Uranus

by Ben Bova

  He smiled ruefully.

  “You’re a real gentleman.”

  “Then why do I feel like a real idiot?”

  Raven stood on tiptoes, gave him a peck on the lips, then swiftly stepped out into the passageway. As she strode hurriedly away from Waxman she smiled to herself.

  Leave him hungry for more, she told herself. He’ll be back.

  INTO THE OCEAN

  Gomez had turned his living quarters into a command center. The living room was crammed with buzzing, humming, blinking pieces of equipment. The only place Raven could find to sit down was the sofa, next to Gomez himself.

  The astronomer looked as tense as a live wire stretched almost to the breaking point. The wall screen across the living room showed the submersible, floating in space outside the Haven habitat. The screen’s audio system was counting down the seconds to the sub’s launch.

  Gomez’s eyes flicked from one piece of droning, chattering equipment to another. Every light showed green as the audio’s countdown continued smoothly, but the astronomer looked as anxious as a man facing a firing squad.

  Raven put out her hand and rested it on Gomez’s thigh. He took no notice of it. His head swiveled back and forth, peering at the various consoles as if he were keeping them functioning by his own willpower alone.

  “T minus ten seconds,” the audio voice intoned.

  Gomez’s already taut posture stiffened even more. Raven thought that if ever he devoted this much concentration to lovemaking he’d be a marvelous partner.

  “… four … three … two … one … ignition,” said the monitor’s emotionless voice.

  For an instant nothing seemed to happen. Then the globular submersible disappeared. It flashed out of sight faster than Raven could blink.

  Gomez pointed a trembling finger at one of the consoles. “It’s on its way,” he croaked, his voice hoarse with tension.

  The wall screen showed a telescope’s view of the submersible dwindling against the background of Uranus’s blue-gray clouds.

  Raven sat wordlessly beside Gomez as the astronomer turned his head slowly to stare at each and every one of the consoles littering his living room. She didn’t know what to say, what to do.

  The telescope still showed the submersible hurtling closer to Uranus’s unbroken expanse of clouds. Off in the upper right corner of the screen swirled the dark circle of a mammoth storm, the size of Asia.

  “We won’t be able to see it once it enters the clouds,” Gomez muttered. It was the longest sentence he’d spoken to Raven in more than an hour.

  “We won’t see it enter the sea?” she asked.

  “No. But we’ll know when that happens. All the telemetry will cut off.”

  “It will go silent.”

  “Yes.” With a wry smile, Gomez added, “Then I’ll know how my father felt when I left our home and went to the university.”

  “But you could write to him, talk to him by telephone,” said Raven.

  “I could have.”

  Raven reached for his hand. “It will be all right, Tómas. Everything’s going to be fine.”

  He nodded, but answered bleakly, “There’s only a few thousand things that could go wrong.”

  “It will all go right.”

  “I wish.”

  “You’ll see.” Raven pushed herself up from the couch and headed toward Gomez’s kitchen. “I’m starved,” she called over her shoulder. “Aren’t you hungry?”

  Gomez shook his head silently.

  The red phone signal began flashing at the bottom of the view screen. “Incoming call from Mr. Waxman,” said the screen’s voice.

  “Take his message,” Gomez commanded.

  Waxman’s handsome face filled the screen. “I’m sure you’re watching the sub’s entry into Uranus’s clouds, Tómas. But once your baby dives into the ocean and is cut off from communicating, why don’t you join us in the main lounge? Most of your crew is here, ready to celebrate. Quite a few others, as well. We’d all like to see you and congratulate you on a successful launch.”

  The screen went blank, except for a REPLY? prompt.

  Before Gomez could say anything, Raven called from the kitchen, “We’d be happy to join you. Thanks.”

  Gomez stared at her with real hostility burning in his eyes. “I’m not going to any party!”

  “Yes, you are,” said Raven firmly. Then she repeated to the screen, “We’d be happy to join you, Evan. Thank you.” She hesitated a moment, then commanded, “Transmit message.”

