“Welcome to everyone’s daily existence,” he said. “Each one of us has to deal with similar problems and find purpose. Though admittedly, the issues vary from person to person. We all bring our own unique situations to the table. Your blank past, for example.”
She nodded. “You’d think that would make things easier.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I used to think that when we first revived you, but I can see now that’s not the case.”
“No,” she said. “Especially when you have assassins hunting you, and you don’t know why.”
“That can cause just a few problems…” he agreed.
“But it does give me purpose,” she said. “At least a temporary one.” Her voice had grown cold at those words.
He gave her a careful glance. “Assassinating the assassins.”
“Yes,” she said.
He rubbed his chin. “You know, you don’t have to do this. You could join Horatio and me and live the rest of your life as a salvager. You could stay in the Outlands indefinitely. Horatio or I could make city runs now and again to sell salvage and fetch supplies. You, meanwhile, could wait along the outskirts, never needing to set foot in a settlement again.”
She considered that for a moment. “It’s tempting. But let’s be honest: the assassins will find me, eventually. Just as the Scorpion did. I have to hunt them down at the source.”
He looked away. “Yeah, okay. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sway you, but I had to try.” He gazed at the stars in silence. Then: “By the way, do you really plan to obey the contract you signed? You know, the one where you agree never to return to Ganymede? Or did you just sign it for the get-out-of-jail-free card?”
“I plan never to return,” she said.
“You sure?” he asked. “You’re not even going to try sneaking back, just once? It’s a big moon. You could probably slip past their orbital cameras in a normal shuttle.”
“I’m a woman of my word,” she told him.
He bowed his head. “And so you are.”
She unfolded her legs and let them hang over the edge of the pier, just like Will’s. “Besides, there’s nothing for me there. I realize that now. I retrieved the Ban’Shar, and triggered a memory, so at least the visit wasn’t for nothing. But my people, and the cities they once roamed, are no more. There’s no place for a Ganymedean in modern Ganymede.” She shook her head, feeling suddenly emotional, and she blinked away the tears. “You know, ever since I’ve awakened, I’ve thought I was someone special. And for a while there, I even believed it… but you know what? I’m not special. What you said is exactly right. Everyone is struggling with purpose. Everyone deals with problems.”
“No, you are special,” he said. “Your problems rise above the issues ordinary people have to deal with. Not everyone can inspire a whole settlement to fight against seemingly insurmountable odds. Not everyone can garnish a following of hundreds of thousands across the world, even though they’ve been banned from all the major streaming networks. And not everyone can destroy the mind-jacking chip in a mayor’s head and get him to restore water to the settlement along its borders. You are special, Dude. Live with it.”
She nodded slowly. “I guess.”
“You’re a warrior,” he said. “Not just spiritually, but physically, too. Not everyone can kill an assassin like the Scorpion.”
“I had help,” she said. “Without Horatio…”
“Hey, what about me?” he said. “No, just kidding. I was a bit late to the party. I can’t climb buildings like you guys…”
“You’re right,” she said. “I would have died without your help as well. Thank you for what you did.”
He smiled. “Not a problem.” He paused. “I wonder what the Scorpion has been reborn as. You know, there used to be an arachnid called a scorpion that was pretty common in the southern parts of the continent. If there are any still eking out an existence there, it would be poetic justice if he came back as one of them.”
She looked at him. “You’re really set on that reincarnation theory of yours.”
“Well yeah.” He glanced at her over one shoulder. “Think about it. Life is the expression of the universe. An endless cycle of death and rebirth. There is no escape. We live, making as much use of the time that’s given to us in the bodies we have, and we can do nothing when death takes us, and the next cycle is thrust upon us.”
She sighed wearily. “I just hope I don’t come back as some bioweapon.”
“Don’t worry, the odds are low,” Will told her. “The universe is a vast place. Teeming with life.”
“Except we haven’t encountered any of it yet,” Rhea said.
Will smiled patiently. “I thought I put some emphasis on the word vast. Maybe not.” He gestured at the sky. “Look at the stars in your simulated environment. There are probably hundreds of other sentient species like us out there in the known universe. Thousands. Maybe millions.”
“And we can be reincarnated as any one of them?” she asked.
“That’s right,” he replied. “And I’m not even counting the quadrillions of lesser species that might exist on all these worlds that we also have the potential to return as.”
“If coming back as an alien tick worm was meant to cheer me up, it didn’t work,” she said.
“No, it was meant to open your eyes,” he said. “At the incredible complexity of the universe, and the life it contains.”
“Consider my eyes opened.” She turned her gaze toward the dark
