Interlude II

  Somewhere out beyond the edge of the reign of the current empire, a lone stealth vessel made landfall.

  Silence, even puncturing the abnormally dense atmosphere of the strange alien planet caused no sound as the ship was both silent and powerful enough to maneuver and adjust gradually to increasing atmospheric pressures and gravity.

  The entire time, the lone occupant of the vessel remained quiet, with no one to talk to, no one to share his thoughts with, there was no need to speak.

  Needlessly speaking is a way to show your true weakness to others, the man thought to himself as he forced himself to remain quiet, despite the fact that no one could hear him speak.

  This was good practice, and that’s what the pilot chose to focus on, his training.

  As he approached the landing zone, he found that despite the time from his last arrival here, the landing pad remained unchanged. This was of course to be expected, as he chose a flat outcropping of abnormally dense rocks as the place to land.

  Years ago, a structure of importance once stood here, but time had made its mark on the old building, leaving only minor traces behind. A few posts of wood that had not fully rotted down to the root. A few glass shards that had not weathered away, and most importantly the mound of dirt and stone that now drew this silent pilot to come and visit one last time.

  Disturbance.

  Despite the near calm of his landing spot, and the fact that only the faint gusts of wind could be felt coming over the mountains and whipping him in the face, the pilot grew weary.

  Years of training kicked in, as he looked around, then finding nothing decided to do what he came here for. His purpose.

  This was why, out here, in the middle of nowhere, the old pilot gave one quick readout of the atmosphere around him, proving that it was still within his body’s limitations of being able to process. Once that was confirmed, he nodded to himself and released the binding seals for his mask, and instantly felt the crisp air of his home world fill his nostrils.

  It was a pleasant and comforting scent.

  A scent that can only truly be described with notes of nostalgia and childhood memories.

  Breathing deeply, he once again paused as he felt the disturbance, this time more emphatically than before.

  For a moment he thought about calling out to the disturbance, but soon realized that this would not solve anything, for the disturbance would only come out and present itself if it truly wanted to.

  That was why, despite everything the old pilot made his way forward, kneeled down to one knee before the unmarked pile of stone and dirt and just thought and meditated for a moment.

  During this meditation he collected his thoughts, and finally spoke.

  “I’ve done it.”

  Those three words, were all the old pilot could speak, yet they said both everything and nothing all at once. Still, despite knowing that this much was enough, should be enough to assuage the guilt that still resided in his heart, he continued.

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  “As I promised, I gave her the best chance I could.” The old man continued, then as if a dam had been broken, the words poured forth, in the form of diarrhea and cathartic release combined. “Though I failed many, many times, in the end I like to think I got it right. Or she was more resilient than I had any right for her to be. Still, it is done, she is where you planned of her, and has now been given the best chance to succeed.”

  There was a moment of silence, as the pilot breathed deeply for a few moments, as if trying to regain his otherwise stoic composure, and calm down his breathing.

  He waited there for a moment, as if wondering if anything else should be said. Seeing if anything, else needed to be said.

  “I guess this makes us finally even,” the old pilot quipped, then a faint smile filled his stubbly face as he thought of a particularly funny joke. A joke that he intended to share, “though that said, if you had anything else to say, I wouldn’t mind hearing it.”

  Silence.

  Only the faint rustling of the winds over the peaks could be heard whipping about.

  At that, the pilot just nodded, waiting for the faint winds to die down.

  “Figured as much. Well, good seeing you,” the pilot said as he stood up from his kneeling position and even gave a crisp two finger salute from the side of his face.

  Taking one last glance down at the makeshift grave. A grave that the pilot remembered crafting by hand from the rubble of the nearby house.

  Even now, thoughts of why this man wanted to be buried here filled him, yet he stayed silent. Just letting the moment sink in, and turning about, while the thoughts of never coming back here filling his mind. He made his way for his ship to leave, with each step away, the resolve of leaving and never coming back becoming more assured with each and every stride he took.

  Gentle breeze.

  Then as if summoned by his thoughts of never coming back, a voice called out to him.

  A voice from his past.

  One that sent shivers of chills, joy, and disgust all throughout his body.

  “She survived?” The soft and strangely angelic voice of a female called out.

  While the pilot didn’t want to turn around, to play into her game, he did glance over his shoulder at the figure that had suddenly appeared to his sense of sight. Though he had known she was there the whole time. That or at least that is what his instincts had been screaming at him about.

  For a moment, the pilot thought about using this moment as a second chance, maybe even a third chance to speak with her.

  He thought about it, and then like everything in his life, he decided no attachments was better than something that could be used against him.

  With that thought in mind, he gave a one-word reply, “who?”

  Silence.

  At that one word, the high and mighty elf, a being who lorded over being prim and proper began to grow visibly agitated. These were small things, the clenching of fists, the trembling of her body as she fought to maintain pure dignitary status, but they were there if you knew what to look for.

  Most importantly, there was that fire in her eyes.

  Seeing those eyes sent chills down his spine as he remembered the first time she looked at him like that. It was the first time they spent a night together.

  No doubt locking gazes with the pilot caused similar memories to flourish within the elven dignitary’s mind, for she suddenly seemed to look on in shock.

  Particularly at the way the pilot now smiled widely at her.

  “You,” was all she could muster, as she once again fought to regain control over her mind and body.

  Seeing that he still had that same effect on her, the pilot smiled coyly, gave a wink, turned his head back, and began walking away.

  “Where is she?!” The elven dignitary shouted, rage filling her voice.

  Hearing this, the pilot smiled even brighter, if such a thing was possible as got to the first step of his nearly vertical climb up into his single person space cruiser.

  “You had your chance, I dropped her off to you. She knew everything. Even said how she didn’t show fear when you tried to intimidate her. She was so proud, and I knew she was beyond perfect for you all. And you refused her,” The pilot responded, once again feeling his words get away from him.

  But this was well deserved, for he had been holding this back for a long time.

  His words had their intended effect, as she seemed to visibly struggle as she came to terms with what had just been said.

  “Wait, she could feel it?” The elven dignitary asked.

  “Yeah, scared the dickens out of her. But she faced it head on and stoically as I taught her to,” the pilot answered, more than a little pride filling his words.

  “This, this can’t be…” she trailed off as her thoughts clearly raced through her mind. “Where is she? She must be brought in?”

  With that the pilot just smiled a vindictive smile.

  “Who knows for sure,” he responded and with that he began climbing up into the cockpit of his craft, before sealing the ship behind him.

  After that, there were a number of checks and pressurized seals that needed to be locked into place. Bannisters of filled carbon filters had to be expelled, while new reserves of fresh oxygen were resupplied. He even took a moment to refill his vents on his space suit, while checking on his solar chargers. Seeing that he managed to completely fill up his reserves while he was out, made it even easier to leave.

  The entire process of prepping his shuttle for takeoff took at most a third of an hour. Just before he was done and about to leave, he gave one last cursory scan of the area, half expecting to see the elven dignitary there standing and waiting for him to respond.

  For a moment he hoped she was there, only to see that if she was, then she was hiding in plain sight.

  He could do a quick thermal scan for her, but decided against wasting the energy on such an act.

  Instead, he just set about his warm up processes, letting his systems begin their first separation from the ground, then through the air, and finally his long slow process out of the planet’s atmosphere.

  He went slow, partly to preserve his vehicle and let it last longer. Though he would be lying if he didn’t want to take in the sunrise of his birth planet one last time, before he headed off to where his next adventure awaited.