Torpedoes, arriving tiny fractions of a second later, found little left to destroy. The Vortigen's capacitors must have been fully charged, the energy... crammed into them escaping in a wild pyrotechnic display.Time slowed even farther as his mind merged more closely with Skryben's. Even as the fireball expanded, its jagged lightnings licking out toward their screens, Rand sent a fiercely driven thought.'... Captain! Jump now! It'll muddy our trace... ''... you're sure? Power? All vectors set?.... Once the table was wiped off, Vern brought the sponge back into thekitchenette and wrung it out before he took hold of a bottle of Windexand a roll of paper towels. Vern walked back into the conference roomand leaned over the table again while he sprayed the glass cleaner andrubbed it into the glass in a familiar circular motion.Vern finished cleaning the table before he put the cleaning suppliesaway in the kitchenette and returned to his desk. He sat down onRose's low back, pleather chair. Chaya then said that let’s forget about that and let’s cheer up. I asked what she wants to do.She said not today but tomorrow we can spend time together all day, even night and winked at me. I was stunned but agreed. That day passed and we decided to meet the next day at 9 am at the same coffee shop. She asked me to bring my car for tomorrow’s trip.I reached at 9 am to the restaurant and Chaya came at around 9.15 am. We had our breakfast, she asked as to what is the plan. I said that we are. She was the indefinable epitome of beauty – a protean creature of the night; ever changing, ever elusive but as real and as tangible as I was. Or was she? Looking up at me; there was a deep seated hunger in her blue eyes. Those eyes, formed by the alchemy of the sun upon the boundless sea, only had to smile and the world vanished; reverting to the formless chaos that was its true, undisguised state. Nothing else existed save those two eyes floating in the ether. But then she spoke…. .