Obligations

Ione was going to have to wait. They had been together for eons, and they would be together again, but he was going to have to wait a few decades before they were reunited. She had obligations to others besides him, obligations to Dylan, the crew, and to her younger self.

Her obligation to Dylan was simple. Help him restore the Commonwealth. At first she had helped him because it was the will of the Nebula. Later she had come to realize that what he was doing was the right thing to do, and that without her help he would fail in his attempt.

She had a duty to the crew as well. It was her fault that they had been separated and scattered through time when they arrived in the Seefra system. She had waited too long to tesseract them to safety, thinking that she could defeat the worldship and still have time to rescue her friends. She had miscalculated, and in the end was forced to simply throw them willy-nilly into the Seefra system. Because of her error, they had not only lost their faith in the cause, they had nearly lost their souls. It was now her responsibility to bring them back together as a crew, to renew their faith in restoring the Commonwealth, and their faith in themselves.

Her final obligation was to her younger self. Her younger self had extracted a promise from her before she agreed to switch places with her. She had insisted that her older self always be there for Harper. The lives of most organics were like the meteors that flashed across the night sky, flaring brightly for an instant then gone. But Harper was no meteor, he was a comet; and like a comet he could either illuminate the world, or he could crash into it and destroy it. Her younger self had insisted that she guide and support him, and insure that he became a source of light and not of destruction.

The first two obligations she accepted willingly and with no reservations. The third she accepted not only willingly, but joyfully. She would give Harper the benefits of her counsel, the warmth of her friendship, the joys of her body, and her love. Then all too soon, even as members of his species counted the years, he would be gone; her obligations would be fulfilled and she could rejoin Ione.

But for now Ione was going to have to wait. She had obligations to fulfill.