The Outback Stars

by Sandra McDonald

  “Don’t be silly,” she told herself.

  Mary River’s small gray moon rose above the horizon and cast light onto a distant set of Spheres. The moon, like the Seven Sisters themselves, had been modeled on Earth and its satellite. It reminded her that there were forces and mysteries in the universe much greater than herself, and brought an odd sort of comfort. Some unknown race of beings had made those Spheres, built the Alcheringa, terraformed seven planets for human habitation, and made space travel viable for humans. She didn’t believe they still existed, as some did. She didn’t believe they were looking out for her or any other human. But she did like to think there was some kind of plan for her life, and that whatever she did, she couldn’t mess it up beyond repair.

  Jodenny leaned back and relaxed. A short time later the train slowed down at a crossing and she gathered enough courage to hop off. The distance to New Christchurch was too far to walk, but she had seen a farmhouse a few kilometers back and she used the stars to navigate her way. Again she was glad for the mild weather. The farmhouse was brightly lit and surrounded by a dozen or so flits. Noise and fiddle music spilled out of the windows, causing her to hesitate. A group of men had gathered to talk on a side porch, and their voices carried easily on the breeze.

  “It’s the extremists,” someone was saying. “Giving us all a black eye. We’re going to have to branch off, split into our own group.”

  Another man disagreed. “Can’t split up now. Not now that everyone’s realizing how serious the movement is.”

  “Serious is making an economic impact,” a third man said. “Not blowing up a ship.”

  Startled, Jodenny crouched low behind a bush. They were members of the Colonial Freedom Project, or at least sympathetic to the cause. She fisted her hands and dug her fingernails into her palms. So many dead on the Yangtze, all because of terrorists who wanted to strike out against Team Space’s monopoly on the Alcheringa. Their senseless violence had served to solidify public opinion against them, but it had come at too dear a cost as far as Jodenny was concerned.

  The front door of the farmhouse opened. A small dog barreled out, circled three times to make a spot for urination, and then honed in on Jodenny with furious barks.

  “Sparkplug!” a woman called out. “Stop that ruckus!”

  Jodenny nearly panicked, wondering whether it would be better to flee or try to hide, but she decided to show herself. “Sorry, that’s probably me he’s all worried about. I hate to bother you, but I was on my way to New Christchurch and got stranded. I’m looking for a ride.”

  An elderly woman with silver braids stepped off the porch and smiled warmly at her. “Sure enough, you’re a long way from everywhere. Come on in, child.”

  The woman pulled her inside the warm, cozy farmhouse, where adults were waltzing in a large living room that had been cleared of furniture. The shindig looked more like a birthday party or barn social than a clandestine meeting of the CFP. A buffet table filled with a lavish amount of food took up most of the hall, and children in suits and dresses kept darting by to poke their fingers into desserts and frosted cakes. In no short order Jodenny had been steered to a corner chair with a heaping plate of food balanced in her lap.

  “My boyfriend and I had a fight—” she tried to explain, but Mrs. Jackson, her hostess, merely handed her a glass of wine.

  “The Lord brought you here.” Mrs. Jackson patted her hand. “There’s no mistaking that. Now, you eat and drink, and I’ll be back in a bit.”

  Jodenny drank the wine. Not so bad, really. The fiddlers in the living room stopped for a round of applause, then launched into a new song. A very pregnant woman in a blue dress shuffled by, both hands supporting her back, and Jodenny immediately offered up her chair.

  “Thanks,” the woman said, sitting in obvious relief. “You must be the stranger Mrs. Jackson’s going on about. I’m Dottie.”

  Jodenny offered her hand. She had already decided using her real name wasn’t a wise idea. “Kay.”

  “Got lost, did you?” Dottie asked.

  “More than you can imagine.”

  Dottie leaned back. She had a pretty face, pink and glowing the way only pregnant women ever managed. “Well, the last bus went through hours ago. Tomorrow’s the Sabbath and no devout believer will drive, but maybe my brother-in-law will take you where you need to go.”

  “I’d be very grateful.”

  “When my husband wanders through we’ll grab him,” Dottie said.

