At her venerable age of a whopping eight thousand years, Clyella had grown so accustomed to living that death would have seemed irksome and challenging beyond measure. Good thing, the state of non-existence—in which she obviously was not—brought the benefit of eliminating, among other things, any kind of nuisance. It was something Clyella had counted on.

So she was surprised when she became aware she could be surprised to be aware of something. And, in the very brief moment it took her to open her eyes, she became aware of several things. Of her left index finger contracting without finding the resistance of a trigger, of lying on a perfectly comfortable surface, of the daylight brightening her eyelids, of the air being fresher and cleaner than the muggy Roman evenings, and of the pleasant sensation of feeling it on her skin, free from clothes and shoes of her earthly disguise.

Her sight focused on a ceiling full of stars and galaxies unrealistically close. Against the backdrop of a boundless black sky, their light shone in the most intense colors of the spectrum. «Beautiful representation of heaven,» she thought while commanding her new body to take its first breath.

Clyella considered that if nothing is eternal, then neither should death be. She chided herself for not taking into account that sooner or later, somewhere in the universe, something would bring her back to life. How much time had passed? Millennia? Eons that transcended the imaginative limits of her mind?

The surface she was lying on began to bend and shape itself, cradling her first into a sitting position and then stretching vertically until Clyella found herself standing.

«Welcome back to life!» she heard greeted in Italian.

Not more than a few centuries, Clyella speculated upon realizing that Italian was not yet a dead language. Of course, she also considered the idea that it could be a completely alien language and that only by a monumental coincidence did it appear similar to Italian.

In front of her, the face of a young man with Mediterranean features offered her a smile that oozed reverence. As the surface on which she had awakened disappeared into a wall, she saw him bow to her.

Clyella noticed the blue stone, small as a droplet, that the servant had embedded between his eyebrows, and understood as well where she was. From the walls to the equipment, everything in that cloning room gave her the impression of a clearing in the middle of a forest. Typical of them, she thought.

«Rest assured, due to the extraordinary qualities of Your actions and Your person, You have been chosen to be rewarded with Eternal Life.»

«Listen... thing, what's your identifier?»

«My name is Pietrus.»

Clyella raised her eyebrows. «Well, isn't that something» she chuckled nasally. «Complete identifier, robot!»

«Pietrus 232, M series.»

«Are you my welcoming committee?»

«In Your case, we found no one who...»

«Yes, yes... I understand. Tell me, you have no idea who I am, do you?»

«I surely do, You are Clyella, also known as Serena Pinzini.»

«And how old am I?»

«Almost six months.»

«Of course. You're such a genius.»

Clyella turned around to look at the room. She spotted an info-communication terminal, a nano-materializer, a few doors, and, of course, the machine that had brought her back to life.

«How many hours have passed since my death?»

«Twelve Earth hours.»

«Can you get me a spaceship?»

«First You need an injection to learn the wonders of this world. If You would be so kind as to—»

«I don't want any injections.»

«But You don't know—»

«Pietrus 232, let's get one thing straight. I give the orders and you execute them, is that clear?»

The robot closed its mouth and nodded in a bow that hinted at genuflection.

«How much time do we have before someone enters this room?»

«All the time you require. I assume You must be tired, if You wish You can—»

«Perfect,» Clyella cut him off, pointing at the info-communication terminal, «I want complete privacy until I'm out of here, is that possible?»

«There is nothing to be ashamed of, unless You want to hide—»

«Two-three-two! You execute, remember?»

The robot gave a slight bow again, and Clyella pressed: «So, is it possible?»

«Certainly,» the Pietrus confirmed. He pointed a hand toward the terminal, and the honeyed voice of a computer notified the privacy conditions were in place.

«Now, I'd like for you to prepare that spaceship for me. I need it as soon as possible.»

The Pietrus nodded and positioned himself in front of the terminal.

«Could You specify the type of vehicle and the range You need?»

