TITLE: Remembrance
AUTHOR: Michael J. Gallagher ( mikejoe@odyssey.net )
SYNOPSIS: Rommie visits a friend ("Make ZS Cry" challenge)
SPOILERS: "All Too Human"
RATING: PG, probably
DISCLAIMER: GRA is owned by Tribune. I am having fun .... sort of.
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The wind picked up a little, pushing the waves on to the beach, hundreds of meters away, at the bottom of the hill. The ground was still damp with rain, but the storm clouds had long past. The petite woman with dark hair, brown eyes and stunningly beautiful looks stood over the small, poor grave, its marker almost obscured by grass, and took it all in with senses that went beyond human.
"It's nice here," Rommie said. "I can see why you wanted to be buried here. Not just on Infinity Atol but on this spot."
She turned to look back down at the grave. "I don't know why I'm doing this. It's not rational. I can sense your remains beneath my feet. There is no sign of life; even the biochips in your brain are long decayed. Yet I act as if you can hear me. I want to believe that."
Rommie looked up again, down at the ocean. She'd never understood how someone who'd grown up on a world where the oceans had been blasted out of existence centuries ago could love the sea. But Harper had loved many things -- surfing, any female with a pulse, Sparky Cola .... a ship called "Andromeda ...."
That last one, she understood.
They had won in the end. The World Ship had been ... defeated, although Rommie still did not fully comprehend Trance's part in it. The Restored Commonwealth was growing and flourishing. Even the Drago-Kazov pride --- what was left of it, anyway --- was looking at joining. But there had been sacrifices, casualties. Harper had been one of the first .... and in one way, the worst ....
"Well, Dylan assures me I am not insane," Rommie said. "This is all perfectly normal, for humans. I don't know if it's ok for AIs though .... but I still miss you. I almost think that if I listen hard enough, I'll hear you make one of your sexual overtures to me, and I'll say, 'Behave yourself, Harper,' and you'll laugh it off like it's nothing, and it really is nothing. But it's also everything in a way you never knew." Tears went down here cheeks. "But I guess that's not going to happen."
Rommie wiped the tears away, and fought back some composure. "Anyway, I can't stay long. Dylan and I have important business; we're 'on the road' so much, I think Isabella suspects we're having an affair. Don't I wish .... you didn't hear that from me. So. I just wanted to say, 'Happy Birthday, Seamus,' and give you something." She opened her hand and a medal, the Order of the Vedran Empress Dylan had once given her for a successful mission, dropped from her hand, onto the grave. More tears came. "You weren't particularly brave, handsome, or heroic, but you did your part. You did more. I will never forget you. And I swear, I will not rest until the Known Worlds remember you, the _real_ you, as well as I do. Goodbye. I'll ... see if I can visit again, sometime."
Rommie turned and left the small graveyard, a small square of land at the end of dirt track no one really knew about, not even for its most noteworth occupant. Dylan was waiting by their limo at the foot of the hill.
"You all right?" Dylan asked.
"Define 'all right,'" Rommie answered.
"How do you feel?"
Rommie paused. "My memories don't dim with time, Dylan, so the emotions associated with them are as sharp and clear as they were at the time. How do you think I feel?"
They got in the back of the limo and it lifted off. Rommie looked out the window, her eyes glued to the small graveyard, until the limo turned and headed out over the sea ... the sea Harper had so loved, among other things ...
"You know," Dylan said carefull, "Benedict Arnold was one of the finest military strategists of his day, yet all anyone remembers about him was his betrayal of the Revolutionary Army."
"Benedict Arnold wasn't befriended by a sentient starship who vowed to spend her centuries-long lifespan clearing his good name," Rommie said. "They will remember, Dylan. I owe him that."
THE END
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