The Best of All Possible Worlds

by Karen Lord

Everyone else had a job and a life to return to. I should have been making plans for my future. I wasn’t.

The taSadiri settlement had been underground, sheltered from the extreme weather, running on geothermal energy, and thus still the right temperature to remind them of home.

I’d probably never be this far north again in my life.

It was a rich place, an unexpected Eden. Why was it deserted?

We are walking on the remnants of a lava flow.”

“Seismic data from the mine’s sensors do indicate that caution may be advisable.

This was the heart of the city, its forum magnum.

They were both uninjured, but there was no way out.

The revised time to reach Lian and Joral was no longer being given in hours but in days.

“You can choose to say no, Sergeant, but say it quickly. Time’s wasting.” Big bluff. I hoped it would impress him just a little. Was that Qeturah’s trick? Act as if you’re in command, and suddenly they’ll start following your orders?

The man who’s been to several futures and who may or may not have the advanced technological know-how to use the fact that Fergus’s comm is still picking up a clear signal from Lian’s halfway across the globe and through a ton of rock?”

Dllenahkh then did something completely Sadiri and utterly adorable. He blinked at my babbled words, filled in the blanks speedily, and arrived at a course of action. “Come with me,” he said.

“What you describe as the product of a mental imbalance, I would classify as swift, intuitive thinking to arrive at creative solutions.”

There is no passion like the passion of a Sadiri complimenting your mind. For a moment I was speechless, completely speechless. I gawked up at him like a lovestruck teenager. “You … you really mean that.” “You know that I do. Why is it so difficult for you to believe that?”

You assumed correctly—I do have technological knowledge that might result in a swifter rescue—but knowledge can only go so far. I would need a certain level of existing technology to effect a quick solution, and such technology is not yet available.”

“There is a small hope.

Maria was refusing to continue therapy—wait, “refusing” is too strong a word. She was apathetic. Gracie was at the other extreme, suddenly acting out after years of suppression.

“Well, dear,” she said, lowering her voice to a hushed whisper, “I didn’t want to shock you, but it was Connie I meant all along. Davi’s her husband, but I think I’ve almost persuaded her that she’s better off without him.”

He’s Sadiri. Furthermore, he’s a Sadiri savant who is, in fact, older than you.

Now, how’s Rafi?” “Terribly unhappy,”

“Don’t embarrass me.” I gave him an incredulous look. “When have I ever not been cool? Don’t turn all teenage on me now. Just answer me one thing. Do you still like elephants?”

“It is fitting that you should be here for the memorial.” “What memorial?” I asked, confused. He looked slightly concerned. “You have not received word? The rescue has been called off. Increased seismic

activity in the area has made it impossible for excavation to continue safely.”

“Naraldi does not wish to involve himself directly, nor does he wish the Consulate to be implicated in any way. I have the reassembled comm. He wants you to take it and wait at your apartment. Someone will come to you at the designated time.”

Instead of the expected delicate brush, a heavy warmth poured into my brain. It felt like nothing I’d experienced with him before.

“What are you doing?” I asked, holding very still. “Making sure you won’t forget anything,” he replied in a near whisper.

First there was a voice, a very ordinary voice except for the fact that it seemed to be coming out of thin air. It said simply, “Naraldi sent me.” Then I blinked—and there it was.

“Oh, good. You didn’t scream, or fall down, or run away.” The voice was slightly muffled at the beginning, and then the shining helmet was removed to reveal an equally shining face and a wide, white cloud of hair. I quickly revised my interpretation of what I was seeing. “I should,” I said reproachfully to the gilded stranger. “You’re naked.” He looked down nervously, then gave me a stern look. “Don’t scare me like that. I haven’t lost pubic sphincter control since I was twelve.” “Oh?” I said faintly. A worried expression came over his face. “That was a joke. Please don’t take me seriously. Pubic sphincter. As if there could be such a thing.”

“You can call me Sayr, by the way. I didn’t think you’d want to travel with me. I just came to get the comm so I’d have a

point of reference, but this way’s good too.”

Hmm. The terrain has changed quite a bit. Would you like to try calling your friends?”

“I’ve found them,” he said.

“Look,” he urged. “There they are. They’re calling Emergency Services now. Everything will be fine.”

There were indeed two figures, tiny in the distance, heartwarmingly familiar and blessedly alive. They sat huddled together, arms around each other.

“Is it true that the Caretakers save people who are essential to the human race?”

“That’s a complicated question. It has a complicated answer to go with

“I’m going to tell you in such a way that you’ll remember the answer but not the question or the asking of it.”

“In the beginning, God created human beings, which is to say God put the ingredients together, embedded the

instructions for building on the template, and put it all into four separate eggs marked ‘Some Assembly Required.’

“I see you’ve been memory-protected,” Sayr sniffed. “This is such a difficult time period to work in. You people know too much already, and you always want to know more. You’ll have to come with me.”

I was only able to force him to endure two glasses. After that, I was hugging the bottle with one arm and holding him with the other, and I was far too cheerful to care when he danced us closer to the keel and got his hand onto it. The room vanished,

“Ms. Delarua. I am glad to see that you have proved yourself more than competent in your post. Thank you for seeking me out and inspiring me to ask something I would not have thought to ask. Fortune favors the audacious, apparently.”

Zero hour plus two years twenty days

“Then why does this reward feel like another task?”

Was this age regression contagious?

There had been a bonding experience during that underground adventure, but not the sort the media was hoping for.

The other bit of media, which I should have anticipated, depicted me as Dllenahkh’s consort in all but name.

“We hold hands,” I confessed, lowering my voice. “That’s all?” she said in enormous disappointment. “Well, it’s more complicated than that. A sort of telepathy thing. Oh, and sometimes we sleep together.” I should indulge my vengeful streak more often. I timed it perfectly so that she actually inhaled her beverage in shock. “You do what?” she hissed as soon as she got her airway clear. I relented. “Oh, come on, Gilda. Clothes on, adjacent cots, same shelter. That’s all. He told me I help him sleep.

My dreams had never completely untangled from Dllenahkh’s thoughts, both waking and dreaming, after the memory-reset thing, and he found that I was at least as good as an hour’s prior meditation for stopping the falling nightmare before it got

out of hand. He explained to me that proximity would facilitate the effect and quite calmly asked if he could come discreetly to my shelter for a few hours’ sleep from time to time. I casually said yes, and it was literally an hour later that I experienced a jaw-drop moment, suddenly realizing what I had agreed to.