[Danny]

and so... it ends.

CHAPTER 34

The journey to the hangar was quite uneventful in comparison to everything else that had happened over the last few days. We needn’t have worried about the intern giving us away, as we didn’t run into anyone else on the way. One possible explanation for this was that the gas from the tube had spread into the corridors, killing sligs. I seemed to remember something about it not being too healthy for glukkons either.

I was true to my word. When we reached the hangar, I allowed the intern to run away, instead of killing it. Yan and I chose a flyer to escape in, and then I told Yan to get in and wait for me. I then looked for the largest cargo flyer I could find, and went inside. I went straight to the engine room, and opened the reactor. I set the rifle’s power pack to overload, then threw it inside and made my way back to Yan in the other flyer. We got out of there as fast as we could, pausing only to watch as the reactor exploded, taking half of the building with it. I watched impassively, desensitised to the violence after all this time. I didn’t delude myself into thinking that it would put Carthag out of action totally, but I hoped that, combined with the gas problem, it would slow them down, and at the very least piss them off. Satisfied, I turned my eyes to the windscreen ahead.

Yan wanted to return to Cyrcit. I decided that enough people had died following my ideas, so I asked him to drop me off at the Frontiers, saying that I wanted to find natives. We had quite a tearful parting, as we were each other’s only friends now, but our paths led different ways, and anyway, I told him I was bad luck to be around, which he could hardly disagree with.

After Yan flew off bound for Cyrcit, I turned my attention to the ‘Wildlands’, as I’d always been taught to refer to them. Armed with as many food rations as I could carry from the flyer, I set off in search of a people to call my own.

Two months later, three of your scouts found me, emaciated and hallucinating, and brought me here, and the rest, as they say, is History.

CHAPTER 35

And now I must leave you. I’m not sure where I’ll go, but I need to sort myself out. I’ve lived a lie here for three years now, and I had to tell you, but I didn’t dare to stay and see what you thought of it. Call it Cowardice, if you like. I do.

I will probably return some day. I have no idea when. It may be tomorrow, it may be years from now, but you will see me again. I just need to find myself, as they say. I need to rid myself of my dark side. I thought for a while that I’d left it behind at Carthag, but I’ve only been burying it, just like I did when I created The Killer to take the blame. When I have found what I’m looking for, I’ll return. My heart will always be here.

Farewell,

Ulven.