by M. D. Cooper
Now that she’d finished hollowing out the last of the moons Tanis wanted for her secret shipyards, Erin could take a whole two weeks of vacation. Up until then, she’d only managed to spend a few days with either Isa or Martin when she had the opportunity to swing by Carthage. This was the first time the three of them would be together for her visit, and she didn’t want to spoil the mood on the very first day.
Reaching the dry sand above the tide line, she walked the short distance to the open door of the beach house. However, as she was about to step inside, Martin spotted her.
“Outdoor shower first, don’t forget,” he said, gesturing to the side of the house.
“Oh yeah. Okay.” Erin had forgotten about the seawater shower that was required before entering Martin’s home.
She followed the hard path around the house to the shower. The spray activated when she stood beneath the showerhead. As she washed the sand from her feet and legs, she recalled the time she’d wandered into Martin’s house before even meeting him. She’d probably left a trail of sand on the floor for him to discover later; it would have been another transgression to add to the list of reasons she’d given him for hating her presence, though he’d never mentioned it.
She wondered what else she’d done that had annoyed him. The funniest thing about Martin’s fussiness was that he never complained about anything, but she knew exactly what that twitch of his jaw muscle meant.
Finally clean of sand, Erin returned to the doorway, where she was allowed inside. The living area was steamy and warm and filled with the smells of supper cooking. Isa was lying on her front on the sofa, watching a vid and wisely staying out of Martin’s way as he cooked in his small kitchen. Erin passed through the room and went to take a hot shower and wash her hair. When she was dry, she dressed in loose pants and a sleeveless top before returning to the living area to find it was empty.
“We’re out here,” Isa called, spying her through the open door.
Erin crossed the room and stepped outside. The sight that greeted her made her heart skip a beat. Martin and Isa had created a short walkway and a level rectangle out of boards, and standing on the rectangle was a table and three chairs. The table was formally laid out with a tablecloth, cutlery, plates, glasses, and serving dishes. In the center stood candles in tall, slim candlesticks. The flames flickered in the gentle sea breeze.
The scene was beautiful, but what really moved Erin was the sight of Isa and Martin. They were talking as they waited for her, and their faces were illuminated by the candlelight and starlight.
Erin stood in the doorway, drinking in the scene, her heart full.
Isa noticed that she’d stopped on her way to the table. “Come on, slowpoke. Don’t stand there all goggle-eyed. Come and sit down and stop keeping us waiting.”
“Yeah,” Martin said. “Hurry up. The appetizer is getting cold.”
“You two looked so great,” Erin said as she walked the final few steps to the table, giving them a wink as she came within the candlelight. “And then you spoke.”
Isa grinned. As Erin took her seat, Martin lifted the lid on a dish. The cloud that rose from it held a tang of seawater. Erin suddenly realized she was ravenous.
“Do you want wine or cream soda?” Isa asked.
“Cream soda? Out here?”
“What do you think this place is?” Martin asked. “The boonies? I had a couple of cases delivered.” He was piling cooked shellfish on her plate.
“Awww, thanks,” Erin said. “But this kind of spread seems to call for wine.”
Isa filled Erin’s glass and then attacked the seafood Martin had served her. She broke open a mussel and slurped up the soft interior.
“Oh, wow,” she said with a full mouth. “Try some, Erin. These have to be the best I’ve ever tasted.”
Erin looked down at the steaming pile of shells. Aware of how protective Martin was of the marine organisms he was growing at his site, she asked, “Did you order these in, too?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Absolutely not. They’re no good if they aren’t fresh. I cut them off the rocks about an hour ago. Didn’t you see me?”
“I did, but I thought you were working.”
“Only on tonight’s dinner.”
Silence reigned for a short time as the three demolished the shellfish Martin had gathered and cooked to perfection.
When she’d taken the edge off her hunger, Erin said to Martin, “Hey, did you know that Walter and Eamon are old friends?”
“What?” Martin exclaimed. His eyes flicked to the side for a moment as he spoke with his AI. “So they are. Eamon didn’t say a damn thing. I wonder what else they aren’t telling us?”
“Who knows?” said Erin.
“I’ve never had an AI,” Isa said. “Doesn’t it feel weird, having another person in your head?”
“You get used to it,” Erin replied. “Besides, I couldn’t do my job without Walter’s help.”
“Ugh. Don’t mention jobs,” Isa said. “It’s been months since I quit Placement Services, and I’m still at a loose end. I’ve been thinking maybe I need to broaden my horizons.”
“You mean leave Carthage?” Martin asked before taking a swallow of wine. He began to collect the plates.