  MESSAGE TRANSMITTED, appeared on the screen.

  Rising to his feet, Gomez complained, “I’m not in the mood for a party.”

  “You could use some relaxation,” said Raven. “Once the submersible is in the ocean you won’t be able to communicate with it. Why not unwind a little bit? We won’t have to stay very long. Just let people admire you, Tómas. Be a little bit human.”

  Gomez shook his head and mumbled something too low for Raven to make out. But once the submersible splashed into the ocean and its link with him was cut off he trudged reluctantly alongside Raven to the main lounge.

  * * *

  Raven could hear the thumping music while they were still twenty meters from the lounge’s door. They’re having a party, she realized. Letting off steam. Celebrating a successful launch.

  Gomez looked somewhere between frightened and angry.

  “What if something goes wrong?” he asked, in a near whisper. “What if the sub malfunctions or sinks?”

  “But it hasn’t,” Raven countered, tugging at his arm. “It’s all gone fine so far, and you’re the man everyone wants to see and congratulate.”

  “Maybe. But—”

  “Come on, Tómas! Put on a smile!”

  He tried to smile. Raven thought it looked ghastly. But they were approaching the doors of the lounge, and the music from inside blared loud enough to make her wince. Raven realized she hadn’t danced since she’d arrived at Haven, months ago. I deserve a little fun, she told herself.

  The doors slid open automatically and the noise was enough to knock a person flat. Raven flinched momentarily, then, without even looking at Gomez, she stepped into the raucous, swirling party. Gomez hesitated at the doorway, as if frightened to enter the lounge.

  “There he is!” someone shouted.

  The music stopped abruptly, and some thirty or more men and women converged on them.

  They pushed past Raven and surrounded Gomez, the men shouting congratulations and pounding his back, the women staring at him. Raven stepped away, thinking, This is Tómas’s party. His moment in the spotlight. His time to shine. I hope he enjoys it.

  Gomez seemed bewildered at first, but within a few moments he was grinning at the men and women clustered about him. One of the women, lithe and leggy, several centimeters taller than Gomez himself, folded herself into his arms and—as the music resumed its thumping beat—began twirling with him across the floor. Raven saw that the woman was dancing, with Gomez shuffling along clumsily. But he was smiling.

  The congratulatory group quickly broke into couples that swirled across the dance floor.

  “May I have this dance?”

  Raven turned. There was Evan Waxman, tall, elegantly dressed in a form-fitting jacket of royal blue, smiling at her. She placed her hand in his and let him lead her out onto the dance floor.

  Over the blare of the music Waxman fairly shouted into Raven’s ear, “Looks like your lad is enjoying himself.”

  Raven nodded. “I think this might be the first time he’s ever been the center of attention.”

  “Ah,” said Waxman, “everyone should be the center of attention every now and then.”

  “Yes, I suppose so.”

  Waxman chuckled. “It’s a good thing that every resident of Haven has been medically examined and cleared of sexual diseases.”

  Raven blinked with surprise, then muttered, “I suppose so.”

  “That includes me, of course.”

  She made
herself smile up at him. “Me too,” said Raven.

  THE MORNING AFTER

  Raven awoke from a deep, languorous sleep. Evan Waxman lay beside her, snoring gently, a satisfied smile on his lips.

  Tómas! Raven thought, her eyes snapping wide open. She remembered seeing him dancing happily with one woman after another. Then she’d lost track of him.

  I’ve got to get back to my place and track him down. Softly, slowly, she slipped out of bed and headed for the bathroom. Evan had been a surprisingly gentle lover, she recalled. He knew how to help a woman enjoy sexual intercourse.

  By the time she left the bathroom, fully dressed once again, Waxman was sitting up in the bed with the sheet covering his groin and legs.

  “Leaving?” he asked, with a thin smile.

