“Chérie.” He took her by her shoulders so she'd look straight at him. “I know this is tough. This is going to take four, maybe five days. Territory 103's pretty far away. Most of that time is travel time. The actual rescue shouldn't take long, maybe a day and a half at most, with a ship that size.”
“Four days.” She shook her head and tried to smile. “You can't wear that.”
She started to port the two of them back to his quarters, but he shook his head. “Alone,” he told her quietly. “I have some things to do first. Give me a few minutes.”
“Of course, darling.” She took a full minute to get a careful image and the feel of him, and ported him back to his room so he could change. She should have insisted on going with him but if she had, she might not let him go.
She was lost now. The universe pressed down on her, just when life had opened her up. Where was there an empty corner for her to cry in?
With people streaming around him, Wilder walked slowly toward the narrowing exit as he held two of those computer padds in his hands. Stoan remained with Jae, pointing at her. What was going on?
Jae shook his head but Stoan seemed adamant even as Jae frowned at him and then nodded. Stoan clapped him on his back and gave a hand-signal to a small group who'd remained. They moved at his command, integrating Stoan into their midst.
Wilder paused in his computations and Jae walked to him as the breakfast tables and their attendants rolled past. It was just the three of them now in this auditorium, so Lina joined them, not knowing if she should. Before she could ask, Wiley looked up to see Jae still there.
“It seems I'm staying,” Jae said, but he didn't look at Lina.
Londo adjusted his belt as he made the message to his father. “Hal,” he told the recording eye, “I'm sorry you had to learn this way. I've been trying to get hold of you for days. You know how it goes. Our signals just missed this time. I was thinking that maybe Lina could port you in and you could attend the wedding in a quarantine suit, but non, you couldn't check your damned voice mail.” Lon huffed to himself in frustration.
“So now you have a daughter-in-law, and if you're seeing this, I'm gone and she's alone.” He smiled crookedly into the camera and paused as he fastened his shirt closed. “I was going to come up with the all-time funniest way to break it to you. Maybe flying wedding cake to the face with reporters lying in wait. It would be a top hit on YouTube for years, you know? But sometimes you don't get what you want.”
He took a breath. “She's going to be scared, Hal. She won't show it, but she'll be frightened to death. Take care of her for me. See that the lawyers and the press don't hound her. If they keep bringing up this mind control marde, defend her.
“I love her more than anyone I've ever known. Love her for that, if you can't find any other reason. But you will—she's a wonderful girl.”
His face went grim and he made the gesture to terminate recording. “Add to end of Last Message to Hal,” he said, and the room beeped twice at him. He finished fastening his pants and belt. “New Last Message for Carolina O'Kelly…Rand,” he said, and that brought the slight smile back to his lips.
“Chérie,” he told the eye as it followed him to the kitchenette. He programmed the replicator for travel rations and stuffed them into his duffel along with the extra padd with all the downloads of the judicial history of mind control he had managed over the past day. “I'm making this right before I leave, so it's a lot quicker than these things usually are. I'm leaving a message for Hal about you, and the Mega-Legion can tell anyone who needs to know, too.
“You'll inherit my estate, which means you can devote your life to art and those cats and whatever you want. If you can't handle things, for god's sake, ask for help. This is going to be a hard time for you I know, and you'll want to keep it inside. Don't. Just this once, go to someone.
“Go to Jae; he's the best listener there is. He's had a lot of hard times himself. He'll understand. But be gentle with him, love. He's…” Lon scratched his nose. This was difficult. He wasn't prepared to tell her this, not yet. He hadn't figured it all out.
“Ask him to tell you. He'll know what it's about. Show him this and tell him that I said it was okay. I have to go now. You know I love you. From wherever I am out there, I'll love you forever. And…and I know that we're going to meet up again someday. We're soulmates. That means we'll come back together at some point.
“But that doesn't mean that you can't find someone else while I'm gone. You deserve love, chérie. I don't want you to be lonely any more. It's my final wish that you find someone who'll love you and that you'll marry him and have lots of kids who'll love you, too. You got that?” He smiled into the eye, picturing her face as she'd slipped the ring onto his finger. “I do love you, with all my heart.” He gestured end recording. Two beeps.
Londo sighed. Just one more, very quick. He grabbed his vest. “New recording,” he told the eye, “add to end of Last Message for Jae Rallene. Jae, this is right after the wedding. I want you to look after her. I know that the plans we made have all gone to hell, but you still have your problem and I'm gone now.” He sighed and shook his head apologetically. “I didn't tell her yet, you know that. It's all gone too fast to think straight…”
**Lina.**
She concentrated to bring Londo here. Now he was in full uniform, every inch the hero Valiant, with a black duffel bag slung over his left shoulder. He clutched her to him and kissed her frenziedly as she hugged him as hard as she could. He couldn't go, not now! He couldn't! Stay with her, stay forever with her!
“Go. Go!” she urged between kisses. If he didn't go now, she wouldn't let him leave. “I'll be here when you come back, I promise, I'll be here.”
“Give me something to take with me,” he said quickly. “My lady's favor.”
