Page 81 of The Space Traveller's Lover
“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 thingsin 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.
