(Cross-posted from Star's End > The Piano Man)
Star's End Bar was quiet this morning. There were a handful of dedicated drunks and desperate cases here and there, and the serv-bots were doing their thing, but nobody he recognized. So much the better, really. If this really was the last time he'd see the place, Toby wanted it to be quick. I don't like long good-byes, he thought.
The message chip sat in his locker, blinking quietly. The transmitter it was attached to would sit there, waiting, for exactly three days. If he had not returned to deactivate it, it would drop his last message into the electronic mailboxes of his boss, Mr. Kane, and those of his fellow barkeeps. Helix...Sissy...Dex...Noira. It was a crappy way to say goodbye, after all, but he didn't know if WAS goodbye. Maybe he'd just reappear when it was all over, and no one would have any clue what had gone down. Better that way, he judged.
There was a similar device sitting back in the cabin, which had his final recordings for his children, his few other close friends, and a last will and testament. He'd updated that over the years, ever conscious that capricious fate could intercede at any moment. This was just another one of those moments. That way, everything would be taken care of.
Now, standing in the small lot behind the bar, Toby closed the hatch of the small sleek craft and locked it. Lady, the AI, would fly it back to the ship in the same three days if he didn't return for it. The big canvas bag slung over his shoulder, Toby checked one last time to be sure he had everything.
He nodded to the silent shape behind him. "Let's go."
And then, Toby just stood there. To anyone watching, he wasn't doing anything, just eyes closed and waiting for something. On the surface, then...
~~~
Consciousness reached out, touching the 'flavour' of this place. Every single place in space and time had its own aura, flavour, call it what you will. He filled himself with it, and let it expand through himself, remembering...
He remembered a room with a mirror, and the timbre of that tower in Eldicor. It had its own unique place in space and time, too.
An effort of will reached out, seizing reality as if it were a thing to be touched. He chose....no, demanded....that the center of all of it was right here, around him. It WAS him. The fulcrum, the pivot point. It revolved in that moment of non-time around him....and then it spun like a Lazy Susan the size of creation.
Bring me that room.
It seemed to occur in slow motion, though in truth it was all happening outside of time itself. The faraway land of Eldicor sped towards him, unknown lands in between speeding past like a grey mist. He ignored it, all of it, intent only on that familiar 'flavour'.
And then he was there....no. He wasn't there. *There* had come to him. It was a subtle distinction, but an important one.
Toby's eyes opened, half a heartbeat after he'd closed them in Star's End's back lot. But instead of the Mirror room, he found himself in a wide courtyard of stone, looking upon the utterly startled faces of tall, inhumanly beautiful beings with very sharp metal weapons. He stood there looking at them, as space/time rippled in uneasy protest around him, the vibrations spreading to any who could perceive them.
Huh.
Star's End Bar was quiet this morning. There were a handful of dedicated drunks and desperate cases here and there, and the serv-bots were doing their thing, but nobody he recognized. So much the better, really. If this really was the last time he'd see the place, Toby wanted it to be quick. I don't like long good-byes, he thought.
The message chip sat in his locker, blinking quietly. The transmitter it was attached to would sit there, waiting, for exactly three days. If he had not returned to deactivate it, it would drop his last message into the electronic mailboxes of his boss, Mr. Kane, and those of his fellow barkeeps. Helix...Sissy...Dex...Noira. It was a crappy way to say goodbye, after all, but he didn't know if WAS goodbye. Maybe he'd just reappear when it was all over, and no one would have any clue what had gone down. Better that way, he judged.
There was a similar device sitting back in the cabin, which had his final recordings for his children, his few other close friends, and a last will and testament. He'd updated that over the years, ever conscious that capricious fate could intercede at any moment. This was just another one of those moments. That way, everything would be taken care of.
Now, standing in the small lot behind the bar, Toby closed the hatch of the small sleek craft and locked it. Lady, the AI, would fly it back to the ship in the same three days if he didn't return for it. The big canvas bag slung over his shoulder, Toby checked one last time to be sure he had everything.
He nodded to the silent shape behind him. "Let's go."
And then, Toby just stood there. To anyone watching, he wasn't doing anything, just eyes closed and waiting for something. On the surface, then...
~~~
Consciousness reached out, touching the 'flavour' of this place. Every single place in space and time had its own aura, flavour, call it what you will. He filled himself with it, and let it expand through himself, remembering...
He remembered a room with a mirror, and the timbre of that tower in Eldicor. It had its own unique place in space and time, too.
An effort of will reached out, seizing reality as if it were a thing to be touched. He chose....no, demanded....that the center of all of it was right here, around him. It WAS him. The fulcrum, the pivot point. It revolved in that moment of non-time around him....and then it spun like a Lazy Susan the size of creation.
Bring me that room.
It seemed to occur in slow motion, though in truth it was all happening outside of time itself. The faraway land of Eldicor sped towards him, unknown lands in between speeding past like a grey mist. He ignored it, all of it, intent only on that familiar 'flavour'.
And then he was there....no. He wasn't there. *There* had come to him. It was a subtle distinction, but an important one.
Toby's eyes opened, half a heartbeat after he'd closed them in Star's End's back lot. But instead of the Mirror room, he found himself in a wide courtyard of stone, looking upon the utterly startled faces of tall, inhumanly beautiful beings with very sharp metal weapons. He stood there looking at them, as space/time rippled in uneasy protest around him, the vibrations spreading to any who could perceive them.
Huh.