What? She couldn't port anything in from Earth, not without creating another quarantine. Just what she had on. She reached for a flower from her hair and something inside said no, so she fumbled instead at the clasp on the back of her necklace. It finally separated in her shaking fingers. She pressed the necklace into Lon's hand. He gazed at it for a second and then carefully secured it into one of his vest pockets.
“Honeymoon,” he instructed her in severe tones. “You decide where you want to go, the craziest, most romantic place you can imagine. Think about what kind of furniture you want for here. Buy some new clothes. Don't just sit around and mope.”
“I won't mope. I'll sit around and think of you.” Smile for his sake! Don't let him see you with your eyes red and puffy!
“And I'll be thinking of nothing but you.” He embraced her and kissed her, then kissed her again. “Lina, I have to—”
“Go! And be careful!” She watched her husband run out like the others had, taking to the air before he cleared the doorway. **I love you,** she called after him. **I love you so much. Be safe.**
**I love you, too, wife. If Hal calls, stall him. I want to be the one to break the news. Let Wiley talk to him instead.**
He shouted something she didn't quite catch at someone he was passing. She got the impression that already he was floors and floors away. There was a feeling of sky, as if he'd flown up outside the building…
**Get Wiley to show you around. Even he should be sick of the lab by now. If he can't make it, Legion Protocol should assign you a guide. Try to have some fun; you're still on vacation.**
**It won't be the same without you.**
No answer.
“He's gone,” she said to no one. She ran to Wilder, trying not to panic. By now the wall had reappeared, leaving one narrow open door. Wiley paused beside it as Lina caught up to him and Jae. “He's gone! No answer on the telepathy circuit. What happened?”
Wiley considered. “By now he's in hyperspace. Telepaths can't communicate between normal space and hyperspace.”
No! “Someone could have warned me!” She bit her lip; she was not going to cry! Her trailing gown pinned her to this world, weighing her down. “L
ondo…”
She was all alone, on her own. A week ago that would have been normal for her, cut off from the world, having to rely only on herself for everything.
But now Londo had entered her life. He had become a part of her heart, a part of all her waking thoughts. Now half of her was missing. She wobbled, unsure of what to do, even of who she was any more as the universe spun around her.
Lost.
Jae turned to her slowly, his eyes on the floor, his lips pursed. Finally he looked up, gave Wiley a glance, and then focused on her.
“Carolina O'Kelly Rand,” he said in a strange, tight voice, “you are under arrest for suspicion of mind control. You'll have to come with me.”
Epilogue
The Four spoke to each other quietly, despite the fact that they were many, many parsecs apart. One was farther even than that. Her voice was a whisper, but if the others were still enough they could hear it. Another, though, was not in the mood to be calm.
**The pot has finally begun to boil. At last! I cannot wait much longer!** Aldierra was always anxious these days.
**I thought for a while that things would fall apart. I thought we'd have to settle for lesser choices.**
**Hal would not be such a lesser choice if something were to happen to Londo.**
**I prefer Londo. I was relieved when he chose to return to physical life. He fits in much better than Hal could. He is the magnet around which things are attracted.**
**But Lina is the heart of the matter. She will gather more than the other two can ever hope.**
**At least we have the three coming together now. Finally! I want to push them, to shove them, to make sure they—**
**Patience, Aldierra,** the whisper said. **I realize you are frustrated now, but you must have patience. Keep in mind that this is bigger than you, although we all hope it will help your situation, or at least resolve it once and for all. Remember: together the three will gather the billions—the trillions or more if things go well. They will change the course of the galaxy if they pass all their tests. And if they trust their hearts. They will work for you, but the larger picture is that they will work for all, for us and all our sisters.**
They considered that. Sarastor asked, **Is there a way to avoid this coming death? She still has a few lessons that could be learned in this lifetime.**
**It is a part of the plan. This will be the death that signals the birth of the Three Worlds. It is necessary. She is needed more on the Other Side now to guide and foster than she is in the incarnated world. There will be other lifetimes to learn her lessons.**
**She has agreed?**
**She does not know, but she has agreed since before she was born. If the elements were in place, this would be the time for her to shift. All has been set in proper motion. Now we just sit back and let things ripen. Not long. This is the cusp when decisions and chance tighten into a knot to anchor a new path.**
**I confess that even after all these billions of years, these next few days will seem a long time.**
**You have always been impatient. When you are old like me, you will understand.**
**Feith, I don't think I will ever fully understand you.**
**Sweet Earth, we are all destined to perfection. You will understand everything some day.**
* * *
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Don’t miss the next chapter in the Three Worlds saga…
Lost in the Stars
Three Worlds vol. 2
by Carol A. Strickland
“Carolina O’Kelly Rand, you are under arrest for suspicion of mind control. You’ll have to come with me,” Jae Rallene told her in a strange, tight voice.
“A-arrest?” Lina asked. She stared up at the so-tall Legionnaire with the startlingly beautiful face. Her head was still whirling from the events of this night. Now this?
She clutched the abundant white lace of her wedding dress because she didn't know how else to hide her shaking hands. Londo wasn't here now to protect her. Londo and all the other Mega-Legionnaires had been called away from his own wedding reception for an emergency, to rescue a wrecked hyperspace ship.
