by J. P. Larson
Pamela looked at the object in Alex’s hands. She grew very quiet, staring at the piece of art for several minutes. Then the animation returned to her face, and she looked away.
“That’s incredible,” she said. “I feel wonderful. How long was I staring at it?”
“Three minutes and forty one seconds,” Alex replied. “Exactly that much, every time you look at it. But it’ll have no effect on you for a few hours now, and you have to actually stare at it a few seconds before it captures you.”
Alex set the artwork down, then took the other piece from Pamela and unwrapped it. He held it up for her to look at.
“That’s really ugly.”
“Same artist.”
Pamela stared at it. “You’re right. It’s just ugly.”
“And it always will be. Now hold it in both hands.”
Pamela took the ugly object from Alex and let her hands move over it. Her fingers explored every indentation and protrusion while Alex watched her quietly. Eventually, she handed it back to him. Alex was careful to use only one hand.
“Wow! How long?”
“Three minutes and forty one seconds. Exactly.”
“Those must be priceless,” Pamela told him.
“They’re very rare. I sell things like this only to the most discriminating customers.”
“The ones with the most money.”
“No. I only sell them where they will be appreciated. Who gets which?”
“Kari believes in what she can hold. Linda believes in what she can see.”
“Right,” said Alex. “So we’ll give Kari the one you look at and Linda the one you hold. They’ll still both love them, and it’ll expand their universe a bit.”
“These are too precious,” Pamela complained.
“What would have happened if you hadn’t stopped?”
Pamela thought about it. “They will love them. Speaking of which, they’re at the air lock.”
Alex quickly rewrapped the gifts in their protective packaging and the two hurried to meet their guests at the door. Before the inner air lock could open, Alex thrust the gifts into Pamela’s hand. “Hide these,” he said. “I have to have my hands free so I can show off my jewelry.” Alex noticed Pamela’s back stiffening at his abrupt tone and quickly appended, “Please.”
Pamela smiled as she took the gifts then held them out of sight behind her back as the door opened. Waiting for Pamela’s assent, Linda and Kari then stepped aboard the ship. Linda looked at Alex and noticed him flashing the bracelets. She nodded approvingly at him.
“Here are your copies of the contracts, Captain,” Kari told him.
“Thank you, Ms. Waters,” Alex replied. He looked at Pamela.
“As long as you’re both here,” she offered. “Do you have time for a goodbye drink?”
“Tea would be nice,” said Captain Dawson.
Pamela turned around to lead the way through the ship, rearranging her hands in front of her to hide the gifts with her body again. “This way to the galley, if you would,” she said, heading off. Alex shut the airlock doors and took up the rear.
They arrived at the galley. Alex began brewing a pot of tea while the women took seats. Pamela set the protected gifts on the table.
“What are those?” Kari asked after a moment.
“Alex will explain,” Pamela said. “Alex, let the tea brew. We don’t want it to get cold later on.”
“Right.” He joined them at the table, pulling up a chair.
“I want to thank you two for everything,” Alex said. “You rescued me, fixed my ship at generous terms, and then forced me into a partnership with you I think will be very good for both of us. I appreciate all of these things. So I have a small token of my appreciation for each of you.”
Alex unwrapped the first item, realized which one it was, and set it in front of Linda. “Please don’t touch it until I explain.”
He unwrapped the second item and set it in front of Kari. “Linda, if you’ll pick yours up with both hands. Kari, you can just look deeply at yours.”
Puzzled, both women followed his suggestion. Three minutes and forty one seconds later, they returned to reality to discover a cup of tea had materialized in front of them.
“That’s-“ began Linda.
“-incredible,” finished Kari.
Alex explained the phenomenon. “With practice, you can also vary the effect on you. If you’re tired, you can use them to give you more energy. If you’re having trouble sleeping, they can help you sleep. But I would not recommend that you leave them around the bridge of your ship.”
Linda laughed. “That’s good advice. Thank you, Alex.”
Kari looked at Alex thoughtfully for a minute. “Where do you get these?”
“I’m not telling. And I understand you can’t find out right now. This necklace isn’t all bad.”
“Alex! That’s rude!” Pamela said.
Kari laughed. “But accurate. However, Pamela can find out.”
“I’m sure by now she already knows. I can’t help but think of the man who makes these when I look at them.”
Pamela suddenly looked shocked. “Your father made these?”
“Aw, you told! Now everyone’s going to be going after him, driving up my price.” Alex grinned.
“Your father is a man of many talents, Alex," Kari observed. "How many does he make? Maybe you can’t sell all of them. I can carry more than you can.”
“He hasn’t complained yet. They take about two years a piece, but a lot of that’s shelf time, and it’s just a hobby for him. He gives a new one to my mother each year. And he has one or two for me every once in a while. I always keep the first one he ever gave me and the most recent one and use the others at times like this.”
“They’re lovely, Alex,” said Linda. “But we can’t accept these. You’re already paying for our help.”
