Continuum

When he got to where she was standing, she immediately sat down on the floor, indicating for him to do the same. Stevo was glad to be down on the deck again, for he was suddenly overcome with emotion!

Mary did not look as she did before. Oh, not a hair had changed, nor that silver garment, so out of date now, - not anything else about her, including the 'otherness' Stevo had missed all these years. Yet looking at her now, she seemed much different. She seemed more human, if anything. Were his eyes also playing tricks on him?

Presently, as he sat there, he was aware that his thoughts were only his own. Somehow, Mary had turned off his ability to communicate by thought! Was it her who did this? id this?

"I am sorry about the telepathy, Stevo." Mary said aloud. "Those nanocites you acquired in those closets were never meant for humans, but only for those of us of the Unity. I turned them off as soon as I arrived because they were overwhelming you both."

Somehow this was not the first words that Stevo had expected to hear from her. Could she still read his thoughts, even now?

"My son Mike! You have to help him!" Stevo faltered, embarrassed for some reason to be mentioning Mike.

"I like Mike, Stevo. He has your eyes, and likely your courage too, if he has come all this distance with you. Please do not be afraid. He is well, and will awaken shortly, as will your other boys. You and I just need some time to talk here alone together."

Somehow these words, too, were not reassuring to Stevo. Mary, if anything, was much more alien than he had remembered her to be. He was still marveling at how human she looked!  He noted the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. She did not have that capability before, did she?

Stevo spoke up quickly. "Mary, I apologize for not being here sooner. First of all  . . ."

Mary raised her hand, cutting him off. "No need to worry about how I feel, Stevo. I have no regrets for what we did. You feel guilty now, but you do not need to. I am at peace with it all." Mary touched Stevo's arm in a reassuring fashion.

She continued, "Stevo, you wanted to find me all these years now, but you were unable to get in here, and you were busy raising the children and caring for their mother all those years. Afterward, you were active in many important things in the Continuum. I should not have been a priority before any of those things. Besides, you had to wait for your sons to get old enough to help you. Am I right?"

Somehow Stevo accepted what she was saying. This was all too much for him. It was as if she had never been gone, the way she just picked up their conversation together. He should be glad, but -

"Mary, but where did you come from? You were not here before now?" Stevo said.

"You are right, Stevo. The few people who knew about us thought that we were dead - gone forever. Even you thought so, didn't you, Stevo. Those people did not want the knowledge of us and our alien intelligence to become public. Humans are just too hostile and quick to judge someone different. I understand that you thought that by coming here you might resurrect us, or at least me. You could not have known that our conscious selves were secreted away in the depths of mountain ranges far away, where we would remain until the day we could emerge to a peaceful welcome among men, - or to an empty world which would then be ours to do with as we pleased."