* * * *
Rolondo thought he had arrived amazingly early at the port, and was disheartened to see another man there, also unloading a truck with big crates. It was a Saturday morning, a little after six, and Rolondo had as big a day planned as you would when preparing to leave your home planet. His arm was feeling better now, and he was confident enough to try some heavy lifting. The port had plenty of machines used for lifting, but he wanted to put his crates on the ship himself, to give him the peace of mind that it was done properly. His bike crash was more than a three months ago, which was more than enough time to heal. The doctor had told him it would only take two weeks, and his bosses had not believed him when he continued to complain of sharp pains. But that was all part of his job, to live with pain from test-runs gone wrong. All the workers had them, and they all complained, but they all knew it came with the territory. No one tests supercharged flying bikes without making a mistake now and then. The thrill of speed negated the terror of injury or death. It was a job he had always dreamed of, and after ten years he still hadn’t had enough of it. Until the prospect of Ancia came along. He told himself that once he was on Ancia, he could fly all the superbikes he wanted, on his own land.
Such a high-risk job gave him a confidence to get on a ship like the Burning Star. To most people, the thought of leaving Earth and going into deep space was one they liked to dream of but not actually do. All the tourist flights that regularly flew around Mars and Jupiter only ever had extreme-adventure types, not normal people, who knew that risking their lives did not make for an attractive holiday. Rolondo had always been into adventure, but since he never had a lot of money, he would settle for jumping off rooftops and hanging from balconies.
He suspected that Rebbi was secretly fearful of the idea of Ancia, and he was sure that she was using her father’s opinion as an excuse not to go. He hoped that Chera would not do the same, and he figured that the prospect of the paradise world would negate any of her fears.
As he went closer to the ship, he recognised the lanky and fair man. He had been there when Rolondo had first taken a look at the mighty Burning Star. Feeling confident that he was part of the flight, he approached the man with a friendly smile and introduced himself.
“I’ve seen you here before, but at a distance,” he said. “If you don’t mind me saying, where’s the rest of your party?”
“I’m it,” Real said with an awkward smile.
“No, I mean the others who will be travelling with you,” Rolondo said as he studied him. Although not looking threatening, he knew that he was the type who could become violent when cornered.
“I know what you mean, and I’m it. All that’s going.”
“Serious? You’re going by yourself?” Rolondo could read nothing into Real’s smile, if he was being truthful or not.
“My girlfriend opted out,” he shrugged. “Her loss.”
Rolondo saw that something was not quite right with the conversation, and Real was annoyed at his presence. Not knowing the man at all, and whether or not he was some kind of nut, Rolondo politely excused himself and went to work in unloading his own supplies. Neither exchanged any further words, and hardly looked at each other.
After two hours, the Wilson brothers walked by, and ignored them both. Rolondo watched them and wondered why they were not paying him any attention, before seeing that they were both drunk.
* * * *
It was a cold and rainy evening, and Rolondo wanted to stay in the garage to go over his notes, and conveniently keep away from Rebbi. But it was damp in there and that didn’t help his breathing. She had a strict rule about him coming in and out of the house when the weather was bad, so he had to chose one, and he chose the house. His notes had already been fine-tuned anyway, since he was a creature of discipline; everything had to be in its own correct place, according to practical use. Rebbi had long wondered why he bothered taking any notes at all, since he knew where everything was anyway.
The reason he wanted to stay outside, and one he didn’t want to admit to himself, was that he was thinking about Chera and what his life would have been like if he had not left her. Whenever he saw Rebbi, the only thing on his mind was if she saw in his eyes that he was thinking about his old girlfriend.
He sat at the kitchen table and spread papers out and concentrated on some recalculations. Rebbi watched him working away in silence and knew that he was pretending she wasn’t there. She had never seen him so obsessed with anything, and while part of her wanted to chide him for being so ridiculous, she knew that this was something he cared about with intensity. Before they were married, she had seen that same determination in him, but not since. Her father had never liked him, and told him so at their first meeting, and most men would have had a problem with that. Rolondo’s reaction was to laugh it off, saying that it would take more than Justin Hopewood to keep him away from her. To her regret, she followed her father’s advice and left him for two years, and missed him the entire time. She agreed with her father, that his work was too dangerous, that he could be killed at any time, and the many injuries he had proved that fact. Looking back at those two years spent away from him, they seemed like two years missing from her life. She hated the thought that she was about to feel that pain again.
“Seen my discharger?” he asked her abruptly.
“What?” she asked, more surprised that he was talking to her.
“My discharger. Bought it specially for the trip. I need to read power levels in the machines.”
“I know what the discharger’s for,” she said tersely. “I bought it for you. And I packed it for you.”
“Oh, okay.” He returned to his notes, and jotted something down with irritation.
“Is that all?”
“I think I have everything.”
“No, I mean is that all you have to say to me?”
“What else do we have to say? You said all that needs to be said, that right?”
“You’re going there all by yourself, is that what’s happening?”
“You know I’ve got to go. About that there’s no dispute.”
“By yourself?” She was both amused and appalled at him when he just shrugged, without looking up from his notes.
