The Afterparty

[Nightfall]

The black Sabre went to a halt inside the hangar...

"Night.. return from Buffalo... we will need each other.." - that did not come from the comms...
"Mariella?" Bernard jumped out of his Sabre and ran straight to the med-bay where he left her to watch over Browning.

He hasn't found her there. There was only the battered old pirate with the name of an arms manufacturer from Terra. He looked at the man's face, the tubes coming in and out of him in a ballet of medical technology. Then he gazed at the monitors... as far as Bernard knew about it... the life signs were all stable.

"Man you look as if you could really use a good glass!"

Browning was like a father to him... he was his flight instructor... Most of the tricks Bernard knew were learned from Browning...

"Night.. return from Buffalo... we will need each other.." he felt the thought...

Bernard started feeling an aching emptyness in his heart that only she could replace and make it stop hurt. He ran out...

".. we will need each other.."...
"The Chappel" he thought and ran...

He stood a second in front of the door to regain his breath then entered the chappel. Mariella was kneeling in front of lit candles... She was a vision of beauty, a perfect figure, long hair falling down her shoulders... the lit candles were giving her the perfect lights...

"Mariella..." he whispered...

Bernard reached and touched her shoulder...

---

If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God? - from 'Nightfall' by I. Asimov
The Outcasts consider Siniestre Nube a sacred place for several reasons. Early explorers discovered a jumphole within the depths of the cloud that leads to a strange world of ringed stars and strange craft. All ships in the burrial ground are placed facing that hole to honor the Alien Spirits. - An Outcast rumor