Nera ran in variations of her zigzag pattern to the East, away from him. The saucer burst
in and out of existence as it continued to strike at her. Ulysses got to about a hundred yards from
where he thought he'd seen Nera first engage with the craft. He set the containers down on the
ground. He began waving his arms and yelling as loud as he could, despite still being out of
breath. He kept this up for what felt like way too long, even though he was pretty sure it was
only a minute or two. He couldn't be sure, but Ulysses thought she'd seen him.
Then Nera was running and dodging toward him. Ulysses waved and pointed toward the
containers as best he could. He shouted that he'd brought them. When he could see that she was
roughly a few hundred yards away, Ulysses turned around and began running back to where he
and O'Flannery had assessed the situation minutes earlier. The agent must have already fled to
safety because Ulysses couldn't see him anywhere.
His chest pounded as he ran. It felt like he was trying to run through mud. Summoning
every bit of speed he could muster still seemed to render him no faster than a lethargic turtle. The
cracking of the plasma got much louder; the overpowering smell of ozone made him feel dizzy,
made his vision dark at the corners. He'd been running for less than a minute, but it was going to
take him several to get back to the installation's emergency exit.
Ulysses thought he could hear the faint sound of Nera's running feet. His hearing hadn't
recovered from his close call earlier, he couldn't afford to turn his head to look back, so he just
kept running.
Intense heat accompanied a blinding light and deafening boom. It lifted Ulysses off of his
feet, pushed all the air out of his lungs. He could feel himself flying through the air. He braced
himself for a hard landing. Instead, he felt his body fold at the waist as a strong, careful arm held
him in place. The rumble he felt now were the rapid footfalls of someone running. He knew it
was Nera. She had caught him, and he was over her shoulder again.
Ulysses thought she'd send him flying a few times while she continued to run in her
weird diagonal patterns. He blinked his eyes, trying to recover his sight. It was impossible for
him to tell if Nera was still being fired upon through the renewed ringing in his ears. He could
feel her heavy breathes and the strain in her body as she ran. The jarring combination of ozone
and Nera's sweat wasn't a smell he'd ever forget for the rest of his days.
He felt her stop. She opened the emergency exit door, stepped inside, and set him down
against the wall he'd rested against earlier. Another set of hands was propping him up, slapping
him lightly on the side of his face. It must have been O'Flannery.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay," he said. His vision was starting to return, yet he was still
deafened.
"Ulysses," Nera said. Her voice made clear by telepathy. "I'm glad you're all right. Thank
you for bringing me the dust. I am going to take it with me now, so I can bring an end to the rest
of hyssopshebolith on this planet. I love you, please rest." She pressed her mouth against his.
Ulysses could see the blur of her silhouetted against the open door. He saw a second
silhouette follow, which he figured must be O'Flannery. He blinked furiously, trying to get his