by M. D. Cooper
“Yes, I’m sure,” Isa replied. “What I don’t get is what just happened. Is something wrong? He started acting really weird as soon as he spotted you.”
“He did, didn’t he?” Erin smiled to herself as she leaned back in her seat. “I’m looking forward to this trip even more now. I can’t wait to see how the major behaves when he’s off duty.”
* * * * *
The servitor at the cocktail lounge aboard the Odyssey had been replaced by a human bartender, a burly man whose blond hair was so pale it was almost white. He was pouring out a drink as the three vacationers took seats at the bar. When he’d finished serving his customer, he turned to Isa.
“Hi, I’m Mikkel. What can I get you?”
“Hi, Mikkel,” said Isa. “Hot Buttered Fusion Flames all round.”
“Sure,” the barkeep replied. “But did you know we have a new menu?”
“You do?” Isa looked it up and saw a long list of exotic drinks. “Whoa. This is going to take a minute.”
“No problem. Take your time,” said Mikkel and he picked up a glass to polish.
“Guys,” Isa said to Martin and Erin, “check out the cocktails.”
“Mmmm… Bacon Liqueur Twist,” Erin read out loud. “Chocolate liqueur, vodka, whipped cream, a stick of chocolate-covered bacon, and a cherry on top.” She chuckled. “I wonder what notable member of New Canaan society that was created to honor?”
“Listen to this,” said Isa. “Atomic Sunrise. An orange mushroom cloud bursts up from the bottom of the glass, produces a brief ‘Opa!’ effect, and then fades to dark purple.”
Martin said, “I think I’ll have a Universal Untranslator.”
Isa read the description and asked, “Are you sure? That’s a powerful concoction.”
“I’m on my first proper vacation in about five thousand years. I might as well push the boat out.”
Erin snorted with laughter. “Not literally, for once.”
“I can’t decide,” Isa whined. “They all look great.” She asked Mikkel, “What would you recommend?”
“Well…” He looked her up and down. “I wouldn’t want to give you something too strong for you to handle.”
“She’s a Noctus,” Erin said.
“Ah! Okay, in that case, I’d suggest a Skjaldemjød.”
“Sorry, what?” Isa asked.
“It’s what Odin drinks in Valhalla that gives him the gift of poetry. In the myth, the main ingredient is Kvasars’ blood, but I made some substitutions.” Mikkel flashed a broad grin.
“I’ll have it,” Isa announced.
“Don’t you want to know what’s in it?” asked Martin.
“Nope,” Isa replied.
“You’re the best kind of customer,” said Mikkel. “And, to be honest, it’s probably better that you don’t know.”
“That sounds ominous,” intoned Erin. “I’m going to have—”
“Don’t you dare say cream soda,” Isa interjected.
“Huh,” said Erin derisively. “Cream soda is delicious. But I’m prepared to try something different for a special occasion. I’m going to go for—”
“Wait,” said Isa. “Let me guess. A Naked Atom?”
Erin shook her head. “Try again.”
“A Slippery Black Hole? Photon Bomb?”
“Wrong both times.”
“I know,” said Martin. “A Deep Space Delight.”
“No,” said Erin. “That’s going to be you later, my dear.”
Isa guffawed. She was delighted that her two partners were loosening up. They could both be a little straight-laced at times, though Martin more so than Erin. Isa hoped they would let their hair down in Athens; it was the kind of place that mandated it, if you actually wanted to have a good time.
“I give up,” she said between giggles. “Don’t keep us in suspense. What are you having?”
“A Quantum,” Erin replied. “The description says, ‘Did you drink it or not’?”
“Yeah,” said Mikkel, “I should probably change that. I can pretty much guarantee you’ll know you drank it.”
“What the hell,” said Erin. “I’ll have it anyway.”
“Okay, so that’s one Universal Untranslator, one Skjaldemjød, and one Quantum coming right up.”
As Mikkel turned to his extensive stock of bottles, Isa spotted a familiar figure in the corner of her vision. She turned just in time to see Usef pass through the entrance to the lounge, but it seemed that he’d changed his mind about coming in and was leaving.
“Usef,” she called. “Come and join us.”
Her friend hesitated in the doorway, and Isa realized with embarrassment that it was because he’d seen her group. She’d put him in a difficult position. Would he pretend he hadn’t heard her invitation? But Usef swung around, an unnatural smile fixed on his face, and walked stiffly over.
“Hi,” he said as he perched his considerable frame on a bar stool. “I see you brought some friends this time.”
“Yes,” said Isa. “This is Martin.”
Usef reached over the bar to shake hands with him.
“And I think you already know Erin?”
“We have met,” said Erin, “under very different circumstances. It’s good to see you again.”
Usef said, “You too, ma’am.” He ordered a cocktail from Mikkel, then sat in silence, his elbows on the bar, his gaze fixed on a spot about a meter in front of his nose.
Isa chatted awkwardly with Erin and Martin for a couple of minutes. She also tried speaking to Usef, but he would only give monosyllabic answers. She regretted inviting him, and wondered what was making him so uncomfortable. His demeanor had entirely killed the party mood. She was beginning to understand why Erin had checked that they were talking about the same person.