  Dottie’s husband Colby came by a few minutes later. He looked vaguely familiar to Jodenny, but she figured that after one more glass of wine everyone at the party would look like an old friend. “So how’d you get stranded out here anyway?” Colby asked, a glint in his eye. “Not like it’s on the way to anywhere special.”

  “Bad luck,” Jodenny said, “compounded with bad timing.”

  “Been there myself,” Colby said.

  Mrs. Jackson came by with more desserts. “Well, that sounds fine,” she said, upon hearing the plan. “Tonight you can stay here with us, Kay. We’ll be having services at sunrise, and it’s great having guests.”

  Dottie started to lever herself upright. “Actually, we’ve asked Kay to stay with us. Always a spare sofa around, that’s our motto.”

  Colby helped his wife up. “Is it? Good. Everyone needs a motto.”

  The flit ride to Colby and Dottie’s place only took fifteen minutes or so. Jodenny sat in the rear, dead tired but as alert as she could make herself. She was grateful that neither of her hosts were pressing her about the circumstances that had brought her to the countryside, but worried that Colby was one of the men she’d overheard on the porch. It wouldn’t do any good at all to deliver herself to the CFP, especially if they found out she was from Team Space. Colby and Dottie spoke softly in the front, their words too low for Jodenny to hear over the engines.

  “I don’t mean to be an imposition,” Jodenny said. “I can go back to Mrs. Jackson’s.”

  Dottie turned around and gave her a weary smile. “Don’t you worry. I wouldn’t leave a pet with that woman, not unless I wanted it proselytized by morning.”

  Minutes later Colby was bringing the flit to a stop in front of a low farmhouse set on a hillside. Clouds had gathered overhead, hiding the moon and stars. A man stepped off the farmhouse’s front porch as they approached, his features hidden in the dark.

  “How’d everything go?” Colby asked, circling around the flit to help Dottie out.

  “No structural damage,” the other man said, and Jodenny immediate recognized the voice. Sergeant Myell stepped closer to the light of the flit dome. “They’re finally asleep, and if you wake them I’ll kill you both.”

  “Good,” Colby said. “We brought home a guest, Terry. Hope you don’t mind.”

  She’d never seen Myell out of uniform before. He was wearing jeans and a cream-colored sweater and was barefoot. He hadn’t shaved in a few days, lending him a rough and roguish air, and he had his arms folded across his chest. When he saw her his face went slack with surprise.

  Jodenny stepped out of the flit. “Hi, Terry. I’m Kay.”

  Myell’s expression didn’t change. “Hello … Kay.”

  Colby helped Dottie lumber inside. Jodenny followed, acutely aware of Myell staring at her. The living room was dark but for a small table lamp.

  Dottie asked, “Would you like to take a shower, Kay?”

  She glanced down at her grimy trousers. “That would be great. Thanks.”

  The water was luxuriously hot but she kept her shower short. Dottie had left clothes for her, including a nightgown covered with red roses and a pink bathrobe with lace collars. When Jodenny emerged from the bathroom, Colby was making up the living-room sofa and Myell was changing the sheets in the guest room. Jodenny stepped in behind him.

  “Hello, Kay,” Myell said, stuffing a pillow into a green linen pillowcase. “Tell me why you’re not Lieutenant Scott?”

  “It has nothing to do with you or your
family. I promise.”

  He stopped what he was doing and gave her a penetrating gaze. Jodenny tried not to squirm. Myell’s eyes were deep brown in the honey light of the bedside lamp, and the beige sweater brought out flecks of gold in his irises. Jodenny wondered what it would be like to listen to the thump of his chest and feel his breath against her neck.

  “They don’t know about what happened,” Myell said. “Wendy Ford and all that.”

  “I won’t say anything.”

  He stared at her. Jodenny tried to read his mind. Was he as attracted to her as she was to him? If her life was a romance vid, they could share a night of illicit passion, give in to base impulses, break all the rules, and then break them again. But physical desire was a trap that could only lead to trouble, and she had no idea how he really felt about her. Assumptions had certainly gotten her into trouble before.

  “I’ll be on the sofa if you need anything,” he said, and brushed past her on his way out.

