Ninth Millennium Navigator

23

Relief flooded through Matthias' veins. 

Four days after first revisiting the evil man and a long distance from Calissa and the lome he was now on the devastated face of Earth. He had to sit down in this desolate place. The cold air and blank landscape offered little, but it was somehow comforting. He wanted to be alone. He needed time to think; not about what to do or what anyone thought, but just about life. He wanted to do nothing more than sit back and appreciate things again.

In his hand, he manipulated four small rough objects. They were pieces of material found in the client's lome. They were the remnants from the incident with Calissa. With the man safely in the chamber in his sequence, Matthias had examined the lome in rigorous detail. The smuggled items were egregiously rigid and tainted with a yellow color. They could not be removed as easily as he had hoped. They had fused to the floor as some material had fused to Calissa's face. When he eventually removed them, they left a notable mark in the floor. The mark was not as identifiable as the lumps of oddly shaped material. A closer inspection was required to see the yellow-ish stains left behind. Physical inspection uncovered slight dips in the otherwise smooth floor. It was the best he could do for the situation which seemed to have blow over.

He had come through unscathed. He had found out that his client, though certainly flustered, was going to let it pass. 

More importantly, Matthias discovered that his client held a high level of respect for him. 

Everything was going to be fine.

He stared out to the barren hills and valleys all around him. The dark sky indicated neither night nor day. Only a few minutes passed before he first considered Calissa. She would be waiting for him at home. She would be very anxious about him. He did not know if he wanted to return. She was a burden to him. She was a threat to him. He did not love her. He supposed he could appreciate her for the monster she had become, but he now accepted that he wanted someone new.

He wanted Marie. He had never admitted this to himself before, but this suddenly overwhelmed him. He wondered...

"Matthias," cried a weak voice behind him.

Matthias realized that his eyes had been closed. He opened them and looked into the vastness of Earth. 

Had I just dreamt someone calling his name? What had I just been thinking about? Had I fallen asleep?

"Matthias," came the female voice again.

The hand upon his shoulder caused him to bolt up and spin around as though set afire. He thought back to the surprise experienced by the host and the parasite as they saw the apparition of a dark figure manifest from nothingness. He had been as confused as them. That recent memory had passed through one of his minds only moments before.

A cloaked figure stood where he had just been sitting. Its dark hands were outstretched and close enough to touch. He knew the figure to be Calissa, but was still feeling shock from it.

"Matthias, I can't tell you how happy I am to see you." Seeing his surprise, she had pulled back her hands. She found new purpose to them as she released the hood.

Matthias thought the dim light would hide the underlying horror, but he had underestimated his own unconscious imaginations. One of his minds inadvertently conjured up the gruesome image of Calissa struggling to tear out the offending object from her face. That experience had not been too far from this very place. 

He wished the lighting were better as he looked upon her face. She had to be in better shape than he seemed to perceive.

He could make out a dark hole in the socket surrounded by brilliant red flecked with black. The redness contrasted with the dark brown and helped to emphasize the yellow below. The dark black bulges of remaining material on the side of her face seemed to form a picture. Matthias imagined how ancients had seen pictures in the night sky made from stars. They had believed they represented gods. Yet, this was no good god. Whatever her face confessed was not good. Hidden in the her new markings was an evil god representing destruction and ugliness in the world.

"Calissa, what are you doing here!" demanded Matthias, who had just regained his bearings.

"I wanted to make sure..."

"I told you—I made it very clear—to wait for me at the lome. You are so foolish!"

"Matthias," she pleaded.

"You have been here for almost a week?"

She said nothing, but tried to get him to look her in the eye. She gently grasped his left bicep.

Matthias unconsciously shook her off in disgust. "Calissa, what if he had seen you? Oh god, he was watching in the probe from the moment it exited. What if he saw you then?"

"Matthias, I'm just glad you are alive. I love you!"

"Calissa, you disgust me!" He spoke this before he realized its significance. In fact, one mind had foreseen the physical inferences before the other, yet was not quick enough to retract the statement. The originating mind consoled the other that it had only meant this in regard to her actions. 

Neither mind knew how to react. 

The immediate non-action to follow-up by either mind was the death blow to Calissa. She had given him the opportunity to retract this or to deny the meaning that she now knew. He had not taken that opportunity.

"Oh, Matthias," she began. Her hands retreated from Matthias to try to steady herself. She held herself tightly as she began a storm of tears. She began to shake violently.

Matthias stood with his hands by his side as she made an effort to collect herself before him. She pulled the hood over her eyes and turned away. He did nothing but watch her get propelled away. Her shape disappeared into the sea of clouded sky.

The period after Calissa had left would become a blur. This time would be the first time he was completely alone since before they met. 

He contacted Marie when he said he would.

But she didn't respond.

Casting Calissa away had somehow seemed to have pushed Marie away as well.

Doesn't make sense! Why? How?

Yet, as more days and then weeks and then months passed, he could not disentangle the end of his relationship with Calissa with Marie's evaporation from his life.

He was lucky to remain active enough with his clients to preoccupy himself.

When he was not placing clients into sequences, he would make short visits to view other client sequences. But, he dared not visit Marie. While there was nothing particularly wrong with this—after all, he had visited her on many occasions unbeknownst to her—he did not think a visit would be appropriate at this juncture. He did not want to get wrapped up with seeing Marie again; although he did look forward to visiting her in her sequence. 

She will eventually contact me on her own terms.

He packed client requests and client visits back-to-back such that he would leave one location for the next without returning to this lome or even to earth. 

As much as he hoped the next call would be from Marie, she did not contact him during these uneventful days.

When even visiting his clients was not enough to fill his time, he began wondering the halls of the Commons, and discussing experiences with vacationers. He would find that he was more interactive with these people since Calissa had left. He would enjoy the companionship almost as much as he enjoyed their perspectives. He would even take the opportunity to meet up with some women for temporary sex. He would be appreciating his current life with a new sense of freedom and exposure.

He walked through the mass of people in the Commons, alone.