by M. D. Cooper
“What do you do?” Erin asked once the waiter had gone.
“Right now, not a lot,” Isa replied.
She explained about her most recent job and how she’d recently given it up. When Erin asked her why, Isa told her about her feelings of dissatisfaction, but she also related the story of the oafish, demanding cargo handlers. The way she mimicked their spokesman sent Erin into fits of chuckles again.
“I decided I didn’t want to spend my working days dealing with difficult people,” Isa concluded. “I don’t know. Maybe that was a bit self-centered of me.”
“I wouldn’t say so,” Erin said. “I’d hate to have to be nice and polite to people all day every day. I much prefer to work with machines and AIs. They’re more predictable and reliable most of the time, and they don’t complain or talk back. Well…the machines don’t, the AIs sure do.”
“But maybe they’re not so interesting—the machines, that is?”
“Are you kidding? Tech is fascinating, and it’s developing all the time. The project I’m currently working on, for example, we’re going to—” She paused. “Er, well, I can’t speak about it at the moment, but if you used the kind of toys I get to use all the time, you wouldn’t think it was boring.
“Anyway, you said you’ve been working in Placement Services since arriving in Carthage. What did you do before that?”
Isa began to reply, and their appetizers arrived, along with the bottle of wine, which Erin shared. The conversation went on, becoming even more relaxed and friendly as the evening passed.
Erin mostly asked questions. She didn’t talk much about herself or her work unless they strayed onto the subject of tech…then she would go into long, detailed descriptions that Isa didn’t really understand. Erin seemed to be enjoying herself, though, so Isa listened without interrupting.
Isa guessed that Erin’s work was classified and that she wasn’t quiet on the subject because she didn’t like it, but because she couldn’t talk about it; though she did talk a bit about the work she was supposed to have done at New Eden. The woman clearly loved her work. She also didn’t speak about previous relationships, though as far as Isa could tell, she wasn’t hiding any dark secrets. Maybe it was only that Erin didn’t have much in that area of her life to talk about.
The end of their meal arrived. Things had gone well—far better than Isa had imagined they would at the beginning. The two women had talked nonstop for hours, chatting about Victoria and Carthage, and Isa had told Erin much more about her history than she would normally divulge to people she’d only just met.
Erin had an aura of integrity about her. It made her easy to trust, and though she didn’t make any kind of a show about it, the woman was also clearly brilliant. What Isa liked best about Erin however, was her sense of humor. Over the course of the evening, Isa had laughed so much and so hard that her stomach now ached.
The time came to leave, but she didn’t want the evening to end; she got the impression that Erin felt the same way.
When they stepped out into the cool, evening air, the traffic had all but disappeared, and the street was quiet. Behind the two women, the restaurant’s patrons created a dull murmur, but Isa had hardly noticed.
“Do you have far to go?” she asked.
“Not very far. I’m renting an apartment near the spaceport. How about you?”
Urgh, Isa thought. They were falling into formalities again. “Erin,” she implored sincerely, honestly, openly. “Would you like to come back to my place?”
To her delight, Erin accepted.
* * * * *
When Isa woke the next morning, the first thing she perceived was the sound of Erin’s quiet, steady breathing beside her. She turned on the light, but quickly stopped its brightening at a dim half-light. It was enough to see by, but not so bright as to wake her lover.
She watched the sleeping woman for a while, drinking in her perfect, petite form. Eventually, though, she had to get up, and her movement woke Erin. As she saw Isa, she smiled and opened her arms, inviting her back to bed.
Isa couldn’t resist. She obliged, and the two women cuddled.
Isa brushed Erin’s hair with her fingertips. “I really like your hair. It suits you.”
“Thanks. I like to keep it short. So much less of a hassle to deal with.”
“Mmm…. So, what do you want to do today?”
“Today?” Erin said, a sad sigh escaping her lips. “Sorry, I have to go to work.”
“But it’s a rest day.”
“I know, but I just received the reply to an important message I sent yesterday. I have to leave right away. I’m really sorry.”