Alex felt Pamela’s presence in his mind. She felt warm and cozy. So he thought about his father. Then he thought about the Pride drifting silently through space. He envisioned his father checking the mail for news of his son. Alex envisioned thirteen years of this before he finally envisioned his father standing over a gravestone.
Pamela withdrew slowly.
The room was quiet for a moment.
“You’re welcome, Alex,” Linda finally said. “And we’ll always treasure the thank you that you have given us.”
Alex quietly drank his tea. Then he looked up.
“Do you ever get to see old Earth entertainment? Movies?” He asked. When ships left Earth to colonize the stars, something every ship took with it was a large catalog of entertainment. Even in the modern times of renewed space travel and advanced technologies, many Earth movies were still very popular amongst the colonies.
“Sometimes,” Pamela told him.
“There’s an ancient movie. It was made in some of the earliest days of movie making. At one point, someone asks the main character, ‘Are you a good witch or a bad witch?’” Alex looked at them.
“You’re calling us witches?” Linda asked with a small smile.
“Most people think there is only one kind of witch,” Alex said.
Linda’s smile grew. “Are you intending to leave it at that?”
“I would hate to gush.”
“I’m still hung up on the idea that my husband thinks I’m a witch,” complained Pamela.
Alex looked at her and envisioned her pulling on a shoe. The fit was just perfect. But it was a very nice shoe. Pamela laughed.
“Captain, what’s your schedule?” Captain Dawson asked him.
“If you’l
l wait around for me to make hyper, just in case, I should finish my run in eleven more days,” Alex told her, then paused to calculate dates. “It’ll take a week to find anything small enough that I can carry but worth bringing to Dawson’s Star. Then, um, three weeks or so to DS.”
“You’re skipping stops you could make along the way.”
“I was under the impression I should fulfill my basic agreement with you as quickly as I could,” Alex explained.
Linda ran dates through her head. “We won’t be at DS when you arrive on that schedule. Find a way to delay by three weeks, if you could.”
“So, rendezvous at DS in two months?”
“That would be perfect, Captain. And I sense it’s time for us to go.” With a scraping of chairs, everyone got up. Alex quickly carried the tea cups to the sink, then followed the women to the airlock.
Pamela gave Kari and Linda both hugs, then stepped back. The officers from Jane’s Gift turned to the airlock and waited for Alex to open it.
“Captain?” Alex said. When they turned to look, Alex made a deep bow, tugging his hair.
Kari started laughing. “Oh, please don’t do that!” Linda begged. “I’m sorry I ever said anything.” Pamela looked puzzled, then concentrated on Alex for a moment before she joined Kari’s laughter.
Alex keyed the airlock and watched his new friends return to their own ship. The doors all closed, leaving Pamela and Alex alone.
“You okay with this?” Alex asked Pamela. “If you’re having second thoughts, or seventeenth thoughts, or whatever, now’s the time to do something about it.”
“I’m nervous, Alex. This is a small ship and could get very cozy.” She paused, trying to figure out what to say next.
“Pamela, I will do my best to make this enjoyable for you, but it is a small ship, and I’m used to doing things my way. We’re both going to have to work very hard to get along. We both need to be sensitive to the cultural differences and agree to be understanding.”
“Thank you, Alex,” she told him. “I was thinking the same thing, but didn’t know how to say it.”
“Well,” he said after a moment. “Will you undock us, or do you want me to do it.”
“It’s your ship, Captain,” Pamela told him.
Alex envisioned the Swanson’s Pride docked to a huge DS in space. Then he envisioned the name on the ship changing to Grey’s Pride.
“It’s your ship, Alex,” Pamela said quietly.
“Does that make you crew?”
“Finance officer.”
“Ship’s too small for people to specialize,” Alex replied. “How are you at undocking procedures?”
“Oh, I’ve done a few of those, but could always use the practice.”
“Lead on, then.”
Pamela led the way forward to the cockpit, then settled herself in.
“Do you remember all the passwords?” Alex asked her.
“GoGirlGo.”
Alex smiled. “At your convenience, then,” he said.
Pamela turned to the radios. “Pride to Gift. Ready to undock.”
“Releasing locks,” came Captain Dawson’s voice over the radio. “What happened to visual?”
“Using it for the undock,” Pamela replied. “Locks released. Reversing thrusters. Gently, gently…”
“You’re clear, Pride,” Linda told her.
“Let it drift like this,” Alex told her. “You can’t make mistakes on the thrusters if you aren’t even using them.”
“I don’t make mistakes,” Pamela replied tartly.
“Well, I do. Please humor me.”
“Is everything okay over there, Pride?” Dawson asked.
“Captain says to take it slow, Gift,” Pamela said.
“That’s good advice, Pamela,” Linda told her. “Good advice on a lot of things.”
“Roger that,” Pamela acknowledged. “Going to bump the thrusters a couple of times to increase separation rate.” Pamela touched the controls gently, and the drift between the two ships increased.
