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Ben Blumenberg
Reality Software
P.O. Box 105
Waldoboro, ME 04572
June 26, 1992
FATHER ADLER
Father Adler sat at the bar, his right hand around a mug of
Dunubian beer. His eyes were unfocused and stared into
nothingness. He was of medium height; muscular, deeply tanned,
with a scraggly grey moustache and beard. Father Adler was
dressed in the black shirt, black pants and silver boots of a
rhubidium miner. Tied around his neck was a small leather pouch
of a type that would have held gunpowder on an Earth of untold
eons in the past. This pouch, however, was reputed to hold earth
from Earth. No one knew for certain, of course.
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The bar where Fadler Adler was drinking and daydreaming was
the Bragi in the mining town of Celine on the resource planet
Vasa. The Bragi was legendary both for the potency of its drinks
and the quality of its fights. The walls were panelled in
factory reject rhubidium as befitted the best watering hole in
the richest mining town in the galaxy. The floors, tables and
bar top were highly polished cratagus wood. The bartender was an
old friend of Father Adler's, a Tygor by the name of Sam XI.
Seven feet tall with flowing black hair, green skin and both nose
and gills, Sam presented a terryifying appearance. However,
within the usual realm of daily life, Sam was the gentlest of
souls. He has been happily married to the same woman for forty
years and was the father of three gorgeous, if somewhat tall,
daughters. The bar girls of the Bragi were in a class by
themselves. Their beauty was unsurpassed and the pleasures they
offered were hardly confined to the drinks they served.
No answer, no movement.
Father Adler took another sip of his beer but still did not
turn around.
The Tygor was now staring at the Dacian directly, hard and
without fear. He refilled Jared's mug.
"Oh, shut up! I've taken a lot from you over the centuries ,
but this tops it all. You love me! I'm kinder to those I kill
than you've been to me. Do you call your response to me on
Kushanah, love?"
Jared was standing now, his nose an inch from Oriana's face.
Tears streamed down her face. Sam stared at the two of them in
his odd, intense, detached way. Everyone else in the Bragi was
transfixed. Was the mystery of Father Adler about to be
unravelled?
"You don't love anyone but yourself and that damned unicorn!
You use people like pawns, like furniture and to what ends the
gods only know. You use them icily and then fling them away like
flies or matchsticks. You my dear, are the ultimate power
hungry, vicious manipulator of souls. Beautiful beyond words,
sensual and erotic beyond any man's wildest fantasies, brilliant
and immortal - all of that is you, my Dacian. Love me? How
could you? I'm a killer, a tormented assassin, a man with fear
eating his soul."
Jared reached for his carbonium knife and put it to Oriana's
throat. The crowd gasped.
Jared put the point of his knife on her Adam's apple and
pushed slightly. A trickle of the Dacian's purple blood ran down
her throat. No one dared move or speak.
Oriana's voice was barely audible and she still wept slowly.
Jared now hugged her and rocked her gently as one would a child,
his eyes closed. Oriana sniffled and wiped her nose on Jared's
sleeve. "You see my love, you showed me how to be love, but you
also gave me the gift of fear. Can you ever understand what it
is like to know fear and be immortal?"
Oriana sniffled into his shirt again. "It were best we had
never met. I wish I was dead for what I've done to you."
"I love you," said Oriana softly and she kissed Jared over
and over and over again with such gentle passion that his head
spun and there was not a dry eye anywhere in the Bragi.
For the first time that any of the regulars in the Bragi
could remember, Father Adler/Jared Colfax smiled. He extended
his arms to the Dacian. She ducked under them and begain to toy
with the buttons on his shirt. She kissed him lightly, then
turned around to face the awestruck, staring crowd and did a most
un-Dacian thing. Oriana pressed her palms together and bowed
slightly towards those facing her.
"Thank you. Thank you for bearing witness. Thank you for
being patient with two over-age children."
"And you, old friend?" Oriana now turned towards the Tygor.
Can we get you away from that lovely wife and three beautiful
daughters? We should be in for one hell of a fight!" Oriana
flashed her most captivating smile at Sam and he grinned back.
"Orry, I've been a true blue family man for any years. It
has been good and warm, if a bit dull. Amanda will understand."
"Be at Orvar Spaceport one week from today with the usual
equipment."
"I'll be there."
Oriana took Jared's hand and walked slowly towards the door,
a broad grin upon her beautiful, yet devastated, face. Jared
glanced around at the Bragi as if taking it all in for the last
time and winked at a few friends in the crowd. Sam smiled
paternally. When they reached the door, someone in the back
yelled out "Good luck, you bastard!" and everyone laughed.