“Baby, you know you can’t go anywhere by yourself,” she said like a parent to a stupid young child, trying to see the humour in what he was doing. “All that stuff you got there, I had to go with you to buy it. You hate being alone at the mall, or the supermarket. You’ve never gone to a show or concert without your friends. And now you think you’re going to leave the planet?”
“What choice have you left me?” He was not seeing the funny side, although she clearly was. “Woman, leave me to do my thing, if all you’re doing is this.”
“You big idiot,” she said with a kind laugh. “I’m not leaving you.”
“You’re what?” He looked up from his notes. His eyes were transfixed on her, stunned at her.
“You had me,” she said, nodding. “I didn’t think you would go through with it, but now I see you are, at least trying to put on this brave face. You know I can’t leave you, no matter how crazy you make me. Of course I’m going with you. How could I not?”
“You saying you want to go? To Ancia, you’re talking about?”
“Yeah, Ancia. Where else? Mars?”
“No, Mars would not be good,” he said absently.
“How could you think you could do Ancia by yourself, Ro? I know you too well. I’m not going to let you dive into such a big thing without at least going there with you. And I know what you’re going to say, that Daddy will be angry. Well, so what? You’re the one I love, and you’re the one I want to be with, wherever we go. Daddy won’t be there to tell us what to do. You have no need to worry about him. Sure, he’ll be upset, and go on one of his rant and raves. But we’ll be in the spaceship and flying away from this world, and far away from him. You know what? I’m not married to him. I’m married to you, right? There comes a time, I can??
?t go living of fear of what my father thinks. Don’t you think? And you can’t let him scare you, baby.”
Rolondo nodded but wasn’t really listening. His first thought was to try to convince her to change her mind, that she should not go, and that he would be all right by himself. He even contemplated contacting Justin and warning him that he needed to take hold of his daughter, if he wanted her to stay on Earth. Then he realised how nice it would be to have her with him on his great adventure. She was right; he hated doing anything alone, and he always felt more confident in groups, and she would help him with that. All he could think of after that was Chera, and how he could sneak her on board without Rebbi knowing.
* * * *
Their party had been going for over two hours and Dawn-Star’s arrival was nothing like her first to the surfing group. The music was loud, the beer was almost completely consumed, and most important of all, she was not the only woman there. She found her brother in the back yard, lying on his back on the lawn and staring up at the starry night sky. There was a time when such a sight would make her think that he was dreaming about travelling to those stars, but now she knew it was more likely that he wasn’t even noticing them.
“I know you don’t want to hear any of this,” she told him, “so I’ll make it quick. TC is soon to leave, and I’m not sure he’s coming back this time. I mean at all. He’s talking of never setting foot on Earth again.”
“Bon voyage.”
Jupe sounded sober and that surprised her.
“You’re young, and even though I doubt you have a heart, one day, when you’re very old, you may regret not taking this chance to say goodbye. You know you’ll probably never see him again? You know that, don’t you? Do what you want with your life, see if I care. I’ll be at the launch. If I see you, then good. If I don’t, then whatever.”
“You’re not going with him? I thought you were going.”
“As I’m getting married, no, I’m not going.”
“Why? Do they not let people get married in outer space?”
“Don’t play dumb with me. You were born up there, and grew up on the Burning Star. You know as much about spaceflight as I do; probably more. You think I don’t know you liked to sit in the captain’s chair and play pilot? You think I don’t know you can actually fly the old ship?”
He sat up. “Then why are you not going? Everyone wants to go, if given a chance.”
“For your information, yes they allow marriage in space. But what they don’t have is an international professional Women’s Ultraball League.”
He laughed and went back to the lawn.
“My coach thinks I have strong potential to make it to the pros.”
“Bulletball’s better than flying off into the dark.”
“Look, if you do decide to go to the launch, can you not tell TC any of that? He doesn’t know I play. I’d rather he didn’t.”
That was all she had to say, and the party atmosphere was beginning to make her feel unwell. When his only reply was a grunted laugh, without even once looking at her, she was quite happy to leave.
Radcliffe Stevens, known to the group as The Rad One, had noticed Dawn-Star arrive and carefully followed her without her knowing. He waited until he was sure that she was long gone before asking Jupe for more information.
“This TC,” The Rad One asked him, “she means that Johnny Beggs?”
“The one and only.”
“He’s your father? Everybody’s talking about that.”
Jupe was not one of The Rad One’s biggest fans, since he considered that his surfing skills leaned somewhere between reckless and suicidal, and he never liked to be too near him when they were out in the deep.
“It doesn’t look good, for your cred. They’re saying you hate him.”
“Of course I hate him. Why shouldn’t I hate him?”
The Rad One was surprised by that. “But that’s why you are where you are. You’re Johnny Beggs’ son. He’s great, so you must be too.”
“I’m where I am because I’m the best in the surf. Who’s better than me?”
“We know that, but the reason everyone accepts it the way they do, it’s because of who you are: Beggs’ son. If you’re saying you hate him, you’re going to get challenged more.”
“Nobody’s challenging me that I can see.”
