America 2040 - Golden World Part 35

That last had not yet been realized because every time he started to tell his jokes, people yelled, "Not now, Juke!" But they did appreciate his selection of music.

On a Sat.u.r.day night a representative group could be found at the club, filling the three tennis courts and the swimming pool, cooking on the grills in the picnic areas, lounging on the ocean beach, or just sitting on one of the open balconies and watching the gloriously colored Omega sunset.

Grace had finally convinced Max that it was time for a night out. Theresita found Jacob at a large table with Max and Grace, Duncan and Jackie Rodrick, and Paul Warden, who was escorting, as usual, two women, Sage Bryson and Evangeline Burr.

Juke had not yet met Theresita. He saw the newcomer and rolled hurriedly to the table just as she leaned to kiss Jacob on the cheek.

"Who's the beauty?" Juke asked, in his slightly flat, mechanical voice. "What's this?" Theresita asked.

"Ignore him and he'll go away," Sage said. Her treatment under Dr. Allano was going well. She was learning some things about herself that frightened the h.e.l.l out of her, but she was coping.

"I, madam, am Juke, the invaluable source of all things entertaining."

Theresita sat down, smiling happily at the canlike robot.

"Ah," Juke said, "I see that the newlyweds are out in force tonight. That reminds me-"

"Not now, Juke," several of them chorused, and then burst into laughter.

Juke, encouraged, said, "I haven't been married long myself, you know, but my wife's been giving me the cold shoulder so much lately that I'm thinking of buying her a thermal shawl."

"What?" Theresita gasped, before she broke into laughter.

"For G.o.d's sake, don't encourage him," Max moaned.

"I don't know, what happens to romance after marriage," Juke said, playing directly to Theresita, "but the most I get from my wife these days is a pa.s.sionate nudge. "

Theresita laughed. She had an infectious, hearty laugh that was irresistible. The others laughed in spite of themselves. Juke's eyes glowed with pure happiness.

"My wife is wild about the lean, hard, vicious type. I guess that s why she's always spending time with her mother."

"And to think I was considering marrying this woman," Jacob said, as Theresita caught his shoulder and leaned against it, laughing so hard that even Max chuckled.

"Before we got married my wife said, 'You're only interested in one thing." After being married to her for a while, I can't even remember what it was.

"Oh, stop!" Theresita begged through laughter.

"Second the motion."

"I thought it was the English who were supposed to have a weird sense of humor," Jacob said, grinning at Theresita.

"He is so very funny!" Theresita gasped.

"Now you've done it," Grace groaned. "He'll be here all night." She herself thought Juke was very funny, too. She'd had a hilarious time using some spare memory chambers to hold the jokes of all the old comedians on Earth.

"Did you read about the woman who divorced her husband for habitual adultery?" Juke said. "I don't see how you can call adultery a habit, but if it is, it sure beats nail biting." Grace winked at Juke and motioned him away. He rolled off, chuckling tinnily to himself. He hadn't been able to hold an audience for so many jokes in a long time.

"He is funny," Theresita gasped.

"I always knew Russia was behind us," Jacob said, "but a hundred years behind on jokes?"

"I will show you who is behind," Theresita threatened, giggling and beating Jacob on the shoulder. Then, after a couple of residual giggles, she said, "And speaking of funny things, Dr. Miller gave me the most thorough going-over I've ever had in my life."

"Aside from your sense of humor," Jacob said, "did she find anything wrong?"

"No. I am as healthy as a horse. This is the funny thing: She told me that I am three months pregnant."

Jacob straightened up with a start.

"Isn't that funny?" Theresita asked.

"Very," Jacob said, his eyes questioning.

She hit him on the shoulder again. "Don't be silly, Sky Flyer, not evenyou are that fast. No," she continued, her face serious. "There is nothing to worry about. She ran the test as a sort of afterthought, when it was getting very late. There is something wrong, of course, with the test itself."

Jacob was still looking at her questioningly.

"Jacob, " she said, "three months ago I was with the Whorsk, and I a.s.sure you that I did not join in their nightly play."

