a minute. How do you know about that?”
“Mrs. Carlson, if you will give me permission to dock, I will explain things to you.”
“Permission granted, of course,” I told him, completely confused now.
John walked in at about that moment. One look at the screen and his jaw dropped.
“It’s docking, John! It’s here to take us home!”
“Please, Mrs Carlson! Please don’t get elated. Earth is still under the control of Caesar. Remember that!”
It was then that I realized we had a serious problem. This AI was stressing the point that Earth still had our nanite problem. We absolutely could not feel joy about this rescue. In fact, it really wasn’t a rescue. What type of rescue was this? We would go back to a planet that perhaps had no people left on it. How many people had they lost? If they had learned to reset the nanites as we had, which would make sense, how many people had they lost?
We had no way of knowing.
I felt a slight vibration in the floor, that told me the other station was connected to ours.
Marc was still sitting, not moving in the chair he had been in. He had been staring straight ahead. It seemed that he was trying not to blink. Finally, he put his head down on the console, and really started to cry.
We discussed the situation with N22, as we were now calling him. We needed to get our people together and tell them the situation. It must be stressed that this was not a rescue. We were simply being taken to where there was more room. The population of Earth had been destroyed by ‘Total Fun’.
There was a huge debate as to why we would wish to go back to Earth. Everything we had was here. We put it to a vote, and we had a small majority in favor of leaving.
We were ready to leave N21 for what we now realized was a much more spacious, and full of more supplies than we ever had aboard our station. The airlock between the two stations was small. Only large enough for two people to traverse at the same time. It was decided that each bond mate couple would go through at the same time. John, Marc, and I would be the last to leave what had been our home.
When we were ready, Marc told us his decision. “I’m staying.”
“What?” John asked him.
“I have no reason to leave. I’m going to die anyway, John.”
“You can’t commit suicide!” I told him, almost shouting.
“I’m not. There’s no population over there. There’s no one for me to bond with. Besides, I don’t want to leave Kari.”
“What would Kari want?” I asked him, tears flowing once again. “We know you’re going to die, but let us be with you until that moment.”
“Come on, Marc, my loving husband told his best friend. Kari wouldn’t want you to make this sacrifice. Remember what you said about stage five? Let us show you that we love you until the last moment.”
Just to be sure, we waited until Marc had gone through the airlock. We didn’t want him to blow the seals from N21’s side after we left, stranding him on N21.
Finally, we stepped into the airlock, not looking behind. I had left all of my instruments behind. I took only the clothes on my back, as did everyone. As soon as the inner seals were closed, the seals were blown and we were away from N21.
Something felt very different as soon as we were no longer connected to N21. It was something almost indefinable, as if something had been shut off, then something very surprising happened. All of the people from N21 had been moved to one bay, but now, several doors opened and we were suddenly in the company of hundreds more people!
One man stepped forward from this new group and welcomed us aboard. His voice sounded…. It was the AI… or rather a man…
Now I was really confused. “What’s going on here, John?” I asked. Suddenly I was very worried. Was this some of Caesar’s subterfuge?
The man picked up a mic and his voice came through loudspeakers. “I am Rashda Smythe, the commander of N22. I am sorry for lying to you. Keeping our people a secret was necessary for a very important reason. We couldn’t risk you feeling… Well, elated.
“We are not controlled by nanites on this station.”
John stepped forward. “We have nanites. You do not appear to be segregated from us. In fact, several of your people have mingled with ours.”
“Oh yes,” Smythe agreed. “However, you don’t understand. We have nanites, the same as yours. Only on this station, they don’t control us.”
“What are you saying?” I asked, my confusion going deeper.
“Ah, Mrs. Carlson, I’m glad to make your acquaintance.”
“Just call me Rose, please, and would you answer my question?”
“Alright, Rose, just as we are not controlled by our nanites, you won’t be either. In fact, the control has stopped right now. The nanites only do what they were originally programmed to do now.”
The entire population of N21 erupted into talk. Marc was standing beside us and he looked stricken. “Oh God, Kari” he murmured just above a whisper. Hesitantly, I reached out and hugged him. I understood perfectly. Just a few hours before, and she would be standing here with us. I now felt such hatred of Caesar that I could almost taste it. I felt like I wanted to torture that bastard in exactly the same way he had tortured us. Only rather than the pain that the men got, I would gladly slice his penis off his body, one millimeter at a time. Using a dull blade, damn him!
The three of us joined Commander Smythe in the briefing room, later. It was late at night, our time, but dinner time on N22. I hadn’t eaten since that morning and I was famished. Food was brought in and we ate. It was good, I’ll say that, but….
