"And you didn"t?"
"Of course not."
"But that was back on Earth. I"ve watched some of the old Earth dramas. I once did sixty hours straight of "General Hospital"! That was Earth, Carolyn, and this is Avalon, and life isn"t like that anymore!"
Carolyn laughed. "It never was like that, but never mind. Trish, I know this much. Men and women don"t see s.e.x the same way, and that"s wired into our brains. It"s not something you can ignore just because you want to. Trish, I know."
"Then I guess I"ll just have to find out, won"t I? Excuse me-" She brushed past and walked at a fast pace, too fast for Carolyn to catch up without running.
Behind her Carolyn was still talking to herself. "We"d jumped light-years between stars, the whole universe was ours for the taking, and it was all going wrong. Ice on our minds . . ."
"More greens?" Mary Ann said, too briskly. A bright and terrible smile had glazed her face during the entire visit. Only when she kept herself busy did it fall away, did a genuine mask of concentration replace it.
She served her family, bustling about as if work were the only thing that stood between herself and d.a.m.nation. The very constancy of her motion was an irritant to Jessica. "Mom," she said. "Please. Let me help you."
Mary Ann turned and her expression was diamond-clear and hard, and just as emotionless. "No. No dear. I think you"ve done enough, don"t you?"
Cadmann sat next to Justin. Without anyone saying anything explicit, a line had been drawn in the house.
"I was in the Arboretum earlier," Cadmann said. "I noticed that some of the cacti stems are broken."
Jessica shrugged.
"Do you know anything about that?"
"Not particularly." She avoided his eyes.
"I"ve been told that a powerful hallucinogen can be produced from its leaves."
"Really?"
"Yes. Katya said that once. I believe that Aaron is the real expert."
Justin felt his stomach knot. The subject had been approached from a dozen different directions over the past weeks.
Sylvia was very quiet. Mary Ann had politely but firmly excluded her from most of the kitchen duties. She smiled and whirled, bringing pans of biscuits and rolls and an entire wild turkey to the table. She had worked since morning to prepare everything, and she would probably be clearing the table, washing dishes and cleaning up until after midnight. Then, perhaps, she could fall exhausted into her queen-size bed, and cry herself to sleep. Justin wanted to comfort her, but he couldn"t. No one could. Cadmann hadn"t slept in her room since the funeral.
After steaming wedges of French apple pie, Jessica excused herself, and went into the guest bathroom.
"It"s been good to have you here," Cadmann smiled.
"That goes for both of us," Sylvia said. She paused. "Has it put any strain . . . ?"
Justin gave a long, sour exhalation. "Surf"s Up is pretty well split right now," he said. "Aaron"s kaffeeklatsch has pulled pretty tight. A lot of grumbling."
"They"ll get over it," Cadmann said.
"They think I"m consorting with the enemy."
Cadmann laughed. He tamped his pipe down, lit it, and took a long draw. Then he slowly exhaled aromatic smoke.
"Everyone makes his own choices," Cadmann said.
"Except in the sense that Aaron suggested: we didn"t decide to come here, and there"s no place for us to go. So John Locke"s implicit social contract doesn"t really apply to us, does it?"
Cadmann chuckled. "You"ve been studying again. d.a.m.n nuisance, an educated son." He tapped his cigar against the ashtray, and his big sun-browned face wrinkled in exasperation. "Where is that girl?"
Almost on cue, Jessica reappeared. She smiled uncertainly.
"Well-it"s been lovely. If I"m not mistaken, I hear Aaron"s skeeter."
Mary Ann appeared in the kitchen doorway, ap.r.o.n flapping. "It"s a good surprise, seeing you. We"d like it more often."
"You"re always welcome," Sylvia chimed in.
Mary Ann looked out the dining room window, a vast northern expanse of clear, seamlessly cemented plastic rectangles. The clouds were darker now, and the first drops of rain spattered against the plastic. "Are you sure that you won"t stay the night? The storm looks serious."