"I'm sure it was just a faulty test," Grace agreed.

"Oh, sure," Theresita said. "Impossible, you see." She laughed heartily. "If I am pregnant, it means that I missed something that I certainly would not have wanted to miss."

Jacob laughed with her.

But a month later, after Theresita's flat stomach had swelled noticibly, no one was laughing.

EPILOGUE.

Dr. Mandy Miller sent her request for a private conference with the captain through channels. The memo was seen and initialed by the captain's semiofficial secretary, Mrs. Duncan Rodrick. A time was set at the end of a workday; the place was the captain's office, which would eliminate any temptation to make personal contact, for official meetings in the captain's office were automatically recorded.

There are, however, finely shaded emotions capable of being pa.s.sed from person to person withoutdetection by audio or visual recorders. The camera, for example, could not pick up the soft glow of love that came into Mandy s eyes as she entered the office after knocking, nor the immediate, heart-stopping reaction that look had on Duncan Rodrick.

Duncan had antic.i.p.ated the meeting with a mixture of doubt and pleasure. He had thought he could control his emotions regarding Mandy and had convinced himself that he'd been doing the colony a disservice by avoiding her completely. She was, after all, the head of the Life Sciences section and, as such, an important official whose continuing service was vital to all.

"Come in, Mandy," Rodrick said, standing. "Have a seat."

"Thank you," she responded, taking the chair in front of his desk. "I asked for this meeting, Captain, to discuss several things."

The tone was set-it was to be strictly business. Duncan resisted his inclination to grin, for just to look at her was pleasing.

"First," Mandy said, "there is no doubt that Theresita Pulaski is pregnant. The fetus is quite well formed, and it looks and tests to be quite normal."

Duncan rubbed his chin and said nothing, for it was obvious that Mandy was not finished.

"Which brings up some questions," she went on. "It is biologically impossible for Theresita to have been impregnated by a Whorsk. Due to the time she spent journeying down the river, it is equally impossible for the father of the child to have been one of the Russians aboard theKarl Marx . And since she was three months pregnant when Jacob West rescued her, it can't be his child. That, of course, leaves one possibility."

"I agree," Duncan said. He had been procrastinating on that matter. He'd sent a half-dozen scout flights to the area of the Great Misty River, but their reports were all identical: nonvisibility and no life signals emanating through the fog that hung over the river.

"I won't presume to make suggestions," Mandy said, "but-"

"I know," Duncan cut in. "We're going to have to send a ground party to explore the river."

"The problem is that we don't know what kind of child Theresita is carrying," Mandy said. "It tests normal. There's just one strange thing-"

"Yes?"

"For a four-month-old fetus, the brain seems too well developed."

Rodrick felt a chill, as if a sudden draft had swept into that climate-controlled office. Perhaps he should have taken charge of the situation sooner. "Have you discussed abortion?"

"We have. I talked with Theresita again today. She will obey an order to terminate the pregnancy, but she will not choose to abort voluntarily. At first Theresita seemed inclined in that direction, but we procrastinated too long for an abortion to be emotionally acceptable to her. She's now experiencing the maternal syndrome." Mandy chuckled without mirth. "Furthermore, she is curious about the fetus. As am I. Jacob, incidentally, has told her that the decision is hers and hers alone." Rodrick drummed his fingers for a moment. "For the good of the colony, should I order her to terminate the pregnancy?"

"I don't know," Mandy admitted. "How can there be men-beings-so much like us that crossbreeding is possible? It's a bit frightening."

"I've studied the recordings of Theresita's debriefings," Duncan said. "It's not wise, of course, to draw conclusions based on such scanty information, but do you agree that it seems that someone with pretty advanced medical techniques healed some very severe wounds on Theresita's shoulder?"

Mandy nodded. "The scars are there."

"And she's convinced that she was kept under the influence of drugs for a considerable period of time,"

Duncan continued. "Her description of her symptoms when she regained consciousness in the Whorsk village seem to indicate cla.s.sic drug withdrawal. Her memory is only a vague blur. She remembers making love with a handsome man. Shall we a.s.sume that that man is the father of Theresita's fetus?"

