by Gian Bordin
"We made it, we made it." She hugged him. "Thank you, Atun."
He locked eyes with her, and she knew what was coming. She did not mind. It felt right.
9
Atun’s lips brushed hers briefly. She hugged her body to his.
"Yuen-mong, this is your doing. You are the woman who makes impossible dreams come true."
"That is what my name means — to make a dream come true." There was a sparkle in her eyes.
"Will you also be my dream come true?"
"Would you like me to?"
"Don’t you know?"
"Yes, I know." She brushed his lips fleetingly, while disengaging herself from his embrace. "What next, captain?"
"Now we check out everything."
They inspected the whole ship. They were standing in the spacious day quarters with comfortable seating for half a dozen people and entertainment facilities toward the front and a dining area with a table on the right, behind which was a big catering unit. Everything looked lived-in. There were pictures on the walls and two books on a low table between two soft seats. She picked one up almost reverently. It was leather bound and had indeed gold lettering on its front and spine. ‘Whispers in the Wind — Poetry Collection’ read its title. She was curious to study it, but that could wait.
The open door at the front led into the flight deck which had seating for two people. Along the corridor — the one leading to the airlock they had entered — were four sleeping cabins for two people each, the first one being larger with women’s and men’s loose cabin clothing neatly placed on the double bed, as if somebody would shortly come back to get changed. From her mother’s description, she recognized the small counter top with a mirror that reached to the ceiling as a vanity used by people when they got dressed and made up their faces. But why would they make up their faces? she mused.
The other three bedrooms looked unused. The bathroom-toilet facility was at the far end, next to a staircase that led to the lower deck which contained storage facilities, the shuttle airlock, the main engines powered by nuclear fuel cells, and the fuel tanks for the orbital and reaction control thruster systems.
"What luxury compared to the ship I came in, and just for the two of us," remarked Atun, visibly impressed by what he saw. "Despite its age, it still looks modern and brand new."
"I think it was on its first voyage."
She followed him back to the flight deck, where he sat down at the pilot’s station. A sphere hovered in front of him on the flight console. It looked as if several sheets of paper were loosely stacked vertically inside, with the area behind the sphere just barely discernable. The top sheet displayed status information of the ship. Only the title line of the ones behind was visible.
"Is this a holoscreen?" she questioned, eyes sparkling with excitement. "How fascinating!"
"Yes, it is," he replied, once more surprised that she recognized something she had never seen before.
He reached inside and seemingly touched a sheet farther back, sliding it out next to the stack. It showed a three-dimensional image of the ship. She could not resist, leaned over his right shoulder, and placed her index finger on the sheet labeled ‘Atlas’, and the sheet displaying a sector of the galaxy shifted on top of the stack. She laughed, touched it again and slid it to the side. He touched the outside of the sphere and shifted the entire display closer to her.
"Atun, you will have to teach me how to use this."
"Yes, I will… I already put the ship back on power. All functions seem operational. Obviously, the navigation atlas is twenty years out of date, but that should not cause us any problems. We can update it at the first port of call. All that is needed is to get the main engine from stand-by up to full power and we can be off. That process should not take more than half-an-hour."
"Could we go into a higher orbit? I don’t like it so close to the ring."
"Yes, we can do that and then decide where to go."
"I will store away the gold and our food and explore some more."
"OK, take your time."
She found the refrigerator next to the catering unit. There were several food containers and five bottles inside. She removed the food and without opening the containers threw them into the adjacent waste disposal. She studied the labels on the bottles with curiosity. Four were white wines, the fifth and heavier one said ‘Champagne’, all listed Aotearoa, Old Earth, as the place of origin. It triggered a vague memory of her mother telling her that the best wines in the Galaxy were still produced in the southern hemisphere on Old Earth, one of the few remaining inhabited areas on that planet that had seen over 90 percent of its arable land area rendered poisonous by chemical and nuclear pollution. She wondered what wine tasted like. They would have ample time to find out.
In the corridor was a small storage cubicle just right for the four leather bags containing the gold nuggets.
The first bedroom drew her like a magnet. She picked up the loose top that must have been her mother’s. The material felt soft and smooth. She put it on her cheek and closed her eyes, bringing up the face of her mother. Her keen sense of smell detected a faint but familiar odor she had always associated with her. On the spur of the moment, she got out of her craw leather clothing and put on her mother’s top and pants, looking at herself in the mirror. Yes, they fit. She picked up her father’s and held it up in front of her. They should do for Atun.
Then she opened the top drawer of the vanity. It contained many little bottles, tubes, and round containers. These must be the perfumes and face creams she talked about. She opened one of the bottles. Immediately, an unfamiliar, but pleasant fragrance wafted to her nose. The drawer next to it contained little scissors — good, I won’t have to cut my nails with a knife anymore — tweezers, a flat tool with rough surfaces, and more tubes and containers. I must ask Atun what these are for. The next larger drawer underneath contained flimsy looking garments, socks and strange shaped see-through things that looked like two legs attached together. She guessed that these were the things women wore underneath their tops and pants. Her mother had called them briefs, bras, and hoses. The drawer below contained more substantial male undergarments and socks.
