18_the_end_of_the_circle-第59部分
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vast calm in him then。 Karl had never feared dying; he understood life too well。 He had only shrunk from killing; and in the end the life he'd left behind was the kind of monument to peace that would have pleased him。 For Lisa; other faces and scenes rose up from the time stream too: the mother she'd remembered dimly but now saw afresh and more fully; her father; in his good moments and bad; making her even more grateful that she and he had bee friends once more; at the end。
She had lost many friends and now saw glimpses of those who'd been closest to her。
Sammie; Kim; and Vanessa made her smile with their bewildering mixture of high spirits and dead…calm bat savvy。 She let the tears e as she saw Claudia Grant once more; in all her best friend's moods and moments; and blessed whatever agency it was that gave her this interlude of insight and remembrance。
And of course Lisa beheld Captain Henry J。 Gloval across the gulf of years…in his assorted tempers and aspects; the emphatic humanity he hid under a gruff exterior。 She had long ago recognized that he was her father in the truest sense; she considered herself fortunate that that had been so。
Lisa saw the bridge crew formed up on the day when she had been promoted to captain; rendering their…salute。 She saluted them back; happy that that day was still alive and eternal somewhere。
All through the ship; the SDFers cast their gazes across space and time。 Human and XT alike; Vowad and Veidt no less than the rest; growing even closer in their contemplation of Sarna。 The Muses glimpsed their sister Octavia and heard for the last time their original; perfect harmony。
Bowie's soul played a haunting martial blues for General Rolf Emerson。 Scott Bernard saw outtakes of Marlene Rush meld with those of the simulagent Ariel/Marlene; the two now being one; he blinked mentally in surprise; pelled to think through the implications of that。
As for Marlene; she saw the timescenes of Marlene Rush as well as those of Ariel; and that pleted her long self healing。
Dana was overjoyed to see the three Zentraedi spies璌onda; Bron; and Rico…once more; though she had kept them so alive in her heart all along that she never doubted for a moment that they existed somewhere。 She; too; looked upon Rolf Emerson with fond acknowledgment。 But then the image of Zor Prime came to her。
She tried to drive it out at first; thought of the images of Intersection as a kind of torture。 She found that she had to watch; though; and the more she saw of Zor Prime's tormented life; the more she understood。
Dana cried out as she saw the things to which the Robotech Masters had subjected him; the ways in which his personality; his will; his very soul were mauled and marred…the way in which he fought a ceaseless struggle against the memories of his past incarnations。
At a certain moment; overing her own resistance; she felt herself send out an unspoken forgiveness。 That deliberate act somehow shook her loose from the worst of the bitterness that had racked and entrapped her since the explosion of the Masters' ship that day high over the Mounds。 In the end it was a cleansing; not easy to endure but one that saved her。
Rick was glad he had Roy in his arms。 For some reason; like Kazianna; he and his child muned in the glimpses across time。 〃That's my father; your granddad; and our flying circus。〃 Roy giggled and oohed at the aerobatics but took in the old man's crusty; smiling face and barnstorming joie de vivre silently; with great attention。
Rick; too; knew enormous gratitude that this experience; whatever it was; had e his way。
Ben Dixon came into the timescenes later; not the first time Rick had seen his image since the big VT flier had tuned out; but it was always good to see him。 Claudia Grant and the Bridge Bunnies; Gloval; and the rest made him feel he had led a very charmed life indeed。
And a long time later; so it seemed; he told his son; 〃That man there is Roy Fokker; and your mother and I named you after him。〃
Roy II put his head on his father's shoulder and took it all in wordlessly; saw his father as a much younger man; too。 At length he said; 〃Was he really your big brother; Daddy?〃
〃No。 He was a lot more than a brother。〃
〃Will you teach me to fly?〃
〃Yes。 I will。〃
For Minmei; as for many others; there was a certain relief in the faces she did not see in the timestream。 Her parents and cousin were absent; and so she felt she could hope they were still well back on Earth。 She feared at first that she would be forced to review the terrible things she'd seen; people and creatures shed encountered; but this side effect of Lang's final act was not connected to that sort of thing。 Of Edwards there was no sign。 Surely the evil moments endured in time; too; but the point seemed to her to be that; abandoned to themselves; they lost much or all of their power。
Mad Khyron and Azonia; the Regent; and all of that stamp…let them stay encysted; shunned; and unvisited in their various pigeonholes of time。 She turned her eyes elsewhere。
It hurt to look at the painful parts of Lynn…Kyle's life; but she also saw the fine parts; the heroic and idealistic side。 She saw again that he had died trying to save her and end the war; the love for him that she had suppressed was free to find its rightful place in her now; with no power to do her harm。
She renewed her affection for Janice Em。 Android or no; Lang…agent or no; Jan had perhaps been her truest friend and best song…soulmate。
Looking in on the SDF…3; Haydon found what he had been searching for。
Minmei had no idea how long she had been watching the flow of scenes when another voice reached her; and somehow she knew it was not a part of her Intersection…generated views of time。 It was Rem。
She turned; somehow breaking the trance; to see that he was being swallowed up in white translucent banners of force。 She tried to move; rooted to the spot。 〃No!〃 He began to fade from her sight。
She cried the word like a plaintive song…〃No…ooo!…and somehow its power; the power her voice had always had; overcame whatever was immobilizing her。
Minmei threw herself at Rem; feeling the energy discharges around her; clinging to him; and together they vanished from the starship。
CHAPTER THIRTY…EIGHT
The music plays; and everyone must dance。
Twentieth…century song lyric
At the intersection the Robotech Elders; in their smaller…model sphere ship; shrieked their outrage and despair。
We had an agreement!