«I'm traveling alone,» Clyella clarified as she sat next to the materializer. Her stomach was completely empty, and the mere thought of the journey awakened her appetite. She leaned her head toward the detector and the hot meal she had in mind nano-assembled in front of her. «Just make sure it has enough autonomy to go to Earth and back.»

The Pietrus froze on the spot and gave Clyella a look that expressed perplexity. A perplexity he didn't actually feel but was programmed to communicate. The discomfort and nervousness in his voice, however, were genuine.

«I must inform You that You are not allowed to return to Earth. Please try to understand; it would be like coming back from the land of the dead. The Council of the Eternals prohibits anyone from going to Earth until they establish contact with the Embassy. Your ship will be blocked before arrival...»

Clyella was chewing enthusiastically, her cheeks puffed. She swallowed the mouthful.

«You get me the ship; I'll handle the rest, yes?»

«As You wish.» The Pietrus laid his hands on the terminal to resume communication. «I fear You will be disappointed by Your journey. But You have no reason to worry. One day You will be able to return to Earth; we just have to wait for them to build the Embassy...»

«If they're still alive by then,» Clyella mumbled. «Speaking of the Council, is Yahweh around?»

«Currently, the President of the Eternals is visiting a civilization called the Interdimensional Assembly. He will be back by tomorrow.»

«How wonderful.»

The Pietrus smiled affably, his hands still on the terminal. «You will be able to visit it as well when You are ready to understand the progress of this world. If You would accept the injection I offered...»

Clyella rolled her eyes and sighed.

«I guess I'm not ready for that yet» she said before resuming her meal.

«The spaceship You requested will be available shortly. Where would You like to take off from?»

«From here. Is it possible?»

The Pietrus raised his eyebrows. «I would have to modify the structure of the roof...» he hesitated, briefly nodding towards the visual masterpiece above them. He looked at Clyella, who was staring back resolutely, and then finished: «Well, of course... yes... I can arrange that.»

«In the meantime, I'd like to see something from Earth's database, do you have access?»

The Pietrus confirmed and made room for Clyella next to him.

«Let me take a look at the Book of Judgment.»

The Pietrus's fingers skimmed the surface of the terminal, and an interactive projection displayed information on every human being who had ever existed on Earth since its creation by the Elohim civilization.

Clyella refined the search by time and geographic location and input her own genetic coordinates. Then she examined the requested information.

She shook her head with indignation, but smiled.

After instructing to duplicate the collected data onto a maximum security level, she ordered the deletion of her activity logs. The Pietrus watched in silent confusion.

A sound like a sudden breeze among trees filled the room from above. They looked up as the ceiling faded to become a mirror-like silver dome. Then, from the apex, the mirror started to disintegrate as the material it was made of was reabsorbed by the building itself.

When the sound of the breeze ceased, the black sky was visible through a large circular opening in the roof. Drops of abundant rain were stopped in mid-air by the force field that had replaced the ceiling, and the pattering of the water echoed around the room until a shiny metal disc overlaid the opening and began descending with a low hum.

As the smooth base of the spaceship neared, Clyella ran to the nano-materializer. She placed her head next to the mental detector, and another meal was assembled within a portable container. Clyella grabbed her packed lunch and hurried up the spaceship's steps.

«Clyella,» called the Pietrus before she crossed the threshold, «would You like me to wait here for Your return?»

«No, of course not. Return to the materializer and recycle yourself, before someone comes asking about me.»

Inside the vehicle, Clyella took her seat and the cabin walls turned transparent.

«Disable all communication devices...»

The voice of the navigation system spoke up before Clyella had finished talking. «Exiting the system without communicating is illegal, confirm?»

«Don't you start as well, I think I've been clear,» Clyella complained.

«Violations of the current travel protocol require confirmation. Confirm?»

«Yes, I confirm. Plot a course for the planet of the Interdimensional Assembly.»

«With your current authorization level, the requested destination is illegal. Confirm?»

«Yes! Yes! Confirm for all my orders, alright?»

«The duration of the journey will be approximately fifteen minutes.»

«Plot a hyperspace trajectory to arrive in fifteen hours, then.»

