Page 43 of The Space Traveller's Lover

FAREWELL

I grew up with you, learned with you, celebrated with you.

At the very end of El Cuchillo peninsula, Sam sits quietly, his legs dangling over the jagged cliffs.

He stares into the distance towards Diablo’s Point, glancing at the rocky arched passages leading to Diablo’s cave entrance, one of the few places on the island that the robots left untouched.

In his mind, he retraces every twist and turn of his boat ride with Erin.

We were so happy then, he thinks to himself.

The sea is eerily calm, but its currents still splash and foam against the rugged shoreline.

As he contemplates the dawn’s brightening sky, painful memories keep coming back.

“You are wasting your time. Come on!”

The insistent reproachful cry from his sister Stella doesn’t bother him anymore.

“You go home. Stop following me,” he retorts without even turning his head to face her.

“She isn’t coming back,” Stella says, raising her voice in scorn.

She waits in vain for a slight acknowledgement, raking the gravel with the tip of her boot in a bid to attract his attention. But to her dismay, Sam hardly moves.

“Every day you come here is a day less in your life that you can be free of her. Such a waste.” She moans, letting go of a long deep breath as if she is about to give up .

She eventually starts slowly walking away while talking to herself, loudly enough so Sam can hear her. “That weird girl, she isn’t worth even one second of my brother’s time. She didn’t even mention him in that London meeting.”

“Stella!” her brother’s anxious call makes her suddenly stop and turn around, a gloating smile showing on her face, thinking that, at last, he has relented to her demands.

But her face soon turns pale in utter panic. Her jaw drops at the sight of the rapidly approaching orange light gliding over the ocean towards them, from Diablo’s cave.

Stella runs to her brother, pulling his arm in an attempt to make him run away. But Sam jumps up onto his feet and digs his heels into the ground. She watches in horror as the glowing object gets closer by the second.

When it seems that the craft is about to crash against the rocks, it comes to a sudden halt as its top cover springs open. In front of their stunned faces, Shaillah jumps onto the ground and runs towards them.

“Erin!” Sam excitedly waves at her.

“Thank you for saving our lives, by the way,” Stella growls, pointing at the waiting scouting-craft hovering by the cliffside. “I thought we were going to die right here, crushed and burned by your silly space junk.”

“I can’t stay very long.” Shaillah speaks directly to Sam while completely ignoring Stella.

“I am so pleased to see you, Erin. I thought you had forgotten about me.”

“I’d better go—better leave the impossible lovebirds in peace.” Stella rolls her eyes as she pushes her brother towards Shaillah.

As Stella reluctantly walks away, she keeps looking back. Watching her brother gleefully smiling at Shaillah, she decides to climb behind the rocky ledge and spy on them. Hidden behind the cliff wall, Stella can secretly listen to their conversation.

As she precariously crawls alongside the ragged wall, holding on to the protruding rocks with her bare hands, she manages to stay undetected.

Shaillah and Sam focus on themselves, staring aimlessly into each other’s eyes, struggling to find the right words for what they want and don’t want to say .

He doesn’t want to break down, admitting how much he misses her. She doesn’t know how best to tell him that she is going away, and this time is forever.

“I saw you at the London meeting. You looked fantastic,” he admiringly looks at her while trying to suppress a nervous smile.

“Things have gone quite well for me. Getting to know my ancestry—it’s been incredible.”

“But I worry about you.”

“Worry about me?” She giggles.

Her dismissive response makes Sam feel uncomfortably dejected. “Yes, what will become of you? Where are they taking you?” he insists.

“Everything will be okay, both for you and for me.” She affirms.

“Are you sure? These aliens—the Rom-Ghenshars—do you know their true intentions?”

“Their intentions are noble, for growth and prosperity, not only for this planet but also for the whole galaxy.”

Despite Shaillah’s encouraging words, Sam continues to dwell on his most desperate thoughts.

“I saw your fearsome commander . He doesn’t seem very noble to me,” Sam says in a spiteful tone.

“They seem to have so much power. They build huge marble and gold cities in a flash with their advanced machinery.” He gloomily rambles on.

“They have tireless, all providing robots, and scariest of all, they can control our weather, our way of life. They can—”

“I know all that. You’re overthinking. It won’t do you any good.”

“Overthinking? What about all these spaceships glowing in our sky, even in the daytime? What are they planning? There are all sorts of rumours. The ARA is trying to hide the real extent of the danger.”

“They are here to help in the reconstruction.”

“Yes, and to track our every move—every single second,” Sam objects.

