KTF Part One (Galaxy's Edge Book 16) by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole

Author:Jason Anspach & Nick Cole [Anspach, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Galaxy's Edge Press
Published: 2022-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

16

“We shouldn’t be here, babe. You know there’s no kind of Savages here.”

The Wild Man grunted in reply to this most beautiful of voices. The hike from the Six to the temple, following the wobanki, had been just another slog, albeit a pretty one, until she began speaking to him in earnest. Just to him. Always for his ears only.

He knew now that his wife was dead. There was a time where he thought that, maybe…

But now he knew. His wife, though her voice was vivacious and alive, was dead. And not just for a little while but for centuries. She had died before he ever left his home world. She was dead all during his mad pursuit of the Savages. Dead while he fought on New Vega. Dead while he served in the Legion and while he slept in suspended animation during his time with Kill Team Ice.

Dead every day since.

It was an odd thing, though he tried not to think about it that often. All that time fighting for her, and all that time she lay longer and longer in repose. Right from the start, he lost track of all dates and any sense of time beyond the movement of the sun on whatever planet he landed upon. And then one day he heard what year it was from some locals he was trying to defend from a Savage invasion—really, he was just there to kill Savages—and he realized it had been five years since she’d died, give or take a few standard months.

He didn’t hear from her for almost a week after hearing that simple report of the date and time, so many centuries ago.

The Wild Man also remembered a thought, though not the occasion or context for that thought. He had realized after waking up for a mission that she’d been dead for more years than she’d ever lived. And then five times as long as she’d lived. And ten times. And on time marched, until it was nearer to a hundred times her lifespan since the day it happened.

Her life had been nothing when compared to all those ages after her heart stopped beating. The vast majority of her existence was as a corpse, a part of the great myriad of dead that most things were. The sum total of all life, erupting like a vapor before settling into nothing but the long, enduring grave.

So… even though she spoke to him during that hike to the temple, when the hope of finding Prisma was still strong, the Wild Man knew she was dead.

But also, there was the voice. Speaking to him. As alive and independent as she had ever been. Her voice outlived her body. Her voice wouldn’t die. And the sound of it, so often singularly focused, had guided, comforted, and saved the Wild Man many times over. She had been the impetus to get back up, go farther, and always, “Do another one, babe.”

How many times would he have died without her urging

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