The Collection (short story)

The Collection was the seventh story in the Bernice Summerfield anthology A Life of Surprises. It was written by Peter Anghelides.

Summary
Bernice is trying to find information on the whereabouts of Jason, who is missing. The only information is to be found in the Pons Asinorum of the Collection, but Braxiatel has closed all access to it apart to the mysterious Dokien.

Benny searches the Pons Asinorum against orders, and finds a diary written by Jason in prison thousands of years ago. She also finds a time travel device that she deduces he used. Having brought her Time Ring with her, she heads back to the past to find Jason.

However, Jason has not been imprisoned. He's been living in a long-abandoned spaceship, filled with enough supplies to last him a normal lifetime. He explains that he had to make his situation sound worse in the diary, or she wouldn't have come after him. When she asks him why he came here, his answer shocks her: he came to rescue her.

Jason gives her the thousands-of-years-old diary of hers that he found in the Pons Asinorum. After she reads it, Jason tells her that Dokien encouraged him to use his Time Ring to come back to the past to rescue Benny. Unfortunately for the both of them, their rings no longer work. Benny makes a copy of the diary that Jason found, as that one will not last for the thousands of years before Jason will find it.

Before long, Brax arrives and informs them that they can return to their time by using their rings together. Back in their own time, both Benny and Jason plan to leave the Collection. Benny is furious at Brax, but when he shows up at the shuttle walkway, he distracts Benny and Jason long enough for the shuttle to leave with Dokien aboard.

Although Brax has ordered the diaries to be destroyed, the chief archivist of the Collection keeps them, while telling Brax they've been destroyed. Thousands of years later, the diaries are put up for auction.

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Dokien
 * Jason Kane
 * Irving Braxiatel

Continuity
to be added