A week ago she hadn’t even known Londo. Three hours ago, maybe less, he’d proposed to her. Then two hours ago, in the wee hours of the morning, she’d been married here in this huge auditorium, hologrammed into a sun-filled, forest-bounded meadow. Warm flower-scented breezes had wafted past over a hundred Legionnaires and their families as they stood in witness. They and the breeze were gone now. It was all gone. The only ones left were her, Jae and Wiley, and even Wiley was trotting quickly out the door into the heart of the Affiliated Systems Mega-Force Legion Headquarters.
Lina shivered in the emptiness. Did Londo know that they'd planned this arrest?
No, of course not. She trusted Londo. He was the only person that she did trust. He couldn't help it if the universe was spinning out of control and dragging the two of them with it. Londo was used to this kind of thing. Lina wasn’t even used to this world.
Jae grimaced as he ran his hand through the mop of sun-gold hair that framed his head and shoulders. For a moment the points of his elf-like ears showed and then were covered again.
“Look, Lina, the commander didn’t specify that you were to be put in a holding cell. I’m going to declare you under house arrest, and I’ll define what that house is. I’m your confinement officer; that means that whatever I say you take as an order.”
She gave a dazed nod at the best friend of her new husband. She should have been expecting something like this the moment the four of them got out of quarantine. Stupid of her not to.
But everything was topsy-turvy now. House arrest? She had a faint idea of what that entailed on Earth, but here—a far-flung world totally unknown to her, with a technology beyond her imagination—what did that mean?
Mind control had to be a major crime, possibly on terrorist level. Did they have lawyers Out Here? And if so, how would she contact one?
Londo would know, but Lon wasn’t here.
Leave it to sour Stoan Kinrol, the Mega-Legion’s commander, to railroad a charge like this against her. No one Out Here would believe she, the Terran witchdoctor, was innocent, would they? To them Terrans were barbarians—except for Londo, the most powerful being this side of forever.
Jae lifted the minister's stole that he had worn to officiate at the wedding from his shoulders. He regarded it a moment, then folded it into a black square and tucked it under his arm.
“I suppose this last miracle was asking for too much.” Lina tried to smile bravely about her minutes-old marriage, but had to hide her trembling mouth with her hand.
The holosuite’s walls echoed Jae’s words now that it stood empty and colorless: “Central command is being transferred to Lab 1-A. That’s standard procedure with a skeleton staff. Wiley hardly ever goes on missions with the rest of us. He’s in charge now.”
“Wiley?” Dr. Wilder Mem-Bazer was both a theoretical and practical physicist—with five minds in one body.
“He’s not just Wiley; he’s a high-ranking Legionnaire. Think of him as a major when it comes to these situations.” The marble that floated next to Lina translated the position as well as the rest of Jae’s sentences into English.
At Lina’s jerky nod Jae added, “All you have to do is stay in the lab under watch until everyone gets back. We’ll need to run a few tests, ask you a few questions. If we get a quorum in the meantime, don’t worry. You won’t be going into any cell. If I'm called away, you will stay with Wiley, is that clear?”
“Yes. Thank—” Her voice broke and she whirled from him, tears erupting. She was alone. She wanted Londo! He’d make everything all right again.
Londo was a brand-new telepath. The power had likely catalyzed by her mind-talking with him so much in the past few days. It hadn’t occurred to him to warn her about the silence of hyperspac
e, but when he'd entered it, flying under his own power, it had been as if her insides had been sucked out, trying to follow him to wherever he was bound. She couldn’t find him anywhere.
Where had all this helplessness come from? When had she stopped being her own person and started relying on Londo instead? In her entire life she’d made her own way in the world. Now why was she clinging to a husband for what she should be providing herself?
She wasn't going to put that burden on Lon. He was the famous Valiant, after all; he had enough problems to deal with.
Embarrassed to weep in front of Londo’s friend, she fought for control. A loudly voiced sob— She couldn’t choke it down and it echoed in this auditorium. “I’m sorry,” she managed to say. She sniffled her way to a semblance of order and held her hands over her face, breathing purposefully to get rid of the redness and puffiness that must be there. “I seem to... My emotions aren’t being very—” she sniffed— “logical these days. Give me a minute, please.”
“Sure,” she thought Jae said.
God, what he must think of her. He’d warned Londo before they got married, hadn’t he? He’d told Londo that she was a weakness he didn’t need, a target for his enemies. He’d told her that Londo needed to explain the situation to her before they got married. But Lon had convinced Jae to officiate at the wedding. Didn’t that mean that Jae approved of her, even a little?
With a shake, she straightened herself. Being wife to the great mega-parahero Valiant meant that she couldn’t allow her actions to detract from his reputation. “I’m sorry,” she repeated, but now she turned around to face Jae. “It won’t happen again. It’s just... everything at once.”
Now she blinked not to get rid of tears, but because they were back in Wiley’s warehouse-sized laboratory—or rather, in the little break room just off the entrance to it. She hadn't ported. They'd accused her of teleporting to arrange the strange things that had been happening lately, but it hadn't been her and her new power of interstellar teleportation. “How—?”
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