Tomorrow

Trance was in the back, resting, tending to some plant or other, doing things Trance used to do, the Maru safely on auto-pilot, and the taste of tears was spreading in her mouth, slowly creeping up her throat from the very bottom of herself.

Six months and three days... to win and lose tomorrow, something she had spent most of her life believing not to have.

But she had - against all odds, against the myth - managed to rescue both Andromeda and Perseus from the dragon. And so she started dreaming, reluctantly at first, but slowly, hesitatingly allowing the vision of a brighter future to take over her mind, her heart and her soul. And suddenly there then was a tomorrow:

That waited for her to rescue the universe from itself, to go rafting the rapids of some wild canyon waters in the mountains of Caldera 7, to do... the many things she had always wanted.

She spoke Common, Varreg and French, and now there would be a tomorrow to learn Spanish and Tars. To plant blue irises the colour of Trance's skin in Hydroponics. To learn to cook from Tyr. And go surfing with Harper. Teach Rommie how to dance to the music of her CD-collection. Let Rev soften up the armours she had placed around herself.

There were so many things for her to do, impatiently waiting for her tomorrow to finally arrive: overcome her fear of heights and go - just once in her life - bungee-jumping, reaching virtuosity on that old, old piano her mother had once brought aboard for the children and that was still buried somewhere within the depths of the Maru, and then playing it - just once - in public, having - just once - her 15 minutes in the spotlight.

With each day passing she felt more alive, she started laughing more and more often, began to see the colours painting her tomorrow brighter and even brighter still, with confidence in it growing stronger, deeper, warmer, with new dreams arising...

There would be a tomorrow, when she would finally be asked, and she would say 'yes', and it would last forever, and then there wwould be children - a small boy with her grin, a little girl with his eyes - and she would show them the slipstream and take them to Eden, to see those animals long gone from all other planets in the Known Worlds, the phoenix-eagles from Baldar, the elephants from Earth and Kanai's green dolphins, and back from their adventures she would put them to bed, and tell them good-night stories of beautiful princesses and of valiant knights, of warships built not only with weapons but a mind, a conscience and a heart, and of Gulliver.

And then there would be a tomorrow having her watching herself in a mirror and counting tiny wrinkles - knowing that now she had plenty of time on her hands...

Three days ago, however, tomorrow ended abruptly, in a flash. There had been a call from the past, he was rather old and rather tall, aged, but still himself - and had about him this air, this smell of... home. He called, he offered her - another tomorrow, one that belonged to her yesterdays; and asked of her to give him things she didn't know she had, getting her in return a twisted form of love, of memories of her father, that smelled of pain and brought her death. Almost.

And now here she was, because of him forever keeping love and death united in her body, and the bright tomorrow was already over, its colours slowly fading.

From now on a new tomorrow will always be there prying, lurking, stalking her, watching her from afar and slowly, silently coming closer...