Fire in the Heavens (1958)
Page 16
“But the nova?”
“It’s finished. Kaput We can go home now and settle down.” Jeff looked thoughtful. “You know,” he said after a moment. “I wonder whether all of the double stars in the universe were created by sentient beings who discovered the secret of sub-space.”
“That’s not too important,” said Lucille. “This thing is bigger than that.”
“What is?”
“Why, don’t you realize? You’ve just now averted a solar nova and saved the Earth.”
“Oh, yes. Glad to do it,” chuckled Jeff. “Now we can go back home and return to our daily lives without worrying about having the sun blow up in our faces.”
“That’s a fine idea. It’s been a long time. And the poor people who threw everything overboard, because there was no future?”
“You, for instance. Going to carve yourself another financial empire?”
Lucille shook her head.
“I’ve proved I can do that,” she said quietly. “I’ve a more interesting problem at the moment.”
“What?”
“Why, I’ve got to see whether running a family is more or less difficult than running a corporation.”
“Family,” chuckled Jeff, looking at the twins. “We’ve got a couple of kids to take care of, haven’t we?”
Lucille leaned toward him. “Make an honest woman of me, Jeff,” she laughed softly. “I like the idea of starting our family with three.”
Jeff looked out of the windowport at the exploding sphere of glinting light and the racing rod of energy, then out the other port at Sol. Somehow Sol seemed less angry already, although it was impossible to tell from this distance or in this short interval. At any rate, there would be no nova. Then he looked down at Lucille. She was snuggled down cozily, happy and content, now with the gnawing fear gone.
The sun’s trouble was over, but Jeff wondered just how long Lucille could remain content. He shrugged. If he could manipulate the solar system, then surely he ought to be able to manage a woman.
He grinned. It would be interesting to find out just how wrong he was. . . .