Tachyon Web (12 page)

“
I wish that things were as they once were on Kashi. Not like when we were there, but as they were long ago, when our people used to walk outside beneath the sun. I always wanted to be in a real forest, in the mountains, and look out and see far away. Do you ever dream of those days, Eric?
”

In answer, he described to her his last backpacking trip when he had gone to the Himalayas, camped out on a glacier, scaled a sheer cliff without a graviton pack, and enjoyed a glorious view of the sunset from the top of Mt Everest. He was not trying to add to her confusion, rather, he simply wanted to share the experience. And she seemed to understand, though she could not possibly have known what he was talking about.

“
Those are some of the strange thoughts I see in your face. When you go to these places, are you always alone?
”

He had in fact been alone on the trip. He nodded, and then asked about her friends.

“
All those in my society are friendly.
”

“
Are any of them special to you?
” he asked.

“
Durgi and I spent many of our breaks together. I was unhappy when she was transferred. But we knew this would happen on her twenty-second cycle. Other than she, I don’t really have any special friends.
”

“
Does everyone get transferred on their twenty-second cycle?
”

This question struck her funnier than any of his others. “
Not always, not if their mate works in the same sector. Surely it must be the same on your world?
”

So they got married when they were twenty-two, and their relationships were monogamous. This was quite a change from the way things were back home these days. Sammy had said Kashi revolved around its sun in less than three hundred days; therefore, their cycles were probably less than an Earth year.

“
How many cycles are you?
” he asked.

“
Twenty-one.
” She stared at him a moment, then reached for another flower. “
You look more than twenty-two.
”

He nodded. He probably was.

She brushed the flower against her cheek. “
Who are you coupled to?
”

“
No one.
”

“
You were unable to choose?
”

“
In a way.
”

“
But did not the Council select someone for you?
”

“
No.
”

“
But when you do not choose, the Council always selects. It is the law.
”

He did not want to lie to her. “
My world is different than yours,
” was all he could think of to say.

This time the line did not satisfy her; she fidgeted on the boulder. He glanced down at his opant jacket. He did not have to let the cat out of the bag but maybe he could show its tail. He removed the coat and pressed the hidden on-switch beneath the collar. The jacket began to glow. She stared, amazed, hesitating to put it on until he reassured her that it was safe. As he was considerably bigger than she and since she couldn’t put her injured arm through the right sleeve, the fit was loose, but good enough to allow the coat’s sensors to get a grip on her emotions. Were his motives entirely pure? he wondered. She was unaware that the opant could give him a Peeping Tom’s insight into her feelings, maybe even her feelings about him. But he was spared a dose of guilt when he realized the green contacts made it impossible to assess the jacket’s shades of color; he could only see variation in the brightness of the light.

“
This is pretty
,” she said, excited. “
How is it that the colors move?
”

“
They move with your feelings
,” he said. “
Think of what makes you happy.
”

“
Landing on Lira.
”

Lira must be their destination. “
Okay, pretend you’re there
,” he said.

Eric suddenly saw the light begin to change, though he was not sure in which direction.

“
Now the jacket is blue. It works as you say. But how? We have no clothes like this on our world.
”

Blue must be happiness for Kaulikans, and not yellow, like it was for Earth people, he thought.

Vani was impressed. “One
day, I must visit your world. It must be very different.
”

That would be nice, he thought, feeling sad that he must continue to deceive her. She continued to marvel at the beauty of the jacket. He asked if it was hurting her arm.

“
No.
”

“
How did you break it?
”

The opant light changed, getting dimmer, less uniform. Bad question. “
I fell off a ladder in the farm. A few days ago.
” Her voice lowered. “
It was dawn, and I was looking at the sun and it was bright, so bright…and I fell.
” She forced a smile. “
Now I am like you, I do not do my exercise.
”

“
Does it hurt?
” he asked.

“
Not now.
” She touched her injured arm. “
But I have not slept much since then. I guess it does hurt.
”

It was not her arm that was keeping her awake. It was the damn nova, and what it had done. “
The jacket is yours
,” he said. “
Keep it.
”

“
But I cannot. It was issued to you.
”

“
I’ve got thousands of them.
”

“
You are so different. Why is it your world wanted you to visit ours?
”

“
They didn't. We just came
,” he said.

“
But how? Why?
”

“
I can't say.
”

“
Did one of the Council send you?
”

“
No.
”

A peculiar expression crossed Vani’s face. “
Are you in the Guard?
”

That sounded ominous, though it would have been foolish to assume the Kaulikans had no security personnel. He shook his head and told her he didn’t know much about the Guard, hoping she might tell him what she knew.

“
I have never met any of them myself, not that I know of, and I have never heard First Councillor Rak speak of them. But Durgi once said she knew a man who was a member of the Guard. She only spoke to him a few times and was not sure exactly what he did, other than that he helped ensure the safety of the worlds.
”

Eric had no trouble imagining what a member of the Guard did. Watching over delicate facilities such as engineering had to be at the top of their list. He’d better tell Strem about this – soon.

“
If you are not in the Guard, what do you do in your world?
” she asked.

“
I study.
”

“
What do you study?
”

“
How people would be different if they came from other stars
,” he said, “
and how they would be the same.
”

Vani nodded. “
Our program is concentrating on similar material. We study about the stars; how they are formed; how far away they are.
” She held up the arm of the opant, marveling at the flowing colors. “
We study why it is that nothing can ever go faster than light.
”

“
That’s not true,” he said. “Anything can go anywhere in no time if it knows how.
”

“
But the tapes say…
”

“
Never mind what the tapes say
,” he interrupted.

