by Gian Bordin
"Makeup? … You mean painting my face like the savages on Aros do when they sacrifice one of their own to the appease the vultures? But to answer your question: I like my face when I see it in the mirror and have no wish to ruin it with chemicals. Everything in my face, and my body I hasten to add, is real, exactly the way nature gifted it to me. Hence, it makes me unique, not one of hundreds of thousands of imitation of some sterile ideal. Maybe I can start a new fashion and also ruin the makeup and beauty surgery industry." It was greeted with wild applause. She suddenly started to enjoy this. "One more question."
"You said six."
"Sir, I answered one from the spectators. But you may have the last one."
"There are rumors that one day you may return to Aros. Why and how did you escape from Aros in the first place?"
"That’s two questions. Let me ask you one: Why do men tend to ask several questions at the same time?"
Laughter.
"How should I know? I’m not a psychologist."
"I suggest you try to find out. I am sure many women would be grateful for the answer. Which of your two questions do you want to have answered?"
"How did you escape?"
"By a space shuttle."
More laughter.
"But how were you able to do that and nobody else so far?"
"Sir, I gave you the answer to your question. If you ask the wrong question, that’s your problem. Thank you. That’s it."
Wild applause. She nodded to the luggage handler and started walking resolutely through the reporters, ignoring their renewed questions and calls, and down the aisle fenced off for her to the continued cheering of the crowd. After a few steps, the deputy mayor caught up with her and said: "Miss Shen, Dr. Twan is waiting with a car for you."
That was not what she would have wanted right then, if given a choice. Syd’s car was, in fact, parked in the pedestrian area outside the terminal exit, with him at the steering wheel. He got out to greet her.
"Yuen-mong, you had me so worried," he exclaimed and, taking her by complete surprise, he kissed her on both cheeks. She liked the smell of his aftershave and felt her heart beat faster.
"I can take care of myself —"
"Oh, I’m well aware of that and I admire you for it."
"— but thank you, Syd, for meeting me," she continued while checking that all luggage was in the boot.
"It’s my pleasure."
She quickly turned to the deputy mayor, thanked him and shook his hand. Twan closed the door behind her and then took the driver’s seat, slowly easing the car into the traffic.
"I assume you will take me to the Soro Space Port."
"Yes… It’s good to have you once all for myself."
She had the sense that he was going to declare his love for her, and she felt ambivalent about it. With a twinkle in her eyes, she replied: "Syd, don’t you yet know that nobody can have me. They may only share moments with me."
"You know what I mean, to be with you … alone. Except for those first few minutes, I always saw you in the company of Atun."
"We were alone when you drove me to meet my grandfather."
"You are a tough woman. One gets away with nothing."
"You said you admired me for that."
"True, I do. I don’t just admire you for that. I admire you for everything, your beauty, your wit, your determination, your warmth."
"My wealth?"
"Yuen-mong, stop playing games with me. Don’t you see that I am serious, that I love you … even more than loved your mother? You are everything that I could ever have wished for in a woman." He had brought the car to a halt at the side of the road.
She felt her own emotions in sudden turmoil, vulnerable and trapped, and tried to fight it, yet ready to yield and fearing it.
"You are my dream. I want to make you happy, look after you, spoil you, fulfill your every wish. Please, Yuen-mong, marry me. I can offer you so much, love, status, wealth. I will protect you. I will find the best surgeon for you to restore your leg. You will never have to worry about anything anymore." His eyes were pleading.
It felt as if she had just stepped into a cold shower, and she felt a hard pang of hurt and then regret. His mind and his words had revealed too much. If he had stopped before saying ‘you are my dream’, she would not have known what she would have done. But then something felt terribly wrong. His dream was to imprison her in his world. She would become his doll, to be admired, pampered, to be shown off.
"I’m with Atun," she replied softly.
"Yuen-mong, I know you’re attracted to me. I have seen it in your eyes. Don’t deny it."
"I do not."
"Then what’s holding you back? I don’t care that you had a relationship with Atun. It was natural, almost unavoidable under the circumstances. I won’t hold that against you. Can’t you see that he is nothing, that he can offer you nothing."
"You only know of Atun what is readily seen on the surface.’"
"I’m sorry. There was no intention to belittle his many qualities."
She knew he was lying, and this added to her hurt.
"What I meant to say is that he is not Foundation. You are. You owe it to yourself to perpetuate the purity of the Foundation."
She did not answer, but looked out the windscreen.
"Yuen-mong, I know too many things have happened to you these last few months. You were plucked from a stone-age world and dropped into the most advanced civilization of the galaxy. You’re bound to be confused, and I don’t want to rush you. Take as long as you need to say yes to me. I’m patient. I waited years for your mother."
"Thank you, Syd."
He put the car in motion again. She was glad that he remained silent for several minutes. He was right, her mind was in confusion, but a different confusion than he thought.
* * *
"She is back. I’ve just watched her grand entrance at the space port," were Ko Young’s first words as he entered his father’s office.
"Yes, I saw her." She was beautiful, in full control, as always, Chen Young mused silently. "Where is she going?"
