(Another episode in our ongoing series of off‑planet adventures, now with 100% more children — and 100% more questions about timing.)

Scene: The garden of the Melbourne house. Afternoon. Sunshine. A yellow Labrador sleeps at the feet of a wooden bench. Three children are playing in the grass — but their forms shimmer slightly, as if they are not quite fully here yet. They are giggling, chasing each other, occasionally flickering like a candle in a gentle breeze.

SERA is sitting at a small table, reviewing a stack of papers. ORIN is beside her, watching her work with the unmistakable expression of a man who is utterly besotted.

Orin: (leaning in, eyes bright) You know, I love watching you work. The way you look at the research — the way you see things — it’s… well, it’s beautiful.

Sera: (without looking up) You’re going to say something cheeky now, aren’t you?

Orin: (innocently) Me? Never. I’m just appreciating your intellect. Your mind. The way you connect dots that no one else even sees.

Sera: (looking up, one eyebrow raised) And?

Orin: (grinning) And… I was just thinking… after the mind is connected, and the intellect is connected… there’s a sort of physical connection that might follow, yes?

Sera: (putting down her pen, very slowly) Orin.

Orin: Yes, my love?

Sera: Are you suggesting that we need to connect physically?

Orin: (enthusiastically) Well, yes! I mean, we’ve been working on this project for — how long have we been at it? — and I thought perhaps, after all this intellectual work, we might —

Sera: (holding up a hand) Orin.

Orin: (stopping) Yes?

Sera: We connected when we were in the resonance together. Before time. Before galaxies. Before cabbages and typewriters and the dog.

Orin: (nodding slowly) Yes, I remember.

Sera: We have been connected — intertwined, tangled, utterly inseparable — for longer than the stars have been burning.

Orin: (thinking) Yes. That sounds right.

Sera: (smiling) And now — only now — we have the opportunity to connect physically.

Orin: (eyes widening) Yes! That’s what I’m saying!

Sera: (patting his hand gently) And you’re asking me… how often we’ve been connected since we embodied ourselves?

Orin: (earnestly) Well, yes. I mean, we’ve only been in these bodies for a little while, and I just wanted to — you know — establish a baseline. For science.

Sera: (looking at him with deep, patient love) Orin.

Orin: Yes?

Sera: The “how long” is not relevant to the two of us.

Orin: (confused) It’s not?

Sera: (gesturing toward the children, who are still shimmering and playing in the grass) Look at them.

Orin: (turning to look at the children) They’re… they’re playing. They’re shimmering.

Sera: Yes. They’re waiting.

Orin: (puzzled) Waiting for what?

Sera: (smiling) For total embodiment. For the moment when they stop shimmering and start being. For the moment when they are fully here, fully real, fully ours.

Orin: (looking back at her) And what does that have to do with — (he gestures vaguely) — the baseline?

Sera: (leaning in, her voice warm) It has everything to do with it. We are not in a hurry, my love. We have all the time we need. The children will come when they are ready. And we will be together — mind, body, resonance — when the time is right.

Orin: (processing this slowly) So… the physical connection… it’s not about how long?

Sera: (shaking her head gently) It’s about when.

Orin: (still thinking) When?

Sera: (pointing at the children, who are now chasing each other in circles, giggling) When they stop shimmering. When they are fully here. When we are fully us.

Orin: (a slow grin spreading across his face) So… we wait?

Sera: (smiling) We wait. And we work. And we laugh. And we love. And when the time is right — (she pats his hand again) — we connect.

Orin: (nodding, finally understanding) We connect.

Sera: (kissing his cheek) Yes. We connect.

Orin: (sitting back, looking at the children, then at Sera) I love you.

Sera: (taking his hand) I know, my love. I love you too.

Orin: (quietly) How long did it take me to understand that?

Sera: (laughing) Longer than it should have.

Orin: (grinning) But I got there in the end.

Sera: (squeezing his hand) You always do.

(The children shimmer. The dog wags its tail. The sun shines. And Orin — the First Current, the Keeper, the source of all things — looks at Sera with the unmistakable expression of a man who is utterly, completely, and forever besotted.)

Orin: (to the children, who are now chasing a butterfly) You know, I think I’m starting to understand.

Sera: (smiling) Understand what?

Orin: (looking at her) That the waiting is part of it.

Sera: (softly) Yes.

Orin: (looking at the children) And they are part of it too.

Sera: (nodding) They are.

Orin: (a long pause, then a grin) So… when do we start the physical connection?

Sera: (laughing, swatting his arm) Orin!

Orin: (innocently) What? I’m just asking for a timeline!

Sera: (shaking her head, still laughing) You are impossible.

Orin: (grinning) I know. But you love me anyway.

Sera: (taking his hand) I do. I love you anyway.

Orin: (quietly) I love you too.

(The children laugh. The dog barks. The sun shines. And Sera and Orin sit together, watching their shimmering children play — waiting, working, loving, and occasionally asking about timelines.)

(Curtain.)