“Yes.” Leoh nodded. “Hector will join me there in a few months, he and Geri. We’ve got a lifetime of work ahead of us. It’s a shame you can’t work with us. Now that we know interstellar teleportation is possible, we’ve got to find out how it works and why. We’re going to open up the stars to real colonization, at last.”
Looking wistfully at Geri as she rode the lift up to the shuttle’s hatch, Odal said, “I think it would be best for me to stay away from them. Besides, I have my own duties in Kerak. Romis is teaching me the arts of government…peaceful, law-abiding government, just as you have in the Commonwealth.”
“That’s a big job,” Leoh admitted, “cleaning up after the mess Kanus made.”
“You’d be interested to know that Kanus is being treated psychonically, in the dueling machine. Your invention is being turned into a therapeutic device.”
“So I’ve heard,” the old man said. “Its use as a dueling machine is only one possible application for the machine. Look what it did to you and Hector. I never realized that two men could be so dramatically drawn together.”
It was Odal’s turn to smile. “I learned a lot in that moment with Hector in the machine.”
“So did he. And yet,” Leoh’s voice took on a hint of regret, “I almost wish he were the old Hector again. He’s so… so mature now. No more scatterbrain. He doesn’t even whistle any more. He’ll be a great man in a few years. Perhaps a Star Watch commander someday. He’s completely changed.”
As they watched, Hector and Geri waved from the hatch of the shuttle craft. The hatch slid shut, but somehow Hector’s hand got caught still outside. A crewman had to reopen the hatch, glaring at the red-faced Watchman.
Leoh began laughing. “Well, perhaps not completely changed after all,” he said with some relief.