Smythe must have noticed something in the three of us, as he said, “I’m sorry that the food isn’t up to the standards Rose could make.”
“It’s fine,” my husband said, valiantly. Or was that, in vain?
Smythe, however, wasn’t buying it. “Oh, come now, Commander Carlson. I can recognize someone trying not to insult. And from what I have heard over the link to Earth, your wife is legendary in her skill.”
“Legendary?” I asked. Say what? I knew I was good, but legendary?
Smythe laughed. “Sometimes in the midst of their chatter with Freeman, God rest his soul, Reese, Carter, and Perl would mention some food they had in your restaurant. It sounded divine!”
“You’ve been listening in on our conversations with Earth?” Marc blew up, “And you didn’t let us know?”
The anger on his face would have dropped a tyrannosaurus in it’s tracks.
Smythe looked shamefaced. “I’m so sorry, Commander Dodson, but we couldn’t. We couldn’t risk the joy of us coming to your rescue. Just as I couldn’t risk letting you know we didn’t have the control of the nanites here when we docked. We figured it best if you thought N22 was an automated situation. Even the thought of an expanded population could have caused elation in your population. We simply had no wish to cause your deaths.” He paused for a moment. “I’m truly sorry that you lost Kari, Marc. Please accept my sincerest condolences.”
Marc’s fury had abated as he had to accept the logic of Smythe’s reasons. “Thank you, Rashda,” he said, using Smythe’s given name for the first time.
The mood was very somber, and Smythe tried to make it lighter. “One thing we do well, is desserts,” and some chocolate volcano cake was brought in. John tried to appreciate it, but again Smythe caught the look. He turned to me, “Rose, I would love to taste your culinary treats.”
I laughed at the way he said it, and the mood lightened considerably. I wondered if he had meant for that to happen as the volcano cake tasted suspiciously mass produced; not fresh.
Rashda Smythe did get to taste my ‘culinary treats’. I was able to set up a restaurant in one of the bays, as I had done on N21. I had a special buffet in a back room for the officers of N22. I had made a simple pot roast, with carrots, potatoes, and onions in the broth. At his first taste, his eyes got wide and he went back for thirds, and then fourths! I blushed furiously at his compliments.
Most nights after that, the officers ‘rented’ the back room and had my special of the day. “I haven’t had food this delicious since we left Earth, dear Rose,” he told me on one occasion. “No… I haven’t ever had food like this.”
That night, when we went upstairs to our apartment, John turned to me and took my hands in his. “I haven’t made love with anyone that compares with you, dear Rose,” he said in a very bad British accent. “No… I haven’t ever made love with anyone who compares with you.”
I couldn’t help giggling at his bad imitation of the gallant commander. “I thank you very much, kind Sir,” I told him.
Needless to say, we went into the bedroom and verified his claim that night.
In the afterglow I asked John, “Do you think this is something left over from the nanites?”
“How do you mean?” he asked.
“The love I feel for you is so intense,” I responded. “I have observed some of the people that work in the restaurant, and those who play in my orchestra. Those that are married, love their spouse, but they are able to separate from them all day. I can’t even imagine being away from you that long.”
John thought about it for awhile. “You know, if this is an effect of the nanites, it’s the one good thing Caesar did to us. The love that we share is beyond anything we ever felt on Earth, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Well,” I answered, turning to where I could gaze at is handsome face. “There’s another thing he did for me.” At John’s questioning look, I told him, “He made me a woman.”
The second time that night was even better than the first.
We traveled for several years. Even more than we had on the way out. It was three centuries since we had left N21 behind. I still got teary as I thought of the people we had left there. It seemed that our emotions had been intensified by the nanites. Perhaps they made our neurotransmitters more efficient. Who knows? The fact was, every time I thought of those people, my heart ached for them. I remembered all of them as if it was yesterday.
We had entered the galaxy a few years before, and we were about ready to enter our solar system.
We were called to the command center to find a very grim faced Smythe there. “I’m very sorry for this,” he told us. “I’m able to see Earth now, even to zoom in and see cities.”
We watched as the scopes were brought online. All of the cities were seen through an orange haze, that billowed like smoke. There were no people to be seen although we could see what we thought might be the remains of many. There were craft that appeared to have once been smoking ruins. Some buildings were present, in a very decayed condition, but the vast majority were piles of rubble.
It appeared that Caesar was not happy being the only one gone.
“What happened here?” Marc asked.
“I’m not really sure. Obviously, it wasn’t like this when we left.”
“I’m sure of that,” John said. “Where can we find records?”
“The capitol was in Honolulu. Diamond Head. We’ll probably find what we need there.”
