jumped without a jump drive

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick, in a full environment suit like any sensible person would wear in untamed wilderness, is overseeing a small swarm of robots harvesting various useful plantlife from the uninhabited parts of a sparsely settled planet, when something suddenly comes tearing through the undergrowth towards him and it's not showing up on scanners-

He raises his hand-phaser, notices it has a mirror for a face and hesitates a little too long. And then he is in a clearing, cut off from his ship and 'bots, with all available sources of data telling him he just went through a jump.

What.

Comments

[segreant]

Kaja is now fifty years old, and while Winter Light healing means she doesn't have any scars and looks younger than she is, she's coming up on retirement age to teach the novices or do other lighter work than going out and hitting things with a sword. She is at the compound when Nick turns up, on guard duty.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Hail, Kaja. It's been a while. I'm going home soon. Thought I'd say goodbye."

[segreant]

"...Home? You mean - back where you came from? You've been here so long."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I'm not the kind of person who can really be happy spending years and years in one place. I might come back and visit, but I haven't seen my old friends or family for over two decades. Even if I wasn't too fond of my family. They're still family, and it's time to go home."

[segreant]

"What about all your - stuff? Can your people handle it all right? Everyone's used to having it now."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"That's what my schools are for. I've been having as many people as possible taught, as best I can. There are thousands who know how to make a radio now, and almost ten thousand who can repair a car. And dozens who can make more armor, whenever you need it. Everything that nobody else understands, I'll be bringing with me."

[segreant]

"I guess I'd imagined you'd get used to it here. Settle in."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Well. If I'd married or made close friends I might stay, but I'm a lonely sort, I never did. Like I said, I'm a wanderer. You can't help being what you are."

[segreant]

"That's true."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"It's a tradition in my homeland to give a gift of silver for significant achievements, happy occasions, and farewells. You were the first person I met from this world, and you helped me onto my feet. Please accept this coin as a gift."

He holds out a perfectly circular shiny silver coin with an intricate etched pattern of swirls that is not in common use anywhere in the country.

[segreant]

"Thank you."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

He gives a little bow. "Fare well in all your days."

He takes the train to his industrial complex, musing. The world is changing, because of him. Rapid change will start a revolution. Violence, maybe. But he kept the technologies he shared as safe as he could. They'll just have to deal with the rest.

He finalizes a series of ownership transfers, giving control of various industries to the best and brightest of his employees.

He boards his private jumpship and blasts into the upper atmosphere.

There is a brilliantly bright flash of light, and Nick is gone from the world.