“Yeah,” Isa replied. “Maybe I should go to Tyre or Athens.” She stopped and gasped, eyes growing wide.
“What’s wrong?” Erin asked.
“We should take a trip to Athens,” Isa exclaimed. “You would both love it.”
“You mean now?” asked Erin. “Instead of staying here at Martin’s?”
“Yes. We have two whole weeks. That’s plenty of time.”
Martin looked alarmed by the idea. “I don’t know… I can’t. I can’t leave the seeding site for longer than a day or two.”
“Couldn’t you find someone to keep an eye on things for you?” Isa pleaded. “Athens is amazing. We would have a fantastic time.”
“Well I love the idea,” said Erin. “I haven’t had the chance to see any of the other terraformed worlds yet, and Athens is certainly the most interesting.”
Martin still appeared doubtful as he began stacking the plates. “Maybe you two should go by yourselves. You can tell me all about it when you get back.”
Erin pushed her plate of empty shells over to him. “No, we shouldn’t.”
From the expressions on Isa’s and Martin’s faces, she realized she’d spoken more vehemently than she’d intended.
“What I mean is,” she continued, “I love seeing you both when I come to Carthage, but today has made me realize I love it even more when I see you both together. Up until now, it’s been like I’m one half of two separate couples, and it hasn’t felt quite right. This is what feels right. All of us here, like a family.”
As she finished speaking, all warmth and congeniality seemed to drain from the atmosphere. Martin ceased collecting dishes. A pause stretched out. Isa studied the tabletop intently.
Erin looked from her to Martin and back to Isa again. “Have I said something wrong? What did I say?”
Isa took a deep breath and lifted her gaze to meet Martin’s.
“I’ll tell her if you want,” he said gently. “I don’t mind.”
“No,” Isa replied. “It’s okay. I wanted to, and I will.”
Erin suddenly understood, and at the same time, she realized she’d always known it would happen and didn’t mind. She saved Isa the awkwardness of spelling it out.
“Are you about to tell me you’ve been hooking up while I was away at work?”
“Yeah,” Martin said. “We couldn’t talk to you about it before now, since it’s not the kind of conversation you want to have with light lag. And we didn’t know if we even needed to have that conversation. We didn’t set any rules about what we expect from each other or the relationship, and Isa and I guessed it would be okay, so….”
“Don’t worry about it,” Erin said. “In a way, I’m glad you didn’t ask me. Like you say, you don’t nee
d my permission to get together, and even if I thought you did, that would have been a weird decision to be consulted on. I doubt even Walter would have had any advice for me.”
“And,” Erin added to Isa and Martin while mentally rolling her eyes at Walter, “it certainly makes the sleeping arrangements for tonight less awkward.” She flashed a smile.
They all laughed, and in an instant, the tension was gone.
“Great,” said Martin, rising to his feet and resuming tidying the table. “Time for our steaks.”
“Steaks?” said Isa. “Don’t tell me you fished a cow out of the ocean too?”
“Of course not. I’m talking about fish steaks. I released some sharks this morning before you two arrived. They’re engineered to have a natural aversion to humans, but one of them gave me the stink eye. He should taste fantastic.”
Erin chuckled, briefly wondering if Martin was serious, and lifted her glass to take a sip of wine. She nearly spat it out again as someone she least expected to hear from suddenly reached out to her over the Link.
The governor’s tone sounded both serious and urgent. Erin put down her glass, wondering what Tanis could want at such a late hour.
Erin herself didn’t know the answer to that question, either. She doubted Tanis would find one in her file.
A soft yet rueful laugh came from Tanis.
Tanis didn’t reply for a moment.
Erin looked up to see that both Martin and Isa were watching her. She realized her expression was probably doing a good job at conveying the bad news.
Her good mood had all but entirely deflated.
Then Tanis was gone, likely dealing with one of the thousand other things that demanded her attention on a daily basis.
Erin drew in a breath, mentally preparing herself to fill Martin and Isa in on her change of plan, but Isa said, “You aren’t leaving right now, are you? Tell me you’re staying tonight at least.”
Erin said, “I am staying tonight.”
“So let’s concentrate on enjoying this evening,” said Martin, topping up her glass. “Ready to eat a naughty shark?”
Isa’s eyes grew wide. “You were serious about that?”
FALLOUT
STELLAR DATE: 03.08.8937 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Euphemia, Cyprus Asteroid Group
REGION: Macedon, New Canaan System
Erin waited on the bridge of the Euphemia, one of the newly assembled ore haulers, gazing at the forward display’s depiction of the activity surrounding Irridia.