“We’ve stopped our roll. Engines are ready to fire, Sir.”
“Fire them and turn on main engines to slow.”
“Roll?” I asked.
“The station rolls. That way, if anything happened to the gravity, we’d have some form.”
“Yeah, but we’d be standing on the ceilings,” I argued, “and we’d hit those hard. It’s eighty feet up.”
“Yes, Rose. That’s true, but the station normally spins at a rate that makes gravity about twenty-five percent.”
“I see.” I didn’t, as physics was not my strong suit.
John smiled indulgently. He knew me too well.
Suddenly, we felt the station shudder, and I had a momentary flutter in my stomach. For several minutes, I felt like gravity was at an angle to the floor. I had to lean to one side. I guessed that our direction of travel was the opposite of my lean.
And then, I was scared. I looked at my husband, whose hand I was holding, and I was terrified of him. I hadn’t felt this way for over three hundred years. I let go and cowered against a wall as far away from the men as I could. The men got as far away from me and the navigator as they could as well.
Smythe had never felt anything like this, but John had. “Roll us over and get us out of here. As fast as you can, but don’t hit the sun, okay?” The navigator was paralyzed, so I jumped to her side. “Please, I know you’re scared, but I don’t know how to fly this thing. Set a course away from Earth, and get us out of here, as quick as you can. Please!”
She looked up at me and then she did what I asked.
In a few moments, the fear disappeared. “That was stage one, wasn’t it,” Smythe said. Slowly, he approached the navigation station, and looked at the screens to see where we were headed. “How much fuel do we have.”
“Not much, Sir.” she said, pointing to a gauge on the screen in front of her.
Smythe turned to John. “What do you think?”
“There’s something on the planet that’s starting the nanites. We can’t go down there.”
“Well, we could, but we couldn’t stay long.”
“How long did they have?” I asked, rhetorically.
“Quite right, Mrs. Carlson.”
“Miss Smith,” he asked the navigator, “Is it possible to pick up speed if we swing around the sun, then use the rest of out fuel to break away the direction we’ve come?”
“Yes, Sir.” I think we can do that. I’ve aimed us into orbit of Sol. I’ll have to burn our fuel anyway, because even if we were to stay in orbit, it would decay soon.”
“Okay, do it.”
“Rashda,” I said as we were preparing. Is there any way we can get close enough to the Earth to see what is causing the nanites to activate?”
“Why? We’ll be going at a speed where we can’t stay in orbit.”
Miss Smith did some figures. “I can bring us close enough to use Earth’s gravity to swing around and head out the way we came into the galaxy. The only problem is we’ll touch the outer atmosphere to do it.”
I looked at Smythe. “It’s your ship.”
“Mrs. Carlson, arrange two observation posts. One for men, and one for women. John, you and Marc, separate the men and women in the rest of the ship. Tell them what we’re going to do.”
“Thank you, Commander,” I said. “And it’s Rose!” Before he could reply, I had left the command center.
I hurried down to the observation posts. I told them what we were planning, and they segregated themselves. I stayed with the women. I had no idea what they were going to do, but I wanted to hear as soon as possible. I got a call from John and Marc after a few minutes. They were wondering what observation posts the different sexes were in. A couple of women came up to me. “We should leave, Rose.”
“Why?”
“I’m bisexual, and Cindy is intersex.”
Alright, Carla. Go ahead. I understand.”
They hurried out. Suddenly, I felt the room getting hotter and hotter. One of the women shouted, “We’re going around the sun!”
“Our environmental systems are having trouble keeping up,” another woman said.
We were on the side of the ship away from the sun. I hated to think what the men were feeling, as they were on the other side. I called John.
“We’re really feeling it, but the systems are favoring our side of the ship.”
I acknowledged what he told me, then said, “John, when we get close to Earth...” I stopped for a moment.
“Yes?” he said.
“Remember that I love you.”
“Keep that in mind yourself. I love you to, Rose.”
I’m not sure how long it took us to swing around the sun, but when it started cooling off, I was very happy. Not long afterwards, the revulsion returned. I had been here so many times, I was able to keep in mind John and my love, but the thought of him still made me sick to my stomach. Soon, we felt a buffeting of the ship, then it was gone. Not long after, stage one abruptly turned off. Several of the women in the room sighed in relief. They did not have the experience with stage one that I had.
A few minutes later, some of the men hesitantly walked into the post, including Marc and John. “We need to get the data to the lab,” Marc told the women. The men’s data is heading there as we speak.”
Carla pushed some buttons in front of her. “It’s on it’s way.” She turned to me. “Mrs. Carlson; Request permission to head to the lab?”
