“But that is just the point ... I don't care about her anymore. I only recently realized what I do care about. Pia--”
“But you do care about Maria still, and love ends with one thing, which is indifference.” Szuba let her hand rest lightly on his arm. “Simon, don't you see? You cannot leave Maria. 'The two of you care for each other. That is what is important.”
“Pia, there is nothing left of what we had. For weeks now, I feel as though I've been living a lie.”
“Simon.” She stared at him. “You have been together twenty years. Maria won't have very much of a life if you leave her now. Sometimes both persons in a marriage have to do insane
things to hold it together. And that is what matters.”
Before Beetje could explain what he was attempting to say, the door to the compartment swung open and Ferenc Szuba stood in the doorway, panting. He bellowed, “I see you! With my wife! I will kill you!” Shaking his fist menacingly, he took a step inside. “I will kill you!”
Simon looked at Pia. “This is very embarrassing.”
“Excuse me for interrupting.” Hans Coldewe put his head through the doorway. “Ferenc, your assistant called; he's rather worried about you. I know where Mika is, so I thought I might find you here.”
“You!” Ferenc shouted.
Coldewe looked puzzled. “Who else were you expecting?”
Pia Szuba said sharply, “Ferenc!”
Ferenc recognized the note of command in her voice. “Yes, sweet?”
“This has gone on long enough!”
Ferenc's shoulders slumped visibly. “Yes, sweet”
“I am tired of your jealousy, and I am through putting up with your ill humors.”
“Yes, sweet”
“Simon is our friend, and he needs our help.”
“Yes, sweet”
“Now take me home.” She sniffed. “You have embarrassed me quite enough.”
As the door closed behind them, Beetje looked at Coldewe. “He was beating her.”
Coldewe nodded.
“This is not the way things happen in real life. I mean--” Beetje said, remembering the secret and often not particularly secret sins of his university colleagues. “People don't act this way.”
Again, Coldewe nodded.
“You don't have a clue either, do you?”
Coldewe kept nodding.
“I almost-” He stopped himself. “I almost made a complete fool of myself. Ridiculous.” He eyed Coldewe. “I was pretty pathetic, wasn't I?”
“I missed that part”
“I almost-” Beetje started to say. Then he shook his head.
“Simply incredible. Is Pia crazy, or are we?”
“Simon,” Coldewe said, “I'd rather see a farce than a tragedy any day. Come on. We've shut down the brewery, but I'll find you a beer.”
”I need to see my wife.”
Coldewe shook his head to clear it. “Make that two beers. Why?”
“I seem to have forgotten that Ferenc is my friend.” Beetje stared at the door. “You know, the trouble with looking for something that isn't there is that sometimes you think you've found it.”
Coldewe wrinkled his nose. “Come again?”
“Hans, Maria isn't the only woman in the universe, but she's the only woinan for me. On this ship.”
Coldewe often wondered whether Cupid used a bow and arrow or a machine gun. “Now that you mention it, there's a reason why Eve was Adam's one and only.”
“Maria has been trying to patch things up. I'd better talk to her before the rumor mill begins churning.”
“And before we get Rikki back,” Coldewe observed, beginning to understand.
“That, too.” Beetje shook his head in resignation. “Come on, I could use that beer.”
Planetary Approach, HIMS Aoba [6-brook Rain 14]
SCREENED BY THE SMALLER MOON, AOBA AND CHOKEI MATERIALIZED OUT OF THE SUN into the upper atmosphere on the water side of Neighbor.
“Tracking satellite Noto Yamato,” the sensor operator, Noma, announced “Eight-seven-zero point three kilometers altitude, ascending sun synchronous orbit.”
“You may fire,” Kobayashi told Sery.
Sery did so, shattering the satellite's solar array and ripping through a series of antennas and pinwheel louvers.
“Tracking satellite Beppu Mutsu.” Noma said “Eight-six-six point four kilometers altitude, descending sun synchronous orbit.”
“You may fire,” Kobayashi directed.