  “I’ve got to locate Tómas,” Raven said. “He’s—”

  “He’s in good hands,” said Waxman. “He trundled out of the lounge last night with a woman on each arm.”

  Despite herself, Raven broke into laughter.

  Still sitting on the bed, Waxman said, “Thank you.”

  Dipping her chin slightly, she replied, “Thank you.”

  “I wish you’d come and work with me, Raven. I need you.”

  “In bed?”

  He grinned ruefully. “Yes, of course.” Before Raven could reply, Waxman added, “But more than that. Much more. I need an assistant, Raven. An assistant with a first-class mind.”

  “Me?” Raven felt truly surprised.

  “You,” Waxman answered.

  “I’m just a refugee, Evan. I don’t have any education, no experience—”

  “You learn quickly. Gomez would be lost without you.”

  “Yes, I suppose he would.”

  “I need you, too. I truly do.”

  Feeling torn, Raven said, “But Tómas…”

  “He’s got nothing to do now that his sub is in the ocean. He doesn’t need you now.”

  “But once his submersible comes up again, he’ll have his hands full of data to interpret.”

  “I’ve got this entire fucking habitat to look after!” Waxman snapped, his voice rising. “Umber can sit up there on his private Cloud Nine, but I’ve got to make certain this habitat functions properly.”

  “I know.”

  “Then help me! I need your help.”

  Raven studied his face. He seemed sincere enough, but she thought she knew what he was really saying.

  “Evan, I can spend my nights with you.”

  “And I can spend my nights with any one of a hundred women living in this habitat. It’s you that I want—and not just in bed. I want you to help me run this funny farm. I need you!”

  Raven went over and sat on the edge of the bed. “I wish that was true.”

  “It is!” Raising his right hand, he swore, “So help me God!”

  “But I don’t know anything about running a habitat. I don’t have any education.”

  Waxman’s earnest expression eased into a smile. “I can teach you. Me, and the computers. Then there’s hypno-learning. You can get an education while you sleep!”

  “While I sleep?”

  He nodded.

  “But what about Tómas?”

  “I’ll get one of my staff people to help him. As you said, there’s nothing for him to do until his sub pops up from the ocean.”

  “True,” Raven said uncertainly.

  “By then he’ll have forgotten about you,” Waxman said firmly.

  Raven shook her head. “I don’t know.…”

  Waxman let a small sigh escape his lips. Then he said, “All right, let’s try it this way: You take on the position of my assistant while Gomez’s submersible is in the ocean, out of contact. When his sub shows up again we can re-evaluate where we stand. Fair enough?”

  For long moments Raven sat on the edge of the bed, her mind spinning. Waxman stared at her, studying her, waiting for her decision.

  “All right,” she said at last, more than a little uncertainly. “Let’s try it that way.”

  Waxman broke into a wide grin. He put out his hand toward her. “Agreed!”

  Raven let her hand be engulfed by his. “Agreed,” she said, in a near whisper.

  She expected him to pull her next to him for another bout of lovemaking. Instead he released her hand and, smiling, told her, “Now go and find Gomez and break the news to him.”

  Surprised, Raven got up from the bed and headed for the door.

  Waxman called after her, “I’ll expect you at my office tomorrow at oh-nine-hundred hours.”

  She turned her head back toward him and nodded. “Oh-nine-hundred.”

  By the time Raven got to the apartment’s front door and stepped into the passageway outside, she felt puzzled, confused. He really wants me to become his assistant? He isn’t just trying to screw me?

  Then she smiled and started striding along the passageway, toward her own quarters, telling herself, But that doesn’t mean I can’t screw him.

  LOVE

  Raven phoned Gomez as soon as she returned to her quarters. No answer. She asked the habitat’s personnel monitor to locate him, but the monitor reported he was nowhere to be found.

  He went off with a pair of women, Raven remembered from the night before. Haven’s security cameras scanned every square centimeter of public space aboard the habitat: passageways, parks, restaurants, shops, maintenance facilities, laboratories, storage areas, the hospital, offices. But private living quarters remained private. No security cameras watched them.

