# XL by Victim (~FFA, SSBHM, Science Fiction, Romance)



## Victim

_~FFA, SSBHM, Science Fiction, Romance_  A husband and wife separated by time and space struggle against an oppressive society.

[*Authors Note:* I originally published this story in the print anthology The Fat Man at the End of the World from bhmffaconnection.com , it was a non-exclusive contract so I am choosing to share it here as well.] 

*XL*
*By [email protected]*​
I lowered the shutter on my berth and leaned back in my chair. The 'cabin' was fairly cramped even for me, and I'm only 165lbs. Terry would have one hell of a time trying to be comfortable in one of these. It was heart wrenching to leave him behind for so long. It would only be a few weeks for me, but close to two years round trip for him. I couldn't imagine being without him for two years. Terry told me he would just keep busy with his work and it wouldn't be that hard on him. When we met it seemed like he had been alone his whole life.

I remember that day four years ago like it was yesterday. 

I was in one of the larger breakrooms on the 67th floor, just about to sit down with some colleagues for lunch when I noticed him in the corner by the elevator. I'd seen him many times before, but I had never got up the nerve to introduce myself. I was hoping to find a time when I could get him alone, but there was no such thing as alone in a public place anymore. He had his computer unrolled on the table and was busy writing when I came up to him.

"Mind if I have a seat?" I asked, not sure what to expect. 

"Your boyfriends over there put you up to this? What comes next? 'I want you so bad'?" he barked, picking up his computer and retracting the display and keyboard. He let them snap in like a window shade, almost breaking. "Or are you just going to cut to the chase and tell me I shouldn't eat enough for two people when we got ten billion around?" he continued, sticking the computer in his shirt pocket and heading for the elevator. 

I really wanted to say something at that point, but I was choking on the words. I felt as if I'd been kicked for the hundredth time by a thirsty horse I was just trying to lead to the water trough. Every time I tried to get close to a man I was attracted to the same thing happened. I think I would have had better luck with the horse.

I was about to turn back when I noticed he left his stylus on the table. I picked it up and glanced toward the elevator. He had already boarded and was heading down. 

Fortunately that particular elevator only served floors 65 through 70, so he wasn't going too far. I sprinted for the stairwell and raced down to the 65th floor. I made it just as he was getting out of the elevator. The doors shut behind him.

"You left this behind!" I said, slightly winded. I waved the stylus at him, noticing it had a few bite marks on the back end.

"I lose those all the time. What, did you come all the way down here to give it back, or is this all part of your sick joke? It's a bit funnier if your friends can see it happen instead of you just telling them it did." 

"I.." I began, fighting just to get a sentence out. "I... didn't come here as a joke."

"Maybe you just wanted to say how concerned you are for my health. How I could be such a good person if I wasn't so.. fat," he said, almost spitting at the end of the sentence. I was also quite familiar with this response. "The way I choose to live is my own business. I happen to like who I am, even if nobody else does," he added as he began to walk back towards the elevator.

I stepped in front of the doors, trying to buy a few more seconds to try and let him know I wasn't the enemy. He turned toward the stairway door.

"I actually CAN walk up the stairs. The only robot I own is a security bot to keep people out," he said, going through the door. 

At that point I decided subtlety wasn't an option anymore. I ducked inside the stairwell before he could start climbing the stairs. I backed him up against the corner behind the door. He had that 'Oh, what is going to happen now?' look on his face.

"I better give this back before I let you go," I said, pushing up against him and fishing the computer out of his pocket. I jabbed the stylus into the slot and stuck the computer back in his pocket. "My name is Jaquina Teranopolis, but everyone calls me JT," I said. You couldnt really tell my Cuban and Greek heritage by my appearance, but the name was a dead giveaway.

"T - Terry," he said, swallowing hard. 

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything weird. Well, at least not anything embarrassing," I joked. I backed off, but only just a little. "Those guys you saw me with are just co-workers, they aren't really friends. We evaluate data from probes and solar system maps to find outer solar system objects for investors," I said, hoping to prompt a similar response.

"I'm a writer," he managed to volunteer. Not much, but it was something.

"You mean you actually write things, not just edit computer output?" I asked. With most writing being done by computer these days it was kind of surprising.

"Yes, some people actually appreciate the human touch," he said.

