Timemaster

by Robert L. Forward

  "How long will you be staying with us, Mommy?" asked Rose.

  "All summer," said Rose. The faces of the two children brightened.

  "Great!" said Junior. "I was afraid I'd be stuck in this place having to go to summer school." His image turned in the viewscreen to look at his father. "I was talking to Curly this afternoon and he said I could help out at the stables this summer if it was OK with you. Can I, Dad?"

  "It isn't all just riding horses," warned Randy. "You've got to learn how to clean out their hooves, brush them down, and check them for injuries. Then there's the job of cleaning out their stalls. Just because you're my son doesn't mean you escape learning about that part of being a horseman."

  "Working with the horses themselves is just for fun," replied Junior maturely. "This year, for my term paper in biology class, I did a review of gene clipping and insertion techniques. My teacher put me in touch with a biology professor over at Princeton who gave me a copy of his gene-mapping program to play with. I was thinking of applying it to the horses in our stable to see if we can improve our lines by controlled gene insertion instead of just letting nature take its course."

  "Hmmm. Sounds like it might be a good idea ..." said Randy, impressed with his son.

  Junior frowned, then shook his head in discouragement. "The problem is, the program is so big it almost fills up the memory in my computer—and that makes it run slow."

  Randy thought for a second. "Say!" he said. "I'm about to order the latest MacIBM personal computer for my home office. I was going to trade my old computer in, but why don't you take it instead?"

  "Great!" said Junior, looking extremely surprised and pleased. "Your machine has twenty times the RAM and ten times the speed of mine. I should be able to try a dozen gene permutations a day with that machine."

  ROSE HAD been gone about two months when Randy's cuff-comp vibrated on his wrist. He put the hard copy of the latest quarterly earnings report for Reinhold Astroengineering Company down on the magazine table in the living room and stretched out his arm until the wide, flexible viewscreen showed below his shirtsleeve. It was Konstantin, the icon for Spacemaster's computer.

  "We are approaching the midpoint of our journey," said Konstantin in Russian.

  "Horosho," replied Randy. "Commence turnaround. I presume you'll use the constant-acceleration J-hook turn? Or should I have Didit secure the china and other loose items?"

  "It will be a twelve-hour J-hook turn," said Konstantin. "Only a half-degree per minute. You should not notice anything unusual, since the living quarters are so close to the center of the ship."

  "I'll be in bed during most of it, anyway." Randy yawned. He picked up the earnings report as the grandfather clock on the far wall chimed eleven. After the chimes had finished, Randy could almost swear that the steady tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock of the pendulum had become slightly asymmetrical. He checked grandfather's time against his cuff-comp, and noticed the date. Another two months to go before Rose podded back to his side.

  ROSE WOKE up expectantly. Today was Sunday. A special day, and not just because the children would be joining them on the videoscreens for tonight's supper. She rolled to the edge of the large circular bed in the master bedroom on Spacemaster, and sat up on the edge. Randy was still quietly snoring away in the middle. She looked at him.

  I wonder if he'll remember? she thought to herself. She shook her head resignedly. Probably not. She got up and went into the master bath, taking off her nightgown and handing it to Didit as he held the door open for her.

  Rose and Randy spent a peaceful, busy morning together in the study. Randy was reading and making editorial comments on some of Reinhold's latest patent applications on the newly invented supermagductor-coated diamond fibers. The super-magnetic, superconducting material constrained a strong magnetic field in the diamond inside, and the magnetized diamond in turn was three times as strong as unmagnetized diamond. Some of the Reinhold engineers now wanted to use the new cable material to construct a "suspension bridge" from the South Pole on Earth to Nearside Base on the Moon. Randy looked at his cuff-comp and quietly got up and left the study, Rose was engrossed in working on her latest watercolor painting in the corner and didn't notice him leave.

  Her watercolor was of a garden scene with bright sunlight striking a jetting water fountain in the center of a shaded rose garden. Above her easel was a viewscreen with a still video image of Junior and Rosey in their rose garden at home, but she was rearranging the bushes and leaving out the children as she copied it. The knees and thighs of her fashionably faded jeans were covered with colorful spots of paint where she had occasionally wiped her brush to remove excess paint. Around her was a foot-deep pile of failed attempts on crumpled sheets of partially colored paper attesting to the difficulty of the task she had undertaken. Finally she was finished—with no errors and no drippy streaks, every rosebud sharp and crisp around the edges, every drop of water sparkling in the sunlight, every shadow in its correct place.

  "Beautiful!" she said proudly. "Randy, come see!" She turned around toward his desk, but he wasn't there. Slightly puzzled, she called out again. "Randy?" Just then she heard the elevator door opening on the other side of the center column.

  "Be right there, darling," he said. He came around the column with a self-conscious half-smile on his face.