  Where could Tómas be? Raven wondered.

  She asked the security system to scan again. He’s got to be somewhere, Raven told herself.

  And there he was, trudging along one of the passageways down among the habitat’s docking facilities. What’s he doing there? Raven wondered. His submersible isn’t there anymore, it’s gone into Uranus’s ocean.

  “Tómas,” she called. “Can you hear me? It’s me, Raven.”

  He looked up at the sound of her voice. “Raven. Where are you?”

  “In my quarters. Come and join me. I’ll make some breakfast.”

  * * *

  Raven expected Gomez to be joyful, happy about his night with the two women he’d walked off with. Instead, as he sat at the kitchen’s tiny foldout table, he seemed morose, dejected … guilty?

  She placed a plate of eggs and faux bacon before him and asked, “Did you enjoy your party?”

  He looked startled.

  Raven carried her own plate from the microwave oven to the miniature table and sat down opposite Gomez. “You certainly were the center of everyone’s attention.”

  Gomez nodded glumly.

  “Come on, eat your breakfast before it gets cold.”

  He poked at the eggs.

  “What’s the matter, Tómas?” Raven asked, smiling at him. “Didn’t you have a good time?”

  He stared down at his plate.

  “Two women,” Raven prompted. “You must be pretty tired.”

  He looked up at her. “I wish it had been you.”

  Raven’s mouth dropped open. “Me?”

  “I love you, Raven.”

  She stared at him, thinking, He’s spent the night with two women and he tells me he’s in love with me? Something inside her wanted to laugh at his hangdog expression, but something stronger kept her from doing that.

  She heard herself ask, “You love me?”

  “I do.”

  Raven thought, You’d better put a stop to this, right here and now.

  She said, “That’s very sweet of you, Tómas, but you can’t really mean it.”

  “I do mean it. I love you.” The expression on his face was full of misery.

  Raven shook her head. “Maybe you think you do, but—”

  “I know what I feel. I love you!”

  “Tómas, do you know what I was before I came here to Haven?”

  “I don’t care.”

  “I was a whore! I fucked men for money. Women too.
I was a whore!”

  “But you’re not anymore.”

  “I’m not? What do you think I was doing while you were making out with your two friends?”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Well I do,” Raven said, her voice burning with the anger inside her. “I’m still a whore and I’m not interested in a moonstruck scientist who’s feeling guilty about having an enjoyable time last night.”

  He stared at her, his deep brown eyes unblinking, steady and firm.

  “Tómas, this is impossible!”

  Gomez pushed his chair back from the table and slowly rose to his feet. Standing, he said softly, “I know you can’t love me. I know I’m nothing in your eyes. But I thought that if I told you how I felt … how I love you … it might make a difference.”

  Raven remained seated. She looked up at him and said, “You’ll forget about me.” Before he could protest she went on, “It’s better that you do. I’m very flattered that you think so highly of me, but I’m not the woman you think I am. It will be better if we don’t see each other again.”

  Gomez bit his lip and nodded. Silently he turned and walked out to the front door and left Raven’s apartment.

  For long moments she stared at the door once it closed behind him. Then she sank her head in her arms and began to cry uncontrollably.

  EDUCATION

  Once she regained control of her emotions, Raven went into her living room, phoned Waxman and—without hesitation—asked him to find someone else to assist Gomez.

  His expression on her wall screen was somewhere between surprised and amused.

  “You don’t want to work with him anymore?” Waxman asked.

  Sitting alone on her sofa, Raven replied, “I think it’s better if I don’t. I think I should devote all my attention to learning what I need to know about being your assistant.”

  “Wonderful!” said Waxman. “You can start this evening, at my place. Dinner for two.”

  Raven smiled thinly. “Evan, you told me to report for work at oh-nine-hundred. I’m serious about learning to be your assistant. I mean it.”