She found women’s and men’s pants, various shapes of tops, and even two full length tops — dresses? she wondered — and footwear in two closets closer to the door. She guessed that the first contained her father’s, the second her mothers clothing. She would try hers on later.
Atun’s call interrupted her. "Yuen-mong, where are you?"
She stuck her head out the door and replied: "Here, in the first sleeping cabin. Come, there is lots of clothing that may fit you."
He joined her. "You’ve already changed. You look cute in that."
"You like it?"
"Yes," he answered while opening her mother’s closet. "There’s quite a choice." He took one out and held it up. "Nice … strange."
"Strange? What’s wrong with it?"
"Nothing’s wrong. It’s just so different from the current fashion. What they wore twenty years ago." He looked at the label. "Vanessi! One of the top designer houses. Your mother had expensive taste."
"She was very rich."
He looked briefly through her father’s clothing. "Good quality things. I think I’ll be fine in those… Will you take this cabin?"
"Yes, I would like to."
"OK, I’ll take the one next door. I’ll shift the things later. But now I want you on the flight deck to watch me place the ship into a higher orbit. You might as well learn the ropes right away."
"Yes, I would like that." Learn the ropes? What a funny expression! She smiled at him and with one last glance at the cabin followed him to the front.
* * *
An hour later Atun showed Yuen-mong how to use the catering facility.
"But should we not check if any of that food is spoiled?" she asked.
"All the dry ingredients and the water will be fine. These units constantly test any mixed food and discard i
t if it’s not OK anymore."
"I would like to eat the food we brought along first, otherwise it will spoil."
He guessed that she did not trust the ship’s food and smiled. "OK, that is probably a good idea."
"Can you heat food that is already prepared? I would like to heat these meat sandwiches. The swamp spinach will make them moist and the meat juicy."
He showed her how to use the microwave and then set two places at the table. When the sandwiches were hot, she brought the plates and said: "Do people on Palo celebrate by drinking wine with food?"
"On Palo it’s mainly beer. We’ve many different types of beer for various occasions. Wine comes from Old Earth and is mainly drunk on Andromatis. It’s very expensive."
"And Champagne?"
"That’s a type of bubbly wine used for celebrations. Why do you ask?"
Without a word she got up and fetched the bottle of Champagne from the refrigerator. "Here," she said, handing him the bottle. "Did anyone ever have better reason to celebrate than we?"
"Champagne!" he exclaimed, studying the label. "And from Old Earth! This must be worth a fortune."
Laughing, he quickly got two glasses from the catering section, popped the bottle and slowly filled them.
"Is there not also some ritual before drinking?"
"Yes, on Old Earth, they raise the glasses like this and chime them together while looking into each other’s eyes."
They did. He was surprised by her solemn face.
"This is good. It feels funny in the throat. But I thought that if a couple celebrated they would link arms."
"How do you know?"
"My mother told me. Come!"
They both got up, linked arms, and drank, bumping into each other.
"And then they kiss," she added, smiling impishly, and quickly kissed his lips.
He was confused. When he had asked her, she had refused to say she loved him and now this. He was sure she was not flirting. It felt more like she was trying things out. Maybe she was simply overexcited and she had all the right and all reason to be.
The aroma of the meat reminded him how hungry he was. He noticed that she watched him carefully how he used both fork and knife and then did the same. She has never used cutlery. She also refilled their glasses, whenever they were empty. By the end of the meal — two sandwiches each — the bottle was empty, and she was giggling.
"You know what I feel like now," she asked.
He shook his head.
"I feel like trying out the shower. You come and show me?"
She got up and took his hand, pulling him along. He explained how it worked, and she immediately stripped. "Come," she said, "you need one too. You stink as badly as I do."
Under the effect of the wine, his inhibitions were gone, and he joined her. They washed each other’s back. It felt intoxicating to be so close to her, feeling her breasts brush his arm when she turned. He restrained himself from taking her into his arms.
"Will you cut off your beard?" she asked.
"Would you like me too?"
"Yes, I think so. You may find my father’s shaver in the cabinet behind the mirror there."
He got out and dried off, while she washed her hair — the first shampoo in her life, he mused. In the cabinet he found an electric shaver and got working, removing the long beard hair. It was slow going. She joined him, watching with interest. He got distracted seeing her sensuous body in the mirror. When he was finished, she touched his smooth chin with a light caress. "I like your face smooth."
He picked up his craw skin clothing and went back to her cabin to get dressed.
"Don’t put on those stinky things again. Find something from my father’s," she called after him, looking at her naked body in the mirror. She had never seen herself like this, only in the distorted reflection of still waters.
He was searching through the things, finally settling on the loose cabin clothes lying on the bed. He was just pulling the top over his head when he felt her arms around his chest and her naked body pressed against his back. For a split second, he was shocked and then felt the urge in his groin.
"Atun, let’s do it," she murmured. "Please, teach me."
