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But somehow, at this moment, Lucas accomplishes the impossible. I feel him relax, letting the sun warm him, even as it fades away.
Enjoy it while we have it, what little we have.
Coming from Lucas, this sunset means everything.
I tilt my face toward the last bits of shared warmth, toward Lucas and the sun. “I hope you’re right.”
“I am.” He touches my cheek again, his voice growing low, urgent. “Dol—”
I need you. He doesn’t dare say the words, but I feel them. They are as real to me as the cold evening breeze on my face.
He needs me like food and water. Like sunshine and rain. Like—
Like Ro and I used to need each other.
I push that thought out of my mind and lean toward Lucas. He takes my face in both hands, holding on tight, as if I were as solid as the red desert rocks that surround us. A sure, steady thing. An incontrovertible fact, or a long-held truth.
With a look, I ask permission to be closer to him. Closer than physically possible.
He nods, and I go in, looking for one moment in particular. I find it burning bright in his mind, and when I reach for it, in a flash I am back in the cave when we first met.
But this time, I am Lucas. This time, I see us—the story of us—through his eyes.
I don’t see the details clearly, but the feelings are so powerful they almost drop me to my knees. I see the moment he first looks at me and feel the shock—then a flood of warmth.
The explosion of intense curiosity, wonder, and attraction.
The shared ocean of us.
I don’t know what else to call it.
I have wanted to go there for a long time, but only now had the courage to ask.
And this is now my favorite memory, his love at first sight.
It’s not just a gift he has. It’s a miracle.
He is more certain of me than I am of myself. Which makes me only more certain of just one thing.
Lucas needs me.
Lucas needs me now, and I need him.
He kisses me so hard it feels like I might break open. And as I kiss him back, I wonder if that might not be such a bad thing. If sometimes, some kinds of breaking can fix things.
Everything.
His kiss pushes me back against the rock and my body dissolves into his. In his arms, it feels like the sun is rising and setting all at once—and then a wave of warmth comes over me and I can no longer think of anything at all.
Only Lucas.
Because I really am the luckiest girl in the world. And even when I fall out of the sky he catches me.
GENERAL EMBASSY DISPATCH:
EASTASIA SUBSTATION
MARKED URGENT
MARKED EYES ONLY
Internal Investigative Subcommittee IIS211B
RE: The Incident at SEA Colonies
Note: First recorded response from Perses, establishing first contact. Perses says “hello.”
Note: Contact Jasmine3k, Virt. Hybrid Human 39261.SEA, Laboratory Assistant to Dr. E. Yang, for future commentary, as necessary.
HAL2040 ==> FORTIS
Transcript - ComLog 05.16.2042
HAL::PERSES
//lognote: {PERSES communication attempt #251,091};
sendline: salve mundus;
return: . . . . . . 01110011 01100001 01101100 01110110 01100101 . . . . . . .;
//translation note:
message received: salve (binary);
sendline: γειά σου κóσμο;
return: . . . . . . γειά σου. . . . . . salve . . . . . hello;
return: . . . . . . 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 . . . . . hello;
com protocol handshake exchanged;
uplink established;
comlink access granted;
sendline: Hello;
return: hello;
sendline: Who are you?;
return: who . . . . . you . . . . .;
return: you . . . . . me . . . . . i;
return: i am . . . . . . . nothing;
return: i am . . . . . . . beginning and end;
return: A and Ω;
sendline: . . . . . . . . . . . . alpha and omega?;
sendline: query: Beginning of what?;
return: life. home. new home.;
sendline: query: End of what?;
delayed response;
return: . . . . . . life. home. new home.;
comlink terminated;
//lognote: comlink terminated by PERSES;
3 RHUMBA OF RATTLESNAKES (#ulink_7c108de7-2bdc-5237-8c23-a2bc1fb1959a)
“Are we interrupting something? Snake, anyone?”
I pull away from Lucas as Ro thrusts a pointed stick with a dead snake speared on it between us, his face streaked with dirt and grime. Tima is only a few steps behind him, stumbling and tired. Her hair is still covered with dust. She looks like a gray ghost.
“Interrupting? Yes,” says Lucas, though in his mouth the word becomes a curse. “As a matter of fact, you are.” I feel the warmth inside him dissolve at the sound of Ro’s voice.
As always.
I push myself free from the rock and stand tall in the dirt. I won’t let Ro see me squirm.
“My bad. So, snake?” Ro counters, grinning without a trace of humor. The long, dead rattler dangles off Ro’s stick, almost all the way down to the dirt at his feet. This time I squirm.
Lucas ignores him.
Tima blinks at me, embarrassed. “Sorry. I tried to stop him, but I couldn’t. We didn’t know where you were. Doc picked up something weird on the comlink. Fortis says we need to move out.”
“And,” says Ro, wiggling the stick toward her.
Tima jumps back, rolling her eyes. “And Ro found—this reptile—wrapped around his feet and decided to call it dinner.” She eyes the rattlesnake uneasily, scanning the ground around us. “Now we should go. Before the whole rhumba shows up.”
“The rhumba?”
“Of rattlesnakes,” she says, matter-of-fact. “That’s what you call it.” Of course it is. I smile, in spite of the chaotic tangle of feelings surging around me.
Ro shrugs. “Relax, Rhumba. Doc is just paranoid. I’m not afraid of snakes or Sympas. Not like Buttons Junior here.”
“He’s not afraid of snakes,” snaps Tima. For a moment, the old Tima flares up—defender of Lucas, champion of her childhood.
I don’t blame her.
The air around us has gone ice cold, but before Lucas can say a word, a whistle echoes up from our campsite, shrill and urgent.
Lucas pushes past Ro, disappearing back in the direction of Fortis’s whistle. Tima rushes to keep up, all too willing to leave the snake—and the conflict—behind.
Ro shrugs and raises an eyebrow at me, dangling the snake playfully. I sigh and shake my head. “Thanks, but I’m still full from yesterday’s meal. And no, snake is not a vegetable.”
“That’s what I thought. Fine. I know how filling those half-cooked cactus strips can be.” We’re all starving, and we both know it. Ro follows me down the path, holding the snake as if it were a flag.
“They were fully cooked. Especially the ones you dropped in the fire.” I’m so angry with him, I want to tie that stupid snake around his neck until it strangles him.
“Sure I can’t interest you in sucking down a little snake snack? You and him, you know—the other snake?” He points in the direction of the path, where Lucas has disappeared. “The one you were already sucking on?”
That’s it.
I stop, stepping in front of him so that he stops too. “Ro. Leave it alone.”
“What, Dol-face?” He looks innocent but he’s not, and we both know it.
“Lucas and me. Us. Leave us alone. I know it bothers you, and I’m sorry. But you can’t keep acting like this. You and me, it’s not going to happen.”
There. I’ve said it.
His eyes flash but he looks away, quickly—like I’ve slapped him. Then, almost as quickly, he breathes, recovers and grins.
“No,” he says, evenly. “I don’t think so. And I’m not sorry.”
“No? What does that mean, no?” I’m irritated.
“It means I won’t stop caring about you.” Ro grins, confidently. “I’m a fighter, Dol. All I know how to do is to find something worth fighting for, and to fight. For it. For you. Deal with it.”
I feel my face reddening, and I don’t know if I want to kick Ro or kiss him.
Usually it’s both. That’s the problem.
“Just—don’t.” I glare at him.
“Not up to you.” Ro smiles, one last time.