I was shocked that she asked, but then realized I was a commander. “Granted,” I told her. I think I was the only one who noticed Marc head out with her.
Three hundred years,” I murmured.
John snapped his head in my direction, then noticed that Marc was no longer beside him. He smiled at me. “I can’t even imagine what he has gone through losing his bond mate, but I don’t know if I could ever take another woman if something happened to you.”
I had to look away, because my eyes started to water.
Passing Mars,” one of the women said. “We have a fair amount of speed.”
Do you know how much fuel we have left?” John asked.
None,” the woman said after she switched her screen to mirror Miss Smith’s.
She cut it to the wire,” I commented.
So we will leave the galaxy never to come back,” John said quietly.
Unless we made some fuel,” I said to him.
We need every ounce of matter on board, Ma’am,” the same woman told me. “Food, air; it’s all necessary.”
There was a thump, then, “There go the engines.”
I guess Commander Smythe feels the same,” John said.
Later that night, we were in the back room of my restaurant. Carla was there with Marc, and surprisingly, Miss Smith was there with Commander Smythe.
Personally, I thought both relationships were cute.
“That was some impressive navigating, Colleen,” the commander told her.
“Thank you, Rashda.”
“We all agreed, and she blushed.”
“Well, we think we know what was causing stage one,” Carla told us.
“What?” I was very curious, even though I probably wouldn’t understand.
“There was a magnetic shift in the Earth’s core.”
“How would that affect us?” John wanted to know. “I thought the core was changing anyway.”
“I’m not sure how Caesar shifted it, but any shift from the way it was was enough to cause stage one.”
“So you’re saying it would have happened eventually anyway.”
“It appears that way,” she said.
“So did our magnetic field change on N21?”
“Perhaps,” Marc said, “But I think it’s more likely that there was a computer hidden somewhere on board that was controlling the nanites. That single bit turned it on.”
“So are you saying the computers on Earth used the same idea?” I asked. “Why would he make a trigger so hard to set off? Certainly changing the magnetic field of a planet was not easy.”
“My guess,” explained Carla, “is at some point, he wanted to know if he could do it. When he found that he could… Well, a magnetic sensor wouldn’t he hard to make. You could actually do it with a compass. In fact, by turning the compass, he could ‘Total Fun’ from happening.”
“So the compass switch would turn on the computer?”
“Well, it might have been more sophisticated than that, but essentially, yes,” Marc said.
“What destroyed the cities?” Smythe asked.
“We’re not sure of that,” Carla told him. “We’re still investigating that.”
Later that night, John and I were laying in bed. “I was so freaked out when I was scared of you,” I told him. “I haven’t felt that way for three hundred years.”
“I was too.”
I moved closer to him and put my head on his chest. “I never want to feel that way again.”
“I don’t think you’ll have to,” he told me.
“By the way,” I told him, “I’ve noticed that my period is two weeks late, and shows no sign of starting.”
“Does that mean what I think it means?” he asked cautiously.
“It might,” I told him, smiling.
“I thought all the women on the station were taking birth control.”
“John,” I said, “there will be mistakes. I’m not sure how it happened, but it did. I think I’ll like being a mother, and I’m sure you’ll like being a father.”
“But we’re still not sure?”
“No, my darling husband, we’re not. I’ll see if any of the labs can test me tomorrow, okay?”
He kissed me on the forehead, as I looked up at his face. “I know we’re not supposed to have a baby, but I like the possibility.”
I smiled and kissed him on the lips. Then I told him, “Me too.”
I put my head back on his chest. Soon, I felt myself drifting off.
That night, I dreamed of having not one baby, but twins. A boy and a girl. I was ecstatic, as was John. We made Marc and Carla their grandparents.
A girl can dream, right?
The next day, I went to the lab. I met Carla there and quietly explained what I suspected. “You know, we can’t have more children, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. That’s why I came to you.” Carla had become a very good friend on the way home – no, not to home, but to Earth – from N21.
We slipped out of her lab, undetected, and made our way to her apartment. Strangely, I had never been inside before, but I saw why. She had kept her sexual preferences quiet, but inside her apartment, they became quite plain. I had never seen some of the items she had, It was rather interesting
Where I had a kitchen, she had a personal laboratory. It was in stark contrast to what was displayed in her living room, but when you closed the lab door, It was just that -- a lab.
“Do you cook in here?” I asked.
“Actually, no. I usually eat at one of the restaurants downstairs.”
I nodded. I had eaten at some of them as well. I had wanted to know if any were better than the food we had that first night in the briefing room. None was. I had not wanted to ‘step on any toes,’ but I knew I would have to make my restaurant rather large. Interestingly, some of the station’s chefs had come to me for instruction. I was flattered, but I wasn’t sure I could teach what I knew instinctively.