“That’s the way it has to be, Sam. After the catastrophe, humans have to be kept in check,” Shaillah counters.

Sam seems to quiet down for a moment, but his deep-rooted suspicions don’t take long to return once more. “I’m not happy with obeying the robot’s every command.”

“How do you find your new home?” she asks, trying to change the subject .

“Our island has changed so much,” he says in a resigned tone, “huge bridges and underground tunnels, towers, skyscrapers rising from the sea. The entire archipelago is now a new city, but I prefer the old times,” he grumbles.

“There’s no point in getting upset, my dear Sam,” Shaillah says calmly, gazing sullenly at him with a pitiful half-smile.

“I d-don’t like the way you are looking at me … Erin,” Sam stammers, fearing some unwelcome bad news.

“The best thing, Sam, is for you to forget me,” she says coldly, keeping a piercing gaze into his eyes.

Her words hurt him the same as if she has hit him with a massive blow to his head. His eyes aimlessly veer away as his body stays limp and unresponsive. He repeats her words to himself over and over, trying to make sure that he heard correctly. Hopelessly, he looks back at her.

Then, his expression hardens as he firmly tells her, “Ask me anything, but don’t ask me that.”

Shaillah smiles back at him. The fond memories of them together cannot be wiped out so easily; she understands.

“You can still see me in the stars. If you look towards the southern horizon in the spring, follow the line from the star Spica down to the constellation of Centaurus. You’ll see a fuzzy nebula—Omega Centauri. That’s where I’m going.”

Sam slowly shakes and lowers his head, trying hard to face up to his vanishing hopes and to rein in his despairing thoughts without crumbling like a coward in front of her.

“I have come to say goodbye,” she continues impassively, “for good.”

“Aren’t you going to visit your parents? They want to see you,” Sam suggests, eagerly looking at her.

“I know, but I don’t have time. My dear Sam, I’ve come to hug you for the last time.” She extends her arms and gestures for him to come closer.

As they hug, she slowly disables her shield. He buries his head into her hair, breathing in all her scent. Their bodies shiver, and their hearts pound in their chest as she lets him kiss her cheeks, her nose and her lips, but just for a few seconds, before she steps back and reactivates her shield.

“Sam, you have been my best friend, like a brother to me. I grew up with you, learned with you, celebrated with you. We shared so many things in the past. But in the present, our lives must go separate ways.” Every word she utters carves a deepening lethal wound in his broken desperate heart.

“No, no! You came here for me. You turned off your shield for me. You care about me, Erin. Please stay … stay.” As he speaks, he looks into her unyielding eyes, fully realising this is the end.

She closes her wet eyelids, pressing her lips tightly as if not wanting to speak her final words. “I can’t live in your world, and you can’t live in mine. Now I must go.”

“No, no, Erin,” he pleads with her, trying to hug her.

But she pushes him off, and his arms are left aimlessly clutching the empty space.

She runs towards her waiting scouting-craft. Time seems to be standing still for Sam. He can’t bear watching her slipping away. Instinctively, he covers his face with his hands.

But a sudden commotion makes him jolt out of his daze. As he tries to make sense of what is happening at the cliff’s edge, he sees Shaillah turning around and hitting someone with a swift swing of her hand as a bright electric arc sparkles, leaving a black smudge on the charred ground.

A scream echoes from the other side of the rocky drop, followed by a sudden splashing noise as if something has fallen into the water. Meanwhile, Shaillah is holding a heavy sharp rock with one hand. She briefly inspects it and then smashes it onto the ground, shards flying in all directions.

Sam runs towards the edge and leans over, looking for the culprit. He stares at the girl struggling to stay afloat, her forehead bleeding. He gasps as he recognises the partly charred curly hair of his sister Stella. Bewildered, he looks back at Shaillah. “Why?” he yells.

“I’m so sorry, Sam. She attacked me. I flipped. It was an accident,” Shaillah hurriedly tries to explain.

Sam climbs down the ragged wall and then swims towards Stella, getting her out of the water. As Sam sits with his sister on the gravelly shore, Shaillah is relieved to see that Stella starts coughing and spitting out water.

I could’ve killed you, and I wouldn’t have forgiven myself. Goodbye, Stella , Shaillah thinks, jumping into her scouting-craft and flying over the scene, while a distraught Sam looks up .

Soaring over the west coast of her beloved island for the last time, in a farewell lap, she finally accelerates towards Diablo’s cave. All the while, she imagines the brittle chain tying her to her past shattering into a million pieces.