The Jaegers returned to their suite later that night, Zorlond and Kiya, with young Anna in tow (she had been at the party as well, just in the background where Lizzie hadn't seen her). As Kiya closed the door behind them, Zorlond stretched, arms out wide. "Mmm... Good to relax after a crisis. And free cake helps too..."
Kiya chuckled. "I'm just glad my head is my own now. Sharing space with Chess..." Her smile faded. "I think she's having problems, I kept having the feeling she was fighting something internal."
Zorlond frowned slightly. "Something to do with Legion?"
Kiya shook her head. "No, something else. Like she was fighting her own godhood."
"That's worrisome." A thoughtfull pause. "She was acting rather..."
"Like a cold-hearted bitch?" Anna shrunk under their glares. "What? C'mon, didn't you guys notice?" Trying to casually dodge their looks, she took a seat on the couch.
Zorlond sighed. "I did, but watch the language. Next time I see her, I'll try to talk to her about it." Zorlond perked back up slightly, setting that problem on a back burner. "For now, I'd say we all deserve some rest and relaxation. Think I'll just go take a nap..."
"Sounds good, think I'll join you," Kiya stated.
As they turned to go, Anna muttered, in sotto voce, "Oh yeah, I see a whole lotta sleep happening there..." When both parents turned back to stare at her, Anna sunk in her seat a bit. "Shutting up now..."
Zorlond and Kiya left, heading for their room. With a snap of his fingers his robes dissapeared, leaving a set of PJ bottoms in their place. As he started laying out on the bed, he noticed Kiya had gotten naked when he wasn't looking. Zorlond paused. "Ya know, I did mean what I said, as in, just feel like a nap."
Kiya smiled. "Calm down, I just don't feel like putting on anything right now. Besides, you might want to later..." She climbed onto the bed and curled up next to him, one arm draped over him. After she settled in, Zorlond smiled and just closed his eyes...
And re-opened them a mere 5 minutes later. Sighing softly, he glanced at Kiya, noting that she too was still awake. "Mind too busy?"
"Yeah. You too, huh?"
It was a common enough cause of sleeplessness for them. Too many thoughts running around, banging into each other, causing a ruckus, making it mentally too noisy to fall asleep. The cure was, fortunately, simple. Do something with all that mental energy. Looking over to the seeing stone, Zorlond spoke up a bit. "Flat rock on the wall, please answer to my call."
After a brief clouding, the ghostly face appeared in the stone. *And here I answer -- What's up, Masters?*
Zorlond paused, working out the next rhyming command. "I want to see the primary thread, don't feel like getting out of bed."
*It's done... lazy bum...*
Zorlond frowned as the face dissapeared and the view of the dyson sphere thread appeared. "Lotta sarcasm going around today..." As expected, the inhabitants were going about their business of life. The view wandered around the cavern, showing this, that, and the other thing. Naturally, the 'other thing' was being done all over the place, as expected. As they continued to watch, Kiya's hand started wandering, unfortunately Zorlond was a bit too preoccupied for that. "Doesn't seem to be anything new. Thread must have stalled or something."
Kiya nodded. "It happens, you know it does."
"Mmm... Still..." Zorlond paused to work out another rhyming command. "Stone, extrapolate the thread, try a hundred years ahead."
The face appeared briefly. *A hundred years later, easy as 'taters'.*
Then the screen went black.
A pause. Zorlond frowned. "Stone, night vision.... Augh, just do it!"
*Already on. It's all just gone...*
Zorlond shot up in bed. "WHAT?"
*There's nothing to see, not even I's or T's.* Kiya spoke up, calmer than Zorlond. "Stone, check what this entails. Your extrapolation, did it fail?"
*My systems are fine, I have now thrice checked. At that point in time, there's simply nothing left.*
Silence.
Mon Jul 8 23:51:42 2002
Linking Enabled