Long before Blue missiles could creep over the horizon, the two ships seared every satellite on the water side of the planet. Hours later, two follow-up passes decimated Neighbor’s surviving satellites as they made the dangerous transition from the planet’s land face to its water face.
L-Day plus 512 [6-brook Rain 14]
ALTHOUGH THE BLUES HAD STRIPPED THE CONTACT TEAM OF THE METAL OBJECTS IN THEIR POCKETS, they allowed Cmporal Kobus Nicodemus to keep the paint set and brush he used for his icons. Finding a wall in the room where they were imprisoned to his liking, Kobus had begun painting a kneeling woman surmounted by a lightning flash. With little to occupy them, the rest of the team watched.
The door opened, and six armed Blues escorted Dr. Seki back inside.
After the door closed, Connie Marais asked, “Spoagusa?” Seki nodded, for a moment too spent to respond. Spoagusa was perhaps the canniest of the Blues, and it was becoming more and more difficult for Seki to learn more from Spoagusa than Spoagusa learned from him.
“Now?” Nicodemus murmured as he executed a brush stroke.
Wanjau shook his head
Dr. Motofugi, mildly subdued by his incarceration, studied the image beginning to emerge under Nicodemus's brush. “Who are you depicting?”
“St Barbara.” Nicodemus stepped back to gauge the effect. “Patron saint of captives.”
HIMS Zuiho [7-brook Rain 14]
“DESPITE THE BEST EFFORTS OF HANS AND JAN, YOUR OSTRICH POLICY IS WILDLY UNPOPULAR,” The Iceman commented, resting in a chair. “Captain Kobayashi and Major Aichi have their hands full, although Aoba's attack on the satellite network drew off some of the venom., and the raid to free the hostages, once we locate them. will also have a salutary effect.”
Vereshchagin sipped his tea. “You expect trouble?”
“If you will recall. Admiral Horii's junior officers all but mutinied under less egregious circumstances.”
“Until I see evidence that the Blues mean to break into space, it is the correct decision.”
“Perhaps.” The Iceman held up a pistol. “Gu will be watching you as you sleep. and I have this. I have also suggested to Father Bosenac that he should consider carrying one.” He laughed at the horror on Vereshchagin's face. “The thoughtless will reason that someone on board is exercising a malign. pacifistic influence on you, and to resolve the problem, they may strike at the supposed source.”
“Is this what we have come to?” Vereshchagin shook his head
“There are worse things,” The Iceman said
L-Day plus 514 [8-brook Rain 14]
“WATER IS FlNE IF IT KEEPS RAINING.” MYBURGH HAD CARE FULLY POKED HOLES INTO THE SURFACE OF the hide to capture some of the water striking it, at the risk of noise as the dripping water landed in the containers he and Sanmartin had improvised. “Food is a problem. I think we should cut back to one ration a day.”
“It is not fair,” Sanmartin pointed out “I weigh less than you, so I should eat less.”
“We train for this.” Mybwgh changed the topic. “I spoke with Alariesto; he flew over in a Sparrow while you were asleep.”
A momentary hope touched her and died.
“He couldn't land. Wet, unhappy Blues are still camping in all of the clearings. The reconnaissance platoon has a tilt-rotor concealed at base camp, but Lieutenant Wessels will not dispatch it. It makes noise, and he is sure that with Blue soldiers so near, they will hear it. I thin
k he is right about that.”
Vereshchagin had brought three tilt-rotor transport aircraft sheathed in the same radar-absorbent materials the Sparrows used, but little could be done to make them quieter.
“What did Alariesto say about the shots we heard yesterday'?” she asked
Myburgh replied reluctantly. “He thinks the Blues found the rest of the lemps. He saw skins.”
Rikki lay back, trying to banish from her thoughts the smell of chemical-treated urine. “I suppose the Blues are hungry, too.”
“We will just have to wait and hope that the Blues give up.” Myburgh shook his head. “Ma'am, I am amazed at how calm and brave you are about this.”
“No braver than you.” She almost added, “In fact, I am terrified right now.”
“It is part of my job to be brave.” He sighed deeply.
