Is anybody out there...

It was horrible. The fire was all around...and a Reaver was pulling me by the leg out to his "friends" for a late afternoon snack. I could hear Caesar calling out..and Lily..she was there..just right around the corner....but...I was choking on the smoke ..I managed to get out only one cry....that to the man I saw running to my rescue.



Nee tzao ss-ma ? Nee-yow wuh-kai chang?....It came out almost as a whisper.."Do you want to die...". Yet he ran. He ran toward us. He shot the Reaver with some kind of gun I'd never seen. And he rescued me.



"It isn't safe here" I remember him saying. Then I fell unconscious. Next thing I know I'm waking up in an underground bunker...wherever I am. I'm not really sure. And the man...he wasn't a stranger. He was ...it was....someone I have known since I was a little girl. It was my ...brother.



I had not seen him since I left Blue Sun under those rather ...unpleasant circumstances. I did not think I would ever see him again...Not just because I was 'dead to the family' but because he was after all working for Blue Sun. And the agreement was 'hands off'.



Aparently they changed their minds. But he didn't come to try to "convince" me to give him yet another thing they wanted. He was on his way to warn me. And he got there just in time.



We have wandered for days ...weeks now..thru the Wastes looking for an electron Microscope...which we need to make sure I have a reasonable facsimile of what they are looking for. We found one three days ago and if all goes well we may try to make it back to Blackburne.



We have been out to the rim worlds three times now since this 'rescue'. Once to Hales Moon, and twice to some unnamed uninhabitable place...where we got the samples to examine. I tried to let people know I am still alive. I left some things for Lily...and Mindo took some things to Imrhien. I don't know if he got to her or not though..as he's not yet come back for me.



So here I am. Again. In the desert. Again. Alone. Again.