"Yes, some do," I said, reaching down for his hand. He did not pull it away, but his fingers did not clench around my hand. He looked into my eyes, as if trying to find a reason why within them.

"Is chasing down men in the break room a habit of yours?" he asked.

"Only the good looking ones with a head on their shoulders," I said, gripping his hand a bit tighter. He still did not respond in kind. He seemed a bit put off by my statement, but eventually replied.

"You might be better off with someone more like yourself. If anyone saw you with me, you would be the one being laughed at," he said, trying to let my hand drop away. I did not loosen my grip.

"The way I choose to live is my own business," I said. "I think I heard someone say that recently," I reminded him, trying almost too hard to connect on some level. "I don't care what anyone thinks anymore. I'm not going to lay down and just take it."

"Lie, lie down and take it. You lay something else down, but when you are talking about yourself you lie down," he advised. I could feel the fingers of his hands curl up and finally grip mine.

"Whatever, I always get those mixed up," I admitted. I could feel the warmth spread from his hand. I didn't realize how much I had tensed up until I no longer felt the tension. 

Breaking the ice was just the beginning, it was still an uphill battle after that.

I opened the window shutter. We would be launching soon and I didn't want to miss the view. I was paying almost as much for this flight as we did for the rock itself. Adding in the robots and equipment and our finances were stretched to the limit. My co-workers all thought I was wrong about the asteroid, so sold me their interest in shares at a fraction of what they were truly worth. This find would make us a fortune and give thousands of people a home away from the insanity of life on Earth. If I was right. I did not want to betray the trust it took me so long to build with Terry, a trust that was hard won indeed.

At first I thought Terry was just going along with me because he was afraid of what might happen if he didn't. It seemed like part of him desperately needed someone to be with, but the rest of him was hiding behind a stone wall. Whenever I tried chipping away at the wall, the troops behind it would start throwing rocks over the top. Sometimes you would just be sitting up against the wall yearning for what lies beyond it when without warning, a soldier would step out from behind it and shout a challenge at you. 

It happened during one of the many lunches we had together in our building. The ground floor had one of those 'whole foods' eateries that served the closest thing to real food that could be had. The prices were exorbitant, but Terry had no qualms about paying for our lunches. I didn't realize at that time Terry made almost as much money as I did. We both got sandwiches with real bread, cheese, vegetables, and vat-grown meats. 

"I just don't get what you see in me. Are you sure you wouldn't be better off with someone else?" Terry asked completely out of the hazy gray. There were times when I just wanted him near me, and there were times when I just wanted to kick him in the head. This situation was calling for the latter. I flopped my sandwich back down on the plate and let out a heavy sigh.

"Can't you just accept the fact that I like to be with you? For someone who says they are comfortable with who they are you sure don't act like it sometimes." I really shouldn't have turned it back on him like this, but I was tired of being made to feel like there was something wrong with me. 

"I'm just asking why, that's all. Can't you just give me a reason?" He asked. Of all the challenges the soldiers from behind the wall presented to me, this was their favorite.

No. I couldn't just come out with a reason, not while the soldier was pointing his gun at me and demanding an answer. Terry was the one who could drag words out of his heart whenever the need arose. Often I would just get shot down anyway and go off to tend to my wounds.

Man of words, woman of science. I could do more than calculate, I could feel just like any other woman. I just couldn't put it into words. I didn't know how to tell him that his body made me feel like I was some sort of goddess, swimming in the overwhelming essence that was man. Nor could I explain how I could feel the warmth that poured from his soul into me when I looked into his eyes and peered over the wall. Sometimes I felt like I was on the other side of that wall, sheltered from the hectic life beyond.

There were times when I could just FEEL that he thought he was just living in my shadow. Every time I got a bonus from a big find, every time I entered into some side project until the next big rock came along, and every time I studied up on the latest probe technology I could feel it. He never really came out and said it, but I knew that is what he felt. I could never find the words to let him know that it was his strength and love that drove me to keep testing myself. I didn't know how to tell him that it was ME that was trying to prove myself worthy of him. 

The cabin display advised everyone to strap in for the launch countdown. Launches along the equatorial accelerator were known to be pretty rough. They wanted to get as much speed as possible while still under power supplied on Earth. 

The ship with the robots and equipment was already launched during the previous window months ago. It would reach the asteroid and deploy the robots long before humans could reach it. There was a limit to the acceleration people could tolerate, even with dampening fields in place. There was no such limit for the robots and equipment. 