"I think we have to," Mandy answered.

"And that makes an expedition to the Great Misty River a high priority," Duncan said. "And yet we can't afford to lose any more personnel. Our original group of a thousand colonists was a minimal a.s.surance that this colony would not, due to the lack of qualified people, revert to pre-industrial primitivism. We're dangerously overextended as it is. The loss of even one more person would be critical."

"Yes," Mandy agreed, feeling her cheeks getting hot from the ever-present guilt and remorse.

"On the other hand, we can't afford any more surprises like the Whorsk attack," Duncan said. He spread his hands and smiled. "It's a nasty situation: Send an expedition now and risk conflict and loss, or do nothing and risk a surprise attack from an enemy about whom we know nothing."

"If it will help you in your decision," Mandy said, "we can watch the baby very closely as it develops, without endangering its health or Theresita's. Perhaps we can learn something of the nature of the father in that way."

"Yes, do that," Duncan said. "Keep me posted."

"Now," Mandy said, opening a file folder, "there are some more routine matters."

For another half hour he listened, nodding in agreement or making suggestions as they discussed various aspects of policy regarding the health and well-being of the colony. Finished, Mandy rose, closing her folder.

"Thank you for your time, Captain," she said.

"I think, Dr. Miller, that we should schedule a conference such as this on a regular basis-say every two weeks?"

"I would appreciate that," she said.

He came around his desk and opened the door for her and, on impulse, stepped out into the hall, out ofrange of the recording instruments.

"How are you, Mandy?" he asked, and she realized that his question was deeper than the casual, often-used words.

"I have my work," she answered.

"I've never taken the chance to say how sorry I am. about Rocky."

She shrugged.

"I hope you don't blame yourself for what happened."

"I could have come to you about Rocky's intentions."

He looked at the floor. Yes, she could have come to him. and if she had, perhaps two hundred people would have lived, but he couldn't find it in his heart to hold her responsible.

"Mandy, I want you to know that, regardless of what has happened or will happen, you have a friend."

"Thank you," she said, her eyes misting. She put out her hand, and he took it. "That's all it can be, Duncan. "

"I know, " he said sadly.

He watched her walk away, then went back into his office, sat down behind the desk, and ran his hand through his hair. Things were complicated enough, uncertain enough, without that unexpected welling up of emotion he'd felt when she walked into the room and when she shook his hand. He had his Jackie-a wonderful, beautiful woman-and there were still a few unattached men left among the single personnel.

It would be best for Mandy to make a new attachment, once a suitable period of time had pa.s.sed, for the needs of the colony made personal loss and unhappiness secondary considerations.

He had a job to do, and he would put Mandy Miller out of his mind in order to get it done. He had some decisions to make. At the moment his inclination was to concentrate on the important task of acc.u.mulating enough fuel to send the ship back to Earth. That was the overriding priority, but it presented problems. When the ship was ready to leave Omega, how could he leave with it, knowing that the mystery of the Great Misty River still hung over the colony?

In his mind there lingered a picture, a carving from the dead city in Stoner's Valley. Among the images of the sticklike Whorsk, there had been one other humanoid representation-a winged creature with full, muscular limbs.

Although Theresita's baby showed all indications of being a normal human fetus, would it also sprout wings? It was beyond logic.

That one inescapable fact was to dominate his thoughts for hours, until he joined Jackie in their bright and airy home overlooking Stanton Bay. Jackie's warm kiss of greeting caused a moment of sadness, but it didn't last long as his hands went to rest on her hips and he drew her to him.

"How was the meeting with Mandy?" Jackie asked with no apparent guile or suspicion. "Interesting," he said. "Events are pushing me to make a decision I'd rather postpone."

"It's not like you to be reluctant to face anything," Jackie said, pride in her voice. "I know you'll make the right decision at the right time."

He grinned. It was heady to have a woman who felt that he could do no wrong. With support like that, he would make the right decision, and even as she took his hand and led him into the dining room for the evening meal, he knew which decision he would make.

The End