The two ships slowly maneuvered away from each other. Finally, Alex felt comfortable suggesting the main engines. “Get us a couple of klicks apart,” he said. “And double-check the course I laid in earlier.”
Pamela made the maneuvers and checked the navigation computer. “We’re green,” she says.
“Hyper when convenient, then,” he said.
“Jane’s Gift, this is Swanson’s Pride. Hyper in thirty seconds. See you back home.”
“Have a good trip, Grey’s Pride,” Linda replied to them. Pamela laughed while Alex scowled.
“We’ll do our best,” Pamela said. “Hyper in five, four, three…” She killed the transmission but continued the countdown. “… one, hyper.”
Alex waited for the familiar sensation as the ship moved into hyper drive. And waited. And waited.
“Oh, Pamela…” he said sadly. “The repairs-“
And the ship entered hyperspace.
Pamela turned around, grinning. “I’m not a witch. I’m not a witch,” she said in an odd voice. Alex just looked at her strangely. “Sorry. Old earth movie. I thought you were a movie buff.”
“I am. I’m just disappointed I don’t have a duck available for comparison. Now, can I check all my gauges, please?”
Pamela laughed, pleased that he had recognized her movie reference. She exited the cockpit, sliding past Alex. She paused in the doorway, their bodies momentarily pressed together. Alex looked down at her, and she returned the gaze.
“Why are you doing calculus problems?” she asked him. “You were doing them at the wedding, too.”
“Do you want me to stop doing calculus?” Mentally, he was trying to derive an equation for the surface area of her face, assuming a certain pore frequency and…
“Yes, I would very much like you to stop doing calculus. The surface area of my face? What’s going on.”
Alex stopped thinking about calculus and just looked into Pamela’s eyes. Pamela began blushing.
Alex looked guilty, turned away, and climbed into the cockpit seat. “I’m sorry, Ms. Grey. I’ll try to contain my thoughts. If you can make this necklace shut them down, you might want to do that.”
“Alex,” Pamela told him. “It’s okay. Now I understand Linda’s advice about taking it slow.”
“She’s right. That’s good advice. Look, I need to run diagnostics. Then we have eleven days to become friends. It’s a small ship.”
“Right. Give me your hands.”
“Why?”
“Just give me your hands, Alex.”
Alex held out his hands, and Pamela removed the bracelets. Then she reached forward and removed the necklace.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“Yes, actually, I think I did. I’ll keep these for you.”
“All right. Now scat. I have work to do.”
She closed the cockpit door as she left.
Alex swiveled the chair around and began checking the gauges.
Speculation
Several hours later, Alex decided the ship was going to run just fine without him. He climbed out of the cockpit and stretched.
There was no answer. “I’ve got to figure out how that all works,” he told the ship. “Well, we have eleven days to Rolling World. Plenty of time.”
He took several steps and found himself outside the door to Pamela’s cabin. He knocked gently on the door, but heard no answer. “Hmm. Napping, I guess. Well, I want a workout.” He crossed to his own cabin, changed into workout clothes, then headed to the workout room. He opened the door.
And Pamela screeched briefly.
“You scared me!” she said.
Alex looked at her. She had obviously been working out for quite a while. She was wearing shorts and a tank top. Her hair was plastered to her head, and she glowed.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“On the Gift, people announce themselves.”
&nb
sp; “Couldn’t you ‘hear’ me?”
“It’s not automatic. I have to concentrate. If you’re wearing my necklace, I always just sort of know where you are and how you’re doing. Without it, I have to concentrate.”
“I tried calling for you,” he said.
“Same thing. As we get to know each other, if you call loudly enough, you’ll get my attention. Right now, you would have to be in extreme distress or excitement for me to simply notice you.”
“Like I was two days ago?”
“No. We actively scan space in front of us. We monitored you for two days before we dropped out of hyper.”
“Two days?”
“Well, Jane’s Gift is slower than the Pride.”
“Pamela, who found me?”
Pamela didn’t say anything, but simply resumed the exercises she was doing when Alex had walked in.
Alex thought.
Alex began silently stretching prior to his own workout. Pamela pretended to ignore him. Alex finished stretching and began some warm up exercises with one of the machines Pamela wasn’t using.
Pamela didn’t say anything. Alex shrugged and increased his level of activity.
“Why me what?” she finally said.
“Why are you here? Why did Captain Dawson insist we get married?”
“I asked. Everything she told you is true. We need trading partners who trust us. We have a very hard time finding them.”
“Why the wedding? It wasn’t really necessary, was it?”
Pamela stopped her exercise and looked at him. “Well, it does help keep you out of any legal trouble, so there is some benefit to you. But mostly, I need command time. Linda’s only 32. She’ll keep the Gift for years. When Dawson’s Star builds or buys another ship, I’ll be the only person available who has command time logged.”
“And the wedding means that, as far as DS is concerned, the ship is yours and you’re her captain.”