There was a half an hour until launch, so I took the chance to unroll my computer. It synched with the ship's internal network. Even though we had not launched yet, communications had been shifted over to the particle pair link. There would be time before launch for live text until the time dilation made real-time communication impossible. The communication offered was no-frills text chat and email, along with the occasional obnoxious ad blurb. Particle pair bandwidth was a precious commodity. I could see Terry was logged in and waiting for me.


----------



## Victim

*TerryT_2088>*_I miss you already. Eating lunch alone used to be a daily ritual for me. Now it's just boring._

*J.T._Rockhound>*_At least you get to eat 'real' food. Everything we get to eat is rectangular and oddly colored. _

*Terry>* _I'd deal with it just to be with you. I wish I could send you a big squishy hug before you take off, but that would probably take too much bandwidth._

*[Going on a skiing trip to Mars? Why not stop at The Great Crevasse Station? We have spacious and affordable quarters with spectacular views. Retrieve this ad for a 10% discount!]*

*JT> *_You would think if they have enough for those advertisements they could spare a picture or two. But I guess not, much of the bandwidth is used for ship telemetry anyway. _

*Terry>* _I know the guy who screens those ads before they go on to ParticleCorp. He makes almost as much as I do just for glazing over a few lines of computer output._

*JT>* _Everyone on any particle pair link sees those ads. They get inserted directly into the data stream. With an audience of a hundred million plus, nobody away from Earth is going to miss seeing them._

*Terry>* _Our last back-and-forth before you go and here we are talking about advertisements. I'm going to miss you..._

*JT>* _You'll be able to send me mail about once a week at first, but the delay will get longer each time. I'll see them about every half an hour. There is a lot of demand for the link here. This is the longest flight that has gone out for a while. Lots of laggers. They cut down on the cost of the flight quite a bit, so I guess I can't complain about them._

*Terry> *_I really don't see the point in flying around all the time just so the world goes by you quicker. It's not like things are going to get any better. Actually, I still think this is just a plot to make you younger than me. _

*JT>* _Darn, I've been found out! <grin> Don't worry, you'll still look like you're twenty something. You big guys don't seem to age as fast. It looks like we are about to launch. I love you. Don't worry, this will make it all worth it. How many people will be able to say they retired when they were 32?_
*
Terry>* _I don't think I can ever retire, not while I still have a voice. I love you too. I'll keep in touch._

The launch was not as rough as I expected. By the time we cleared the tracks and we were in the magnetic acceleration rings the G force was hardly noticeable. I don't think Terry would have much of a problem with the launch.

Soon after launch I received the first email from Terry. 

*Terry> *_I might have mentioned this before, but there is a medical procedure that can eliminate obesity. It just got World Health Organization approval. I don't understand the science behind it, but basically nanobots convert adipose tissue to water and waste products that can be removed by the kidneys and liver until they detect a certain metabolic signal, then they quit. There have been some drastic side effects, but it still got approval. 

I know a few people that are thinking about having it done. Saad's wife Najime is one of them. She weighs 352, just a bit smaller than me. Saad says she just wants to go out together and not get gawked at. She wants to shop for food without being accussed of starving the rest of the planet to death. 

I know what you're thinking, no, there is no way I'm going to do this. 

On a lighter note, I got an advance for a novel today. That will help our finances a bit. It should be out before you get to Charon, maybe you can download it from the station there. It's a political story. Not my favorite genre, but that seems to be what people are looking for. Something to break the monotony of the world government.

Sending you a big fingers-locked back-cracking hug. Love you! _
*[Set all your broadcast streams to Radio Sol. With particle links on every major station, we are literally light years ahead of the rest!]*

I'm so glad he doesn't want to go through with the nanobot treatment. If he really wanted to I wouldn't stop him. It wouldn't change anything now. I could never leave him just because he decided to lose weight. The man I found on the inside is just as big and wonderful as the man I saw on the outside. I sent my reply.

*JT>* _If Najime really wants to have the treatment for herself then she should go ahead. If she is doing it for Saad then she might want to ask him if that is what he would really want. 

