Full Vessels (18 page)

“Technology made by science.”

“Science doesn't make technology. People
do.”

“They can't make tech without science.”

“Of course they can. They do it all the time,
Hess. Science isn't the only way to innovate technology.”

Hess raised a brow. “So you are claiming that
the people could build a nuclear weapon without science?”

“Maybe not a
nuclear
weapon,” she
said.

He drank and passed the bottle back. “This
conversation clearly isn't going anywhere productive.”

Elza nodded. “You've never been good at
abstract.”

“I never said you were right. Science was
clearly a bad thing. But you like it, so you'll never admit
it.”

She opened her mouth, then paused. After a
moment she shook her head. “You never thought I was empathizing
with the people?”

“Of course not. Don't you remember Iteration
one four three? You only agreed to help me build an empire after I
started bringing up all the technical challenges. You care about
ideas and I care about people. The only thing we ever really had in
common was we hate being apart.”

Elza took a violent swig and dropped an empty
bottle. “Then I'm an idiot.”

“Sometimes.” Hess picked up an unopened
bottle and read the label. “But at least you make a passable
sommelier
.”

A throaty giggle bubbled free of Elza, then
turned fragile as she leaned into him. “I'm so sorry, Hess. I don't
know why I keep messing up. I'm the rational one.”

“How about you promise not to do it
again?”

Elza locked eyes with him. “Do you want to
make a run for it? We might be able to escape the island. We could
spend a few centuries here until we're ready to go.”

“I'm ready now,” Hess said.

“Are you sure?”

He shrugged. “It's too late to escape now. We
would just waste our last moments running around this damn island.
Besides, it might be that chasing eternity misses the point. Maybe
we can't appreciate something until it ends.”

“The economics of immortality,” Elza said.
“Would you care to discuss the marginal utility of life?”

“While I hate to disappoint you . . . .” Hess
shrugged.

They drank in silence, watching the sunset
darken with time and smoke, hip to hip and shoulder to shoulder.
Periodic shudders provided unsubtle reminders of their limited
time.

“You know, I still don't understand what you
ever saw in me.” Elza stared into the distance. “I did everything I
could to drive you away.”

Hess pecked a kiss on her cheek. “Nice try,
but you can't saddle me with the blame for all of this. You started
it.”

Elza smiled. “I couldn't stand you, Hess. You
wouldn't relent until I loved you back.”

“Sure, your words said you didn't like
me.”

“Come now, Hess, you were the one who
gallantly rushed in to save me from my attackers.”

Hess shook his head. “I would have done that
for any Observer. I told you there was no reason for you to
experience that.”

“And I was quite clear that I was willing to
endure anything in service to the Creator.”

“I was able to tell the Creator everything He
needed to know about what the men did.”

“But you couldn't report how it
felt
.”

Hess turned his face away. “I knew
enough.”

“Witnessing and experiencing are two
different -”

“I
knew
, Elza. No one else had to go
through that for the Creator's curiosity.”

“You . . . . Oh.” She blinked. “You mean . .
. .”

“We aren't discussing it.”

Elza cleared her throat. “Well, this actually
makes our story more pathetic. I was a fat, unattractive woman with
a lazy eye who threw my heart at the feet of a beautiful man
because I mistakenly believed he liked me. Everything between us
started with mixed signals.”

“You were beautiful.”

“Please, Hess. Your fondness for curves came
later.”

“About the same time, as I recall.”

Elza took the bottle back and emptied it.
“The important thing is that, contrary to everything I ever
believed about our past, I loved first.”

“Well, if we're clarifying our time-line,
let's do it properly.” Hess opened another bottle. “I liked you
first, because you were so delightfully different. Then you
like-liked me back even though you sorta hated my guts. Then . . .
somewhere between leaving Kallig's tribe and the winter freeze I
decided I would never willingly leave your side.”

“So perhaps you were slightly more
pathetic.”

Hess pressed the bottle into her hands. “You
wrote me a love letter. You dumped me in it, but I still think that
cements your status as the romantic one.”

“I've lost track. Am I the pathetic one?”

“No. Mel is. And San. Greg, Griff, Erik,
Drake, Ingrid, Kerzon, and Jerome. They are the pathetic ones who
never managed to make a real connection with someone else.”

Elza stared at the red haze in the distance.
“You forgot Natalia. Unless you think she connected with her
friends from the last Cycle?”

A tight smile stretched across his face. “I
know she connected with that little dog in Iteration eight.”

Her befuddled expression gave way to a grin.
“She kept kissing that damn purse dog at the party! Do you think
the animal thing was really all just an act?”

“Elza, you can't fake true love.”

She settled more firmly against him. In the
distance, the dark smog emanating from the mountain lit up with a
demonic backlight that quickly increased in intensity. Elza sought
his hand and squeezed it. “Thank you for finding me all those
times. It meant everything.”

“I would do it all again.” Hess held his
woman as the land rocked in ponderous preparation. “Every last
moment.”

You have reached the end of Full Vessels, the
final part of the Participants Trilogy. If you would like to
support the work of this author, please consider leaving a review
at your favorite online retailer. Thanks for reading.

Brian Blose is
an Army Veteran, husband, father, software developer, and writer.
He has a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and an MBA. In his spare
time, he pursues interests such as rock climbing, skiing, kayaking,
ethnic cuisine, and reading. He likes flawed characters, unreliable
narration, and moral ambiguity.

Visit his author website at
www.brianblose.com
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