. He went downstream, unfurled the sails and picked up speed. He’d never been on the ocean in a sailboat but this one was rated as ocean worthy. He was about to find out if it was much different than sailing the big waters of the great lakes.
46
Madroleeka
She knew down to the second how long it took for him to travel to the jump off point and then make his way back. Eighty-one years, seven months, three weeks, four days, seven hours, twelve minutes, thirty-one seconds.
Twenty-nine thousand eight hundred days.
A lifetime.
The only variable was how long he stayed in the past. The first jump was forty-eight seconds.
The next one a little longer. Others varied but she was always there waiting for him, ready to render first aid or an ear to listen.
He was obsessed.
Driven.
Sometimes he blinked into existence, locked himself away and ran calculations, adjusting the known factors he’d just learned on the trip and jumped right back with barely a hello or goodbye. He’d been in a fury once when he couldn’t find notes he’d written a few hours ago. For her it had been a hundred and sixty years and she had dusted and cleaned and tried to organize his ever-increasing collection of belongs. In a rage he’d forbidden her to ever enter his rooms again. He came back with souvenirs sometimes. Things from his future that hadn’t existed in his time. Broken machines from an alternate timeline he didn’t recognize. Once he found his old car, his Mercury, and he knew he was getting close. So close. It was at a farmhouse where they had stayed when they were both sick and injured. It had been a rusted hulk sitting on rotted tires. It had been machine gunned and he found the remains of many bodies strewn around the yard. The bones were scattered and picked clean, yellowed from decades of lying in the sun but inside the car was the remains of a battered leather jacket still on a skeleton. Bullet holes riddled it and a smaller skeleton was in the passenger seat. A faded belt with batons was still hanging around her waist. They had died together in a hail of bullets.
She worried about his sanity and sometimes she could convince him to take a break, to take some time to visit a vacation planet and lie on a beach or hike through beautiful jungles. He never asked where they were getting the credits to afford the vacations. She assumed that he thought they were living off the profits from the coins. His holdings were substantial and grew every year as the tobacco plant became ever more popular among the freighter crews and with the people in every port they visited.
Ages passed as she waited with infinite patience but if she didn’t shut herself down, she became lonely. It was a new emotion; one she hadn’t known in the ten thousand years she drifted aimlessly through space but she felt it now. Often, she left and went back to the planet of the Queen of the Outer Reaches. She and Sharaal had a friendship of sorts and he was as ageless as her and many of the others on the planet. Anyone could use the rejuvenation machines if they wished. Nearly everyone did once or twice but after a few resets, most lived their lives and when it was their time, they passed from this life to whatever else was beyond the veil. She still had the Queen’s transponder that ensured safe passage when she piloted through the wasteland of broken and stripped space ships that was the pirate’s playground.
She hadn’t known at the time but she had seen Jessie off on his last jump. He was excited and barely took time to wolf down a meal. He had actually kissed her goodbye when he left, his eyes glowing with excitement. She waved as he shimmered out of existence and prepared for his return. He’d been excited before. He’d been close before.
She was waiting for him to give up and finally admit it was too great a distance.
She shut everything down then traveled to the far side of the known galaxy to visit Sharaal again. She was shocked to see him ancient and hunched, one of his eyes milky with age.
“My dear Maddy.” He greeted her from his favorite spot at the little shop he frequented. “You’ll excuse me if I don’t stand, I don’t get around as well as I once did.”
She took his hands in hers, pressed her forehead against them in respect and they passed the time, nibbled on sweet rolls and sipped warm drinks.
“I hoped you would make the trip out to see me this time.” He said. “I have grown tired of living; I’m looking forward to the eternal rest but I’m pleased to see you before I go.”
They spoke for long hours and talked of many things. He was the only one who knew who they were and what Jessie was trying to do.
“Do you think he will ever succeed?” he asked, not unkindly.
“Perhaps.” She answered. “He thinks he will. He comes closer every time.”
“And what will become of you when he does?” he asked
“My duty is finished. He wishes to find her after she is enhanced like him, it is a very small window. If he finds her before, their love cannot be. If he finds her too long after, she is dying of the virus. From this far away, it is very difficult.”
“Indeed, it is.” Sharaal said. “But you have told me what Jessie wants. You have not answered my question.”
Maddy considered for a time before she answered. She