Great news on the advance! I'm sure you won't have any difficulty writing a political novel, you don't exactly keep your views of the world a secret anyway. I don't think ANYONE finds the World Government interesting anymore. With computers suggesting the changes and hundreds of people voting on them, there is no chance for anything extraordinary to happen anymore. There have been some really bad leaders in the past, but every once in a while one of them had the courage to do something.

I could really use one of those hugs right now, launch wasn't that bad, but sitting in this chair for hours on end really throws out my back. I love you!_

*Terry>* _Najime decided not to go through with the procedure, but she might have to do it anyway. Her insurance won't continue to cover her unless she has it done, and the shipping company she works for won't let her stay unless she has health insurance. At least she won't have to pay for the procedure, the WHO came forward and said they will pay to treat anyone who qualifies for free. 

You read my mind on the novel! An idealistic expatriot of the world government creates an independent state with political parties and representative government. At least that is what the publisher's promotional blurb says my story is going to be about, you know how that works.

Sending the quick, let's-compress-a-zillion-"I love you's"-into-a-hug-because-you'll-be-late-catching-the-cable-lift-to-work hug. I love you! (I guess that makes it one zillion and one)_

*[Tired of ration bars and "pizza in a puck"? Good, wholesome food is not limited to the inner planets anymore. Try Lightyear Foods, available at most stations and ship canteens.]*

I could use some real food right now, but the damned laggers already bought up everything worth eating. It must be nice to have more disposable income than brains. Of course, that is what everyone said to me when I decided to buy all the shares in the asteroid.
"I have no problem selling my shares because there is NOTHING there but rock and MAYBE some iron and nickle." I remember Nathaniel saying.

"Did that fat headed husband of yours put you up to this? I don't get what you see in him. It's a miracle anyone would pay for something that your average pen PC can churn out in fifty microseconds." His lecherous brother chimed in. I felt like ripping his throat out on the spot, but I think that might have had a slight influence on their decision to unload the shares on me. At least Carl remembered I was married then. It never stopped him from hitting on me every chance he got though. He took one look at Terry and decided it was open season on me. I never told him exactly why he had about as much chance as an ice cube in the solar wind.

For all their faults, the McLaren brothers are top-notch scientists, and well respected in the rock hounding community. They just don't have instincts. We all looked at the same numbers. They could see XL0326 was there. They could see there were hundreds of minor objects in the area obscuring the measurements. They could even see it rotated. They just couldn't see the significance of the distortion of the data from the surface that coincided with the exposure of one face of the asteroid. Even when I pointed it out to them, they just couldn't see it. I saw it. One entire side of the plateau shaped object was awash in comet dust and ice. There would be enough water and minerals to support a colony numbering in the thousands. I went ahead and told them this, and it was documented too. So was their refusal to believe that there was any truth to it. 

Our claim on the object was ironclad, there was no way it could be attributed to fraud and deception later. It took a while to explain it to him, but even Terry could see what I was talking about. His infinite patience and understanding was among his many blessings, even if he couldn't remember where he put anything.


----------



## Victim

*JT> *_Let Saad and Najime know my prayers are with them. That is a horrible choice to have to make. You shouldn't have to let your body be eaten alive just to hold a job. I guess the WHO is paying for it because it is cheaper than cleaning out blood vessels or growing new hearts. _

_I hope your novel does well, that sounds like just the kind of thinking we need right now. The offworlders will eat it up as usual, they really hate the computer stories after reading endless numbers of them. 

It won't be long before we stop at Charon and pick up the particle link to the bots on XL0326. We have already been paying rent on it for six months, if this venture is a wash they'll want it back ASAP. Don't worry, I'm not having second thoughts. 

That last hug was just a bit too quick, I need something... big. (don't I always?) I love you!_

*Terry> *_Najime isn't doing so well. She dropped almost 100lbs since our last email. She is in the hospital with almost total renal failure. They are growing new kidneys for her, but the doctors are not sure if they will be ready in time. The theory right now is that the nanobots were churning out more waste than the kidneys could process. Go figure. 

Everyone else seems to be having no problem at all with this. The WHO is pushing the WG to make the procedure mandatory, citing that it will relieve the strain on the world's food supply. I don't really see how they can force people to go through with it. I'm certainly not.

I finished the story and sent it off to the editors. They wanted a story of political upheaval, so that is what they got. 

Sending you one of those hugs where you are sitting in your office chair and I lean over you and just bury you. I love you very much!

