Ninth Millennium Navigator

27

The sight of Marie's lome eased one weak mind. 

The other mind ached at the thought of her fate.

Marie is dead.

Finding the small unit where he expected it to be lifted a tremendous weight from his shoulders. That burden had been more than he anticipated. He thought there may have been some connection between Marie's disappearance and Katrina's find. 

For a moment, he suspected that Katrina had not only killed Marie, but taken her lome as a long-sought prize for her own.

At the consideration of Katrina, Matthias began to scan the sky. He paid close attention the surrounding sky for any signs—from possibly floating figures to the smallest details and imperfections.

He felt a shudder of some cloaked emotion. 

He was not sure if it was embarrassment or distress, anger or failure, disappointment or just fatigue. Pushing the emotion aside, he dug for its root. Matthias hovered outside the lome while he thought. Matthias wished he had not found it so quickly beneath the covers provided by those emotions. His feelings were the resurrection of certain truths. The realization was coming back to him. 

Marie was dead. Nothing changed that fact.

He was not sure why he decided to enter the lome. He had no apparent reason to do so. Perhaps he just wanted to reminisce in Marie's lome. Regardless, after one last suspicious scan of the sky, catching no glimpses of Katrina or anyone else, he landed on the platform and entered the lome.

One mind became aware of the atmosphere. The environment had been changed since he had left it. There were bright lights coming from the close walls. It was cooler, again, and there was the smell of cinnamon. A young woman's voice was exuding from the wall, singing an uplifting song in an unfamiliar language.

The other mind noticed the woman. Her eyes were locked on his gaze. A broad smile fell upon her wide face.

"Matthias," she said among rising cheeks.

"Marie?"

Matthias spent a moment trying to collect himself.

"Marie? I don't understand. You are alive?"

"Matthias, you do not look well. Come. Sit down beside me." The chair upon which she sat immediately converted to a couch of the same color. "I am alive," she said sarcastically, though with a questioning tone.

"Marie." Matthias moved toward her and almost hugged her. 

She remained seated.

"Matthias, is this how you treat all your clients? I don't know if this is appropriate." She was utterly serious. Matthias saw that now.

Matthias realized that he had just interrupted her without any notice. She was right: he had no right to come in unannounced. As far as he knew, she should have still been in sequence.

"Wait", Matthias thought, almost speaking the words as Marie looked on. As far as he knew, she was dead. He had been told that she was dead. He had been lead to believe that she had been murdered. He had checked the console and it was dead. There was no sign of her in the chamber. He had spent a significant amount of time in this chamber – on the floor.

He began to look around, hoping to see something that would ground his failing beliefs.

"Matthias, what are you looking for? Why are you are crying? What is going on? Why do you think I am dead?"

"I must be dreaming," he thought, but inadvertently spoke it out loud. His mind began to reconsider the time frame. 

How could this be?