The Marriage of the Living Dark

A FRAYING CLOTH

After the meeting at Kalevala, Karr and Marie had gone back to Kao Chen’s apartment in Fermi, where they’d stayed, talking long into the night Now, as the lights came on again all over Ganymede, Karr stood in the corridor outside the upper-level apartment, while Marie said her goodbyes to Wang Ti and the children.

Standing beside him, Kao Chen looked to Karr and smiled. “You know, I wish there was something to do.”

“Heads to break, you mean?”

Chen hesitated, then. “There were three chairs, Gregor.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just that if we went back ... well, Kim would have to be one...”

“And you and I?”

Kao Chen smiled. “Like old times, neh?”

Karr nodded, his smile mirroring his friend’s. “Like old times.”

“You think we can persuade Kim?”

“To go back?” Karr shrugged. “I don’t know. But Kim’s the key to it, neh?

Without his acquiescence we can do nothing.”

“You think a vote in Council would not be enough, then?” Karr laughed. “Will a vote make his machine work? No, Kao Chen, for once we must be patient” But Kao Chen, he could see, was anything but patient. The dream had troubled him far more than most As Marie broke from embracing Wang Ti for the dozenth time, Karr reached out and held his friend’s arm briefly. “Imust go now, Chen. I’ve a duty shift on the New Hope two hours from now, but if you need to talk, call me there. Or come up. The gods know there’s little enough for a man to do up there.” “Maybe.”

“And Chen. Don’t brood on it”

Kao Chen gave a little laugh. “Okay. Now you’d better go.” He turned, looking towards where the two women were still embracing, still talking, then shook his head and sighed. “Wang Ti! Let her go now. And Marie, come now, woman. Your husband’s waiting for you!”

As the transporter slowly slid along the massive wire, Kan-looked back at the diminishing circle of Ganymede. Once a month he came up here, to take his turn on the bridge of the great starship, and once a month he found himself confronted by the same sights and thoughts.

Nowhere. It was as if they were in the middle of nowhere. All about them was the darkness - a darkness so vast that some days it scared him as nothing else had the power to scare him. Here, in the sealed pod of the transporter, it felt as if he was the only thing moving in the entire universe, for though both the moon and the four great starships that were tethered to it were travelling at a speed that defied the imagination, it still felt as if they were not moving at all, for there was nothing to gauge their rapid progress by. Even the nearest stars were so distant that they did not change from day to day, but sat like painted jewels upon the black To get any sense of the reality of his situation, he had to close his eyes and imagine himself within the bright-lit transporter, like a bead on a thread between the spaceship and the moon, the two, and their three companion craft, hurtling through the dark between Chung Kuo and Eridani, their velocities matched.

And even then ...

Karr sighed heavily. The vague restlessness he had been feeling for the past few months had now taken a clear and distinct form. He was homesick. More than that, he had begun to think he had made the wrong decision coming out here.

Yes, and he was not the only one. More than half the people he spoke to these days expressed private doubts about the venture. Yet what else could they have done? If they’d stayed, they would have had to fight DeVore, and this time, probably, they’d have lost To survive at all, they had had to come out here. To make a fresh start But what none of them had counted on was just how long it would be before they could make that start Seven and a half years they’d been travelling now, with the prospect of at least five more.

It was time enough for a man to go stark staring mad. Back on Ganymede, lights were coming on all across its surface, as the domed cities woke to another artificial morning. Watching it was like watching bubbles forming on the dark sphere.

They had achieved a lot these past few years. More than any of them had thought possible. Even so, the restlessness remained and the doubts, as if this constant building and expansion of their world were no more than a distraction. Which is unfair, he thought, feeling the transporter slow as it came up under the starship’s massive hull.

For one day, if Kim were right, their world would be a proper world, orbiting a proper sun and possessed of a proper atmosphere. Yes, and their children and grandchildren would thank them for the opportunity they had given them. He knew that Knew it almost as if it were an accomplished fact But it did not help him when he felt like this.

Kao Chen is right, he thought, turning to face the hatch as the transporter docked. We need to go back. To break heads and create mayhem among our enemies. He shuddered. Aiya, but he’d missed that! Missed the adrenaline flow that came as one went into action, the sense of danger and the comradeship. Soldiers! he thought, and shook his head, as if saddened by this sudden attack of sentimentality. But deep down he felt nota sadness at his inability to change, but a strange comfort A soldier. He was a soldier before all else. And circumstance had stopped him being what he was. But now .. . Now he could go back. If Kim was right If his machine could be made to work. The thought of it sent a tingle of pure excitement through him.

There was a sudden hum. The hatch hissed open.

“Marshal...”

The two crewmen stood to attention beyond the hatch, their heads bowed as he stepped through.

Karr straightened, feeling a sudden pride course through him at the thought of what he’d been.

To be a fighter again, and not just a man in a uniform -that was what he wanted. Before his joints got too old and too stiff, his hair too grey. One last time before the darkness took him.

And in his mind’s eye he saw DeVore, and smiled. Enjoy the coming days. Make use of them wett. For you’ve not seen the last of me, Howard DeVore. Not by a long chalk.

Dcuro set down his helmet on the long table by the window, then turned to face his elder brother, his eyes shining with excitement “Imagine it, Tomoka! A machine that can take you anywhere you want, and at once!”

Tomoka, who had sat down to pull off his boots, merely grunted. “I will believe it when I see it” “But you saw it, brother. Yesterday, in Kim’s workroom.” “No, Dcuro. I saw a strange apparatus, and I heard a very strange theory. What I did not see was a machine that can travel anywhere.” “But Shih Ward said ...”

Tomoka gave his younger brother a hard look “Shih Ward is a very talented man, and a good man, too, but this time he has allowed his imagination to roam too far.”

Dcuro stared at his brother, shocked to be hearing this.