_ *[Waiting for AFFORDABLE particle pair communications? The wait is OVER! ParticleCorp has finished testing the first privately owned particle/antiparticle separation collider. Reserve your very own set today!]*

We arrived at Charon shortly after I received Terry's last message. I wasted no time in disembarking and heading for my temporary lab. Not only could I deploy the robots over the particle link, but I would be able to chat with Terry. 

*JT> *_I liked your last hug. Can't wait for the real thing! How have you been holding up?_

*Terry>* _Not that well. JT, Najime... She didn't make it..._

*JT> *_Oh God, that's terrible. What happened?_

*Terry>* _She was on dialysis waiting for the kidneys to come out of the vat when she fell into a coma. She died two days later. They are still trying to figure out what happened._

*JT>* _How is Saad taking this?_

*Terry>* _He was really broken up at first, now he is just mad. I don't blame him one bit. He's starting a petition against making the procedure mandatory. I'm going to help him_.

*JT>* _I'd tell you to stay out of trouble, but I KNOW that isn't going to do one bit of good. Just do whatever it takes._ 

*Terry>* _It's too late, I think I'm already in trouble. The editors liked the story as is, but when they submitted it for publication the WG’s Information Distribution Administration flagged it for 'subversive content'. It is going to take a major rewrite. The publishers still gave me the rest of the money for completion, but we can't make any REAL money off of it until people can actually download it._

*JT>* _I might be able to help in the money department. I'm waking up the robots as we speak. In a matter of hours we'll know for sure._ 

*Terry>* _There are enough people hacked off at the WG right now they will pay quite a bit to live offworld. I've been thinking really hard about this. I don't think I like it here anymore. Do you think WE could try living there?_

*JT> *_As long as you are with me, it doesn't matter where we live. It all depends on what we find there and what we'll have to buy later. _

*Terry>* _I should let you get to work then. After all, we can't let the laggers wait around in real time for TOO long. _ 

*JT>* _LOL. Yes, I should get to work. I love you. I'll alert you when I find something._

*Terry>*_ I love you too! Good luck!_

It took two agonizing hours to get the equipment package into the correct orbit and power up the robots. The robot I configured as a probe would assume a low, fast orbit and map out the surfaces of the asteroid. Complete coverage would take only about forty minutes or so. 

I received a signal over the particle link that data was now available. The trick was knowing the limitations of your robots and what data really mattered. There wasn't enough bandwidth over the particle link to send full motion video or even pictures. I decided on a comparison of the surface scans. If one side of the object was markedly different than the rest of it, that would be a pretty good indication it was subjected to a comet collision.

The probe bot calculated a significant difference in the refractive index on one area compared to the rest of the object. The feeling that I hit the jackpot was creeping over me. This was confirmed by landing bots on both sides of the asteroid and analyzing core samples. It was the 'dirty snowball' I was hoping for, and much more. 

The asteroid was the approximate size and shape of the state of Nevada, and about 80 kilometers thick. The mass of the original object was mostly iron and nickle, indicating it had once been the core of a rocky planet. The ice crust on one side was several thousand meters in depth. The presence of many minerals and complex organic molecules was detected in abundance in the ice. There appeared to be little loss of ice due to sublimation since the sun was so far away.

This meant that habitations could be built and sustained for thousands of people. Water was plentiful. Sufficient energy to synthesize food was available from the temperature gradient between the two sides of the asteroid. The presence of complex organic molecules would make the task of synthesizing food much easier. 

I reconfigured the robots to begin assembling the orbital platform and a temporary base for themselves on the asteroid. By the time I arrived there in six months the orbital platform would be ready to use.

*JT> *_We did it!! The rock is a gold mine. Or to be more accurate, an ice mine. _

*Terry> *_I never doubted you for a second. You’re a genius, you know that…_ 

*JT>* _I couldn’t have done it without you. You believed in me when nobody else would. I love you…_

*Terry>* _So we can live there. I can keep writing, but what about you?_

*JT> *_I can buy the robots and particle link outright and use the asteroid as a base. I wouldn’t have to speculate on data gathered from long range probes. With this many objects in the area, XL0326 isn’t the only one that got a comet washing. We would have just over a year to explore the area for previously undetected objects before other people showed up and started claiming them._

*Terry>* _Are you sure you want to do that?_

*JT>* _I can’t live in a world that hates us any more._ 

We continued to discuss arrangements to move to the asteroid. Terry would have control of the shares, it would be much easier to sell them from Earth. Living away from the bulk of humanity seemed pretty scary at first, but we wouldn’t be completely alone. Offworlders seemed to accept just about anyone as good company. 