I had tried to teach music, but I found writing was the best way for me to do that. I couldn’t get in front of a crowd and speak very well.
“I’m insulted, Carla,” I said “You’re not always in mine.”
She blushed in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, Rose. Your food is so extravagant. Sometimes I need something easy and quick.”
I smiled. “I’ll tell you a secret, Carla.” I looked around her lab, acting like I was checking for someone spying on us. “So do I,” I told her in a stage whisper.
We both giggled, then she had me hold out my arm to get a blood sample.
She examined it under a microscope. “This is interesting,” she said as she looked at it.
She moved out of the way so I could look. I saw blood. “What am I looking for?” I asked.
“Do you see the nanites?”
“Uh…. No?”
“Sorry, Rose. I forget sometimes that you’re not a scientist.”
“I am!” I exclaimed. “I do gastronomy!”
She rolled her eyes, then told me, “I’m really sorry, Rose. To make sure, I’ve got to take this to the biology lab. It’s gonna get to Commander Smythe.”
“It was going to eventually anyway, Carla,” I said to her, resignedly. “May as well get it over with.”
Together, we walked toward the biology lab. On the way, I asked, “Should John be here?”
“It’s up to you, Rose. It might be a good idea, as this might be something that involves all the people on N21.”
I called John and asked that he meet us there. When we arrived, Winston Reese was present as he was in charge of this particular lab. John walked in a moment later.
“What’s up?” he asked.
I motioned for both men to come out into the corridor. They followed, and Carla told them what she had found.
“I think your nanites are still doing something a bit different than what they would do in me. At least they are in Rose. We will need to check a wider range of people to make sure.”
“Any idea what they could be doing?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Carla told me.
“Do you notice anything different than before you started in ‘Total Fun’?”
“I couldn’t tell you.”
“Why?” she asked.
“I was a man before ‘Total Fun’. I was changed in stage one. I guess I have no idea what a woman without having gone through any of the the stages would feel like.” The idea that I was not a normal woman hit me hard. I glanced at John, and I think he understood what I was feeling. He put his arm around me and pulled me to him. I was grateful for that, as I didn’t feel so alone.
Carla nodded. “We need to test people who were female before ‘Total Fun’ as well. I guess I could check myself, but I won’t see anything like this.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because I haven’t gone through…” She paused. “I guess I have, huh?”
I nodded.
“We’ve got to contact Commander Smythe about this,” Winston said, starting to head back into the lab.
“Wait! Please,” I exclaimed.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
“I think I might be pregnant,” I said in a small voice.
Winston stopped and looked at me for a long minute. “I see,” he said. “Did you stop...” His voice trailed off.
“No,” I told him. “I’ve been very careful to take my birth control shot. One each year.”
“Is it not working for women from N21?”
“We haven’t heard anything from anyone else,” John replied. “But if they’re pregnant, they might be afraid to say anything.”
Reese nodded. “I understand. We can’t afford to have a bunch of kids here. If we do have, we’re going to have to come up with a solution. And fast.”
“The resources we have here are it,” Carla said, very little inflection in her voice. “Recycling everything is something that we have to do. I think we could get away with a thousand kids, but that would be stretching things.”
“Can you test that sample for pregnancy?” I asked. "I’d really like to know before we have to tell Rashda.”
“Come on into the lab,” Winston told me. We walked in and he motioned us to follow him into a private room. This was set up very similar to Carla’s kitchen, but it had a few more devices that I had absolutely no idea of their function. Winston had me make a fist, and took some blood from my arm. He put the blood into some device, and in a few minutes, he had a reading.
“Well?” I asked. I was tense, and John was rubbing my back. I suppose he could feel my tension.
“I guess we’ll have to wait to see what Rashda says before I congratulate you,” Winston told me.
I leaned into John. I was so happy, but at the same time, I wasn’t. How could I explain to Commander Smythe that I had not skipped birth control?
I really wanted to give it some time before I told the commander, but Winston took that option away from me when he called him. “What did you do that for?” I demanded.
“If this is something common to all N21 women, then we need to let Rashda know. Also, if that’s the case, it’s not your fault, Rose.”
Carla held out her arm. “Test me, Winston. This may not be a problem with just N21 women.”
“Could you be pregnant?”
“Not that I know of, but I could be if all women have changed because of that little excursion we had into ‘Total Fun’, we need to know.”
Winston nodded and took a blood sample from Carla. “We need to test everyone, he said after a bit.”
A moment later we saw that he really did mean everyone as he pulled a blood sample from his own body. “It’s a bit different from you two’s blood, but its still not normal.”