The Rad One decided that Jupe was becoming hostile, and nobody liked to be around him when he was like that. He left him and returned to see what was happening in the party, which had lost some of its earlier life and was probably about to wind down. He wanted to tell someone that he was concerned about Jupe’s attitude, and that he was lucky to have a father like Johnny. Even though he had courage to take on any monster wave, he had no kind of courage to take on Jupe when his anger got up.
* * * *
Real was in a rare good mood, and it was due to the fact that his plans were finally working. He smiled and greeted everyone who came close to him, commenting about the weather and inquiring about their health, two things he didn’t care too much about. The Wilson brothers looked bemused, and he overheard them joking to themselves about who he was. Even to that, Real laughed it off. Any other day he would not have noticed the tense expression on the face of his fellow passenger and colonist, Rolondo Rees. He wondered if he should ask the man what was wrong, or even go as far as offering some advice. It was something he had never done before and wasn’t sure how to go about it, but he was in such a good mood that he went for it.
“Getting to you, is it?” Real asked him.
“I’m sorry, what?” asked Rolondo.
“The flight. Getting cold feet over it? Such a long way, so many obstacles. Government, astro-sickness, who knows what else.”
“No, the flight is not a worry. Been looking forward to it, in fact. None of the problems are anything to be concerned over, since our crew’s good. My reckoning says you don’t get to be a famous space pilot without knowing what you’re doing out there.”
“I just noticed you looked sad, that’s all. Forget about it.”
“You’re Real?” he asked with a curious look.
“Real Munro.”
“Rolondo Rees. If you don’t mind my asking, are you really travelling alone? All that way?”
“That’s right. I am. My girlfriend didn’t want to go. Don’t really want to talk about it, thanks.”
“Got a proposition for you, but you have to keep it quiet. And I mean, keep it quiet.”
“I’ve always got an ear out for propositions.”
“And you won’t tell anyone? Okay, here it is: My wife, Rebbi, she told me she’s not going. Changed her mind, after her family talked her out of it. How am I supposed to react to that? First she’s into going, talks to everyone we meet about it, then says she’s not, all because of her family.”
“That’s too bad.”
“So I called on my old girlfriend. Chera’s her name. She’s real nice. Got a nice body.”
“Has she?” asked Real, not understanding why he was telling him this.
Rolondo paused, looked around to be satisfied that no one could overhear. He was hoping that Real would be able to figure out what he was asking, without actually asking it. Since Real was not offering anything, Rolondo knew he was either not getting it or was just making him tell the whole story.
“Rebbi, my wife, she went and changed her mind on me again. Out of the blue, she just throws out. She wants to come now. How am I supposed to take that? But I went and promised Chera, and she just has her heart set. The girl’s had so many heartbreaking moments in her life, and I’m ashamed to say I was one of them. She can’t go and hear me saying she can’t go. I hadn’t seen her for a while, and all I brought her was this invitation to go to Ancia. Now what’s she supposed to do? To tell her she can’t go, that will be like breaking up with her again. I don’t want to put her through that. I don’t want to put myself through that either. But, you know, there’s another option. They can both go.”
With a rush of horror, Real realised why Rolondo was telling him his story. “Oh, no, no.”
“Come on, help me out.”
“What are you asking me, exactly?”
“Tell them Chera’s your girlfriend. Just until the launch.”
“You want to take two women? To Ancia? All the way to Ancia? Are you crazy?”
“I have a Hudson Enviromaker, Twelve-class, brand new. It’s yours. Do this favour, it’s yours. You keep it and run it all over your Ancia country, and I’ll never bother you again.”
Real looked at him with disbelief but then began to remember reading about such a machine. There was nothing close to it, either efficiency or automation, with a highly advanced computer intelligence. It could be set to work on a rugged plain and would finish with fully irrigated and seeded croplands. Rolondo was not only serious, but desperate. Real would be foolish to turn down such an offer. He knew that the woman could be a handful, and make his life a pain. Perhaps the wife would find out the truth, and make the voyage a nightmare for everyone concerned. But either way, pain or nightmare, Real would have a Hudson Enviromaker when they got to Ancia.
“I don’t care if you never talk to the girl,” Rolondo pushed. “Just get her on the ship, wait till we’re away, then I’ll look after her.”
“Show me,” Real said as he pointed to Rolondo’s section of the ship’s hold.
It was encased in a crate, but the details written on the outside confirmed that it was the machine that Rolondo said it was. Real was delighted at the thought of his brand new, twelve-class Hudson Enviromaker, and not caring at all about the woman involved, and even forgetting what her name was.
“This girl’s okay with this?” he asked.
“As long as you’re okay, she will be,” Rolondo told him, hoping that she would be as easily convinced.
* * * *
Rolondo had been sitting in Chera’s untidy, magazine-spewn lounge for some time, drinking mint tea, making small talk, reminiscing about the few years they were together, careful to avoid getting too deep with anything that might resemble the subject of relationship. Slowly, not wanting to push him into what she knew was the real reason for his visit, Chera steered the conversation around, and she could see that he was becoming more and more uncomfortable about revealing it.