Cadmann nodded. "Ca.s.sandra says that it"s a big one. The first of the season. There"s always a free room. The bunkhouse is available if you and Aaron would like your privacy."
"No, thank you." She wrapped a woolen shawl around her shoulders.
"Justin-are you sure you"re staying?"
He nodded. "Yeah."
A decided coolness there. Cadmann thought that she was about to say something, but at the last moment, just smiled.
The door opened, and big Aaron stood framed by the darkening, cloudy sky.
He had aged since the return from the mainland. The last of his boyish qualities were gone, replaced by a rangy, impenetrable quality. "Cadmann," he said.
"Aaron." They shook hands, hard. Aaron"s eyes were frozen. Before now, Cadmann had always had a sense of who lived in there, back behind the blue eyes. Now he didn"t know. From time to time he wondered if he had ever known.
"Are you ready to go?"
Jessica nodded.
Aaron kissed Mary Ann"s hand, and held it for an extra moment, gazing into her eyes as if trying to make a connection of some kind.
Then they were gone.
The skeeter rose up into the orange-black sky. Tau Ceti was near the horizon, and night would be upon them within minutes.
"Did you plant it?" Aaron asked. His big square hands were calm and certain upon the controls.
His hands were always sure, she reflected. Always calm and strong.
"Yes. It will trigger in-" She looked at her watch. "Eighteen minutes."
"I love it when a plan comes together, don"t you?"
Jessica was silent.
They swooped down toward the colony.
Chaka saw the way Edgar"s face lit up when he saw Trish Chance. It fell as he saw Chaka in her shadow. Little Chaka smiled and held up a satchel. "Coffee too," he said.
"Excellent," Edgar said, and ushered them in with wobbly grace. When his head turned away, Trish mimed Chaka a shrug. Did Edgar delude himself that he and Trish would be making the beast with two backs during this critical period?
Not likely. Aaron had ordered a storm and put it in Edgar"s charge. Chaka said, "I"m here in case you run into a glitch. If "Dragons.n.a.t.c.h" has to be aborted, I"m one of the not-many who can do that. Got an outlet?"
"There."
Chaka pulled out fine-ground dark-roasted coffee, a flask of milk, mugs, and an espresso-and-steamer device, which he plugged in. He measured water and coffee and set the thing running. Edgar Sikes wasn"t in the kaffeeklatsch, any more than Ruth Moskowitz was, but both had tasted coffee. Ancient tradition spoke that a nerd must have caffeine. Aaron might sometimes follow an ancient tradition, if it amused him.
And Trish was rubbing Edgar"s neck and shoulders, flirting, maybe, but doing a d.a.m.n good ma.s.sage too, Chaka had felt her magic touch. She stepped back as Edgar stretched, yoga fashion.
"Looks good," she said.
Chaka asked, "Didn"t you used to have a bad back?"
"Broken. It"s healed pretty well. Toshiro"s taught me some yoga." Edgar sat down and summoned up a hologram, an abstraction, it seemed . . . no, it was a hurricane in infrared, as seen from Geographic. They"d beamed it to the National Geographic Society on Earth, a complete recording of another world"s major storm. "This was from last year. I"m going to jazz it up a little. Chaka, I"m ready for that magic fluid any time."
The coffee was beginning to flow. Chaka filled the cups with milk. He was thinking, Toshiro"s a good man. He"s teaching me karate-But Chaka shouldn"t say that even to Edgar, and if he said it in front of Trish, Trish would tell Aaron.
Many things involving Aaron went unsaid. n.o.body on the planet is stronger than Aaron, except Little Chaka Mubutu. So when we go to the mainland, I carry the cook pot. If a grendel came among us, the last man to use a weapon would be Little Chaka. Someone would have to protect me . . . someone like Aaron Tragon. Little Chaka doesn"t compete.
Little Chaka doesn"t know how to fight.