“Oh, it’s OK,” Isa said, though her heart sank a little. “Do you want to go out again soon?”
“I’d love to, but I don’t know when. I have to leave Landfall for a while.” Erin kissed Isa and got out of bed. She began to gather her things. “It’s for a project I’m working on. And I have a list of other work lined up after that’s finished.”
Isa’s heart sank further.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Erin went on. “I really like you, Isa, and I loved spending time with you. But I don’t know when I’ll be able to see you again, and I wouldn’t want you to put your life on hold for me.”
Those words echoed in Isa’s mind for some time after Erin left, making the apartment feel even more empty than it had the prior day.
PROGRESS
STELLAR DATE: 11.29.8935 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Landfall, Knossos Island
REGION: Carthage, 3rd Planet in the New Canaan System
By the time Erin arrived at Government House, she’d managed to push the pleasant memory of her date and night with Isa from her mind. She needed to concentrate on her work.
During her journey to Tanis’s offices, Erin’s excitement at receiving the go-ahead had begun to fade.
Tanis had taken a long time to consider the proposal before giving an answer, and it was obvious why—using the picotech wasn’t something to be undertaken lightly. Tanis had been explicit in her message; deploying the picotech carried risks. If it didn’t, they would have used it to build the entire infrastructure of Carthage and all the other terraformed planets in New Canaan within a few months, if not weeks.
Erin’s orders were to establish tight security before bringing the module to the site, and it had to be guarded at all times. Her engineer’s mind was psyched to be using the picotech, but the elation was tempered by the fact that it came with a huge responsibility.
Sasha was already in the building and waiting for her. Erin had given her the good news as soon as she’d received the reply from Tanis. Erin went straight to the meeting room that had become an impromptu shared office for the two engineers.
“Hi,” Sasha said, looking up from the plas sheet she was reading as Erin walked in.
“Hi,” Erin said. “Thanks for coming on such short notice.”
“It’s no problem, I’m eager to get started. This is going to be so cool.”
“I think so, too. But I’ve also been thinking about what we need to do to make this go smoothly. The governor’s message emphasized the security requirements of the project. I’ve assigned a construction team to build admin and security offices on the next rise from the bluff; we want to make sure that if something goes wrong, it won’t affect the entire project.”
Sasha nodded solemnly. They both knew that was a way of saying that someone would need to be alive to sound the alarm.
“I’ve also requested a security team,” Erin continued. “Admiral Sanderson has sent down one of Jessica’s former police lieutenants from Tara who has been working on establishing civilian security teams.”
“I guess we do have to make the place secure,” Sasha said. “I hadn’t thought of that—I mean…I had, just not what it entailed.”
“We have to make it tight as a drum,” Erin said. “We’ll have twelve security officers on site at all times for the duration of the project.”
“To be honest,” Erin replied, “I’m not exactly sure myself. This will be my first hands-on experience with the tech, so I need to discuss the details with Earnest Redding. But the governor suggested that if we’re going to use picotech, we might as well go the whole way. As well as excavating the site, we can use it to construct the entire SATC.”
“It can do that?”
“As far as I understand, it can do whatever we want—well, short of matter transmutation,” Erin said with a laugh. “If we do decide to use it for both the excavation and the SATC interior, I’m pretty sure we’ll have to deploy it in stages. We won’t be able to just set it and forget it. We’ll be there a couple of days at least.”
“Will we be on site the whole time?” Sasha asked.
“Yes. I want to complete the construction in one go…. It’s safer that way. Then you can deal with the mechanics of combining the air and space systems while I move on to other stuff.”
“Whatever you say. But I didn’t bring anything with me, no change of clothes or anything. I didn’t realize I wouldn’t be going home tonight.”
“That’s not a problem. I have some things I still have to sort out with Earnest. Go home and pack, then come right back. I should be ready to leave for the promontory by the time you return.”
While Sasha returned to her apartment, Erin reached out to Earnest, who was working on the defensive emplacements within Carthage’s moon.
Erin sent a mental shrug.
Erin didn’t think the picotech would ever be ‘out of mind’.
