"I speak to you as I must," Maria said, leaning forward infinitesimally. "Do not believe arrogance impresses me, nor evasion, because such are my domain. Now, explain. Please."

Eidolon's mouth worked for a moment as she bit back a rude reply, then she leaned back. "You would not believe me if I told you anyway."

Maria smiled patiently, as though Eidolon were a particularly promising candidate for her secret asylum for the feebleminded. "Some months ago, I sat naked on the surface of Triton breathing vacuum and wiping liquid nitrogen off myself as though toweling after a shower. Explain to me what 'unbelievable' is."

Eidolon sighed. Was she speaking with a madwoman? She studied Maria's face, seeing only annoyance and a desire for her questions to be answered. "Alright. A few years ago I visited Triton to see if there were any survivors, and to write some poetry about the place. I left behind some kind of space-time bubble--"

"How?"

"I am a goddess," Eidolon said flatly.

Maria tilted her head, smiled faintly as though humoring Eidolon's madness. "Continue."

"I don't know why I left it there; I just knew it would be needed someday, that it was important."

"Do you know how Occam's Razor applies in this situation?" Maria said flatly.

"Yes," Eidolon said, and laughed softly. The comment struck a nerve in her quirky sense of humor, and she shook her head, grinning. "We're both candidates for the funny farm and should pack it in now."

Maria nodded. "Fortunately, having seen as much as I have, I no longer believe in Occam's Razor, and I can sense no falsehood-- or insanity-- from you, and thus must believe you."

"Thanks."

Maria took a sip of her tea, winced and glared at the cup as though wanting to spit the stuff out and hurl it across the room. "The question then becomes, what do we do about this situation? I am dead; my body and brain are both apparently frozen beneath Triton's surface. I have no idea where my current self came from, and I do not really believe in an afterlife..."

Eidolon stiffened. "Wait. Your brain is still down there?"

Maria shrugged. "I detected its transponder signal as I left, yes."

"Then you're maintaining your consciousness-- how?"

"I came to ask you that,"

Eidolon whispered something in an ancient language that she did not even know the translation of, but seemed to fit. "Then you are as powerful as I. How can this be? You were born human--"

"You were not?"

Eidolon winced at the precise question. "I don't remember."

Maria nodded slowly, and, as though sensing Eidolon's troubled thoughts, drank the rest of her tea and rose. "I apologize for troubling you. But I think you have answers of your own to seek."

"Yes," Eidolon said, and as she spoke her next words, Maria said them in unison with her. "We will meet again."

"On Mercury," Maria continued in a whisper.

They stood there watching each other for a long moment, and Maria nodded in understanding. She bowed her head once, then turned and left.

Eidolon watched her go, the walked out into the rain and wind. "On Mercury," she echoed, and for an instant, she felt the searing sun on her face instead of the cold of the rain.

14 January 2838

Eidolon watched with disinterest as the new commandant for the Nova Columbus prison burst in with a number of gun-wielding thugs aiming emp rifles at her.

She wished she could just flick her hand and blast the lot of them out of existence-- well within the scope of her power-- but she was bound by the ethical constraints that had always controlled her behavior. She could not be killed, but she could be imprisoned, or broken, because she was incapable of releasing her power to defend herself. Even now, when she could blow the reinforced titanium wall down like tissue paper, she was forbidden: to do so while the Emperor was still alive would be to doom the men guarding her to death for failure. If she escaped, they would suffer at the hands of the Emperor...

Or perhaps not, she thought as she heard the alarms blasting through the city in the brief time the doors were opened. Eidolon slowly rose to her feet.

"Sit down!" the commandant snapped, punctuating his statement by jumping forward, planting a hand in her chest, and hurling her back into the bed. She winced as her head bumped into the wall, glad for the pillow that just happened to be in that particular place at just that right moment. "We need to have a little discussion."

Eidolon blinked when the man turned the chair at the table around and straddled it, leaning over the tall back and regarding her with deep interest.

"You predicted the Emperor's death," he said. "You knew what would happen today. I want to know how."

Eidolon spoke softly, her strong but quiet contralto muffled by the pillow she held in front of her like it would shield her from the emp rifles. "A star died six thousand years ago."

The man stared at her, impatience written on his pudgy, hostile face. "Yes, and some antimatter explosions popped off in the Andes, and the Sahara desert. And the Emperor was last known to be hiding in Peru, right underneath the smaller explosion."

"He is dead then?": Eidolon said in a curious tone.

The commandant's lips compressed into a thin line. "How did you know?" he demanded. "Were you in league with the assassins? Where did they get the antimatter for such an explosion?"

"There is no antimatter," Eidolon said softly, her thoughts somewhere long ago and far away. "There is only mind."

With that, she threw the pillow as hard as she could at the commandant. This startled him and he jerked backward, falling off the chair and knocking the table over. As the guards leapt to assist, Eidolon jumped to her feet and leveled a burst of destructive energy at the door, blowing it down. The two panels ripped loose from the wall and clattered against the wall on the other side of the corridor. By the time they fell to the floor and settled there, she was already out the door.

15 February 2651

Maria sat down in the crawler's cabin and motioned for her guest to come forward. Eidolon nodded, stood in the door to the cabin for a moment before taking the copilot's seat. Maria turned to look at her, frowning as she noticed that she wore no flash suit.

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