  When Rose saw the sappy grin, her heart melted. He did remember after all. She tried not to notice that he was hiding something behind his back.

  "Did you call?" he said, strolling nonchalantly up to her.

  "I wanted to show you my latest painting," she said, playing along.

  "Say!" said Randy, impressed with the painting and its complexity. "That's really good! Look at those roses!"

  "Why, thank you for the compliment," said Rose, pleased at his sincerity. "It would have been easier if I was at home where I could look at real roses instead of video images."

  "Then I should have given you this earlier." Randy brought forth what he had been hiding behind his back. It was a single perfect, long-stemmed Picadilly rose, with rust-red and sand-yellow petals.

  "Randy!" exclaimed Rose, taking the flower gently from his fingers.

  "A rose for my Rose," Randy said lovingly. "Happy birthday, darling."

  "Where did you get it?" she asked. "Did you have it warped through?"

  "Nope. Can't use the warp. We're still under acceleration." He grinned. "I picked it from our rose garden—here on Spacemaster."

  "We have a rose garden on the ship?!?" Rose said incredulously. "Where? Why didn't you tell me before?"

  "Because it wasn't ready before," said Randy. "A garden needs time to grow and flower before you can use it. But it's ready now. Come with me and I'll show you where it is." He took her by the arm and lifted her from her chair. "We'll go for a walk and smell the roses as the stars go rushing by."

  "Sounds delightful," said Rose happily. "What a wonderful birthday present."

  As they left the study they were met by Didit, who was holding a large wicker picnic hamper. Randy took the hamper and led the way around the corner column to the elevator.

  "After our stroll through the rose garden, I thought we would stop by the brook and have a picnic lunch," he said nonchalantly.

  "A brook!" Rose looked at him in surprise as the elevator door opened.

  Randy punched one of the lower buttons and the elevator went down. "The hydroponics level?" said Rose. "I went down there when I was first exploring around, and I didn't see any brook or rose garden. Only floor-to-ceiling trays of vegetables and dwarf fruit trees."

  "You only saw the working half of the hydroponics deck," Randy explained. "For safety reasons, the deck is divided in two with a pressure bulkhead in between. If one side gets holed and the plants are killed and the water lost, we can always survive using the other side. The chances of that happening are so slim, however, that on the alternate side I only keep a small selection of food plants to get started with. The rest is for fun." He spoke in
to his cuff-comp as they arrived at the hydroponics deck.

  "Open the rear elevator door this time, Konstantin," he said. The elevator door opened, and the smell of flowers and sound of rushing water came flooding in.

  "Your garden, my lady," he said, bowing.

  Rose, wide-eyed, still holding her birthday rose, stepped through into a garden glen.

  There were high walls all around of stone, dirt, and greenery. Plants, shrubs, and trees grew in such profusion that the blue-painted "sky" high overhead was barely visible. A bright "sun" shown down through some palm branches. Off to the right side was a flowing torrent of water, falling ten meters from the edge of a cliff into a deep pool.

  Randy followed her through the elevator door and it shut behind him, blending invisibly into the rocky cliffside. He pointed at the waterfall.

  "You said a small waterfall would be nice."

  "It's a good thing I didn't ask for a big one," said Rose, blinking in the warm mist blown by the wind exiting a cave half hidden under the falling water. Soaking in the mist were long strands of ivy hanging down the cliffside, and below them, terraces of ferns, ivy, violets, baby tears, and grass that led down to a shaded bank of firm mud around one side of the pool. On the opposite shore was a dry sandy beach edged with a grassy lawn. The beach was in full sunlight and contained a pair of colorful deck chairs, while the lawn held a shadow-dappled picnic table.

  "Look at the flowers on that far bank," Rose breathed. "Rhododendrons and azaleas. And over there, primroses and camellias."

  "Periwinkle, too," said Randy. "Let me put the picnic basket on the table and I'll show you the rest of the place." He led the way to a small stone bridge that arched over the burbling brook that flowed from the end of the pool.

  From the bridge, Rose could now see a small octagonal building downstream on an island half hidden in a screen of willow trees.

  "That's the cottage," said Randy. "We can even stay overnight here."

  "How romantic!" said Rose, more and more pleased with what she saw.

  "Let me take you around." Randy put the basket on the picnic table, and together they weaved their way along the path through the thick stand of birch trees to another little bridge that led to the island. Along the way they passed more tiers of flowers—cyclamen, begonias, pansies, and geraniums watered by tiny springs that started high up on the rocky hillside, then turned into rivulets that merged together at the bottom to flow into the brook.

  Randy led the way over the arched wooden bridge to the island. The brook burbled noisily over its moss-covered rocky bottom as it flowed rapidly below the windows of the cottage, its banks green with mint and watercress.