  Jodenny wanted to argue—it didn’t seem fair for him to give up the guest room for her—but she didn’t want to wake the children with an argument. Soon the whole house was dark. Rest came in fitful spurts, and in her dreams she returned to the speeding mag-lev. This time Myell was with her, his arms wrapped around her and his warm voice saying, “It’s all right. We’ll be fine.” The train took them up into the sky and on a dreamy trip down the Alcheringa. She woke, then, the bedsheets cool against her legs, the window curtains stirring in the breeze. She imagined Myell standing in the doorway, waiting for her invitation.

  “Terry?” she asked.

  Silence except for the faint tick-tock of a clock somewhere. As Jodenny’s eyes grew accustomed to the moonlight she saw the door was closed. Terry Myell had never been standing there with desire in his heart. Jodenny turned over, closed her eyes, and went back to her dreams.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Colby’s sofa was fine to sit on but hell for sleeping. Myell punched his pillow and tried to make himself comfortable on a frame that was just a few centimeters too short. He kicked off the blanket and sheets. To the accompaniment of the grandfather clock—had the damn thing always been so loud?—he pondered the presence of Jodenny Scott in the next room. Just when he’d begun to put Underway Stores out of his mind, she had to show up. Sure did look beautiful in Dottie’s nightclothes, though. Or maybe it was the fact she wasn’t wearing lieutenant bars that made him realize how attracted he was to her. And how much trouble that could cause. Sergeants were not supposed to lust so completely over their lieutenants.

  He really should have gone AWOL back on Kookaburra.

  Myell got up to use the bathroom and found himself standing outside the guest room. He wanted, more than anything, to open the door and see that she was sleeping okay. Of course she was. She was an adult, and she’d done a lot of sleeping in her life. All he needed to do to cement his sordid reputation was to be caught leering at her while she slept.

  Back to the sofa he went. And punched his pillow some more, until sleep took him away. Somehow Colby and Dottie kept the kids quiet in the morning, because he didn’t awaken until well after sunrise. Bleary-eyed and groggy, he padded barefoot toward the kitchen in search of coffee. The kids, Jodenny, and Dottie were in the backyard, playing softball with the basebot. He stepped out onto the back porch to watch them.

  “Morning, sleepyhead,” Dottie said.

  Jodenny took her position at the plate. The basebot threw a pitch. She swung, but the ball sailed safely past her bat into Jake’s glove.

  “You swing like a girl,” Jake said.

  Myell choked on his coffee.

  “Hold it higher,” Jake said helpfully. “Swing from your hips.”

  Such attractive hips they were, too. Jodenny had borrowed pants and a short-sleeved shirt from Dottie. Her loose hair, freed from its customary braid, fell halfway down her back in dark, luscious curls. Jodenny’s next swing sent the ball sailing into left field. Adryn sprinted to second base.

  Jake pulled off his mask. “Come on, Uncle Terry! You’re up!”

  He stayed where he was. “I don’t think so.”

  “We need another runner, and Mom won’t do it,” Adryn said.

  “Yeah, come on,” Jake wheedled.

  Myell waited for Jodenny to join in the persuasive attempts, but she only smiled at something across the field. He ambled to home plate and hit the first pitch the basebot threw. The ball sailed high and landed somewhere near the barn. While the basebot hurried to retrieve it, Adryn, Jodenny, and Myell all crossed home plate.

  “Apparently, you don’t swing like a girl,” Jodenny told him, smiling.

  Erma fixed breakfast. Colby’s came in from the pasture to partake of soy sausage and pancakes. Myell sat across the table from Jodenny and tried to keep the conversation focused on the kids’ school projects, but Colby’s and Dottie’s curiosity wouldn’t be denied.

  “So what do you do, Kay?” Colby asked.

  “Paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork.”

  Jake speared his soy sausages with a fork. “When I grow up I’m going to join Team Space like Uncle Terry.”

  Dottie asked, “Have you ever been in space, Kay?”

  Jodenny replied, “Yes. It’s lovely. Adryn, what about you? What are you going to do when you grow up?”

  Adryn chewed her food before answering. “A vet. I have a horse. Want to see?”