"Syd Twan picked her up and they took the road to the Soro Space Port, I presume to meet up with their space craft which has just asked for permission to land. What are we going to do?"
"Wait… I’m certain she will come to see me. That was her message to me during the interview."
"Can we afford to wait? The shares have plummeted to 55 cents, a drop of over ninety percent in eight days and they are still falling. For a while there were some buyers, but they have disappeared too, and Kim Deng is panicking. He insists that I call a meeting of all senior people to develop a strategy for the upcoming special general shareholder meeting that was called for by two shareholders."
"Two outside shareholders with ten percent of the shares? That has never happened in our history so far."
"Yes, in fact they hold twelve percent. The request came through their broker."
"What do we know about him?"
"Nothing, a small-time dealer with no record of dealing in our shares."
"I smell a rat. Find out more. Find out who his clients are even if you have to twist some arms."
"But what can twelve percent do against the combined Young and Deng block?"
Chen Young looked sharply at his son. "Do we still hold a majority? You know that Mai panicked and sold her shares, violating the agreement. Did anybody else panic?"
He noticed his son’s sudden fidgeting.
"I asked you a question? What do you know?"
"Pat and Bee also disposed of their shares."
"Who else? How much did you sell?"
"I dumped the shares I bought from Yuen-mong. It is all her fault that we are in trouble, the ungrateful bitch, after we took her into our fold."
"So we have only 19 percent left. What do you know of the Dengs?"
"Xi Deng asked for permission to sell some of their shares."
"How much?"
"Seven perc
ent."
"That leaves only 39 percent."
"Still more than we need to control the meeting."
"Maybe, maybe not. I think Kim Deng is right. We need to develop a unified strategy and a convincing plan to get the shareholders back on our side. I want to be in on that. We also need to buy back some shares. Why did you not approach me before you sold?"
His son shrugged and avoided his gaze. He is still afraid of me.
* * *
Yuen-mong contacted him two days later while he was attending one of the strategy sessions, leaving a message that she would visit him on Wednesday rather than Tuesday, the day she had regularly come on previous occasions. Wednesday was also the day after the special UniCom general shareholder meeting. Was the timing coincidence, he pondered? She also excused herself from the Sunday dinner.
* * *
Syd Twan dropped her off at the port terminal building. She had to wait about an hour before she could take a self-guided vehicle to the landing position of Vishnu. Both Atun and Anouk stood in the open door of the ship when she jumped off the vehicle and ran to them, embracing first Atun, then Anouk, and Atun again. In his arms she felt as if she had escaped from great danger.
They unloaded the equipment from the vehicle and stored it in the ship. She sent the vehicle back to the terminal, remembering the scene last time she had done the same. Although she was pretty certain that no further attempts would be made on them, she was not willing to take any chances. They would live on the ship for the time being.
The talk with Syd Twan remained uppermost in her mind. She could not distance herself from it. She was in turmoil. She could no longer deny that she was in love with him, that she was sexually attracted to him. It would be so easy to say yes. But at the same time she intuitively shied away from it. Would her love survive the dream he had constructed for her? Would it not be the germ that ultimately destroyed her love? He wanted her to become his showpiece. She would not be herself any longer, but would be expected to conform to his image. Would she not end up fighting constantly to escape the cage he had already built for her? Her emotions swayed back and fort, rising and waning like waves, and she was unable to hide it. She knew that Anouk sensed her state of mind and also felt Atun’s growing concern.
When she retired with him to their sleeping cabin, he held her by the shoulders and queried her: "Love, something is troubling you. Tell me."
Can I tell him? Won’t I hurt him? She buried her face on his shoulder.
"Something with Syd Twan, isn’t it? He wants to marry you."
She nodded. She could not lie.
"I knew this would happen." He slowly disengaged himself. She let go reluctantly, wanting to hold on to him, to be comforted by him. He sat on the edge of the bed, bent forward, eyes closed, his hands supporting his forehead. "Are you going to leave me?" he asked softly after a while, briefly glancing at her.
"No, Atun, I pledged myself to you."
He sat upright. "Yuen-mong, I don’t hold you to that. I knew for a while that you love him and would leave me."
Do I really love him? Can I really love him? "Atun, I’m confused. I thought I did. I don’t know my own mind." She hid her face in her hands.
"I love you, more than ever, but I don’t want to make you unhappy. You must do what your heart tells you. He can offer you things that I’ll will never be able to."
"Oh Atun, don’t say the same words he did." She went over to him and pulled him up. "Hold me. Don’t withdraw from me now. I need you."
He folded his arms around her. "Love, you don’t need me, you don’t need anybody."
Yes, I need to be loved too, the kind of love you offer me. Why can’t I find the courage to say it to you? "I want to stay with you. You became my soul mate on Aros."
"I was nothing but a burden."
"Not in my eyes. Don’t ever say that again."
"But you love him. It will make you unhappy staying with me, and I couldn’t stand that."
"No, Atun, I would end up unhappy with him when I could remain happy with you." His hold tightened. "Will you be patient with me?"