The laggers were glad to hear that the journey would continue. One of the richer ones even rented a ParticlePhone from the station before we departed. 

We launched at a much greater speed than we had from Earth. There was a lot of distance to cover between Charon and the outer belt. 

The time dilation was quite severe, there were not many chances to exchange emails with Terry. The situation on Earth had gone from bad to worse. The WG couldn’t outright force anyone to have the nanobot treatment, but they were denying housing assistance, medical treatment, transportation and multitudes of other services they felt were being &#8216;unduly stressed’. Even the extra allowances we received for no children were being denied. 

It was only a few days of flight time before we reached the platform orbiting XL0326. Real time radio communications with the robots was possible. This was the purpose of the whole trip. The surface intended for colonization could be mapped and parceled out. Types and quantities of available resources could be determined as well. This would dictate the ultimate value of the find. Nobody would want to live there if they had to buy excessive amounts of supplies from elsewhere. 

It took a week to survey the asteroid and download all the data. The robots had completed the temporary base on the surface, but it was mostly for their own maintenance. There was no landing craft on the ship anyway. All the robots could now be retasked to mining and refining metals. By the time colonists would reach XL0326 in about two years there would be ample building materials.

During that time I was once again able to chat with Terry in real time. There were obvious signs of stress, and I was quite sure there was something he wasn't able to tell me. Right before I was ready to depart on the trip back to Earth, it finally became apparent that something was wrong.


----------



## Victim

*Terry> *_They are monitoring our chat and email, that much is certain. I don’t want you getting hurt. They already want to talk to you, whatever that means_. 

*JT>* _Whatever happens, I’ll stand by you. Just hang in there until I get back._

*Terry>* _It will be too late by then. There is one thing I need to be clear on. DO YOU TRUST ME?_

*JT> *_Of course I do. Just be with me, that is all I ever wanted._ 

*Terry>* _It might be some time before you hear from me again. Well, at least for me. They know something is up, but I can’t advertise what I’m doing. Just trust me, OK. I love you._ 

*[Starved for news from home? Live news feeds will soon be available. Keep watching right here for the latest information!]*

We accelerated away from XL0326 gradually, having only the ship’s own power to rely on. I kept dwelling on Terry’s last words. He was in trouble with the WG and it wasn’t just about his writing either. 

My email had been silent for over an hour. I’m not quite sure how long had elapsed on Earth, but I was getting quite worried. I decided to email some of our friends.

*Marla>*_ I haven’t seen Terry in weeks. Your apartment has been completely cleared out. He hasn’t published anything for a while either.

Last time I saw him he was trying to drum up support to oppose the nanobot obesity treatment program. He just sort of vanished after a while.

I hope you find him. I’m worried._

*[Finding people that share your interests is now easier than ever, even if you are heading offworld. Personal ads available at reasonable prices from Love Among the Stars] *

She wasn’t the only one that was worried. I was so desperate to find out what is going on I even emailed Carl.

*Carl> *_I’m glad to hear that rock turned out to be worth something after all. You will need something to fall back on now that Terry has abandoned you. 

He is wanted for questioning. I think he got hooked up with some group that was protesting mandatory obesity treatments and a bunch of other WG policies as well. I guess some people can’t take the hint that it is time to conform. 

The demand for food here has gone through the roof. Once we get everyone treated then things will go back to normal.

When you get to Earth, we can get together and talk. I think we can get your life back on track._

*[Fighting for your place in the world? Our network of friends can arm you with the knowledge you need to succeed. We aren’t afraid to do what is right. Information Liberation Services.]*

What a jackass. Talk about people that can’t take a hint. I’m not sure if he wanted my money or my body, but he wasn’t getting either. It did sound like Terry was in trouble though, and he wasn’t alone. All I could do was think about Najime and Saad. 

The information Carl’s brother added was a bit more useful.

*Nathaniel> *_I hope everything turns out all right. I caught Carl’s email. I’m sorry if he was coming across a bit on the crass side, but you know Carl.