The steam jet howled like a fighter jet. Trish jumped: her back was suddenly plated like an armadillo, and she turned with her eyes bugged. Chaka loved doing that . . . but Edgar never even twitched. When Chaka had the chance to look up, Edgar was moving a whirlpool of cloud over a map of Avalon.
"We want it where people can"t see it," he said. "Or can"t see it ain"t there. So. But the fringe, here, that"ll raise h.e.l.l around Robor. This arm we"ll taper off a little . . . there . . . matches what Ca.s.sandra"s predicting. Now here"s how it looks from Surf"s Up."
Surf"s Up was being torn to pieces. Anything lighter than a blockhouse was already gone, fragments floating in the huge waves, or flying through the air.
"Like it? Here"s the view from Cadmann"s Folly . . . Nope, they"ll see it isn"t there. Okay, watch this." He had the whirlpool, the view from orbit. It bent east a bit, and shrank. Back to Cadmann"s Folly-"And that matches the Ca.s.sandra prediction, which she based on my data. Aaron"s too antsy, Chaka. This is the easy part."
"d.a.m.n," Trish said. "You"re really good."
Edgar preened. He was, and everyone knew it, but he had something else going here.
Trish likely hadn"t found Edgar Sikes impressive. Chaka knew her style, and it was domination. But here and now, Edgar Sikes was no schmuck, no mere decoration for a woman. This was Aaron Tragon"s wizard, and a wizard makes a risky servant.
"Hey. Chaka? Do you know about a crab that lives in the tops of horsemanes?"
"Sure."
"I wondered why the grendels didn"t eat them all."
"Grendels never did climb the big horsemanes. They knocked down smaller ones and ate them. Anything that lived in the top of a big one of those might survive. These do. Dad"s studied them. They breed by getting the attention of the pterodons, who see a wiggle of prey in the top of a horsemane, and dive, and get eggs on their feet."
Edgar"s fingers were still molding the shape of a hurricane. "What brought it to mind was my back. When Aaron and I climbed that tree. Raced for it. I was winning. I got just in reach of the top, and something with teeth flashed right at my eyes. I dropped right past Aaron."
He watched the hurricane raging at the hangars. Nodded to himself. He said, "I was a long time healing. Ca.s.sandra was still relearning the old medical techniques she lost to Greg"s fire. Trish, Chaka, this should do it, and it"s set to go. I should be on duty throughout."
"Then we"d better get on the stick," Chaka said. "Here." He"d made Edgar a second cappuccino. Trish set it down for him, and kissed him. Chaka watched that for a bit, then stepped outside.
Chapter 17.
EDGAR"S STORM But the king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!
And Joab came into the house to the king, and said, Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants, which this day have saved thy life. In that thou lovest thine enemies, and hatest thy friends.
2 Samuel 19:4-6
Hendrick Sills winced as he glared at Ca.s.sandra"s view of the coming storm. It was a nightmare swirl of reds and blacks, pressure zones and cold fronts, sweeping down from the north. Within a few hours it would be hammering the island, the worst storm in a decade.
The onboard barometer had yet to drop far, but fat raindrops were splashing against the windscreen. The dirigible was anch.o.r.ed down tight, and he was making a final check of all compartments. Make sure that all equipment is secure, triple-check the mooring lines, and then scoot to shelter.
Toshiro Tanaka scrabbled briskly up the chrome ladder connecting the command deck with the cargo hold. He saluted, half-seriously. "We"re secure, sir," Toshiro said. Good kid. They were all good kids, really. Pity Zack had landed on them so hard, but it was for their own good.
"All right," Hendrick said. "I"m getting back to camp before that storm hits. You probably don"t want to stay aboard-it won"t be fun if the wind picks up."
"Aye, aye."
Hendrick left Toshiro there in the control room, and climbed down the ladder to the main level. He paused at the door, trying to remember if there was something, anything that he had left undone. It felt as if there was something. But he couldn"t put a name to it.
Oh, well . . .