"Yes, love."
"Will you make love to me? Passionately?"
She saw his smile and loved him for it.
21
Yuen-mong would have preferred not having to face Syd Twan on the Tuesday of the special general shareholders meeting. His very presence threatened her inner peace and put her mind into a spin. But there was no avoiding him. He had to fulfill the last act before she would be able to distance herself from him.
The meeting was convened in the same hall where Atun had given his presentation, as if the UniCom board expected several hundred shareholders. From the entrance, she estimated the number of people siting in the first few rows to be hardly more than twoscore. Ten men in official Foundation dress sat behind a long table on the podium with a lectern in the middle. She recognized Ko Young, sitting to the left of the lectern, with her grandfather, Pat and Dan. On the right sat two white-haired, distinguished-looking gentlemen who looked like brothers, followed by four younger men who again showed a marked resemblance. The current board, she presumed. She finally was going to meet the Deng clan.
They were the last to enter, and she immediately felt the rage of emotions assaulting her from the podium, as the board members recognized her. Her uncle bent toward her grandfather, whispering agitatedly, while Pat stared at her, making no effort to hide his hatred. A number of people sitting below the podium turned to look. Atun took a seat four rows back, and she and Anouk joined him, leaving the seat at the aisle for Syd Twan who placed his briefcase on his knees. A camera crew had set up their equipment on the side of the podium and the lense zoomed in on her.
Ko Young rose and grabbed something that looked like a wooden mallet, which he hit three times on a wooden board. "I declare this special general meeting of the UniCom shareholders open. Would those shareholders or their proxies who have not yet registered their holdings please come forward to have them confirmed?"
Several people got up and ascended the steps to the podium, presenting E-cubes to a small man at the far right. His oiled black hair gave his head a completely round shape.
She looked questioningly at Syd who whispered: "This is the company secretary who keeps the shareholder registry."
When the last had left the podium, Syd got up and walked slowly down the aisle and up the steps. He presented eleven E-cubes. She noticed the raised eyebrows of several board members and the renewed whispering of Ko Young to her grandfather. After the company secretary had inserted the last E-cube into his reader, he looked in horror at the results shown on his screen, his mouth half open. She sensed that he wanted to say something, but had lost his voice. The young Deng man sitting next to him stretched his neck to see the screen and then said: "There must be an error. Read the E-cubes again."
"There is no error, Cor Deng," said Syd Twan in a calm voice, as he put the E-cubes slowly back into his briefcase, and returned to his seat next to her. Most of the board members rushed up and crowded behind the screen, trying to read it, faces turning ashen or bewildered one after the other. Only her grandfather remained in his seat and locked eyes with her. There was an eerie smile on his face. It was far more disconcerting than if he had shown anger. After several questions were asked by people on the floor, Ko Young hurriedly returned to the lectern and again said something in whispers. The old man only nodded and continued looking at her.
Holding to the lectern with one hand, Ko Young raised the other as if to call for quiet. Both hands were visibly shaking, and she sensed that he was in a state of utter agitation. For a moment she feared for him.
"New share holdings … and proxies … have been verified and are duly registered," he gasped in a croaking voice. Her grandfather looked at him alarmed. "Before we proceed … with the agenda … called by the appellants … the current board has instructed me … to set out the position of UniCom and our strategy for meeting the challenges ahead for safeg
uarding our leading position in the space communication field."
As he spoke, his voice became stronger. He seemed to regain slowly control over himself.
Syd Twan rose and said firmly: "Mr. Chairman, point of order, please."
"Yes, Dr. Twan, state your point."
"Mr. Chairman, this meeting was called for the sole purpose of appointing a new board of directors and elect a new chairman. It is not up to the current board to present a new business strategy, but for the new board."
Ko Young turned crimson and glared at Syd Twan for several seconds and then croaked: "Point of order dismissed. I will —"
"Mr. Chairman, according to the company statutes for the conduct of special general meetings your ruling is out of order. The company secretary will confirm that."
She saw the small man nod his head vigorously and then heard her grandfather’s voice: "Ko, spare your breath. Call for nominations."
Ko Young looked at his father in dismay and then turned to the Deng brothers, as if expecting help from their side. They did not even meet his gaze. Their faces betrayed nothing. He turned back to the floor. "I call for nominations."
Kim Deng immediately got up and said: "I nominate all members of the current board."
Syd Twan rose again. "Point of information. The rules require that all board nominees are shareholders at the time of nomination. There are three members on the current board who hold no shares at the present time. They are Pat Young, Dan Shaw, and Cor Deng. They are not eligible."
Several people on the podium started talking in small groups. Yuen-mong again felt a wave of hate reaching her from the podium.
"Order, order," called out Ko Young.
Kim Deng stood again. "I withdraw my previous nominations and nominate all those current members of the board who hold shares at this time."
"Nominations accepted. I call for further nominations. The rules require a minimum of eight board members."
"I nominate Yuen-mong Shen," said her grandfather, without getting up, winking at her.
She smiled back. It took Ko Young several attempts to pronounce the words "nomination accepted."