“So, Major,” Erin said, putting down her glass and turning to Usef, “how is military life treating you?”
“Well enough, ma’am.” He accepted his cocktail from Mikkel.
“I’m glad to hear it,” said Erin. Her expression and tone were as serious as Usef’s, but she had a mischievous look in her eye that Isa had gotten to know well. “Been on any interesting operations lately?”
“I’m afraid I’m unable to answer that,” Usef said. “All operational details are classified.”
“Of course,” said Erin. “So what else have you been doing? It sounds like you lead an exciting life outside of work. Isa told me what you did when she last saw you. I have to say, I’m looking forward to seeing your one-handed handstand on a surfboard trick.”
“One-handed handstand while surfing?” Martin asked. “Fantastic. I never managed that.”
“I… Well, I… don’t think…” Usef downed half his cocktail in one swallow. He stared ahead morosely, unspeaking.
Isa was reminded of an automaton with a busted circuit, stuck in a behavior loop.
Erin was biting her lip, trying not to laugh. After an awkward moment during which no one spoke, she suddenly lost control and collapsed, guffawing. She doubled over, and for a while she couldn’t speak.
Finally, between chuckles, she said, “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t help myself. I’m a bad person. Major Usef, please, I’m not your CO. I’m just an engineer. You don’t need to act all professional around me.”
Usef shifted on his stool and shot Erin a wary glance. His tension didn’t seem to dissipate at all.
“I have an idea,” Erin said. “What if I call you ‘Usef’ while we’re on vacation and ‘Major’ if we happen to work together again? How does that sound?”
Usef took a sip of his drink as he considered Erin’s proposal. His shoulders relaxed a hair while a small smile broke over his face.
“It’s a deal.” He drained his glass and said to Mikkel, “Same again.”
* * * * *
The suite at the hotel on Athens was in darkness when they opened the door. Reflexively, Isa searched the room controls on the Link to activate the lights before she remembered she couldn’t do that in a
‘fully traditional’ room.
“There should be a switch somewhere,” she said. “We can’t take too long in here. If we don’t catch the tsunami today, there won’t be another one for almost a week.”
Martin was already feeling around the inside wall near the door. “It has to be somewhere around here. Ah.”
There was a click, and then the room was illuminated.
Exclamations of surprise came from all three of them. At the center of the room stood a magnificent bed. A pole rose from each corner, supporting a canopy, and cloth was draped over the canopy and hung down the sides of the poles.
“Oh, I know what that’s called,” Erin said. “It’s a four-poster. I’ve seen a few in old vids.”
While Erin and Isa remained at the door, taking in the sight of the room, Martin was already sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling off his shoes. He lay back and stretched out, spreading his hands over the bedding. He sat up and felt the cloth more carefully.
“I wonder what this stuff is,” he mused. “Feels strange. Nice, but different.”
He lay down again. Erin and Isa walked in, and Isa closed the door. Erin went to the bathroom. There was a click and the light came on.
“Wow, really?” Martin said. “Isa, come and feel this cloth. I just looked up what it is.”
She sat on the bed and ran a hand over the bedding material. It was smooth, but also had a slight roughness to it. It shone with a subtle sheen.
“Feels nice. What is it?”
“Silk.”
“Oh, okay.” After a pause, she added, “What’s silk?”
“It’s a material woven from the cocoons of the silkworm.”
“What?!” Isa jumped up, giving the cloth a suspicious look. “That stuff comes from worms? People must have been desperate for cloth in ancient times.”
“Not at all. I think it was a luxury textile,” Martin said with a wink.
“Worm cloth was a luxury? I take it back. They weren’t desperate. They were really desperate.”
“It wasn’t made from the worms, silly. It’s actually made from their cocoons, and they weren’t worms, they were moth larvae.”
“Oh, right,” said Isa. “That makes all the difference. Erin, come check this out. We’re sleeping on worm-spit bedding tonight.”
While Isa and Martin had been talking, the bathroom light had been clicking on and off.
“This is so weird,” Erin called from the room. “The light switch is on a piece of string hanging from the ceiling. Hold on a minute, I want to check out the… Stars. Hey, you two, come and see the weird san!”
A short while later, Martin was regarding his reflection in the hotel room mirror.
“I’m really not sure about this.”
“You look great,” Erin said. “And it’s better than swimming naked, which you do all the time. What’s the problem?”
“When I swim naked, there’s no one else around.”
“Well, it’s what Usef recommended,” said Erin. “He knows what he’s talking about, right, Isa?”
“Oh yeah,” Isa replied. She was already changed and was lying on the bed as she waited for the others to get ready, trying to get used to the idea of the ‘traditional’ bedding. “All the guys wear them. If you don’t, you’ll look out of place.”
“Hmm….” Martin said. “I still don’t know.”
Isa could see why he was having doubts. His thong was so tiny, he was only barely decent, and Martin was a conservative guy. But then, she knew that Usef’s had been the same when they went tsunami surfing, as had the swimwear of all his fellow male Marines.
