Light Speed by Rob Dorsey

Author:Rob Dorsey [Dorsey, Rob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beyond Time - A Next Chapter Imprint
Published: 2020-03-03T22:00:00+00:00

20

En Garde

That night they did make love like it would be the last time for they, being intelligent beings, knew that all things were possible in a situation as dynamic as this. Rick was a trained physicist and he knew from basic mechanics that any system with as many variables as this became non-deterministic. That meant that anything could happen and there were so many things unknown that any outcome was possible. When he brought their breakfast, Enos was as grave as a hangman and even Rick's easy banter did not coax a smile from his ashen face.

Anna was likewise quiet but trying very hard not to chip away at Rick's carefully nurtured bravado. He said over and over that she had nothing to worry about but even the confident Rick Corbett knew better. He was not worried about the fight itself feeling that he could handle the kid because he was a kid, whatever his skill level and by being very defensive and waiting with a seasoned adult's patience for the moment of truth to reveal itself. No, his worry was the hired assassins who most assuredly would be ringing the dueling arena ready to take him down on the first sign of trouble for their patron.

A courier had arrived after breakfast with a note that they could expect guarded escort in one period. Enos had explained their time system to Anna and a period equated to about forty minutes. Rick therefore bathed and dressed in his uniform pants which were of a stretch material allowing him great freedom of movement. He would go bare-chested since he knew that a shirt provided little or no protection while very possibly slowing his movements and he wanted to employ everything available in his favor.

In the moments before the guards arrival, Rick asked Anna not to go, for her own mental well being. Taking a step back she looked at him as if he had lost his mind, saying, “Nonsense, do you really imagine me staying here while the very purpose and focus of my life faces mortal danger? Madness, Corbett, and shame on you. You know better.”

He nodded in resignation admitting that it was a stupid idea and he was only thinking of her which she acknowledged with a kiss then firmly put her arm through his to await the escort. Anna had chosen another Ocsalanian dress that showed her lithe form perfectly but was more formal than the dinner outfit. Rick could not get over how perfect she looked in it, and his heart ached at the prospect of never enjoying that fabulous body ever again. But, as a scientist and astronaut, he, like most of his tribe, did not believe in a god, at least not in any normal sense. Particularly since the thirty-first amendment to the US Constitution, the Secular Amendment of 2039, that decreed the United States a secular nation. He had never been religious and he figured that there was no consciousness after brain death. But that did not stop him from not wanting it to end and the thought of leaving Anna alone was painful.

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