All the way back to Foes & Rivals, there have been hints that what happened was not just “the Breakup,” the economic catastrophe which broke the US and Western Europe, but what the characters now call “the Change.” The Machines seemed to recognize it first; they are very good at noticing things. Even Aurie in Regent says, “Go outside at night with an old book about astronomy; the stars are different now.”

We get another glimpse of that in this segment. Is Allie tripping? Is she dead? Is this another temporal transference? Trust me, I’ve no idea, either. Nice kitty.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

She opened her eyes but did not move.  Her face resting on concrete paving.  I hear gulls, waves.  This could be Aqua’s construct, but there’s no signal in the cavern.  I guess I’m hallucinating from whatever I just ate.

Alicia moved her head slightly to look around.  Some stone pier or mole out into the sea.  Sitting up, there seemed to be some human figures moving in the far distance, back on the mainland, but none around her.

“The sun is the right size for Mars,” she said.  “The air is richer.  I’ve read great-grandmother’s report about her little jaunt three hundred years into the future, and I’d think this is what I’m looking at.  But I didn’t touch anything…”

“Oh, my.” Suddenly very concerned.  “Fussy and Kalí said something to the effect it was as close to heaven as we could get without dying.”

She drew her knees up, still wearing her skinsuit, and put her arms about her legs, shaking just a little.

“Did I die just now?  Poisoned myself?”

No one came the kilometer to check on the girl on the mole and no angel appeared to tell her to not be afraid.  A deep breath and she stood.

“Going with hallucination.  Gotta admit, though, this is a really nice one.”  With another look about, she decided to walk further out, about another hundred meters.  “The town looks a bit like where mom and dad live, Neo-Yokohama.  Lots bigger, though.”

A few very large ships – spacefaring ships – of a design she had never seen made their way slowly and silently across the brilliant blue sky.  At the mole’s end, there were a series of a dozen windmills in the water.  Can’t be for power, that’s stupid.  So, artistic?  Some reason I don’t know?  I know the smart thing is to get back to land and start talking, but I’m scared:  scared that this dream will end and I’ll be back underground.  It’s only a few days, but I missed the sun so much…

Duty was duty.  She sighed and turned around.  And stopped.

That is one hekkin’ huge cat, was the first thing through her mind.  Black, so maybe a panther.  I seem to recall they can get over a hundred kilograms.  This thing looks bigger, though.  His – or her – shoulder level with my eyes.

“Nice kitty?” she tried with a smile.

 The long tail arced slowly back and forth.  The great, yellow eyes never leaving hers.

Feels like a male, don’t know why.  And where have I seen eyes like that before?

With no aggressive animals on Mars, yet, Alicia still had learned some basics about what to do if she found herself back on Earth, maybe in the woods hiking with her grandfather.  Not one step back.  No fear.

Fear.  Is this the angel assigned to me?  Am I dead, after all?

“I am Alicia Alvarez, demi-human of the Hartmann Family,” she tried, making sure to not let her voice shake.  “I have been lost under the Martian surface for some days and may have just poisoned myself.  If you can, can you tell me where I am and my condition?”

A low, almost subsonic growl, for just a moment.  In silence, he padded the two meters to her and raised his right paw.  As it had been standing next to underground lake, her skinsuit was open to her sternum.  She felt a prick from a claw on her upper chest.

“Was that necessary?” she asked.  The massive panther moved backward to where she had first seen him.  At that, Alicia looked down to see how bad she was bleed-

Nothing.  Then her stomach flopped and she bent over and puked out nine partly-chewed white leaves, mixed with a little blood.

“Not,” she wiped her mouth on her right sleeve, “not sure what you just did, or, heck, what’s going on, but thank you.”

Another short, low, rumble.  The cat leisurely turned about, and in that moment, she would have sworn there was something like a scarlet cape, fixed at his neck, and swirling out in the sea breeze.

The image was gone and the black enigma kept on toward the shore.  There was a faint haze where the mole met the quay and Alicia could no longer see him.

“If I’m not dead, Kira is going to love this report,” she said, her sense of humor returning.  “Now, let’s go have a word with the locals.”

She set out with a confident stride, brushing at her shoulder-length hair, and enjoying the rich atmosphere.  Closer to shore was that bit of haze that, PantyBoy, that’s what I’ll call him, vanished into.  Alicia could hear voices but just not quite make out the language.  She kept on.

And on.

She stopped.

I should have been there ten minutes ago.  Nothing has changed.  I can barely see and hear.  It’s like lightspeed:  I can get close, but not to it.  Oh, no!

She shuddered in genuine fear, recalling a book she had scanned as a small child.

The wall around Hell, around Limbo.  It would always look about five klicks away.  The protagonist walked and walked.  And never got any closer.  Am I really dead?

Do I really deserve Hell?

As she began to cry, Alicia slowly sank to her knees.

“This is too much for me, Kira.  Mom.  Dad.  I’m so sorry; I can’t do this…”

She slumped over.