She sat up. “Gerrit?” Sometimes Myburgh's complexity perplexed her.
“Ma'am, it is just that I am wondering why we came to Neighbor.” He refused to meet her eyes. “I mean, the people here don't want us. Couldn't we have left them alone?”
“You miss Valeska,” she perceived.
He nodded vigorously. “I should not ask you, but I thought that being so smart, being a president and a scientist and all, you would know the answer.”
Hendricka Sanmartin wished she felt that smart. “'The simplest explanation is to say that we have a great deal to learn from these people and a great deal to teach them, once they learn better manners.” She warmed to her task. “The universe is a smaller place than we once thought, and people, even blue people, must get along with each other.”
“Even if they don't want to?”
“Especially if they don't want to. Sometimes the first stage in such a discussion is to say, 'If you hit me, I'll hit you twice as hard,' and it takes time to move past this.”
“I don't know,” Myburgh said doubtfully, “it seems like a very simple answer.”
She laughed. “I will think about it for a day or so and try to give you a better one.” She saw him trying to summon up the courage to ask a question. There was one question she hoped he would not ask.
“Ma'am?”
“Yes.”
“Will you come to our wedding?”
“Of course,” she laughed, trying not to let her relief show.
He thought for a minute and then asked timidly, “Ma'am, did what you said about people having to get along also apply to being married?” Remembering his half-wistful, half-apprehensive description of Valeska, his blushing bride-to-be, she laughed quietly until the tears ran.
HIMS Zuiho [9-brook Rain 14]
SNACK BAR MEIER SUDDENLY THREW DOWN HIS CARDS.
'“Terrible hand?” his buddy, Eloff, inquired.
'“This is crazy, sitting here doing nothing while our people on the ground are being killed,” Meier stormed. “I think maybe Colonel Vee has lost it”
Dead silence greeted his outburst. The other card players in first section, No. 9 kept playing. Platoon Sergeant Kaarlo Kivela lazily opened one eye. “Snack Bar, your mother really should have stopped drinking when she got pregnant.”
“I don't understand, Platoon Sergeant,” Meier stammered.
“Don't we all know,” Kivela said brutally, closing his eyes.
“How many wars have you won?” Section Sergeant Uborevich inquired. He slapped the cards down in front of Meier. “It’s your deal.”
An even uglier scene played itself out farther aft n the compartment where half of Major Aichi's first platoon was billeted, Aichi's first platoon leader, Lieutenant Aritomo Tsukahara, declared belligerently, “Fully realizing my impertinence, I am forced to state my impression that the present course of nonaction is far short of expectations. It has become a matter of honor. Someone must explain what is being done!”
Lieutenant Tsukahara was suddenly aware of another presence in the room.
Major Aichi looked at his men. “I am responsible for safeguarding His Imperial Majesty's honor. I am also responsible for obeying orders and enforcing discipline.” He loosened the flap on his holster and half lifted his 8mm pistol, as if to reassure himself that it was present “Does anyone else have something he wishes to say?”
His first platoon withered beneath his silent contempt.
“Platoon Sergeant Joshima,” Aichi said quietly. “You now command first platoon.”
Tsukahara was placed under guard in an empty storeroom until he begged to be released
L-Day plus 517 [2-cloud Rain 14]
“YOU EACH ONE ARE WELL? YOU EACH ONE EAT?” Ekpalawehud asked as he walked Connie Marais back to his cell.
“Ekpalawehud,” Marais said, “you have to let us go. Tell the Pochteca they cannot keep us here like this.”
One warder opened the door while others covered the contact team with their weapons. Ekpalawehud stood by the door with his forearms folded, knowing that the Pochteca could.
Marais glanced at the other members of the contact team huddled around the table, seemingly unconcerned with the conversation, but in fact listening intently. “Ekpalawehud, can we have our computers?”
“Pochteca will consider,” Ekpalawehud said, which meant no.
Marais's eyes pleaded. “Why is this happening?”
With few, if any, mobile facial muscles, the Blues were a singularly expressionless species, but Ekpalawehud's posture softened slightly. “You are change,” he said. “You block us.”
