involves my light going out completely, which means I’m basically just gonna die.”
I study her body for a moment. “But you’re not dimming anymore. I think you’re actually getting brighter.”
She looks down at her arm. “Huh. I feel better too.” Her eyes meet mine. “Must’ve been those drinks you made for me.”
I stare at her. Maybe even… get a little lost in her. “Yeah, maybe it was the drinks.”
There’s a long silence. Which is probably no more than a few moments, but it certainly has the feeling of eternity.
Star crossed. All this time I thought I was star crossed. I was sure there was a woman out there who was mine and if I could just find her, my life would be perfect.
And ALCOR tried to tell me, didn’t he?
There is no such thing as soulmates.
There is no such thing as star crossed.
And what did I ask him for?
My one wish was to be… uncrossed.
That’s what this whole trip is.
The uncrossing of Crux and Corla.
Alera says, “OK. So then what happened?”
I look back up at her. She’s… beautiful. Her light looks normal now. Her eyes are bright and sparkling. Her skin glowing an ethereal silver color. Her hair no longer limp and dirty. “That’s pretty much it,” I say. “I mean, I left out a lot of details. But…” I shake my head. “They don’t matter. I’m pretty sure none of this matters. I asked him to uncross us and that’s exactly what he did. It’s over. That’s all that’s left to say. It’s just… over.”
“Somehow,” Alera says. “I don’t think that’s all there’s left to say, Crux the time traveler.”
We are directly across from each other. Alera is sitting on the bar and I’m leaning up against the back counter. There is no more than half a meter of space between us.
But it suddenly feels like a lot of space.
“I’m not a time traveler.”
“No?”
I shake my head.
“You might want to rethink that.”
Our eyes meet and I can feel the heat in mine just as hers light up.
Then I say, “You know what’s really funny about this?”
“Tell me.” And her grin is both mischievous and sexy.
“I was mad that I showed up here at my current age.”
“Which is?”
“Thirty-seven. But I was mad because I wanted to be sixteen again. I just wanted a do-over. I wanted to meet Corla, age sixteen, too. And then I realized I wasn’t sixteen. Never gonna be sixteen again. And there is no do-over. And then you came. And you’re… what?”
“Sixteen.”
“Right. Of course, you’re sixteen. But here’s the funny part. You’re still tens of thousands of years older than me.”
She nods. Slowly. “Ah. The ancient tech.”
“Yep. You’re the people who lived on Harem Station in some other lifetime.” I pinch my fingers together, then spread them apart, and my air screen comes to life in front of me. It’s even got my calendar. Apparently, I have a fucking dentist appointment tomorrow at o-nine-hundred. It’s got my workout schedule. It’s got a list of blinking ship names. The last ones to enter the docking bay before the Princess Rebellion. It’s got a vid of Draden up in the corner. It was from the old days. Back when he and Serpint were still little. He was doing a little dance with one of his servo minions. I tacked that to my home screen last year after he died because every time I looked at it, he made me smile. But looking at it right now, in this long-ago place, it makes me so sad I want to give up and cry.
But I don’t cry. Because even if I could give up, I wouldn’t give up.
I’m not a quitter. I’m the reliable one. I’ve always been the one you can count on.
I don’t expect this girl to have any answers for me. She is twenty-six thousand years out of date. From some other lifetime, or epoch, or universe. I’m not sure. She’s just waaay out of time.
“You know what the really fucked-up thing is, Alera?”
“Tell me.”
“I like you. I don’t know you, I understand that. But I could get to know you. And I would like you even more. But…”
“But?”
“But this isn’t our time.” Then I laugh. “You know what else? And this is the funny part. You wanna hear the funny part?” I look over at her. She’s just watching me. “If I stay here long enough ALCOR will show up.” I laugh. “Now that is some epic synchronicity right there.”
“So stay.”
“I can’t. It’s literally not our