  “After breakfast,” Colby said.

  “I’ve only been in space once,” Dottie said. “Colby and I emigrated from Baiame.”

  Jodenny reached for her glass. “You didn’t like it there?”

  “More infrastructure and opportunities here,” Colby said. “Inexpensive land, good programs for farmers. Baiame’s a tough place to raise a family and keep a farm going.”

  “My grandparents had a farm there,” Jake offered. “Everything went to seed after Grandma killed herself and Grandpa started to drink.”

  Myell shot Colby a frosty look. He had always figured Colby had told the kids about his childhood, but those particular details hadn’t really been necessary. All they needed to know about their grandmother was that she had come from Australia as a little girl, had been pretty and smart, and that she had died. The Myell family story devolved quickly after that, and it was not one to be shared with children at bedtime or lieutenants at breakfast.

  Dottie said, “I think both of you kids are done eating. Get to your chores.”

  “I’m going to clean off and go pack,” Myell said to Jodenny. “After that we can be on our way back to New Christchurch.”

  He showered quickly, hoping Dottie wasn’t explaining to Jodenny exactly what Jake had been talking about. She might be his division officer, but his family’s history was none of her business. Myell rinsed off, threw on clean clothes, and went to pack his things. Dottie was in the guest room with his mother’s teak jewelry box in hand.

  “You should take this,” she said.

  Myell grabbed his rucksack. “You keep it.”

  “It’s not—” Quite unexpectedly, she threw her arms around him and murmured, “I know it’s hard. But she loved you.”

  He squeezed her tight. “Give it to Adryn. Honestly, what would I do with it on a starship? Someone would probably steal it, anyway.”

  Dottie didn’t argue with him, but she didn’t look happy, either. “I’ll go make you some lunch to take with you.”

  He finished packing, made sure he had left nothing behind, and brought his rucksack outside. Colby had driven the flit up from the lane and was sitting on the hood, twisting a piece of straw between his fingers. Myell dropped his bag into the backseat.

  Colby said, “Jake has a big mouth. But there’s nothing wrong with talking about it.”

  “There’s a time and a place,” Myell said.

  “Not with you,” Colby replied. “There’s never been a time or a place.”

  Myell didn’t answer. The screen door on the porch swung open as Dottie, Jodenny, and the kids ap
peared. Jake and Adryn carried a large picnic basket to the flit and argued over where best to put it. Colby got to his feet and said, “We’ll send pictures soon as the baby’s born. Make sure you get back here before your namesake gets too old, right?”

  “I will,” Myell said. “You take care.”

  Jodenny again thanked Colby and Dottie for their hospitality and got into the flit. Myell gave Dottie and the kids hugs and shook Colby’s hand.

  “Promise you’ll write,” Dottie said, and he did.

  Myell climbed behind the steering controls and started the flit down the lane. Jodenny said nothing in the seat beside him, and for that he was grateful. Both his gib and pocket server were at the bottom of his rucksack, far from any useful implementation.

  When they reached the main road he asked, “Why didn’t you want them to know who you were?”

  “It was easier if they didn’t know I was your boss.”

  Easier for her, maybe. Now that they had left the farm, he was incontrovertibly under her command again. That, if anything, was a reminder of why he wanted to leave Team Space. In truth, she had still been his superior officer when she was in that nightgown.

  “How did you get stranded out of town?” he asked.

  Jodenny rolled her window down. “It’s not important.”

  One of the scenarios he’d envisioned during the long night kept gnawing at him. “Did someone just dump you in the middle of nowhere?” he asked.

  “No, but that was the story I was going to tell anyone who asked too much.” Her tone indicated that was all the answer he was going to get. “Once we get back to the ship, you shouldn’t mention this to anyone. It wouldn’t be in either of our best interests.”

  “Should I give you the car and walk back into town on my own, so people don’t see us together?”

  She sounded annoyed. “You know as well as I do what damage gossip does.”

  “I know what damage lying does,” he answered.

  She didn’t answer. Myell gave up trying to pretend they were two normal people having a normal conversation. Kay, the woman who’d played baseball and admired a little girl’s horse, had been left behind at the farm. If she had ever existed at all.