Lewis & Glark | Time Traders | Book One | Epilogue
It had been about two weeks since Lewis had returned to the outpost in his own time. His hands and face were healing well from the burns he had sustained escaping from the fire at Foscar’s ceremony. He often thought of Annar, and how if circumstances were different, he might have enjoyed getting to know her.
Since his hands were still healing, Lewis had been banned from any combat training. Until he was fully healed, he spent his days mostly reading and watching streams, learning more about the emerging tribes — and their customs, culture and beliefs — in the Boreal time. He had learned so much during his first training sessions, but there was always something new to learn.
Lewis was also given the chance to try his skills in the holo arena. He faced off against two of the newer recruits — one named Noola, who was the same race as Maarn, the other was a short and stout female named Vlam whose race he had never seen before. He lost in all of the three matches. But Glark was there to spectate, and praised Lewis for his ability to adapt and creative thinking, even though he had lost.
The arctic base was buzzing with new recruits. It was clear that Laird and the Major were staffing up, in preparation to support whatever new plans were being formulated.
Where and when the new set of runs would be were still unknown. The data drives Glark had brought back had yielded some good intel, but there were still many missing pieces. Information about the activity of the Ones was always new and shifting. In any case, the prime goal of the upcoming missions of Operation Retrograde remained the same — to acquire information about light travel, while evading the aliens, and countering the efforts of the Ones to secure the same intel first.
While Glark’s respect for Lewis — based on his performance and usefulness on his first run — had taken the edge off, and made him generally less gruff and more agreeable, their relationship had remained fairly professional, as mentor and student.
On the other hand, Lewis and Maarn had become good friends over the past two weeks. Most days, they studied together, ate meals together, and had long talks about their lives before they had come to the base. They shared common threads — both having made some bad choices in the past and fallen in with the wrong people, having had to survive and take care of themselves, having brothers who were no longer in their lives, and having regrets about how important relationships had ended.
For being so different, Lewis was amazed at how alike he and Maarn were. They had quickly become like brothers, and had a depth of relationship that Lewis and Levar, his own brother, had never had.
During those two weeks, Lewis had thought back over his long journey from the courtroom at home in the city to now at the arctic base. It made him wonder where “home” really was now. His pod back in the city wasn’t his home anymore. Since he had disappeared without paying rent, his lord likely got rid of all his stuff, changed the locks and rented it out to someone else. The base kind of felt like home sometimes, but Lewis knew it wasn’t. There were people that he cared about here. But a remote arctic operation base was hardly a home.
It made him wonder where he would call home in the future — once all of this was over.
Lewis also thought about the people he had met since he had been part of the operation. Oddly, he often wondered what happened to Joven. He knew that he had been transferred to a more secure holding facility. Would he try and escape form there? Would he be part of some prisoner trade and eventually returned to the Ones? A few days after Lewis had returned to the base, he opened the drawer of his desk and found a hand-written note that read:
GOOD LUCK, LITTLE MAN — TAKE CARE, UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN
Lewis wondered who Joven had paid to put the note there, and why he had gone through the trouble of leaving a note at all. He couldn’t imagine how or why he would ever run into Joven again. But Lewis had been alive long enough to know that life can be random, and unexpected things can happen sometimes.
One day he was in the middle of learning about emerging currencies in the Boreal period when the Major barged into the room.
“Come with me, Freeman,” the Major barked.
Lewis paused the stream he was watching, got up and followed a few steps behind the Major down a few hallways.
“Is this my long-awaited award ceremony for making contact with the aliens and helping to save the world?” Lewis said in jest as they walked. The Major didn’t have much of a sense of humor, so Lewis took every opportunity to say random, funny things that would irk him.
“I don’t need a medal,” Lewis continued. “Just some extra dessert rations in the chow block is enough payment for my bravery and valor.”
They rounded a corner and the Major opened the door to a small meeting room. Lewis stepped inside and stopped in his tracks, in total shock at what he was looking at — at who was standing there in front of him.
Next to Glark, wearing the standard base jumpsuit, and his hair shorter than he had ever seen before, stood Levar.
“Hello, brother,” said Levar.
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© 2024 Zen Brazen — All rights reserved
Based on Andre Norton’s Time Traders (public domain)
