DeGroot and his women left me standing on the docks by the Starshine. I leaped aboard, happy to discover that he had been a man of his word. The ship was fully stocked and ready to sail. I cast off from the dock, raised the anchor and started steering the ship through the harbor.

I slowly cruised past the burned out corpses of ships that littered the harbor. Already, I could see salvage operations under way on some of the ships, while others were in the process of being scuttled. The harbor stank of burned wood and rotting flesh. I sailed past numerous corpses that were already bloated by their short time in the water. Within an hour, I was back out to sea and was filling my lungs and my sinuses with fresh salt air.

I sailed away from the island for the whole day, stopping only when it was late and the sun was starting to go down. I lit a lamp in the galley and surveyed the food that DeGroot had provided for me. He had been quite lavish in this respect and I picked out several cans of exotic food, heated them up and served myself an elaborate dinner on the deck. After I had finished my meal, I treated myself to a bottle of fine ale and smoked a couple of pipes as the sun went down and the moon came up.

I was nice and relaxed as I went below to my cabin. I lit all the lamps and candles I had so the room was almost as bright as daylight. I unlocked the bottom right drawer of my desk and carefully pulled out the glass orb that had been stored there. I unwrapped it and carefully dusted it off, holding it up to the light to inspect it. I set it back down on the cloth on my desk and stared at it for a while longer.

"Hello," I said feeling self conscious.

"Well hi, darlin'," came a drawl out of the orb, "I thought you were gone forever."

"No, not forever, although I was starting to wonder myself," I chuckled. "How are things?"

"Never better," the head sister drawled again. "We just heard back from your friends at the Outposts. Elle's doing well and is expecting her second child. She has a daughter that's her spitting image and is expecting a son. Your friend John is doing quite well for himself, too."

"He always had a way of landing on his feet," I laughed. "I'm glad Elle's doing good, too. Her second child? God! How long have I been gone?"

"I told you it was forever," the head sister laughed. "And we're doing alright here on the island, too. . ." The light flickered in the orb and it made a crackling sound. I stared at it, puzzled, but then it lit up again and the head sister was back.

". . .aughter's doing well, too. It's been a hecti. . ." More buzzing and crackling as the light inside flickered and died, then came back.

"How's the seer doing?" I asked.

The head sister sighed. "She's. . .ell, but I shou. . .is, but she's. . ." The orb crackled once more, then the light died out altogether. I waited a few minutes, then picked it up off the desk. The orb split in two and then shattered when I set it back down. I smiled for a moment, then started to laugh. The next day when I weighed anchor, I changed course, headed in a new direction.