“What’s not normal,” I turned my head and saw Rashda standing in the doorway.
Rather than answer, Winston held out a syringe to Smythe. “Commander, may I have a sample of your blood?”
The commander didn’t say anything, he just held out his arm. His expression was not pleased.
“Same as mine,” Reese said. “John?”
Winston checked a sample from John with the same results. “Commander, could we please meet in the briefing room, along with Marc Dodson. I’ll explain what I’ve found there.”
In the briefing room, we had a couple of extra people that Winston had asked to come with us. I was not happy to be there, as I had a feeling what Smythe would say.
“I’ve done some blood samples, on John and Rose, Carla and Myself, and also Commander Smythe,” Winston told the others.
“Alright Winston,” said Smythe. “What did you find?”
“Mrs. Carlson had a bit of a problem, so she asked Carla to see what was wrong,” Reese told him.
“What did you find, Reese?”
“I’m getting there, Commander.”
Rashda looked like he was about ready to lose his patience. I understood. This affected him as well. Not that he could get pregnant. At least, I didn’t think he could. Winston hadn’t told any of us what he found.
“Okay, Reese, what did Rose find?”
“She suspected that she might be pregnant.”
The commander didn’t say a word. He just looked at me. I felt like I was shrinking into the floor.
Smythe finally asked me, “And are you?”
I couldn’t speak. I just nodded my head.
“Have you been taking...”
“She hasn’t missed one at all, Rashda,” John defended me.
Rashda nodded, then looked back at Reese. “I’m assuming that Rose being pregnant has something to do with what you found?”
“Yes, I believe it does. Carla found something...”
At this point, Smythe sighed heavily. “Winston, I assume that at some point you will tell me what you found. Is that a valid assumption?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Carry on.”
“Okay,” Winston said with a smile. He hated to miss details when he was giving a report, so he always did it his way. It always worked better for him, but he drove others crazy. “Carla found something in Rose’s blood that she couldn’t explain, so she brought it to me. I took another sample, and saw it as well. I then checked Carla and found the same thing. You, John and I have the something similar.”
I could see that Rashda wanted to hurry Winston along, and it was taking all his effort to refrain from exploding.
“It appears that we still have a different job that the nanites are doing in our bodies. As a matter of fact, now that I know the effects, I can testify to this myself.”
He took a deep breath and finally gave the facts to Smythe. “Men have testosterone in their bodies, women have estrogen. There’s some crossover there, but in general, that’s how it is. In men, I found that the nanites have receptors for carrying testosterone. I can only guess that this is heading to the brain. There, it would increase the male libido. In essence, men will want more sex. I can testify that I wanted it way more when in one of the stages. Any of them, actually. In stage one, the only thing keeping me from jumping every woman I saw….”
“Must you put it like that?” asked his wife, Ruby. She was one of the two people who came up with him to the briefing room.
“I understand what you mean, Hon, but honestly, that’s how it felt at the time.”
Marc and John both nodded their agreement.
“Yes,” John said, “but I wonder if a good or special friendship with one person focuses your attention toward her.”
Hearing him say that, I squeezed his hand.
“It could be,” Reese said. “I know the married couples generally bonded with their spouses when we reached stage two. In fact, in certain cases, they didn’t have to be anywhere near each other for the bond to take place.”
“So what happens in women?” I asked, not sure if I wanted to know.
“Women’s nanites seem to have specialized for them as well. They have been designed to carry estrogen in the same way men’s nanites carry testosterone.”
“Wait a minute Reese,” Vern Smith had come up from the lab as well as Ruby. He was the brother of Colleen Smith. “I thought hormones are simply secreted into the blood stream.”
“Generally they are. However, the brain has chemical receptors to bond with it. What the nanites do, is pick it up with their own receptors, but it doesn’t bond with the nanites. They don’t allow that. Instead, they carry the majority of the chemicals to the brain.”
“Where it bonds and makes the sex drive.” Vern finished.
“Right, only it creates the sex drive in spades.” Reese explained. “Now, this is just supposition from what I saw in a very limited group, so we need to scan several people and verify this. Also, I want to see inside people’s brains and make sure what’s happening there.”
“I’ll volunteer for that,” John offered.
“So will I,” I told him.
“So why the pregnancy?” Rashda wanted to know.
“That, I’m not sure of,” Winston told him. “For that, I’d rather someone who isn’t pregnant. Actually, I know that some of the medical equipment from when they needed it could effect a developing baby, so I appreciate the offer Rose, but I’d rather not take that risk.”
“Alright,” I said nodding. I agreed wholeheartedly. I was rather protective of the child that was developing inside me.