Haydon answered; THAT MEANS NOTHING TO ME
Free us with the Protoculture as you abandon your sphere ships!
What they said was true; the individual simulacra of Haydon were vanishing from sight。 Somewhere beyond; they sensed; the One Haydon was ing into being again。 He had no further use for the ships or the Protoculture…indeed; He released them to meet their own discorporation。
But the Elders' sphere He kept under his mental control。 YOU; I WILL BRING WITH ME INTO MY NEW DOMAIN; AS I SHALL BRING ONE OTHER CONTAINER FROM SPACETIME。
You struck a bargain with us!
DID YOU THINK I COULDN'T SEE BEYOND YOUR WORDS? INTO YOUR THOUGHTS?
Then the Robotech Elders wailed in truest fear; they'd planned to betray Haydon at the earliest juncture if the opportunity arose。 Instead; they saw; He had brought them along until he could exact a satisfactory revenge。
He was immortal but mortal enough to feel that urge。 The venue known as newspace was empty; the stuff of conventional spacetime banished back to the place from which it had e。 Haydon wanted no part of it; that was the entire point of His great effort。
Instead; He discharged into newspace all the accumulated energies of His crossing; giving Himself unending raw material with which to work。 Haydon willed new and utterly alien physical laws into being and set out to explore and shape His new domain。
Except; that is; for two bubbles of normality。 The first among those was the prison of the Robotech Elders。 He imprisoned them once more in the hated thrones; in the bondage of systems that would ensure their survival。 They perceived that some of the substance forming their bubble was the stuff of their Protoculture cap itself…depleted; reshaped; used in irony by Haydon。
Then Haydon accelerated the flow of time within the sphere…to ensure its passage there。
Tens of thousands of years might pass while Haydon's attention was elsewhere for an instant; but every so often Haydon would look in on them and see how His little experiment was going。
The Robotech Elders; imprisoned in the hated circle in which they had started; had their Immortality at last。
Perhaps the best summation of subsequent events is found in Recollections: Peacetime by Admiral Lisa Hayes…Hunter。
So those glorious old drives brought us home at last in grand style。 Some people griped that it was a near thing; pointing out that the drives were about to blow when we came crashing out into Earthspace; but take it from me; they'd have done whatever they needed to; to get the job done。
Of course by 〃home;〃 I mean conventional spacetime; the Sol system wasn't exactly the old neighborhood for the XT Sentinels; the Zentraedi; and so forth。
That didn't matter much at the time。
The pure joy of getting back to Earthspace was dampened; of course; when we realized that Minmei and Rem had disappeared。 This; even though the pilots originally 〃kidnapped〃 from Red and Blue teams were miraculously put back aboard SDF…3; Veritechs and all; at the Intersection。 As of this writing; there is no indication whatsoever of what happened to them; and all efforts to locate them or establish their fate have been fruitless。
The second great shock of our arrival was the calculation (by astronomical Ads; from the positions of planets in the Sol system) of the elapsed time since the departure of Peter Pan。 Foldspace had played another joke on us。
More than ten years had passed。
But that wasn't enough to dampen our morale; not after what we'd been through。 I think that those on board SDF…3 during that moment of Intersection will always be different。 We were given a new perspective on life and death and our place in the scheme of things; that left its mark on us。
And so SDF…3 started for Earth one la