Marais was instantly aware that Ekpalawehud had advanced two separate reasons. “From space?”
“You each one are well? You each one eat?” Ekpalawehud repeated.
“Yes, we are well. We are eating,” Marais replied.
“Best,” Ekpalawehud said. He left.
Isaac Wanjau waited a moment, checking the time, then swept the tarok cards together and handed them to Nicodemus. “I need to go to the bathroom. Dr. Marais, would you take my place?”
Inside the “bathroom,” he checked for surveillance devices. Unhooking the aiguillette on his shoulder, he bent it into an antenna and coupled it to the plastic pieces backing his epaulets.
Two battle ribbons containing microprocessors, a raised metal button, and the power unit from his razor completed the radio. Holding his breath, Wanjau tapped out an initializing sequence: dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot, break.
The relay picked it up and boosted it to the moon overhead, where a second relay would transmit it to Zuiho. A second later, Wanjau heard a short click and exhaled slowly.
Then he began tapping out a detailed message, which his radio would transmit as a single pulse, after which Vereshchagin would know the contact team's situation and location.
Eleven hours later, Lieutenant Resit Aksu's team fortuitously confirmed Wanjau's assessment of Blue intentions with the discovery of a building which appeared to be, and probably was, a pilot fusion project.
HIMS Zuiho [3-cloud Rain 14]
“IT WOULD APPEAR THAT THE BLUES NOW POSE A THREAT,” VERESHCHAGIN said without preamble. “What are our objectives?”
“We wish to free the contact team and to cajole our blue friends into decommissioning their missiles and halting work on spacecraft.” The Iceman's gray eyes glinted. “Terror bombing lacks elegance and aesthetic appeal. It seems to me that the last time we had a similar discussion, Raul Sanmartin had a plan tucked away against a rainy day. Hans?”
“First things first.” Coldewe unfolded his arms. “We need to spring Rikki and Myburgb. The Blues have been going over that forest centimeter by centimeter, and it’s a miracle they haven't been found.”
“What do you propose?” Vereshchagin asked.
“Something suitably crack-brained. Now that we have some privacy until the Blues launch more satellites, I want Aoba and Chokei to provide a diversion so the recon platoon can pull them out.”
“If I may suggest,” Major Aichi said, watching Coldewe intently. “In that we intend to f
ree the contact team, perhaps we could permit Miss Sanmartin and Private Myburgh to surrender. Surely, they would be taken to the same place.”
Coldewe shook his head emphatically. “I don't want to admit that we have people on the ground. The Blues are almost sure or they wouldn't be taking the woods apart twig by twig, but
there's oceans of difference between being almost sure and being sure. More to the point, they've never seen a woman. If they grab Rikki, they may want to open her up to see what she looks
like on the inside.”
The probable fate of Brit Smits hung like a pall over the discussion.
“Captain Kobayashi'!' Vereshchagin asked.
“It might be practicable,” Kobayashi said stoically. Vereshchagin nodded. “Are we ready to discuss other matters, Hans?”
Coldewe nodded. “Cajoling the Blues into reasonability is best accomplished by placing a thumb over their windpipes and squeezing--they do have windpipes; I asked Simon.”
“I take it you have a plan.” Snyman said.
“The key to this society is food production. If we show we can touch that, we'll have their attention. To that end, Kodama's biochem people have spliced the working parts of tobacco mosaic virus onto a native pest of the water potato.”
“As a threat to draw the Blues to the bargaining table. infecting an isolated planting of water potato with Kodama's cultured virus has much to commend it,” The Iceman commented. “However, it lacks immediacy. If these people are human in the way they react, it is not the threat of famine that will compel their leaders to accommodate us, but threat of the disorder that an impending famine would inspire. A few spectacular touches would help.”
'We need sparkle,” Snyman agreed. “Something else to grab attention.”
Noting Aichi's bewilderment, Coldewe explained, “It’s quite all right, Mitsuru, we've done this before.” He spread his hands. “Any ideas?”
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