The Mandel Files (180 page)

Greg blinked as Christine let go. “Why are you wearing your nightie?”

She laughed and did a twirl. “Do you like it? It’s my new party dress.”

“The channel newscasts said Aunty Julia was up there,” Oliver insisted. “They never mentioned you.”

Christine’s shiny black dress was held up by two thin straps at the front, its back dropping almost to her rump; the skirt hem rode well above her knees.

“This is Andria,” he said distractedly to the three younger children. “She’ll be staying with us for a while.”

Richy was chewing one of his toy cars. He tilted his head to one side, and looked up at Andria. “Why?” he asked.

“Because she’s a friend, and it’s nice here.” Which was true enough, the farm was the best place he knew to bring up a kid, but he was going to have to come up with a better reason than that. He would try and explain about the extra baby tomorrow. Though maybe it would be better coming from Eleanor. Yes, excellent idea.

“Do you mind?” Andria asked. Richy shook his head shyly.

Greg managed to kiss Anita.

“Missed you, Dad,” she whispered.

“Greg told us you used to work at a shipping office,” Eleanor said.

“Yes,” Andria nodded.

“How are you at accounts?”

“I shuffled some finance bytes when I was there.”

“Good.” Eleanor gave Greg a quick kiss and began to steer Andria towards the kitchen. “You can help me with our figures. I’m afraid I’m way behind this year.”

Greg gave Oliver a strong hug. “Yes, I was up there, and so was Aunty Julia.”

“The sailing star is an aspect of Gaia, isn’t it, Dad?” Anita asked urgently. She threw a contemptuous glance at Oliver. “One of her angels come to show us the path to redemption.”

Christine smoothed down the front of her dress. “I’m going to wear it to the dance at the Victoria Hall on Saturday. Graham’s asked if he can take me. Mum said I’d have to ask you first. But it’s all right if I go, isn’t it, Dad?”

“Who’s Graham?”

Eleanor smiled sweetly. “Supper will be late, sorry.” She and Andria vanished into the kitchen.

“It’s an alien monster, and Dad stopped it from eating New London,” Oliver said hotly, and glared at his twin. “That’s right, isn’t it, Dad?”

Greg scooped up Richy, who smiled angelically and wrapped his arms round Greg’s neck.

“Dad! Can I go dancing with Graham or not?”

EPILOGUE

Julia opened her eyes to pure whiteness, a smooth translucent material centimetres from her nose with sunlight shining through. She stared at it while her thoughts coalesced, as if she was waking. But there had been no sleep, she was sure of that.

Memories rose, coldly bright, every aspect of her life recalled in meticulous detail, the joy and pain undimmed by time. That was so unfair. Time was supposed to heal human angst. And there had been so much time. Centuries.

The whiteness brightened, splitting open to show a cloudless sky. She was lying inside an oval cocoon which had a texture of resilient rubber. Sunlight warmed her skin and heavy moisture-laden air rolled in. There was the distinctive sound of waves breaking on a beach. She sat up.

It was a beach, a long, curving cove with gingery sand and beautifully clear water. She could see a rocky headland about three kilometres away to her left; on the other side there was a dark line of cliffs stretching into the distance. The bluff behind her was littered with big boulders, narrow wind-blown buttresses of sandy soil gripping them tight. Blades of tough-looking reed grass struggled for a toehold above the sand, growing into a thick wiry mat at the top of the bluff. Beyond that was a band of dense vegetation. The trees were unusual, each of them had five equally spaced slender grey trunks, gradually curving inwards, their tips meeting at the centre of the pentangle. A clump of mossy indigo foliage foamed out around the conjunction, with long ribbons dangling down to the ground. She shivered in dark delight at the sheer alienness of the world.

Five metres away was another cocoon. She waited as its top dilated, then Royan sat up.

They embraced on the sand between the two cocoons, spending a long time just looking at each other, hands constantly touching and stroking for reassurance. Finally she held his gaze, and screwed her face up. “That was a bloody silly thing to do. Didn’t you ever read War of the Worlds?”

He grinned. “Brought us together in the end, didn’t it, Snowy?”

She groaned in mock-outrage, and hugged him tighter.

He craned his neck, searching the sky.

“There.” She pointed back over the jungle. A brilliant star ruing above the tree tops.

“Where will it go now?”

“It’ll find it a world of its own, that was the deal. The SETI division had compiled quite an extensive list of local stars confirmed to possess planetary systems. I accessed the file before we left New London.”

“Good old Rick.”

“Yes.” She took another look round the beach, and rubbed her arms absently. “It’s going to be cold at night.”

“The nanoware will make you some clothes, they’ll make you anything as long as they’ve got the right raw material to process.”

She glanced down at the white organisms. Both of them had closed up, shrinking slightly now there was no body to accommodate. if she concentrated she could feel their presence in her mind, an obedient animal-sentience, waiting for orders.

“I wonder what happened to me... her, afterwards?”

“We can always go back and see.”

“No,” she said with a sigh. “It was just a dream. This is our world now.”

Royan slipped his arm around her waist. “Shall we take a look around?”

The image of a planet seen from space filled her mind, strange continents, deep oceans dotted with long island chains, and large dazzling white polar caps. She had always adored the recordings of Earth’s ice-bound continent, ruing the fact she would never see it.

Exploring this planet would take a lifetime. The two of them would do it together, alone, and free of any obligations. The way it could never be on Earth.

“Sounds good,” she said.

They started to walk along the beach towards the headland. After a minute, the nanoware organisms stirred themselves, and began to slither dutifully after them.

THE END