Chapter Text
“So… co-leaders of the expedition?” I spoke cautiously.
“A necessary compromise, for the moment.” Bohai nodded stiffly. “The Admiral has proven singularly obstinate and uncooperative.”
“Military types often are overly focused on official rank and protocol.” I kept my tone carefully neutral. Bohai had taught me this much.
“Yes. Short-sighted.” Bohai nodded, smoothing down his jacket. “Fortunately, I was able to think of the good of the Quen and accept the insult.”
It was with one of the greater efforts of my life that I contained my snort. “Indeed, Diviner.”
Bohai shot me a slightly suspicious look, then relented with a sigh. He rubbed his forehead.
The Admiral had got the better of him. I contained my smile.
And if Bohai could be defeated in political games, on his home turf…
Maybe there’s hope for all the world’s underdogs.
“Well. Someone needs to keep an eye on the needs of the people and it certainly won’t be our new military companions.”
“A good leader is close to the hearts and minds of his followers.”
“Yes, Alva. Indeed.” Bohai nodded. “I want you to spend the whole day tomorrow mixing with the common staff of the expedition. Learn everything you can and report back tomorrow evening. I have thinking to do. A great deal of it.”
“Of course, Diviner.” Typical. He was already thinking to do about how best to spin this to his advantage back home, or undermine the Admiral here.
I could see him now in front of the Board of Overseers.
“After the disaster separated us - completely unavoidable, I’m certain the Admiral did all he was capable of - and a stroke of ill fate left my half of the expedition without the Ceo, I naturally rallied the troops and intensified efforts to recover data. The data you have before you now. And when the Admiral belatedly returned to us and demanded to seize overall command once again, I naturally acquiesced. But he needed me to maintain the loyalty of the troops who felt failed by him, and to maintain our pace of Legacy artefact recovery. If you’ll turn to page 2, you’ll find a summary of all the finds made on my watch…”
But that was for another day.
“Very good.” He nodded slowly. “Despite Gerrit’s obstinacy and naked ambition, we can still come out of this ahead, Alva. Promotion to the Board for me. A promotion and increase in status for yourself, and naturally my ongoing support. And we can see what we can do for Federa. I hear she has some expensive tastes. You could treat her luxuriously.”
Ooh, he really was desperate, bribing me. Exciting.
I nodded solemnly.
Bohai’s face inched one millimetre towards a frown before he established his mask of impassiveness, and he swept from my tent.
So. Data work tonight, seeing whether anything from the latest set of ruins could be useful against Nemesis. Then reviewing the correspondence from Erend. He had a list ofquestions for me on Old World technology they’d dug up. Oh and I’d just got an alert from GAIA, which was…
… a maximum priority message??!
Oh dear. Not again.
I opened it and started.
It was a recording of Aloy, Beta, and GAIA in GAIA’s projector room.
“Hi Alva.” Aloy smiled sheepishly. Beta waved with a wide smile and GAIA inclined her head. “I, uhh… have to say sorry.”
“Because you want to.” Beta interjected.
Aloy glared at her for a half second. “Yes, I want to say sorry because I recognise I was… extremely difficult. They’re not forcing me.”
I giggled. As if anyone could make Aloy do anything.
“And… we’ve put something together for you. Executable file is attached to the message.” Beta beamed. “It’s from all of us! With supplementary love from Seyka.”
“I have put a great deal of effort into ensuring this program is maximally secure and functional.” GAIA spoke in her smooth, calming tones. “You will not need to worry at all, I assure you. It will however, only work once. I recommend using it immediately.”
“And don’t go for any longer than thirty minutes!” Beta chimed in.
“The program is completely safe up to and including thirty minutes.” GAIA clarified. “But beyond that… a low level of risk exists, which grows over time.”
“Also,” Aloy added, smiling. “Sylens and I have found some initial places to look for options for the fight against Nemesis. Some of the facilities are in or near Quen territory, so we’re going to put you on those once we know a little more. Fancy a trip back home?”
My breath caught in my throat. I nodded eagerly for a moment, then remembered it was a recording.
A reason to go home? Or near home? That would actually help the group effort? Amazing!
The trio let out a wave (Aloy), kind smile (GAIA), and blown kiss (Beta) and the message winked out.
What wonderful news! Oh, and there was the executable, tied to the message.
Now what did it do… hard to tell at first glance. Well they said to use it now, so I didn’t have time to parse the code.
A few swipes and it started running. I frowned. It looked like it was running some kind of complex encryption and masking protocol. Now it was making an external connection, beyond GAIA’s net. What was it-
Federa appeared right in front of me.
I shot to my feet, everything slotting into place.
Encryption. Masking. Thirty minutes.
Federa!
Well, a hologram. Close enough!!!
Federa’s eyes widened. She stared at me. “Alva?” She whispered.
I smiled as widely as perhaps I ever had. “Federa!”
“Are… are you…”
“I’m great!” I stepped a little closer… nose to nose. “And, umm, we don’t have a lot of time. So to start with…”
I lifted my hand up to almost touch her cheek. “I’m alive. I’m safe. I miss you, I love you… and in a few months time… I’ll be back with you.”
Federa let out a sound of pure joy. “Also alive. Also safe. Miss you… so so much. Love you… so much more than you love me-”
I couldn’t help my grin. “It’s not a competition-”
“It’s always been a competition with us-”
“- and if it was, I would win.”
“And I cannot wait to have you next to me.” Federa raised her hand to my cheek.
Oh no, I was gonna cry.
Oh, I was already crying. Okay, it was happening.
And Federa was crying too. So that was okay then.
“But even this is so much more than I ever expected.” Federa looked at me and smiled. “And I’ve noticed my Focus is sending junk data back to Compliance.”
“It might be.” I beamed.
“Care to catch me up?”
“Yeah. But I’m gonna give you the short version. Because there’s other things I want to use your time for.”
“Oh?”
I nodded. “Very much. But, story time… I made some friends. And they taught me a lot about the world, and our place in it, so much about the Legacy…and then they helped me talk to you.”
“I like the sound of these friends.” Federa smiled. “They seem good for you."
“They are.”
“I’d love to meet them.”
“I’d love that too.”
“Tell me the rest in a few months?”
“Okay.”
“Alva…” Federa blinked several times.
“Federa?”
“I am so angry at you.”
“Oh noooooo…”
“But I’m going to put that aside because I have missed you so, so, so much.”
“Oh. OH!” I nodded, smiling. “What about if I promised that… once I’m back… that I’ll never leave again?”
Federa nodded firmly. “That would take the edge off. I suppose.”
“In a few months at the most, I’ll be back home. I’ll run to you as fast as my legs can carry me. And when I get to you, I’ll hold you so tightly that nobody can separate us. And when I have to let go, I will never travel far away ever again. Because when I cross an ocean, or climb a mountain, I want you by my side. Always and forever.”
Oh, that was a lot. I swallowed. “I mean… if… if that’s okay?”
Federa looked at me for a moment, then smiled warmly and said the most beautiful words I’d ever heard. “Always and forever."