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you that every
one of our fifty odd staff were terrified. Some even considered leaving.”
    “I bet,” I said, picking at my food. I noticed that Stinson was
devouring his share, but paying close attention to the exchange.
    “They know how we feel about them,” Breth said. “They came in a
very small ship, and keep their distance from everyone. They have done
everything Val has asked them to do without question. We’ve managed to adapt to
their presence, Commander, but to say we are comfortable might be an
overstatement.”
    “Do you think their work together has anything to do with your
sister’s disappearance?”
    “Possibly, but how can we find out.” She paused and looked at me
somberly. “Do you think she is still alive, Commander?”
    “Undoubtedly. If they wanted to kill her, she would have been left
in the ship with the pilot.”
    “That makes sense I suppose. You will find her won’t you?” Stinson
looked over at me, wondering at my response, curious to see just how much I
would promise.
    “We will do our best,” I assured her.
    We ate in silence for a few minutes, then Lesa asked, “Is that a
wedding ring on your finger, Commander Malik?”
    Breth looked up from her plate. “It is,” I answered, “my wife was
killed at El Ferras.”
    Stinson looked at my face in awe, but Breth spoke first. “You were
at El Ferras?”
    “I’m from El Ferras.”
    “I’m…I’m sorry, Commander. I didn’t know that. Um, just how old are you?” she asked.
    “As old as you and your sister I imagine. Ferran Commandos were
some of the first recipients of Permalife. At the time, of course, we were taking
it for its healing abilities; none of us expected to survive to thirty, much
less live forever.”
    “You were a Ferran Commando…and survived the siege? Amazing,”
Stinson said.
    “Barely survived is more like it, but here I am nonetheless.”
    “But you still wear the ring,” Lesa said, bringing the
conversation back around to her initial question.
    “Yes,” I said
    “Ever since my aunt developed Permalife, marriage has become
viewed as a quaint old custom. ‘Till death do us part’ has taken on a new
meaning now that people don’t die. Marriage as an institution is practically dead,
Commander. Why still wear the ring?”
    I looked down at the simple gold band on my finger, remembering my
wife—the life we had, and the children we never would. “I just do,” I replied.
    As if privy to my thoughts, Lesa asked, “Do you have any
children?”
    “No. At that time, we didn’t know the treatment caused sterility.
In fact, I’m not even sure Miss Evans had finished her testing yet. Things were
pretty desperate back then.”
    Speaking of which . “Miss Evans, how is it
that you have a daughter when you and I are both from the same era?”
     “Ah,” she smiled. “I can thank my sister for Lesa. Val harvested
some of my eggs for her incessant experimentation, and when I decided I wanted
a child, she surprised me with Lesa. That was eighty six years ago. Now its
standard practice for a woman to preserve her eggs before undergoing the anti-aging
treatment, but in those days, no one thought to do it. Val gave me a second
chance.”
    It was a chance Natasha and I never got… Enough reliving the past;
there’s no time I’d like to forget more than that damned war.
    “We should be on our way,” I said, sliding my chair back from the
table. “Where is Val’s laboratory?”
    “Oh it’s right outside,” Breth replied. “It’s the building with
the airlock. She keeps everything of importance in there, including her
personal console. We searched it immediately, as soon as we heard about…well
it’s still unlocked.”
    “Her personal console is in the lab? Not in her office or bedroom?”
I asked.
    “Commander, my sister has banished all electronics from her wing
of the house. When she is here, she is….offline as it were. Besides her
incessant gardening, she says it’s the only way she can