Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Calorans are waiting for me, but they won’t wait forever. I have to head out and join them.”

“But what about us?” And when Ana shook her head, he went on, “Look, if you already made promises to them, I completely understand. I wouldn’t want you to go back on your word. But I have nothing to hold me close to Sol — nothing but you. I’ll come with you, join your group.”

“No, Drake, that isn’t it at all.” She took his hand in hers. “I like you a lot, and I will never forget that I owe my life to you. But you can’t go with me. Let me put it more brutally: I don’t want you to go with me. I do not love you as you love your Ana.”

“I don’t believe it. Everything we’ve said to each other, everything we’ve done—”

“Everything that you have said. We make fine, fond lovers, physically we fit together beautifully, I don’t deny it.”

“So what’s the problem? Ana, we can talk this through, we always have.”

“That’s the problem, right there. I’m not Ana — not your Ana. I’m me. You and I have never talked through any problems together. Think about it, and you will realize that what I say is true.” She released his hand and stepped away. “Drake, this is all my fault. I should never have revivified you. I see you looking at me, and I know you are seeing someone else.”

“I don’t want anyone else. I want you.”

“No. You are blind. You want what you see, what you think I am. There’s so much background that you and your Ana shared. I don’t have that, but you don’t even realize it’s missing. Let me give you just one example. You assumed I would know why you call your Servitor Milton, so you’ve never bothered to explain it to me. But I don’t know.”

“ ‘They also serve who only stand and wait’; an ancient poet, John Milton, wrote that. It was just a sort of joke when I said it, because the Servitor—”

“Drake, I don’t know and I don’t want to know. I want to leave, right now.”

“You can’t leave. What will I do without you?”

“You will become what you were before I appeared to mess up your life: strong, dedicated, brave.” She came toward him, hesitated, and then at last kissed him quickly on the lips as the airlock cycled open. “There’s more to it than that, Drake. I thought you guessed, but apparently you didn’t. I started to tell you once, but you cut me off as though you didn’t want to discuss it.”

Drake turned. Melissa Bierly was standing in the open doorway. The brilliant sapphire eyes smiled a welcome. There was a radiance and a calmness in her face that Drake had never seen before. Then Ana was rushing forward, and the two women embraced fiercely.

“Hello, Drake Merlin.” Melissa spoke softly, almost shyly. “It’s good to see you again.”

“You?… and Ana…”

“We are companions. Life mates. We go as a team to Rigel Calorans.” Melissa, still holding Ana by the hand, came toward him. “We owe you a lot.”

“Everything,” Ana added. “You are the reason that Melissa and I met. You were not here, Drake, but you brought us together. I sought her out because she had known you.”

She turned to Melissa. Drake saw again that look in -Ana’s eyes, the totally loving look. He had seen it once before — when they were speaking of Melissa.

“But we were lovers ,” he whispered. And, when Ana merely nodded, “How could you do that with me, if you are bonded to her?”

Both woman stared at him in confusion. “For your comfort,” Ana said slowly. “To cheer you, when you were frightened and upset. How could I have done anything else? Melissa would have done no less.”

Melissa nodded. She placed her arms around Ana, resting her head on her shoulder. “I would, Drake, if you needed me. But Ana did. She soothes pain almost before it is there. That is one reason why I love her.”

Drake stepped backward and slumped into the ship’s control chair. “And Ana loves you, and not me. I am going to lose her.”

“Yes,” said Ana. “You will lose me. But don’t get it wrong. I told you, what you will lose is Ana, but it is not your Ana.”

“I will be without you, again. What can I do? How will I live?”

Both women came forward and stooped to kiss him on both cheeks.

“Don’t give up,” Melissa said softly. “Keep your faith, Drake, and go on. We agree with you; somewhere, sometime, you will find Anastasia. Not my Ana. Your Ana.”

Ana and Melissa stepped away. Hand in hand, they moved toward the airlock. Drake rose halfway out of his seat, as though he intended to follow them. Then he slumped back. The door of the airlock slid shut.

He was still sitting, staring blindly at the displays of the rugged surface of Charon, when the door opened again. The little Servitor, Milton, eased quietly into the room. It rolled forward to stand at Drake’s side. As though sensing the human’s mood, it did not say a word.

Milton had been on Charon when Melissa Bierly arrived, and it had listened in on the whole conversation. It knew what would happen next.

Chapter 14

“These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits and

Are melted into air, into thin air.”

There was the same pleasant room, the same outlook onto a broad bay and windswept ocean: the Bay of Naples, and farther off the timeless waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea. But this time the sea was slate gray, and to the north, ominous rain clouds stood above the ancient city; in place of the raven-haired gypsy woman, a longhaired person with handsome androgynous features was sitting in the easy chair opposite.

Drake turned his head back and forth. His neck was slightly stiff, as though he had been sitting for too long in the same position. The ludicrous nature of that thought hit him, as he said, “I’d rather you didn’t bother with all this, you know. I much prefer the real thing.”

“I think not.” It was a man, judging from the voice. The English he spoke was perfect, accent-free. “There have been… changes.”

“I expect changes. I need changes. Past eras could do nothing to help Ana. Let’s dispense with the simulations.”

“That is, I am afraid, impossible.”

“My body—”

“Is preserved. Your cryocorpse, together with Ana’s original body, is still in the cryowomb. That womb is no longer held on Pluto, for reasons that will become obvious to you later. However, your body is unchanged. It could be revivified, although as you see we no longer find it necessary to reanimate you in order to converse. We are maintaining a direct superconducting link with your brain.”

“Who are you?”

“That also calls for explanation.” The man smiled, an easy and friendly grin that seemed impossible to simulate. “Let us say, I am ‘such stuff as dreams are made on.’ As you can see, after the misunderstanding of your last resurrection we have made an effort to be familiar with the writings of your times. Call me Ariel, if you must have a name familiar to you from that era. With your permission, I will now bring someone else to this meeting.”

“Melissa, and Ana’s clone…”

Drake had asked, as strongly as a man with no real power could ask, that he remain frozen until something could be done to restore to him the original Ana; but his last awakening had taught him that others had their own overriding needs.

Ariel shook his blond tresses. “Not Melissa Bierly, nor the clone of Anastasia.”