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Resi is back on the beach. He doesn’t know if he’s truly going to end up on
Castlebourne at some point, or if his vision is pointing him to some other
direction. The futures he sees can clearly be changed, or he wouldn’t be
lounging here right now. This whole area would be covered in ash and lava.
He just wants to relax and be happy. He hasn’t been able to do that for a
very long time, and when you think about it, maybe not ever. When he exiled
himself to the border, he was indeed lounging all day, but he was also
always really tense. Now he doesn’t have to think about anything, or worry
about what’s gonna happen. It’s just him, the sand, the sun, and the sea.
This is a nude beach, making it all the more freeing. He feels a presence,
so he opens his eyes.
The sun is at her back, so he can’t see who it is at first. “Back on Earth,
when I was a kid, we called people like you slackers!” she yells,
joking. He knew her voice. It was Brooke Prieto. She taught him how to see
the future. That was a hundred years ago.
“I’ve earned a vacation,” he tells her, dropping the shades back over his
eyes.
“I can’t disagree.” She sits down on the sand next to him. She looks
ridiculous in her spaceman outfit. The opposite of a relaxed vibe, and it
can’t be comfortable.
“A bit overdressed?” he muses.
“I can change,” she replies as they’re looking out over the water.
He hears a noise. When he looks back at her, she’s suddenly in a pink
bikini. “Neat trick. Still overdressed, though.” He can be funny too.
She laughs.
“How has your life been?” he asks. “A hundred years is quite a long time.”
“Has it been that long?” Brooke questions. “Wow, the decades just fly by.
You’ll see when you’re older. Speaking of which, are you considering getting
all of your memories back? I don’t know if you’re worried about no longer
being Resi anymore, but you shouldn’t be. You won’t stop being you. You’ll
just be...more you.”
“I don’t know. I’m pretty happy with who I am right now. I finally feel like
I am finally who I’m meant to be. Now, God forbid, if another volcano
erupts, and I see it in my dreams, I won’t write it off or freak out. I’ll
be more confident. I won’t necessarily know what to do right away, but I’ll
manage to work through it. Hopefully it won’t kill me again.” He nudges her
shoulder with his own.
She nods, but not understandingly, more just patiently. She continues to
watch the waves crash onto the shore. “I had a friend a long time ago who
you remind me of. Belahkay. Ludicrous name. He was easygoing at heart, but
not a waste of space. His people were facing a dangerous task, and none of
us could do it for him. It had to be a regular human, and he could have
genuinely died from it. This was actually here on Bungula...very early days.
The earliest.” She takes a breath. “It was when we were terraforming it. He
was very brave, and he survived. He was the first true Bungulan, if you use
the right definition. We went on some adventures together; ended up thrown
clear across the galaxy, where we were forced to destroy a planet for some
not-so-great people. He always wanted to do the right thing, though. I’ve
not seen him in a long time. He had to volunteer for another mission, and he
had to do it alone. And we let him, because we had other things to work on
at the same time.
When we went back for him, he couldn’t remember us anymore. He had become
someone else, and didn’t wanna leave. So we tried to move on. But. Then he
called. Out of the blue. I mean, it wasn’t him, but word got back to me that
he needed our help. He still couldn’t remember me, mind you, but he was
still the same person, deep down. So I flew back to his planet, and helped
him through some stuff. And wouldn’t you know it? I lost him again. He made
the ultimate sacrifice. Again. I thought he was gone forever, but then I get
another call, and I’m told that his consciousness was being stored on an
off-site server that people just forgot about. The laws on this planet,
they’re tricky. We weren’t allowed to just plug him back in. We figured it
out, though. Unfortunately, he still couldn’t remember me, except for the
short window where I helped him understand how to see the future. That was
new. He couldn’t ever do that before. I think he was exposed to temporal
energy, or something, and...it changed him.”
Resi is no idiot. He knows who she’s talking about, but now he can’t bring
himself to look over at her. He just keeps watching the water.
She has one more thing to try. “You may not want him back. But I need him.
Resi, I need my friend. It’s been centuries, and I don’t care how old we end
up getting, that kind of time apart will always be excruciating.”
He breathes, and finally works up the courage to look over at her again.
“Okay. I’ll do it.”
