The Lotus Eaters

UEPF Spirit of Peace, Rift Point, Terra Novan side

The rift was fixed in space. The planet, however, moved. That's what made timing a rift jump tricky. Pass the rift too early and a ship could end up chasing a receding planet even while trying to slow down, and having a harder time slowing down because the lasers on the far end were running away, hence more attenuated. Come too late and spend a year or two swinging around the local sun, and then having to chase a receding planet.

Wallenstein—rather Richard, Earl of Care, acting under her instruction—had timed it rather well. Peace would assume orbit around the new world in just about seven months. Already they were in communication with the fleet, though there was a not inconsiderable time lag—just under eight hours—between messages. This would shorten as the ship closed on the planet and the planet continued in its orbit.

Not that every message took that long. Not long after Peace came out of the rift, Wallenstein ordered a tightbeam opened with UEPF Dag Hammarskjöld, Captain Bruce Shi (Class One), Count of Wuxi and Knight Commander of the Order of the Sun, commanding.

"Captain Wallenstein," Shi began, with a small nod of the head. Raising his head and eyes, Shi looked more carefully. "Ah, Admiral Wallenstein. Let me be the first this side of the rift to offer my congratulations, Marguerite."

"Thanks, Bruce. From you, that means something." Wallenstein gave Shi the smile she normally reserved for former lovers, still on good terms.

"Honestly, Marguerite, I wasn't sure I'd ever see you again . . . in this turn of the wheel. You convinced the Consensus, then?"

"I convinced the SecGen," she answered. "He convinced the Consensus . . . or enough of it. But Bruce . . . things are getting really bad at home. Bad in ways . . . well, you might not believe me without seeing for yourself."

"More areas reverted?" he asked.

"That, yes, but . . ."

"But?" he prodded.

"Let me tell you a little bit about the Ara Pacis and the Burning Man . . ."

* * *

Richard, Earl of Care, was burning up inside. And I know why, he thought, I know the exact cause. She's brown and petite and hourglass shaped, with a face like an angel and a disposition so different from the Class One women I've known that she shines their superior in every way that matters.

Of formal education she has not much, though once she learned to read she began picking things up at an amazing rate. Surrounded by mostly classes above Four, her Anglic has gotten to be something no Class One would have to be ashamed of back home. And such an adorable accent!

Elder gods, she terrifies me. What if I approached her? She couldn't reject me by law and custom but it would be meaningless for her to accept me unless I gave her the freedom to reject me in advance. And if I did that she might reject me. She's no cause to have any love for my class.

* * *

It was too far away to see the new world with the naked eye, but Esmeralda could see the bright dot of the sun of this system from the observation deck.

Just a few more months, Richard told me, until I'll be able to see Terra Nova. I can hardly imagine; a place where Man is free of the uppers that tyrannize poor Earth.

Richard, she sighed. What am I going to do about Richard. He loves me, I think. And, though I hate his class, I can't hate him . . . nor even, maybe especially, the High Admiral. What am I going to do. If I become his lover, as he plainly wants to ask me to become, could I then do what I must? Should I push to become his lover so that I will be in a better position to do what I must? God, I don't know.

I only know that my sister who took my place a few days before the High Admiral freed me . . . took my place to have her heart cut out on their filthy altar, made me swear revenge.

She thought upon it long, weighing advantages and disadvantages, conflicting duties and responsibilities. Finally, still undecided, she stood and began walking the ship's corridors, in the direction of the captain's cabin.