Suddenly,we received a message from Colleen. “Rashda, we have something up here that you need to see.”
Smythe looked around at us all. “John and Rose, will you come with me? Winston, figure this out please.” Then he touched a button that put his voice through every intercom on the ship. “Mr Dodson, would you please come to the command center?”
Then we were off.
Colleen had some scopes showing the exteriors of the bays.
There was something wrong, however. I stepped closer and peered at them. Half of them looked as though they had been rubbed by a rough grit sandpaper over their entire surface.
"What happened?" Rashda asked.
Marc hurried into the command center, and answered.
"We were doing an inspection of the exterior. As you know, we touched the atmosphere briefly. The starboard side of the ship touched the orange haze. The port didn't. At first I didn't know what the haze was. I do now.
"Apparently, missiles like the ones N21 and N22 held were fired off on Earth."
"What?!!?"
I had never seen fury like I saw on Rashda's face that day.
“I thought they were sent into the sun,” John said.
“They were,” Smythe replied.
“Weren’t they the only missiles left in orbit?” I asked.
“Yes, they were. They must have missed the sun when we fired them.”
Marc just looked at him. I could tell he wanted to ask how, but didn’t.
I figured I could ask with a bit more tolerance than Marc could, so I asked.
The fury left Rashda’s face, as even though I was born a man, he would never yell at a woman. “I’m not sure, Dear Lady. I do know that the programming for them should have taken them directly into the sun. Colleen and I collaborated on it.”
“Rashda,” Colleen addressed him. “I’m looking at the course we set. There is no way those missiles should have missed.”
He walked over and looked at the course. “I don’t see any way they could have missed, however the question now is what is happening on the ship.”
Marc walked into the center of the room. “The outer hull appears to be deteriorating.”
“What?” John was shocked. “Was it from coming in contact with our atmosphere?”
“We just skimmed the atmosphere. The other side of the ship had much less contact.”
“Is there any deterioration on it?”
“Some, but not as much. I believe whatever is causing it was considerably more concentrated on the starboard side.”
“When you say deteriorating,” I asked, scared of the answer, “do you mean that it is still occurring?”
“Yes,” Marc answered.
"Will it come through to the interior?" John wondered.
"There certainly seems to be that possibility."
I was completely sick of this entire situation. "When will this end? We have gone through hell and back for Willem, we've changed genders, I've been terrified of my husband… what more does this bastard want of us?" By the end of my tirade, I was starting to cry.
"Come on, Honey. Let's get you back to our room." John put his arm around me and began to guide me out of the command center. I was not having it! "No!" I ducked under his arm and spun to face him. On his face was a look of complete surprise. I don't think anyone else expected it either.
"I am not going to be shooed away… the poor Rose… mommy to be. Her hormones have her in a tizzy! I won't be treated that way, John. Not by you or anyone else." I know I was giving him a look that would probably have made Willem Wallace rethink his plans, but I was fed up. I just wanted to be able to live my life in peace with my husband and children. Was that too much to ask?
It suddenly dawned on me that everyone was staring. I looked around, and had my face not been flushed from my anger already, it would be now from embarrassment. I stepped over to a chair and sat down hard. I was embarrassed, but I was also pissed off. I glared at John, who seemed to think that the better part of valor was to concede.
Smythe looked from me to John, and I gave up on glaring at John. How dare he look to John for the decision. I was fully able to make my own mind up! "Don't you dare ask John if it's okay for me to stay, Rashda," I exclaimed! I wanted to cry again, but my pride wanted to scream. What the hell was wrong with me?
I think John figured that I needed calmed, but I wasn't about to leave. He did the only thing he could. He pulled a chair up next to me, sat down, and offered his hand.
I grabbed it in a vice like grip, then I put my head on his shoulder. My crying was now full force. Everyone seemed to be trying to look anywhere but at me. Carla had accompanied us from the briefing room, and now she stepped to Rashda's side. She whispered something to him, then stepped away. The commander simply went to his personal chair and sat down. Rather than brush me off, he simply went over the course figures again with Colleen. I wasn't being ignored, but I was given some space to vent. I wasn't sure if any pregnant woman had ever been treated with such respect, but I appreciated the respect that everyone gave me.
After a few minutes, I kissed John's cheek and gave him a tight hug. "Thank you," I whispered in his ear. He returned the embrace and we stood up. Rashda didn't hurry or show any frustration. Instead he finished his conversation with Colleen, then stood up.
"Have you any idea what these are, Marc?" It seemed that he was going to act like nothing had happened.
