“Computer, is there a Jaylen Voss in the image archive?”
“No, sir,” came the reply. The old man shrugged.
Jolo checked the room Marco said he had slept in several years back. He found clothes that fit better than his stolen Fed blues, and he also found a beautiful, leather holster for his gun, but there were no hints of her existence. Why would there be? he wondered. It was forbidden by Fed regulations, so he’d tried to keep it hidden, he supposed.
Jolo left the library and wandered around the dark house, finally ending up in Katy's room. He sat down on the edge of her bed. He moved the hair from her forehead lightly with his finger and checked the bandage that the med-bot replaced earlier. He didn't see the blood stain anymore so he figured the wound was healing.
Suddenly Katy woke up and grabbed his hand. "Dansby?" she said.
"Who's that?" asked Jolo.
She stared at him, her eyes blinking, and took a deep breath. "Just some dumb boy on Mephis 4. Why are you here?"
"I couldn't sleep." And he just looked at her for a moment. "Are you my friend?"
She sat up in the bed, realized she was still holding his hand, and pretended to pull the sheets closer with both hands as if she was cold. "Of course I'm your friend."
"Well that's good, because I think you're the oldest friend that I have, besides Barthelme. But I didn't know him for very long."
"What's the matter?"
"I can't get her out of my mind."
She sighed. "Sounds like love."
"No. I think there's more to it. My mind isn't right. I remember things."
"You mean you remember your past?"
"No. Nothing from the past. But I remember everything from the time I was in the escape pod."
"Well, that's good, isn't it."
"Well, it’d be good if it was normal. But I remember everything. Just after I escaped, I ran through the plaza. Do you know how many trees there are lining the walkway from the judicial building to the beginning of the park?"
Katy sat up a little taller and tilted her head. "Of course not."
"I do. There's 83. I know because last night I couldn't sleep and I replayed the escape in my mind like it was a movie. And I counted every tree. I can tell you the exact color of the flowers that grew beside the bench at the entrance to the park. I remember the names and serial numbers written on the uniforms of all four Marines that tried to take me down. I remember color of their eyes, the weapons they carried, the size of their feet. The short one was Johnson, serial number 38169473288zxc.7. He carried the standard Fed-issue energy weapon, but I don't think he used it very often because there were no scratches on it and his hands were white and soft like he’d been sitting at a desk. Now the tall one, Yoshikawa, serial number 3847294--"
"Stop," said Katy. "I get the picture."
"Do you think I'm strange?"
"Yes," she said smiling. "But strange in a good way. You're a good person. But for now, let’s keep your super memory between us." She patted him on the hand. “Go to bed, Captain.”
Jolo went back to his room and lay down on his bed. He took a few deep breaths, feeling better after talking to Katy. He closed his eyes and immediately went to sleep for the first time since he’d been there.
He dreamed about Jaylen again. It was like she was calling to him, urging him on. It was the same dream as before. The BG had her in a jail cell. She was frail and thin. They prodded her with their energy weapons and so she cried. Occasionally, they let her out, and this is where the dream was different. For the first time Jolo could see the trees surrounding the large building that held prisoners.
The trees were tall and had three large leaves just like he had seen in his dream before, when he was fighting with the Federation against the BG, when he had pain in his side and he thought he was going to die on the beach. Barthelme was there. It was the same place. And then the dream shifted to daytime and Jaylen was outside. And next to the three-leafed trees was a large pool in the shape of a diamond with green water, shimmering in the sunlight, and it looked odd and beautiful next to the drab BG prison.
Jolo woke up with a start and looked around in the darkness. At first he didn't know where he was, and then he remembered. The image of the diamond-shaped pool and the strange trees were still fresh in his mind so he asked his computer about it.
Computer, Jolo thought, which planets have large trees with three large triangular shaped leaves?
There are 3,475 herbaceous life forms with a three leaf structure. The most common, and largest variety, is a tree called the trivold, typically found in the planets near Vellos and New Racelle.
Computer, do you know of a diamond shaped pool with green water?
In Federation space?
Yes, Federation space and three jumps beyond the edge.
There are 42,761 man-made green pools in the image archive, there are eight with a diamond configuration.
Show all eight at two second intervals.
Instantly images appeared in Jolo's mind. The first few were smaller pools next to residential houses which looks to be well within Federation space. One looked to be natural but there was no building next to it. And the rest were natural pools that had somewhat of a diamond-shape but nothing that looked like the pool in his dream.
Computer, restrict the search to Vellos and New Raceli space.
Zero matches, came the reply.
The next morning Jolo walked down to the large bay where the Jessica was. He found Koba working on