I can sift through statistics as well as anyone, and I think I know what is happening with the food supply. We’re feeding the nanobots and not people. It seems almost everyone is getting the &#8216;treatment’ whether they think they need it or not. Now you can look like a swimsuit model and eat anything you want. I can see what Terry was fighting against now.

Carl did find some interesting facts though. We were trying to buy some of our OWN shares (damn you, good job!) back so we could at least have our own forward probe base.

The announcement of the find went out over all the particle and broadcast networks. The WG decided to put a lien on all the sales, but the shares had already been converted to bearer deeds of entitlement. Whoever has these OWNS your rock and not even the WG can do anything about it. _

_We couldn’t find any of these for sale either. Whatever Terry did with your shares it doesn’t seem to have put a single Euro in the bank. _

*[Worried about your marriage? Is someone else in control of your destiny? We will break their link and set you on your own course. When negotiation is no longer an option, there’s Separation Specialties.]*

I wasn’t sure what was happening anymore. Whatever Terry was being forced to do, I wanted to be there with him. I wanted to be hiding behind the wall, where nothing could get to me. Where the soldiers could watch over me and I could be alone with the man I wanted to spend my life with. 

I didn’t have much more time to think about it when the pilot’s voice came over the intercom.

“Jackie, we got something really weird going on here,” he advised in a worried tone. 

“What’s wrong?” I replied over the intercom.

“Our communication feed is down. I know that has happened before when the Earthside particles lose containment, but this is… different…”

“What do you mean, &#8216;different’?”

“The control signals from Earth stopped too, which is normal when a link is lost. We can just assume manual control after that. But now, we got the control signal back. That’s impossible.” 

It was indeed impossible. Once the particle or antiparticle on either end of a link loses its magnetic containment it is destroyed and the relationship between the two is lost forever. 

The only conclusion that could be made was that the particle was removed from the network with the containment and data link intact, then restored later.

“With a control signal present the ship won’t let you modify our course manually, so there is nothing we can do but just continue on,” I advised.

The communication channels were commercially owned, but WG facilities housed the Earthside particles in guarded vaults. The actual input and output to the particle pair transceivers was regulated by the WG as well. This way they could gain control of any ship in the system.

Before we had much time to contemplate the cause of this, another issue became apparent. The ship’s computer had announced five minutes to emergency deceleration. We had to strap into our flight chairs. This was going to get quite rough.

“What now?” I asked.

“Looks like we’re heading for Europa. Braking hard to make a tight window.” 

The flight was just my mission, and a few laggers along for the ride. I guess the WG didn’t want to wait to &#8216;talk’ to me about Terry.

We were crushed back into our flight chairs by the G forces. After what seemed like an eternity we stopped using fuel to decelerate and we were once again able to go about the ship.

The ship’s communication network was down, so I decided to venture out into the ship. All I could do now was wait. The laggers had gathered in the common area. They were syncing their pen PC’s with the ParticlePhone that was rented at Charon. When not bragging about which one of them had the largest age gap, they seemed focused mainly on reading news feeds.

The laggers were quite friendly once you got to know them. They were even gracious enough to let me use some bandwidth to receive one more email from home.

*Marla>* _Not only has Terry disappeared, but almost all of his new friends have as well. That’s an awful lot of people. Most of them were his size. I knew a couple of them. Not only are they gone, but their property has been sold and their bank accounts cleaned out.

I hope you manage to make it out of all this unscathed._

*[Come play in the newest Virtual Worlds universe. Every new player gets their own stake in an offworld sovereign nation! Build a colony far from Earth and raise your own military to defend your new life!]*

I thanked the laggers for their generosity and sat down to stare out the viewport. Even at this speed the stars looked like they were standing still. My contemplation of the scene was interrupted by an argument among the laggers.

“I think they just want ships. There really isn’t enough money here to risk a full retaliation by the WG,” one quite tall lagger said.

“Speak for yourself, they can hold me for ransom for millions,” the richer lagger said.

“What’s going on?” I asked them. They stopped to look at me.

“Maybe they want your asteroid. You probably have more money than I do by now,” the rich lagger said.

“Who is &#8216;they’ and what did &#8216;they’ do?” I asked in a frustrated tone.

“That terrorist group on Earth hit the particle pair facility at Mt. Laurel. They got away with hundreds of active links. I think that is why we’re going to Europa. They want our ship!” the tall lagger exclaimed. “They had military hardware and soldiers. There is a rumor there were military defectors with them too,” he added.