"I'm guessing," Marc said while giving me a nervous glance, that they are nanites." I smiled reassuringly, hoping that I could keep my emotions at bay. I wanted to scream again in frustration, but I was afraid if I did, I wouldn't have a choice. I would be expelled from the command center.
"I think Rose is right, Commander. This would most likely be another one of Caesar's playtimes."
"I guessed that, Marc." He sighed. "I'm tired. Do you have any idea what we can do?"
"No, Sir."
Rashda nodded. "Find out, please. I'm gonna take a nap."
I watched him leave and he looked as though he was going to cry. I realized that he probably blamed himself somehow. Those missiles were programmed by him and Colleen. The whole idea was his to launch them. I felt horrible for losing it the way I did.
Suddenly, I wanted to head to our rooms. I had just made a good friend feel responsible for the death of our planet. I couldn't speak, so I simply motioned to John that I needed some sleep. He nodded and I made my exit.
I was walking down down the street in our bay when John caught me. I realized I had been engrossed in my thoughts and had missed the doors that would take me home. I shook my head and we walked back. We didn't say anything until we got into our living area. Once again, I sat down and started crying, only this time, I poured out my thoughts to John.
I'm certain there were times he wanted to yell, "Snap out of it, woman!" Wisely, he didn't.
"You didn't need to make him feel bad, Rose. He already felt horrible."
"Right," I said to him. "I made it worse."
"No. I don't think that would be possible."
I knew he was right. For some reason, I was looking for something to fuel my depression. I wasn't sure why, but I suspected my hormones were running wild from the pregnancy. I took a shakey breath and nodded. I decided that I really did need a nap, so I went into the bedroom. John accompanied me but I turned away from him as he lay down.
I really didn't want to feel good, and I suspect that John knew that. He spooned up to me put his mouth beside my ear. I really didn't want to hear him tell me how beautiful he thought I was, or how much he loved me. He kept punctuating his statements with kisses. I didn't want this! I wanted to feel bad! I tried to get up.
I tried to scream at him. Instead, he somehow got through to my addled brain and I finally started listening. I turned my head back to look at him. He was propped up on an elbow, apparently waiting for my brain to start working sensibly. He smiled at me and kissed away some tears. I rolled over and snuggled up to him, and marvelled that I had such a man. Eventually, I fell asleep.
About halfway through the night I awoke with a start. Something was very wrong, but I couldn't place it. I was still curled up next to John, and his breathing was even. I carefully disentangled my body and tried to sit up without waking him. I went into the restroom, did what I needed, then threw on a robe. I stepped into our living area and looked around. I couldn't see anything wrong. I heard a sound from the bathroom and realized that, as usual, I wasn't able to get up without waking John.
I could detect absolutely nothing strange, but I knew there was something, somewhere, if I could just place a finger on it. John came out of the bathroom. He was wearing just his pajama bottoms, and I really wanted to grab him and convince him to go back to bed with me… but what the hell was wrong?
John had an odd look as well. "Do you feel it?" he asked me.
"It woke me up, but…" my voice trailed off. "What is it?" I asked him.
He shook his head, turned and went back into the room. The light came on, and I hurried to see what he was doing. He was getting dressed. I gathered that our night had ended, so I grabbed some clothes and threw them on.
I really wanted to put on makeup at this time of morning, but he pulled me out of the room. We headed to the control room and were met there by Marc and Carla, as well as Rashda and Colleen. It appeared that we all were awakened by something.
I glanced at the status screen, and everything was green all the way across. But then, one of the bay status lights went yellow.
"Rashda!"
He turned from where the men had been discussing something and hurried to Colleen's side. By the time he got there, three more had gone yellow. Then the first yellow turned red, and it was if everything moved to slow motion. The computer had already shut the doors to that bay… Our bay! Then, when the red light came on, it signified some sort of catastrophic failure.
What it would mean on a passenger ship was one thing, but on a weapons platform, it meant that you get rid of a failing missile bay as soon as possible.
I watched numbly as my home was once again lost. I wanted to lash out, but the horror escalating all around stopped me. I saw another light go red. Already, john had grabbed a mic and was ordering people to evacuate all bays to the upstairs and downstairs rings.
Through the corridors, I could hear screams and panicked voices. A light went red. Thunk! Another light went yellow, while two more went red. Thunk! Thunk! I glanced at, then couldn't look away from the screens showing the bays. The first one, our home, seemed to be crumbling away as it slowly pirouetted, the distance between us growing.
I stared, and everything seemed to be happening at the end of a dark tunnel. The next thing I knew, I was waking up on the floor with Carla beside me, making sure I was alright.
Author’s note:
This is the end of N21, however the story will continue, merged in with After Caesar Part 2 Chapter 1.