Over a tenth of the asteroid had broken free in the incident. The hundred-kilometer chunk of rock scattering into dozens of smaller asteroids, all of which had to be corralled and brought back to the main site.
The Cyprus Asteroids were a group of rocks that had been moved close to the dwarf planet Macedon by the FGT. They didn’t orbit the larger body, but instead, made their way around Canaan Prime in a close resonant orbit.
As a result, the largest chunk of Irridia had been captured by Macedon and was a few weeks away from becoming the dwarf planet’s third moon.
Erin planned to recommend that they let it maintain its course until they were ready to mine it. At this point, bringing it back to the asteroid group would just be a waste of fuel.
Nearby, Pippa and Anwen were finishing up their final report for Erin after both apologizing profusely for not having it ready, explaining that the work to manage the site had delayed them.
After assuring them that their priorities were in the right place, Erin had settled in to wait—having already gone over the preliminaries on the flight to the Euphemia.
Like most of the service vessels that had been packed into the massive cargo containers and transported from Sol on the Intrepid, the Euphemia was bare-boned and basic. What you saw really was just about all that you got.
Even though it was not an elaborate vessel, Erin doubted it had been a mistake on the part of the ship’s AI, or a fault in its equipment, that had led to the accident.
Almost certainly looking at human error on this one, she thought gravely as she turned her gaze from the external view to the pair of engineers.
Pippa and Anwen Dhami were twin sisters who reminded Erin of Greek goddesses. They were large-framed and robust-looking, yet still feminine. They wore their strawberry blonde hair in the same style: a single pigtail that ended halfway down their backs, which gave them a decidedly youthful look.
Their appearance and affectations were fitting, given their ages. Leading the Cyprus Asteroids mining operation was the first high-level position the two women had been assigned. A quick check of their age suggested that the Earth-born women hadn’t yet undergone a single rejuvenation treatment.
The thought caused Erin to recall Sasha, the engineer who had helped with the construction of the SATC. She’d also been very young, yet she’d turned out to be competent and reliable.
Was the same true of Pippa and Anwen? An accident, its injuries, and the resulting fatality implied seriously poor judgement on someone’s part. Even if neither of the lead engineers were directly responsible, the buck had to stop somewhere.
“You should have all the information you need now,” Pippa said, turning toward Erin from a control screen. “Sorry for the wait.”
“No problem,” said Erin. “How long till the clean-up is complete?”
Anwen also turned to face her. She was pale and her eyes were red. “A few more hours until everything is contained. We lost some equipment that we’ll need to replace, and then we’ll have to decide if we exclusively work that site to clear it out, or let it stabilize on its own for a while.”
Erin nodded. “I suspect that will have as much to do with the quotas you have for Irridia’s materials as not. What of the pilots and other crew?” she asked. “I know there was a fatality, but was anyone else seriously injured?”
“No,” Anwen replied. “A few of the other ships were hit, but they were newer craft with grav shields and didn’t suffer major damage. There was only one direct collision. We reached t
he victim as quickly as we could, but….”
Erin remembered the medic’s report she’d read. ‘There wasn’t enough of him left to save.’ She was tempted to offer words of comfort to Anwen, but she didn’t want to assuage the woman’s guilt prematurely. If the operation’s leaders were responsible for the handler’s death, they would have to accept that, along with any consequences that followed.
“Carry on,” Erin said, though not unkindly.
Anwen swallowed and said, “His name was Jacob Cimorelli. He was a good pilot. I only met him once, but he seemed like a nice person. In his will, he said that if he died while on the job, he wanted to be buried in space. We’re holding his funeral soon.”
“I’ll attend,” Erin said quietly. “In the meanwhile, I’d like to speak to each of you separately. Is there somewhere private we can talk?”
Though the raw data had told her a lot, she needed to hear the project leaders’ personal perspectives on what had happened.
In a small side room, she listened as first Anwen and then Pippa told their version of events. While the women talked, Erin briefly wondered if the women had that twins’ quirk, where they pretended to be their sibling in order to fool people. If not for their Link presence, she would have been challenged to tell them apart, and she could tell from how they spoke that they thought in very similar ways, too.
As she absorbed the facts and events related in the two narratives, Erin couldn’t find fault with either of the engineers’ execution of their duties. The accident had occurred at the end of a rotation. An especially rich vein of uraninite had been discovered on Irridia, and the twins had organized their teams to mine it. The explosions that had gone off prematurely had been intended to separate the uraninite ore from the surrounding rock.
Based on the engineers’ accounts, they had carefully bored shafts and set the charges well away from the potentially explosive uranium.