Earnest chuckled, the few light seconds of delay in the comm making his mirth sound ill-timed.
The thought of the look on Martin Ryland’s face if a cubic kilometer of the island disappeared entered Erin’s mind, and she held back a sound that was half laugh, half dismay.
Tanis had impressed all the same concerns upon Erin in her initial message, and then in a follow-up message.
The engineer snorted.
As she closed the connection, she shook her head. That man had a multi-layered sense of humor, and half the time, she really couldn’t tell when he was being serious or not.
Erin glanced around the room, thinking over what she needed to take with her, when she realized that, like Sasha, she had nothing to take with her to the construction site.
Her AI fell unusually silent after her comment, so Erin spent some time ordering items she might need for a two or three-night stay. As soon as Sasha arrived, they set out for the promontory.
As the shuttle settled down on the rise they’d been using for their landing site, Erin found the view a welcome one. The rocky tooth of land was as bare and windswept as ever, but surrounded as it was by azure waters, it had a raw beauty to it.
Being planetside does have its advantages.
The construction team was still in the midst of building the structures Erin had requested nearby. The foreman told her the buildings would be finished in another couple of hours, so Erin and Sasha remained in the shuttle to wait. While they were reviewing Earnest’s instructions, the security team arrived.
The chief of the team was a man named Cullen. Erin asked him to wait outside for a few minutes while she concluded a point in her discussion with Sasha. She also wanted to review his record before going out to meet him.
The man had a solid history in his field and an entirely clean record; nothing she read gave her any cause for concern. Jessica had even given him a commendation at one point.
When she exited the shuttle, Cullen was waiting at the bottom of the ramp, his expression entirely stoic.
After briefly introducing herself to the bony-faced man, Erin said, “The construction crew is setting up perimeter barriers and a screen around the site,” she said. “I want around-the-clock security patrols. What else would you suggest?”
“This place is so remote,” Cullen replied, “that I would be suspicious of any activity in the area. We’ll simply turn back anyone who arrives unexpectedly, and thoroughly examine all craft that land. It’s easy to see this is a construction site.
“And we can direct Link to satellite data and pull down information on movement nearby, any boats sailing by or aircraft passing overhead. I don’t think this is on a flight route—what, with the plumes just off the coast—but I’ll check.”
“And what will you do if you do see anything suspicious?”
“A polite warning that tectonic activity has rendered the area dangerous usually sends innocent passersby on their way, even airborne travelers. No one wants volcanic ash in their engines or filters. If the warning doesn’t work, we’ll know we have someone on our hands who warrants further investigation.”
“Sounds reasonable. I want to see the backgrounds on all your personnel.”
“I’ll send their n
ames right over,” said Cullen.
The man left, and Erin returned to Sasha, who had walked down the ramp partway through the conversation.
The young engineer asked, “Doesn’t all this super-tight security we have signal that something top secret is taking place?”
“I don’t think so,” Erin replied. “Who’s going to see it? Like Cullen pointed out, there’s no one here. Anyone who arrives and won’t leave easily has probably come here for a dubious reason. The presence of security wouldn’t tell them anything they didn’t already know.”
“I guess so,” said Sasha. “I still don’t like it. I’d been looking forward to using the pico, but security guards everywhere is going to make me uncomfortable. Now all I want to do is finish the job and go home.”
“The security is just a precaution. I seriously doubt anything’s going to happen. We get to be the first to use cool tech, for the first time ever on Carthage, and in two or three days, it’ll all be over.”
Erin and Sasha returned to the shuttle and got back to discussing the nitty gritty of the work. Cullen soon returned, bringing someone with him.
Erin shared a look with Sasha. “I think I may have upset our scientist again.” She went out to see Cullen’s find.
Outside, Martin Ryland was seething. His arms were folded tightly across his chest, and he glared at Erin as she descended the shuttle ramp.
“Doctor Ryland,” Erin said. “Nice to see you again. Cullen, it’s fine. I do know this man. You can go. I’m sure you’re very busy.” To Ryland, she said, “I’m sorry about this. We’re about to begin work and so—”