Phantasm 1: For the Light of the Stars (three)

"Diana lied," she said. "She was afraid you’d leave her so she lied to keep you beside her. You left and I’m not afraid of you leaving me. So go out and enjoy yourself. Live a little, Willow. God knows you deserve to."

It was true from a certain point of view; the duplicate of Willow had left, and Diana had lied to her. It could be interpreted in a number of ways and Laura was confident that Willow would not be damaged; but, hopefully, on some level Willow’s personality would recognise the subtlety included within it and she might find some peace.

For a time, it almost didn’t work. Willow seemed to be considering what she’d said and it was almost like she had frozen again, but she hadn’t, she was merely lost in thought. "Yes. I suppose she did," said Willow at last. "I will go. I am curious."

Laura did not fear that Willow might be seen by anyone else; her program was used inside Laura’s implant rather than an interface which meant that only Laura could see, sustain and interact with her… but it also worked the other way, Willow could move to areas without needing to be near Laura, she just needed to be active. As long as her program was active inside Laura’s implant, Willow would have her freedom.

Willow bounded out on all fours, moving across the ground in some strange mixture of a skip and a lope. Laura watched her until she disappeared from sight. She wondered if Willow would realise that she left no footprints in the sand. Finally, Laura turned away and lay back down and closed her eyes.

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Laura didn’t sleep but she was allowed a little over an hour’s rest without being disturbed. The heat had reached inside the tent but somehow she felt refreshed and rejuvenated despite that, as if her whole body had regenerated. Why that was she didn’t know and she was too grateful to give it question.

Noah finally intruded upon her long moments of privacy. "Time to move," he said. Laura groaned inwardly but didn’t otherwise offer a protest. There was no point in it for one thing, and she wanted to keep exploring for another, even with the horrendous conditions. Her appetite for discovery had only been whetted by what they had found in the ruins.

Their destination this time was on the other side of Pnath. Blessedly, it was surrounded by jungle and not by desert. It was reachable by jeep but that wasn’t practical so they were to take the shuttles instead and would likely stay there for the night, returning to the camp at dawn. Laura thought she might enjoy that, she’d be glad to escape from the camp. There were very few anthropologists and the two parties did tend to avoid each other, but Laura could still feel them studying her, wondering, analysing the mystery she represented. Like everyone else within the Commonwealth of Races, they knew little about the Chosen and were hungry for details so it wasn’t surprising that they treated her like a subject rather than a person. She wouldn’t regret being free for a short while, at least. Sometimes she wondered what their reaction would be if they knew how close they actually were to learning about the Chosen, but she dismissed that inappropriate thought quickly.

When she emerged outside after her summons, Laura saw that the others were already prepared. In the far distance, Laura glimpsed Willow curled in a ball on the sand, luxuriating in the sunlight. She did not stare at her for fear that she might be noticed staring at nothing. Laura contemplated removing the program once she was inside the shuttle. It might not be a good idea to separate them, but she decided against it in the end. Willow was occupied, she wouldn’t even notice she was gone, most likely, even if that stretched into a day or more.

She joined Josh and Shamir and the three of them walked to their shuttle. It was still slaved to the control of its partner and it didn’t activate until Noah and Silverburgh had already lifted off, then they too ascended upwards, soaring a good distance into the sky so the ground became flat and mostly featureless, the camp reduced to a tiny dot near the substantially larger ruins. From here they actually seemed side by side, a hop, skip and a jump rather than the relativistic hour by jeep.