Erebus Station, planet Longone...
"Coyote, this is ground control...uhhhhhh...you know the colony ship's leaving in a few days, right?"
The Raleigh mech, which had been making its way out of the base and towards the wildness of Longone paused, turning to look up at the control tower that oversaw arrivals to and departures from the planet's largest spaceport. With a sigh, the pilot flicked on her radio, waving up at the tower.
"Ground control, this is Coyote. Yeah, I remember," the pilot answered, turning off her music for a moment. "I cleared it with the captain. The ship leaves in four days and I'm not needed until shortly before to get my machine loaded and stowed. I'm just taking a quick camping trip."
"Camping? When you're going to whole different planet? Camp there!"
Kathryn "Coyote" Gordon snorted and turned her mech around, continuing its trek. The blue robot wrapped its cloak around itself and its precious bundle of camping supplies.
"I may never get back here, Ed, and you know how much I love it out here," Kathryn retorted. "It's just going to be quick! Do some hunting, hike a bit. No rafting this time; can't afford the broken arm."
Tolerant exasperation emerged from the radio with some resigned laughter. "Alright, but you'd better bring me back a share of whatever you shoot."
"Wouldn't dream otherwise. See you later, Ed."
"Bye, Kathryn."
~
"Blue moon, you saw me standin' alone
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own
Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for
You heard me sayin' a prayer for
Someone I really could care for"
Kathryn sighed as she listened to her favorite song again. An old song from Cradle, its origins lost beyond the original being recorded during the 20th century almost 13,000 years ago. She'd even named her precious Raleigh after it. Blue Moon, the robot, kept trundling through the wilderness on autopilot as Blue Moon, the song, continued to play.
"And then there suddenly appeared before me
The only one my arms will hold
I heard somebody whisper "please adore me"
And when I looked, the moon had turned to gold"
She'd gone through three or four music players in her life, managed to wear them out after years of quality listening experiences. She listened to other things too, of course, but this was always the song she came back to, the song that never failed to calm her emotions. She looked up at a counter on the little device, showing how many times she'd listened to it since leaving Erebus Station.
"Blue moon, now I'm no longer alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own"
Only a hundred times so far. Maybe it only seemed like more because of where she was going, where she knew she wasn't likely to get back to any time soon. Kathryn sighed and reached under her seat as she watched the GPS tick by slowly and rapidly at the same time. She'd be there soon. Home. If it could still be called that. She shivered at memories she couldn't hold back much longer, pulling out a bottle to look at. Her father had been saving it for a special occasion once. Well, that occasion had come, hadn't it?
The scorched earth that was once the Gordon Homestead was quiet and still, the years not having been kind to the ruined home, the obliterated barn, or the devastated shed. Three small, metal markers had weathered the years though, made from some of Blue Moon's armor so long ago after she'd first gotten it.
Antonio. Charleen. Emma. Her parents and her sister, lost to a bandit raid God knows how many years ago.
"Hi Pa, Ma, Em...I'm home," Kathryn said, sitting down and cradling the bottle gently in one arm. "I know I'm a month or so early, but I'm shipping out soon. Got myself a plot on a planet called Brion 45. Kinda reminds me of here, but...well...it's not here."
The Lancer sighed and pulled out a few glasses. Nothing too fancy, but durable. She set one in front of each of the markers and took one for herself, filling them up as much as possible from her father's cherished wine, one of the few things that had survived the raid on their home.
"I'm gonna miss this world, I'm gonna miss you. God knows I've been missing you for long enough," Kathryn continued, eyes getting a bit puffy. "But it's time to start over. I'm not exactly taking over the family farm like you wanted, but I can't stay. The land's poisoned and it hurts too much to look at it."
Kathryn took a sip from her glass as she looked around her, seeing nothing but memories welling up within her, of chores and celebrations, of times good and bad. Learning how to drive her father's old Everest, its weapons replaced with combine and tilling attachments, going hunting with her twin sister to see who could score the bigger buck, learning survival skills from her mother...she wiped her eyes and raised her glass.
"This is good bye." She stood, finishing off her wine, refilling the glass and setting it and the bottle down. "Hopefully not forever, but it's still good bye."
A short eternity later, the Lancer sighed and turned her back on the memorial, starting up her music again. With the past behind her, she could now face the future, a future unbeknownst to her that would be fraught with danger and destiny.