She shrugged. “It’s just what people wear around here. I wouldn’t be surprised if the place turned entirely nudist soon.”
Martin’s eyebrows rose in alarm.
“Don’t forget, that would apply to the women too,” Isa added.
Martin grinned. “Now that, I could get used to.”
“Me too,” Erin laughed.
“You would say that,” said Isa. “You’re nearly naked yourself as it is.”
Erin looked down at the strips of fabric that scarcely covered her. “I guess this bikini is a little scanty. I didn’t really think about it. Should I change?”
“No, you’re fine,” said Isa. “Come on. Let’s go, or we’ll miss the wave.”
They left their room and hurried down the stairs to the lobby, where other guests were also making their way out the front entrance.
Isa, Erin, and Martin took three of the remaining a-grav scooters from the hotel lot and rode them through the streets of the small city to the port. There, they boarded the ferry that carried the tsunami surfers out to the location where they would catch the wave.
Just a few hundred meters to the west, the ocean floor dropped off sharply. It sloped at the perfect angle to pick up the earthquake-induced water surge and throw it high into the air as it washed over the shallows.
The surfers would be carried along with the wave, surfing for kilometres, until the wave finally dissipated and deposited those who managed to stay on their boards onto a wide beach.
Or so Isa had heard. The previous time she’d tsunami-surfed, a massive storm had spoiled the fun. This time, she was hoping to ride the wave the entire way.
As they waited, paddling idly on their boards, Erin said, “I can’t believe we’re out here. I haven’t done anything this much fun in ages. I feel like a little kid.”
“Isn’t this place great?” Isa asked. She was enjoying Athens even more with Erin and Martin there. If I could only figure out what to do about a job, she mused, my life would be perfect.
As she watched the seascape and Athens’ tropical, mountainous terrain in the distance, she realized that she would love to do something that entailed working outdoors, where she could appreciate the work of the FGT. Maybe not in Athens; the hedonism and partying wouldn’t be so enjoyable if it was available all the time. But maybe she could work on Troy or Tyre, which weren’t as developed as Carthage.
“I might go diving later,” Martin said.
“You want to go diving?” asked Erin. “Why? You dive all the time on Carthage.”
“I’d like to have a look at what’s down there.”
“You want to see what’s living down there?” Isa recalled her few minutes of terror after she’d been stranded by the massive storm and she’d thought something in the ocean was touching her.
“I do,” replied Martin. “What’s weird about that? The FGT seeded this place. I’m curious to see how they established things.”
“Here it comes,” Erin exclaimed. “Get ready.”
She was right. The horizon was lifting. The tsunami was on its way. They began to paddle harder as the water in the shallows began to rush out toward the west.
“There’ll be plenty of time for diving later,” said Isa to Martin. “For now, I’d concentrate on surfing if I were you.”
“Huh,” he replied, looking over his shoulder at the wall of water that was rising behind them. “Piece of cake.”
Seconds later, the wave was upon them, lifting them high as it burst over the shallows, racing inland.
“Hoooo-weeee,” yelled Erin. “This is amazing!”
As they were borne along by the tsunami, Isa concentrated on simply not wiping out. She didn’t fancy another wait for the search-and-rescue pinnace. Martin was clearly in his element, however; he rode his board like he had a hundred of years of experience…which might have been the case.
A little farther down the line of surfers, Isa could see Usef.
Sure enough, within a short time, Usef was putting on his usual performance. Martin took this as a challenge and began to copy the Marine’s moves. Soon the two men were attracting stares from all around, until finally they both went too far and simultaneously tumbled down the watery cliff and into the blue-green deep.
When the tsunami finally petered out and deposited Isa onto the beach at the end of the ride, she was elated. She’d managed to remain on her board the whole way. She was breathless and windswept and looking forward to telling Erin and Martin about her success.
* * * * *
Isa had showered at the board return facility up the beach from where the tsunami finally petered out, but it seemed a waste to not make use of the traditional version in their hotel room too. After a long, delicious dinner, she and Erin decided to take another shower, together, before going to bed.
As they stood under the hot spray, Erin picked out a bottle of shampoo and squirted it onto Isa’s hair. She began to lather up the liquid and said, “This is so much fun. Why did we ever stop doing this?”
“Mmmm, it smells wonderful,” said Isa. “I want to try some of this, too. It says that you put it on afterward.” She pointed at a bottle on the shelf labeled ‘Conditioner’.
“Okay.” Erin directed the shower spray to rinse Isa’s hair. As she washed the foam away she ran her fingers through the long black strands. “Your hair’s so beautiful. I love it.”
“You could always grow yours,” Isa said.
“Oh no. I like it short.”
“Yeah,” said Isa. “I like your hair short, too.”
Her back was toward Erin, but she turned around as she spoke. Water was streaming over Erin’s body, glistening on her skin, making her look more beautiful than ever. Isa wrapped her arms around Erin’s waist and drew her close before kissing her.