The Marraketh Connection: " ... and Back Again" Segment 12 of 12 By Technician Brynhild, VRDET R&D o/~ Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end o/~ - Semisonic, "Closing Time", _Feeling Strangely Fine_ "Bilbo looked quickly at Frodo's face and passed his hands across his eyes. 'I understand now,' he said. 'Put it away! I am sorry: sorry you have come in for this burden: sorry about everything. Don't adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story.'" - J.R.R. Tolkien, _The Fellowship of the Ring_ *** Finally, I got a little peace. Like it had been the last time I had been there - about a week and many adventures ago - the VRDET library was quiet. I sat at a table, reading my latest book (_The Tetherballs of Bougainville_). Semisonic blared out of my headphones, giving Mark Leyner's hallucinogenic prose some background music. *This _is_ the life.* As I indulged in my brain candy, I was secretly deep in thought. *I can't believe it's over. One moment, I'm eating, sleeping and breathing Marraketh; the next, I'm back on my home turf. For some reason, a week's rescue mission seems more important than a normal life.* *Hehe... normal life. That's a good one. Anyway, it's not just an end, it's also a beginning to so much else. Think about it! Marraketh must have been a nice place before the Wyrm came in; I'm gonna have to go back and see how it looks later. The Druids still need to tie up loose ends with me; they'll be glad to see me again. They know so much useful stuff, after all. Not to mention Petro... I never *did* get a chance to talk with him. So much to catch up on!* *Even if I never see Marraketh again, my life's changed. I'm not the person I was when I left here - physically *or* mentally. Heck, maybe shapeshifting will help me fit in with this crazy org. Not too many pure humans here, anyway. No matter, like I'll ever bother to shapeshift again. Or will I? Time will tell.* *All in all, it's like this quote I have in my brain... "'I laughed, I cried, I fell down, it changed my life'... Yeah... all of that. It changed my life, but it didn't end it, and maybe I'd learned some useful skills. Whatever becomes of me now, I am richer, poorer, and carry a sorrow I can never leave behind."[1] Could I say it any better myself?* I was deep in my revery when it was interrupted by the sound of a small, non-aerodynamic object flying through the air and landing on my desk. I took my headphones off and picked it up; it was my old copy of _The Hobbit_, a but worse for wear from the adventure if anything. Startled, I turned around to see Red behind me. He grinned at me. "Hey, Bryn. Here's your book." I stood up. "Thanks. Good dungeon reading?" Red chose to ignore the reference to his recent capture. (The story had already been told over the promised commissary lunch, but this was the type of thing I couldn't afford to let Red live down.) "Say, you up for some Red Alert? We'll make it two out of three." Now it was my turn to grin. "You're on. Keep in mind I don't lose twice." "Maybe... but you could lose three times." He laughed, and we walked to the computer lab. I never was a world-class Red Alert player, but for that first game I was really on my guard. I played a good, strategic game, and Red lost bad. I considered gloating, but I decided to wait a game. It was a good idea. That second game, I got distracted - I had a meeting with Mal shortly thereafter about possible leave. I had applied for a vacation, and he hadn't given me any word on whether or not it was a go. Truth be told, I wanted and needed the leave bad; some time not to think about Jihad stuff would be a godsend. I'd been planning something along those lines for quite a while, but a major mission like this gave me the perfect excuse to ask for the leave. The upshot of all this was that I wasn't concentrating on my game that next round. Red had wised up, and was playing a tighter game than the last. To an objective bystander, I never really had a chance. Once Red had soundly defeated me, he looked over at me and grinned. "Well, that was fun." "That wasn't fair! You didn't let me get any money!" I said, pretending to sulk. I didn't hold the loss against him at all, but it never hurt to play with his mind a little. He laughed again. "Well, I gotta go," Red said. "I said I'd meet some friends back home." *That reminds me - I need to call my parents. I mean, they know I'm off on `vacation' all summer, but they must be worried sick. And Mom rearranges furniture when she gets worried... How do I know the furniture is still in the galaxy?* Red continued on. "We'll play again sometime later." He walked through the door out of the library computer lab. "In the meantime, learn to play bett.... ahh!" I began chasing him down the hallway, for no particular reason other than that he had begun running. Just as I was close to catching him, he disappeared. "Bye!" I heard his disembodied voice say. I could still sense his aura going down the hall and back home, wherever that was for him. I snickered to myself. *How do I manage to make these weird friends? Wait a sec... my meeting's soon... what time is it?* I checked my watch. *15 minutes?! I better get going!* I raced for the stairs. *** The meeting went well but uneventfully. As I had expected, Mal had no great problem with me taking two weeks' leave to go on vacation, provided I brought my JihadLinker in case of an emergency. I agreed eagerly to that, even though I wasn't that eager to respond to an 'emergency'. I'd had enough of those for a while. As I was back at my room, packing my bags, I pondered some more. *Ye gods, I hope this is an actual _vacation_, for once. I need it something awful. Maybe Marraketh has staved off Murphy's Law for the time being, and I can just go to London and have a good time!* I found my hand resting on _The Hobbit_, which I picked up and stared at for a while. I pondered how it had changed my life and whether it was safe to bring it along to London. *Enh, why not? If nothing else, it's a great souvenir of some interesting times.* My suitcase zipped closed, my HQ dorm room semi-clean and ready to be left for a while, and my spirit slightly perked up, I looked forward to the next few weeks... an adventure had ended, but a new one - and hopefully a much less eventful one - was about to begin. - The End ... and The Beginning of something else entirely. [1] This is a quote from the end of the book _Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grill_, by Steven Brust. I recommend you try to find it; it's a good read, and it's really not as philosophical as the particular quote I used.