Quest for the Well of Souls - Jack L. Chalker [126]
Alaina nodded. "I think I can understand. Bodies like those can be wonderful, or the biggest curse you can have. And I'll help. Mavra's fee was agreed to, recorded, and never paid. I think you could do a pretty good job with a million, couldn't you?"
Wooley's eyes went wide. "A million?" She laughed suddenly. "Wow! We'll buy our own frontier world!" She looked at Vistaru. "You know, it's crazy, isn't it? We had lives once, then second lives on the Well, then third lives back here, fourth back on the Well, now fifth—I wonder if that means we're going to keep living forever? We can always return to the Well again in the future."
Vistaru laughed. "Yeah, but take it easy. You aren't my husband any more. You're superwoman now."
"I started out a woman," the other pointed out. "Not much of one, I admit. Maybe it's time for Wu Julee to find out what it's really like."
Vistaru nodded. "It can really be wonderful," she said softly.
"Look!" Renard yelled. "The asteroids are about there!"
As he spoke four smaller dots converged on the large ball. A tremendous flash of energy blurred their vision momentarily, then there was nothing.
Scans revealed no trace of New Pompeii, not the slightest speck of dust.
Alaina sighed. "That's it, then. Let's get out of here."
The ship throbbed to life and started moving. There were tears in Renard's eyes and all were silent.
"Good-bye, Mavra. Forgive us."
And even the Yugash's hood bowed.
An Unnamed Star in M-51
She stood and stretched all four legs in the darkness. She was used to working in the dark, and her nose quickly found some edible fruit and some stale bread. It would do, and the fruit provided needed water. She'd gone through the last of the preserved foodstuffs the day before.
She wondered why she was still alive. She wondered why she persisted in postponing the end.
The lights came on. That, in itself, was no surprise. She'd been expecting it any time now, ever since she'd experienced the familiar blackout and that long dropping feeling a few hours before.
She turned her downward-facing head and looked around. The place was a mess. Much of the structures had collapsed, including part of the far balcony.
The explosions, hisses, and rumbles had stopped several days earlier, but they had been replaced by the sounds of hammering and welding and lots of clanking. She'd actually gone out to see what was making them, but except for discovering some emergency lighting still going in the main shaft area, there was nothing that could be seen. Whatever was going on was going on far below her, she was sure.
"Hello, Mavra," Obie's soft, pleasant tenor sprang suddenly out of the air near her. She almost jumped out of her skin.
"Obie!" she responded, almost scolding in tone. She was about to say more, but suddenly realized that while it could talk to you you had to broadcast to it.
The computer seemed to realize her thoughts. "No, it's not necessary to transmit any more," he informed her. "There's nothing left to transmit with anyway. Things have changed a great deal in the last few days. I have changed, too, Mavra."
She felt numbed, as though in some sort of half-sleep. Nothing seemed quite real, and she only half believed in her continued existence.
"All right, Obie—just what did you do? And how?" she called.
The computer actually chuckled. "They decided to destroy me by pushing four antimatter asteroids at me. I just used the big dish and translated two of the asteroids into normal matter—for us, that is. Then, two and a half milliseconds before they all collided, I translated here. They met with a nice flash and it looked like we were all blown up as the two antimatter asteroids met my newly transformed matter asteroids."
"Two milliseconds?" she responded,