“There’s no need for soldiers. The peace between the Commonwealth and the Hegemony has held for almost twenty years now.”
“And you haven’t aged a bit.”
“I age much more slowly than you.”
She was silent for a while as we walked out to the edge of their cultivated fields.
“You’re on your way to find her, aren’t you? The woman you love.”
I nodded in the moonless dark. “Yes. I’ve got to find her, no matter how long it takes.”
“Do you need help? Is that why you’ve come?”
“No, no. You can’t help me. I’ve got to do this alone.”
“Can’t you stay here with us? With me?”
I looked down at her starlit face and saw that she was totally serious.
“I wish I could,” I said as tenderly as I could manage. “But I’ve got to find her. Wherever she is in time and space, I’ve got to go to her.”
Frede shook her head sadly. “You’ve done so much for us, Orion. Can’t we do anything for you?”
I smiled. “Live in peace, Frede.”
For me, I knew, there would be no peace. Anya was out there somewhere among the stars and I had to find her before all the timestreams of the universe unraveled and collapsed into a chaos that would shatter the continuum forever.
I was no longer Aten’s creature, bound to do his bidding through all the ages of the continuum. I am my own man now, I told myself. But I am still Orion, the Hunter. And my hunt is just beginning.