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Epilogue

107 years later

Hayley stood over the grave of her eldest daughter. A hundred and twenty-six was still a young age to die, but Kallie had never been one to life quietly or safely. Even if Hayley had ever figured out the secret to sharing her long life with her children, she was certain that Kallie would have found some other way to die young.

Still, there were few more spectacular ways to go than paragliding from orbit. Hayley smiled sadly, maybe they should have inscribed the headstone with 'Yee Ha!' Likely to have been Kallie's last words. Turning to her ten daughters, and one son, each with a different father, each a unique lesson in life and love. Tears dripped down as she spoke to them of the wonder of holding the tiny pink bundle for the first time. The uncertainty and fear that she would be a bad mother. The terror as the broken five-year-old was rushed to the hospital after she missed her leap from window to pool. The pride as Kallie received her diploma in astrophysics, even if she used the degree to become a better solar sail racer. The resigned horror, as the security officer stepped from the police cruiser and started the interminable walk to where Hayley waited at her door.

Hayley looked every day of her one hundred and forty-five years, years beyond the statistical average. All the Grandchildren and the Greats had stayed behind at the resort they had hired out for the funeral.

"Mom, I'm sure you're feeling tired. It has been a very long day."

Hayley took one last look at the carved stone marker, there being no body to bury.

Then let her youngest, Daniel, at only fifty-six, take her by the arm and guided her to the waiting hover limo.

"Thank you, Daniel. A Mother should never outlive her children."

< But I am going to repeat this scene again and again, aren't I? >

< Child, it is time to think about leaving this life behind. Any older and you will draw attention. >

< Yay! We can go have more kits! >

< Tyra! You got the dozen you wanted, and now you want more? >

< Always! Kits are such fun! >

< And what about you M!Tekk? >

< I find myself missing Kallie. Such a Warrior spirit. None of the others were as adventurous. I... I wouldn't mind another Kallie. >

< Then tomorrow there will be a horrible accident. It will be tragic, a mourning Mother, lost in a hyperspace mistransit. Is it always this hard? Starting a new life? >

< Child. I never finished my normal life. My people were long lived, but meditating on a hilltop during a storm taught me that age and wisdom mean nothing without common sense. >

< Neither did I, I fell as a Warrior should, pierced through on an enemy's lance. Before even the end of my first century. >

< I never had any roots. Without kits, without mates, it was trivial to restart whenever and wherever I wished. It was a jilted lover that did me in. >

< So this will be new to us all. Cheers! > Holding up her glass, she drank to the cheer for all of them.

The tearful goodbye's that next morning almost tore Hayley's heart in two. They, wishing her until next time. She, knowing it would never come.

As the automated courier took off, there was no one to see as the years fell away from Hayley. Passing the Hyperspace limit, no sensors could detect the stealthed wedge that pulled up alongside the courier for a brief dock. A bag of the compounds that would, if assembled, make a 57-kilo woman, were exchanged for the real thing.

As the courier accelerated into Hyperspace, the computer injected a surge of fuel into the thrusters unevenly. The courier tumbled, and rather than passing safely down the middle of the wormhole, it slammed into the exterior wall. The flare was visible throughout the system. At the far end of the hyperspacial transit tube, in the Hyperion system, all that remained to emerge was a spray of elementary particles.

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Refusing to look back, maybe in a few decades the pain would fade. Her form nearly returned to that of the lost girl of so many years ago.

Feeling the others standing beside her,

< Who shall we be? What should we do? >

< Whatever you want child. We have time. >

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