I sat back down and gazed out at the stars once more. I didn’t know if Terry was dead, in prison, or now weighed 150lbs and was living it up on a beach in Barrow, Alaska with one of those swimsuit models.

I should have known better than to think that. I realize he was in trouble of some kind, but was it too much to ask for a simple message? 

I wished I could just plug into one of those Virtual World games and go live in my own universe. Why they heck would they waste ad money trying to drum up players from offworld anyway? It wasn’t like the particle links could handle the bandwidth that a decent simulation needed anyway. 

Oh no, they couldn’t. There wasn’t a big need for divorce lawyers out here either. It was then I remembered Terry knew who put those ads directly into the data streams, where the WG had no chance to censor them. I practically tore the display and keypad off my computer pulling it open. I scrolled back through the emails to read the ads.

It wasn’t long after that until we reached Europa station. The facility was quite large. Ships moving supplies from all around would stop here. I could even see some military ships here. There hasn’t been any combat out here since they ran out of ice on the dark side of the moon, but that didn’t keep the WG from maintaining a military presence. 

Now that we were docked at a station, the ship’s security system allowed the containment bottle for the particle pair to be removed. The pilot pulled it out from the navigation console and brought it with him.

I disembarked along with the pilot and laggers. They followed me for a bit for lack of anything better to do. There was no welcoming committee like we had been expecting. I wandered the station. 

I sat down at a terminal and asked the pilot for the containment bottle. I plugged it into the terminal. If Terry was in control of the other side of the link, only he could see my message. 

*JT> *_I will find you no matter what it takes. We will be together even if it means living on our rock alone in the dead of space._

_We'll be back to Earth soon. I don't even know where to start looking. Any place I can think to search I'm sure anyone else would too. I just want to curl up with you all around me.

Failing that, I think I'll just go back to my quarters and lay down for a bit._

I finished my message and was about to hit the send button when I noticed a stylus sitting on the counter. The back end had been chewed to the point where it could no longer be inserted into its slot in a computer. I could feel someone behind me, watching.

"There you go again. You LAY something down, but LIE yourself." A deep and grateful voice spoke from behind her stool.

I whirled the stool around and stood up, to be completely engulfed by Terry's arms. We stood embraced for what seemed like an eternity, as though supplying the human contact that was missing from our two years of distant conversation. I opened my eyes and peered over Terry's shoulder, noticing we were being observed by at least two dozen people. Many of them were quite large themselves. Many of them also appeared to be armed. I broke out of our embrace, startled at the scene.

"They're with me. We left Earth on not-so-good terms," Terry advised.

“The military is going to come after us, if you’ve done what I think you have,” I warned. 

"That is going to be really hard to do without these," Terry nodded to a large red haired woman, who cheerfully set down a tote she was carrying and opened it. Several magnetic containment cylinders were inside.

“These belong to the military ships outside. Their commanders are already with us, we just needed to &#8216;liberate’ the links,” Saad explained. 

“We sent the ships that were not under our command on a little trip. After they burn off all their fuel, they will still have about a two year trip back. We won’t be seeing them again for a long time,” the large red haired woman added.

"We have our own ships and equipment to habitate. Everyone with me bought all they could for the colony. The asteroid is a separate nation, not affiliated with the WG. At least that is what our mandate says,” Terry explained. “JT, I asked you to trust me. There is no money. I didn’t sell the shares on the open market. The WG would have taken it all. Everyone here owns it equally. We all have titles for our own areas, but the resources belong to the inhabitants,” Terry added, a terrified look on his face.

I turned back toward him and gave him a deep, lingering hug. “I don’t want to live in a world that hates us. We have all we need to be together away from all that. What you did I never would have had the strength to do,” I confided. 

I spoke to him, but without words. I let him know with my heart that he was not living in my shadow, I was living in his light.

THE END​


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## Risible

I enjoyed that little offworld trip, Victim. Great dialog!


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## Victim

Risible said:


> I enjoyed that little offworld trip, Victim. Great dialog!



Glad you liked the dialog, when it went to print some of that got edited out.


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## Risible

I have to say, I edited out "God" as that violates the Library's rules, but didn't see anything else to object to. ?


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## Victim

I wasn't aware of that, I've read the library rules and style sheet, but that one slipped by.


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