Project Starfighter (53 page)

“Don’t worry, Chris,” she
said. “She will never be forgotten.”

“No,” Chris said. He sniffed,
tried to smile, failed. “I came here today to ask you ... I mean,
you shared a consciousness with her at one point, you shared your
body with her. I came here to ask you, do you think there’s any
part of her that’s still alive?”

Ursula smiled, and this time it
reached her eyes, no sadness present. “Of course there is.”

Chris brightened. “Really?”

“Yes,” Ursula nodded.

“Where?”

Ursula leaned over and touched him
on the chest, over his heart. “Here.”

It wasn’t what Chris had been
expecting or wanted to hear, but it was true. He smiled wryly and
then began weeping again, quite freely. Ursula waited patiently, a
comforting hand on his back.

“Thank you,” he said.

“She will be with you as long as
you live, Chris,” Ursula said. “You will carry her with you
wherever you go.” She then rose, taking up both the empty cups.
“I’m a little cold. I’m going to go inside, make dinner and
watch a movie.”

Chris took that as a hint that
Ursula wished to be left alone. He got up and kissed her goodbye,
before starting back towards his hover.

~

The
drone watched the young man from the porch of the house, seeing him
stop to gaze out over the still lake. It then saw him pluck a smooth
stone from the ground. He examined and tested its weight for a time,
before aiming and hurling it across the surface of the water. The
stone skipped a good seven times before it sank. The drone felt a
sensation of warmth at the sight, almost as if it was smiling.

THE END

About the Author

Stephen
J Sweeney was born in Brighton, UK, in 1977. PROJECT STARFIGHTER is
his eighth full-length novel. He attended Worth School in West Sussex
between the ages of ten and eighteen, after which he went on to study
environmental biology at Oxford Brookes University. Somehow, he ended
up working in IT in London (although he’s worse than useless if you
ask him to help fix your computer). You can find him online in
various different places:

Twitter -
@stephenjsweeney

Website -
www.stephenjsweeney.com

Email:
[email protected]