Vani was not one to argue. “Sometimes, I have also thought that way.”

She turned, pointing toward the far forward wall and the tilted panels, into space. Directly out from the nose of the ship’s central shaft, a bright star shone against a dark galactic dust cloud. “
Sometimes, I watch Lira before I fall asleep, and it does not look so far away.
”

He suspected, given the Kaulikans’ technology, that they would know if Lira had orbiting planets, but that they wouldn’t know if the planets were inhabitable or not. If only he had the coolant, a few pounds of cheap chemicals, he could go there and be back in less than an hour with a full report. But even then, would news of a lush world be of any help? It would be a world she would never know...

With each passing minute, he was moving closer to telling her the truth. He came to his senses when he imagined what Strem and the others would do to him if he did tell. And he was afraid that Vani would think he was crazy.

“
I believe
,” Eric said, “
we could reach Lira in the blink of eye.
”

She laughed at his wishful thinking. “
And the top of a mountain?
”

He nodded and said, “
Wherever we wanted to go.
”

She bopped him on the head with her flower. “
I like you, Eric.
”

“And I like you, Vani,” he said in English, not giving her the translation automatically supplied by his implant. He took her flower, fitted it in her hair by her ear, and smiled; she knew what he meant.

The chimes he had heard earlier at the farm returned. The wall panels began to fold down. With the light of the nova cut off, the garden settled into a gentle twilight, the sky emitting but a faint glow.

Vani stood and offered her good hand. Her skin was much softer than his, warmer, and he waited nervously for her to comment on the roughness of his touch. She said nothing. She was leading him along a stony path toward a waterfall that poured out the side of the tall hived trees. The land was curving upwards toward an artificial heaven it would never reach, while outside the black windows the real universe waited. The smell of honey was almost intoxicating. And Vani liked him. How silly it sounded to travel uncountable miles into the unknown and to have as his greatest discovery someone who cared about him. He laughed at the thought.

“
What's so funny?
” she asked.

Eric squeezed her hand. “
Nothing, Vani
,” he replied. But what if she knew he was an alien?

They stopped close enough to the waterfall to feel its spray and found another smooth rock, sitting and dangling their feet above a foaming pool a hundred feet below. Eric’s thoughts were returning reluctantly to the three-hour deadline when suddenly a
creature
landed on his shoulder, startling him, almost causing him to jump over the edge. Vani had let go of his hand, but quickly grabbed his arm. Then she laughed.

“
The Sila like you. That is rare.
”

A cross between a butterfly and a small bird was sitting not six inches from his face, peering at him with a triangle of three warm eyes. The wings were standing straight up, together, beautifully patterned, obviously insectile. The body was coated with a mammal’s fine fur. A tube-like snout protruded a couple of inches out from where the mouth should have been. Earth’s genetic laboratories would have trouble conjuring up this one.

Eric swallowed and shook slightly. The Sila took a hop closer and stuck its snout in his ear. Either it had spotted his implant or else it just liked wax. Vani was delighted.

“
A Sila has never done that to me. How does it feel?
”

“
It tickles
,” he said. The computer had not translated Silama or Sila. Clearly there was a connection between the words. He watched as more of the creatures, one by one, flew out of the huge hived tree, alighting on the flowers. They’d been waiting for the windows to close. He assumed the Sila were removing pollen from the flowers and transforming it into Silama. He could envision pipes inside the tree pumping the honey-like final product over to the farms. No wonder all the food tasted like it was saturated with sugar. The Silama must be like a potent fertilizer.

Vani couldn’t get over the little critter’s attraction to him. “
I have not seen this happen with anyone since I was with Belri.
”

“
Who is Belri?
” he asked.

“
My brother. The Sila loved him. No one knew why.
”

“
Where is he?
” he asked, foolishly, not reading the signs. The opant light had shifted once again. Vani began to kick her dangling feet, looking down where the waterfall crashed over the rocks.

“
He is not here.
”

“
Does he live on another world?
”

She hesitated. “
Yes.
”

“
Do you ever see him?
”

“
We exchanged tapes last week.
” She paused, a mild tremor going through her body. “
He lived on Kashi.
”

Eric could have kicked himself for being so slow. Belri was dead. He may even have been one of the countless people they’d seen catch fire and turn to ash on the Kaulikan news broadcast.

“
All my family was on Kashi. I was the only one picked to go. I was the youngest. I was told I was fortunate. The greatest adventure, they said. I knew the sun was in trouble, but I do not think I really understood. Had I understood, I probably would have stayed
.” She caught herself, struggling with her emotions. He half expected tears but maybe it was that Kaulikans didn't cry. “
I am sorry. We have all left someone behind. Even First Councillor Rak had to leave his family. You have your own burdens. I did not want to give you mine.
”

He felt like a hypocrite. Strem and he were the only ones aboard the ship who had not suffered. He wanted to comfort her, but he had no sense of the Kaulikans’ philosophy of life and death, or of their religion, if they even had one. All he could do was sit stupidly, feeling his guilt deepen. Vani ran her fine fingers through the moist sandy soil beside the rock on which they rested.

“
I did not speak my thoughts clearly. Sometimes I do wish I had remained on Kashi, but usually I am glad that I am here. There will be no adventure for me, I know now. I will die before the stars can begin to change. But I will have children, if it is permitted, and they too will have children. And one day, some day…
” her voice trailed off and she held up a fistful of the soil, letting it slip slowly through her fingers into the rushing waters below. “
And my ashes will still be here. I will grow and be in everything.
” She forced a wry smile his way. “
Maybe I will be a flower, and the Sila will like me, as they like you, and liked Belri.
”