Beyond our Earth

40: Ambivalent

I lay on the soft blue sofa, legs bent upwards, swaying behind my head. My chin rested on curled fists. The fabric beneath me was patterned with waved stitches, curving round and sometimes intersecting one another. It was very organic.

To my side I could hear Althazar breathing. He was taking steady, slow breaths, drawing them out as he took in the information. The plans he was examining would have been useless to me; encrypted in a foreign code of strange symbols. But he understood it, at least to some extent. And I waited patiently for his study session to be over.

"I've got everything I need, lovely." He finally spoke.

"We're going home?" I asked, lifting my eyes.

He smiled with his lips still together.

I got up and wrapped my arms around him, lightly.

"You're doing the right thing." I murmured.

"As you wish, darling."

Not much later we were hurdling through space at unfathomable speeds. Hurdling towards earth.

Althazar and I sat facing each other, cross legged under the shade of a broad leafed tree in the terrarium. 

I played with the soil beneath me, running my fingers through the moist dirt. I could feel his eyes on me. They weren't heavy, nor harsh; just there. Watching.

"So, does this mean I'm never going to see you again.. Or will you come by for a visit every now and then?" I asked.

"I don't know if that will be possible." He spoke.

"Right. Well, that's what I figured. But hey, if you happen to be in the area and in the right time period; you're more than welcome to stop by."

"Thanks." His voice was hollow.

"Really though, I'd hate it if this was the last time we saw each other." I said, shifting my eyes towards the ground.

"Me too, love. That's why I've got to give you this." He pulled a small black circle from his pocket.

"What's this?" I asked as he placed the item in my hands.

"It's a second chance. If you change your mind, darling, at any time; you just simply press this button and I will come back for you."

I looked down at it, then back to his unblinking eyes.

"I will come and I will find you if you call for me." He said earnestly.

I nodded.

"Thanks, that's reassuring." I smiled.

"Don't you ever be afraid to press it, even if it's years down the road and you're starting to question weather I ever existed or if this was all a part of your dreams. Promise me you'll always keep this with you. Promise you won't forget it."

"How could I ever forget something like this?"

"You won't. Lovely, we're almost at earth."

I took a deep breath. "Oh, I can't wait. I might cry."

"You're happy?" He asked.

"It's bitter sweet." I said, conscious of his feelings.

I could feel the spacecraft slowing. A landing would only be moments away.

"Now, we're going to have to go through some precautions about getting you back safely. We can't simply land the ship on earth, so you're going to have to be sent down in a pod, alone. Be prepaired. There is a chance you may black out upon entry. And I would suggest, if the rest of your planet is as ignorant as you were about the present of other life forms in the universe, that you refrain from telling anybody what happened to you."

"Understood."