Oh, how he wanted her. His need was suddenly overpowering, but something held him back. She was too precious to lose in this way. "Yuen-mong, you’re drunk. You’ll regret it later."
"I may be slightly — what is it called? … tipsy, but I know exactly what I’m doing and I never regret things that cannot be changed anymore. I want to. Come."
She pulled him onto the bed.
"But you may get pregnant," he tried lamely, yielding to her already.
"I don’t think so, and if I do, that is fine. I want a child sooner or later and I would like you to be the father. Come, Atun, love me." She pushed him down on the bed and lay on top of him. "And don’t be afraid. You will not hurt me. I broke my hymen when I was twelve."
* * *
She lay awake long after he had fallen asleep. He had been gentle and she felt contented, relaxed and in peace with herself. She could still feel the intense surge of his feelings just before he came, which triggered her own release. Another step into womanhood. It felt right. She snuggled up closer to him, and he put an arm around her, his hand cupping one of her breasts. That too felt good. The last thing she remembered before sleep took her away was the complete stillness of minds. Only an occasional mild stirring as Atun was dreaming.
When she woke, she was disoriented for a short moment. Where was she? The warm body next to her, was it her mother’s? Then she smelled Atun’s musky odor. It was pleasant. Turning to her side, she leaned on him, watched his sleeping face, and caressed the fine stubbles that had again formed on his chin and jaw. She smiled, remembering that they had felt smooth when he had played with her breasts. She blew into his face, and he opened his eyes.
"Come, lazybones. We have work to do."
"Yuen-mong," he whispered.
She sensed his concern.
"Yes."
"I love you." It sounded hesitant, almost pleading.
"That is good, Atun. And don’t be worried. I’m fine." She kissed his cheek and got up.
Holding up one of her mother’s briefs, she asked: "Is this what women wear under their clothes?"
He sat up and replied: "Yes. They also wear bras."
"What for?"
"To support their breasts, hold them in place."
She looked down at hers. "They seem to hold in place by themselves."
"Yes, you’ve beautiful, firm breasts."
"You like them?"
He laughed. "Yes I do."
She smiled and put on the loose top and pants. "I will prepare some breakfast muesli," and she left the cabin, going first to the bathroom to empty her full bladder and have a quick wash.
* * *
‘Where shall we go first?" Atun asked her. They were on the flight deck, looking at a three-dimensional map of their galactic region displayed in the holoscreen. "The closest space station is the mining planet of Santori." He pointed at a dot in the image. Its name appeared above and behind the dot, with the number 12. "But it does not bring us any closer to Palo or Andromatis. It only has the advantage of allowing us to update our data system quickly. The landing and takeoff fees are low, but supplies are expensive. See, it would take us about twelve standard days to get there."
"How long is it to Palo and Andromatis?"
He pointed at to other dots. Names and numbers appeared. "About 36 days to Palo, maybe only 32 to Andromatis."
"Could we make it to either?"
"According to the ship’s status report, yes, but it may be more prudent to call on Old Earth which is only a small detour, although it has no HST link." He pointed at another dot. "We could make it there in 16, and from there to Andromatis in another … 20, or to Palo in another … 25 days."
"I would like to stop over on Old Earth and I sense that you would like to go to Palo, right?"
"Yes, but
this is your ship, so you decide."
"Atun, this is our ship. We are in this together… In fact, who owns this ship now?"
"By Galactic Law, any ship lost for more than ten years becomes the property of whoever finds it."
"So it is ours, yours and mine." She smiled.
"Yes."
"And we will not run into trouble when we call port anywhere?"
"No, not as long as we can pay the fees."
She pondered the question of where for a while. To do or get anything in these worlds, even a drink of water, she needed credits, not like on Aros, where she could do anything she wanted or take anything that was within her physical reach. It gave her a sense of insecurity. "I would like to go to Andromatis first and see if I can still recover my mother’s property. If I can, then we are rich and can do anything, my mother said."
"It may be too late."
"Do you think my mother’s family would deny me my rights?"
"Possibly. They could claim that you are an imposter."
"We have to take that chance. There is somebody on Andromatis who my mother claimed will help. A friend of hers who is a lawyer."
"Andromatis then. Anyway, from there it’s less than eight days to get to Palo."
* * *
Vishnu was programmed for a 24-hour day and they set a course for Old Earth early that morning. Yuen-mong watched with a heavy heart how Aros shrunk ever more rapidly and then dissolved from the holoscreen when they went into hypertransition. Would she ever see it again?
That same day Atun gave her a thorough introduction into the ship’s AI system, while at the same time checking it out himself. He drilled her in all aspects of flight and communication, both short distance and intergalactic. Although her father had explained to her that interstellar communications within the Galactic Federation used two different modes, the HST mode, standing for ‘hyperspace transmission’, which allowed transmission speeds about 12854 times faster than the speed of light over a network of links, and the ‘standard’ which occurred at the speed of light and was used only for relatively short distances or where no HST link existed, suddenly having access to such technology was exciting.