The Getaway Special

12

After she and Allen had showered, put on clothing borrowed from their hosts, and eaten their first meal in half a day, they turned on the TV to see what kind of story the police had concocted to explain their roadblock. It turned out they hadn’t. The news didn’t even mention it, and the more Judy thought about it, the more ominous that silence felt. The government evidently still thought it had a chance to cover up the whole hyperdrive affair, or they’d have at least admitted that a couple of astronauts had made an emergency landing. As it was, Judy suspected that if she and Allen were caught, they would never be heard from again.

The announcer did mention the television broadcast they had made from the communications satellite, but he attributed it to a hoax played by a couple of Caltech students taking advantage of the confusion caused by the computer virus. There were even pictures of a mobile TV van surrounded by police cars, and two kids coming out the open back doors with their hands on their heads.

The international news was a little more accurate. The European Coalition admitted that one of their anti-missile satellites had fired on an unknown object that had appeared on their radar, and the U.S. admitted that they had gone on red alert until the “misunderstanding” had been cleared up, but neither side would explain what had caused the incident in the first place. Except for one U.S. senator who suggested that the Europeans had staged the whole thing to test the American defenses.

“They missed an obvious connection,” Judy said when a commercial came on. “They should have said the search planes were looking for a couple of French spies who parachuted out over Wyoming . It would have tied their story together perfectly.”

“They probably didn’t think of it,” Allen said. “They’re scrambling to keep ahead of the truth. But it’s all futile. They can’t keep a lid on it forever. People all over the country have already taped our broadcast. And not all the email messages that got sent out are the virus. Somebody is bound to try building the circuit, and it’ll only be a matter of time before everybody realizes it’s for real.”

Trent was sitting with Donna in the loveseat to one side of the screen. “That may be so,” he said, “but what are you going to do in the meantime?”

Allen said, “Well, I’ll probably try to contact somebody from INSANE, though I’m not sure they’ll be able to do us any good, since they’re probably under close surveillance themselves. On the other hand, we’ve still got the hyperdrive. All we need are a few car batteries and a spaceship and we can go anywhere we want.”

“Oh, well, sure,” Judy said. “Just a couple of batteries and a spaceship. No problem. I’m sure they have dozens of both on clearance down at Wal-Mart. Or do you get them from a used spaceship lot? I forget.”

Allen shook his head. “We’re going to have to redefine our idea of what makes a spaceship. With the hyperdrive, just about anything that can hold air will do the job, as long as it’ll survive a parachute landing.”

“Oh,” said Judy. “Well, in that case we’ve already got a spaceship, unless the Feds have found it.”

Allen nodded. “I suppose we do. It’s kind of cramped, though. It wouldn’t hold much gear.”

“True.” Judy yawned. “Excuse me. It’s way past my bedtime.”

Donna jumped up immediately. “Oh, I’m sorry! I forgot, you must be on Florida time, aren’t you? I’ll make your bed.”

Judy got up too. “I’ll give you a hand.”

When they were alone in the spare bedroom, Donna worked up her courage and asked, “Um, do you guys need separate rooms, or …?

With everything else that had happened to her that day, Judy hadn’t even thought about sleeping arrangements. She did now, and was a little surprised to realize she didn’t mind the idea of sharing a bed with Allen. There wasn’t any privacy on board the shuttle; she and he had already slept within a couple feet of each other. And they’d pretty much linked their fates together for the foreseeable future; if she insisted on modesty it would just complicate things even more.

Besides, he was kind of cute, and making the great escape with him had somehow made him even more attractive. Judy had no idea if he felt the same about her, but she supposed there was one direct way to find out.

“One bed is fine,” she told Donna.

When Allen came into the room a few minutes later, he paused in the doorway and said, “Are, uh, are you sure you, uh, want company tonight?”

Judy had already undressed and slid under the covers. She raised up on one elbow, holding the sheet over her breasts with her free hand in a way she hoped looked both modest and sexy, and said, “Look, if nothing else, we need to talk. We need to come up with a plan.”

“Yeah.” He stepped on into the room and closed the door behind him. Judy watched him undress until she realized she was making him self-conscious, so she lay back and watched the shadows on the ceiling until she felt him slide in beside her. He lay straight as a board, careful not to touch her.

“So,” he said. “What sort of plan did you have in mind?”

She laughed, and rolled over to face him. She didn’t bother to keep the covers tight against her body this time. He glanced over at her, then looked back at the ceiling, but she’d seen his pupils dilate.

Business first, though. “Well,” she said, “let’s look at the situation. I don’t know about your career as a scientist, but my shuttle piloting days are pretty much over. We’re halfway across the country from anyplace familiar, we have practically no money, no clothes of our own, and we’re probably the most wanted people in the world right now. What do you suppose we ought to do first?”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, when you put it that way, maybe we ought to go undercover. Get jobs. I could probably flip burgers somewhere, and you could wait tables. Or I could charge batteries at a service station and you could clean windshields.”

“Why don’t you clean windshields while I charge batteries?” Judy asked him.

“Because you’d get better tips than I would, and nobody tips the battery guy.”

“Oh.”

Allen looked over at her again. “Or there’s one other possibility.”

“What’s that?”

“We could build ourselves a spaceship and explore the galaxy.”

Judy shivered. “Yeah, we could, couldn’t we?”

“I think so. It probably wouldn’t even cost that much to get set up for it. What do you think? You want to?”

“Yes,” said Judy, so fast her response had to have been reflex. She shivered again.

Allen laughed softly. “Sounds like we’ve got a plan, then.” He let his gaze drift downward for a moment to where the sheet had fallen away from Judy’s breasts, then he looked back into her eyes. “What else did you have in mind?”

The bed squeaked. They made love slowly, deliciously, at first to keep from embarrassing their hosts, but they soon forgot all about their surroundings in the pleasure of exploring each other’s bodies. That, as much as anything, had been Judy’s true intent when she’d decided to seduce Allen. She needed an escape, however temporary, from the immensity of the changes in her life.

Afterward, when they lay back against the pillows and Judy rested her head on Allen’s chest, she whispered, “Thank you. That was nice.”

“Mmm hmm.”

“It was a good way to end a really strange day.”

Allen didn’t say anything for a long time, and Judy had just decided that he must be one of those men who don’t talk after sex, when he said, “I have to admit, when I woke up this morning, I didn’t really expect to wind up quite like this.”

“I hope you’re not disappointed,” Judy said.

“Only that we didn’t try this in free fall when we had the chance. Our starship is likely to be a little cramped.”

Judy snuggled closer, sighed. “Free fall is good for acrobatics, but it’s hard to just hold someone there.”

“Oh.” He was silent a while longer, then said, “I wonder what other myths about spaceflight we’re going to wind up disproving once we start doing a lot of it?”

Judy had been drifting toward sleep. She surfaced just long enough to consider his question, but her answer, if she ever came up with one, got lost in her dreams.