«You can arrive at the destination in fifteen minutes. You have requested to plan the arrival in fifteen hours. Confirm?»

Clyella closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

«Yes, I'm dead tired and want to arrive well-rested, in fifteen hours. Can we go now?»

The spaceship pierced the atmosphere of the planet of the Eternals and in an instant found itself in interstellar space. The walls of the cabin displayed the stars she was moving away from at faster-than-light speed, reprocessing the light captured from the front of the hull.

Within a few minutes, the star Clyella was leaving behind had shrunk to an incandescent point, only slightly larger than the others crowding the sky all around. The Executive adjusted her chair, extending it into a bed, and, exhausted, fell asleep.

Exhausted but sleepless, on the other hand, was Flavio. That Saturday morning, after a night in the hospital, his student housing seemed pleasantly small and lonely.

The departure of his roommate was one of the conveniences that the arrival of summer had brought him. With a simple effort of concentration, he could feel secluded and protected from the outside world and its tragedies. Tragedies that, he pondered, had never directly involved him until that point.

Now it was different, and his accommodation was a refuge. Those walls, built cheaply and without flair, were able to cushion the brutality that the rising sun outside insisted on illuminating. It was an illusion of peace, as shielding as the flimsy curtains veiling the windows.

The kitchenette he never used was immaculate. The day after his other roommate had left, he had cleaned it meticulously. Flavio looked at it, distracted from the fruit juice he had just poured. In his hands, he was fiddling with a snack he had taken from the IUPITER vending machine.

The stoves were ready, waiting for a dinner party with friends to bid farewell to that temporary home. They would stay that way until the new occupants arrived.

Flavia would no longer get to use them, like when she had taken care of him after the fall at the lake. She had cooked for him every day, between cigarettes at the window, despite her patient's pneumonia. But Flavio hadn't complained. He wished he had the chance to do so now, to know how she would have reacted. He didn't know, and he felt regret, no, remorse for not having gotten to know her better when he could.

Suddenly the refuge had become a torture chamber. Flavio got up without eating anything, took a shower, and headed to the Air Force Command.

Back in the office, he threw himself into his work in a frenzy. The military wanted their draft for world domination quickly, and Flavio would give it to them. There was now blood binding him to that commitment. There was an argument interrupted by the severing of a relationship.

He began testing the new "happiness" matrices, the "dreaming ability" indices, just as Flavia would have wanted. He found it an effective way to keep his feelings for her in check. Just as Flavia would have wanted.

However, he recalled that before letting go of life, she had told him she loved him. It was a detail he had left out when talking to his friends the night before. He wondered if he had done well to keep it to himself. A detail that, he considered, should not matter much anyway. Because Flavia knew what she was getting into, knew she was consenting to the abandonment of her own life and her friends. It was the sense of abandonment that weighed him down more than anything else. Flavia had left him alone.

Cristina blamed him, but Flavio felt he had gotten the worse end of it. Was it arrogance? Self-pity? In her pain, Cristina had told him she loved Flavia, and it was clear she meant more than friendly love. He thought it might be a hysterical reaction, as unlikely as that seemed for someone like the captain. She had even said she never wanted to see him again.

He hoped that yes, it was a hysterical reaction. He needed it to be nothing more than a passing mood. Losing her too would be... painful.

Flavio was surprised by his own thoughts. Why was he worrying about Cristina? He didn't see her coming. At this hour, she used to be unfailingly at the Command. He looked around, gauging the moods of the other IUPITER employees.

«Clelia, do you know anything about Captain Leanza?»

«No, but Ruffini looks like he saw the devil. The other administrative officers are grilling him today.»

The day ended, the IUPITER offices emptied, and Cristina had not appeared. Overwhelmed by sleep, Flavio left at a decent hour and, once at the Student House, collapsed asleep in his own bed.

That night, Flavio dreamed of discoveries that could revolutionize society but were aborted just before completion, abandonment on a deserted island, centuries of solitude, and rescue spaceships.