  "It's so tiny and cute," said Rose as they approached the cottage. "Can't have many rooms."

  Randy opened the cottage door. "A dressing room and bathroom to the left for me, and another dressing room and bathroom to the right for you," he said, opening the two doors on each side. Rose just glanced in the dressing rooms, then walked ahead into the main room of the cottage.

  "And one master bedroom with nothing in it but a three-meter bed," she said with a wry smile. "When you said we could stay here overnight, you really mean 'night', didn't you? Suppose I wanted to do something other than climb in bed with you? Like sitting down and looking at the beautiful garden."

  "We can do that too," said Randy. "Let me show you the view from the gazebo." He walked back out of the cottage and across the bridge. Rose stopped to open the closet doors in her dressing room. Everything she could possibly want was there, including two swimsuits, one quite skimpy.

  They retraced their path through the birch trees almost to the beach; then Randy started up a narrow, rocky pathway that led up the side of the stone cliffs. Rose noticed that Randy said something into his cuff-comp as he started up the path. They climbed above the terraced gardens of cyclamens and geraniums until they were halfway to the "sky". Just beyond the stand of birch trees, perched high above the glen, was a small round gazebo with a shake roof. In the center of the gazebo was a round bench covered with a thick round pad. Rose noticed it was only two meters in diameter.

  From the gazebo you could see practically everything in the glen. No sooner had they sat down on the edge of the round bench to admire the view than the "sky" started to darken and a cool wind rose up.

  "Looks like we're in for an afternoon shower," said Randy. "Good thing I left the lid closed on the picnic basket."

  There was a flash of light and a crack of thunder.

  "Oh!" gasped Rose, clutching at Randy. Then the "heavens" opened and they watched the rain front start over the pond and sweep toward them until they were under the downpour, with the raindrops drumming on the roof above them. The lightning flashed again and again, while Randy held Rose tightly. The shower lasted five minutes, then ended as quickly as it had started, and the sun came out.

  "Looks like it's over," said Randy, putting his hand out to feel the last drops falling from the treetops. "Let's go see the rest of the garden. Watch your step, the path is slippery."

  Hand in hand, they made their way down from the gazebo to the other end of the glen. There, outlined with boxwood hedges, was a large, beautiful rose garden. Each rosebush was a different variety. Rose went around to each one, smelling the fragrant blossoms.

  "I never promised you a rose garden, but here's one anyway," said Randy expansively.

  "Oh, Randy," said Rose. "How lovely." They finally came to the end of the path where it was blocked by the brook. On the other side of the brook was another cliff with a six-tiered waterfall splashing down its face. The brook widened into a small, shallow pool before it disappeared into a wide crevasse at the base of the cliff. In the pool were red and yellow carp swimming slowly among the water lilies, rushes, and cattails.

  "There's more," said Randy, leading the way across the fish pond on a series of stepping stones. He parted the thick stands of rushes and stepped onto a bed of thick green moss. The moss covered a small island in roughly circular shape that was completely surrounded by a privacy wall of tall rushes and cattails.

  "The moss here is really thick and springy," said Randy, kneeling down to demonstrate by giving it a push with his fingers. "As soft as a mattress."

  "It's interesting that this bed of moss is almost exactly circular," Rose mused, one eyebrow raised. "Could it possibly be three meters in diameter?"

  Randy looked around the island. "Why, so it is!" he said in feigned surprise.

  "Do you have anything else to show me?" Rose asked archly.

  "The orchard." Randy walked across to the opposite side of the moss bed and pushed through the rushes. A winding grass path lay ahead of them. On each side of it were dwarf fruit trees, most of them laden with fruit.

  "Apples, cherries, peaches, apricots ..." said Randy, pointing them out. "Only these are growing in dirt instead of hydroponics tanks."

  Rose stopped at the orange tree to smell the blossoms. "I'm going to come down here every day just to smell the flowers."

  "Make sure you drag me along," said Randy. "Even though I'm traveling through space at two-nines-cee, I've got to learn to stop and smell the roses."

  They had come to the end of the path through the orchard. They were back where they had started from. Ahead of them was the pond and the thundering waterfall.

  "I'll make sure you come," Rose said pensively. She looked at the cool, inviting pool glimmering in the hot sunlight. "I think I'll take a dip before we have our picnic lunch."

  "Great idea!" said Randy. "There are bathing suits in the dressing rooms in the cottage."

  Rose looked at him. "Who needs a bathing suit?" she said, unclasping the large turquoise belt buckle holding up her paint-covered blue jeans.

  DIDIT had to come down into the garden to remind them of their imminent video dinner with their children.

  IT WAS another quiet morning on Spacemaster. Rose was painting a still life of a bowl of various fruits from their garden, while Randy read the morning busi
ness mail scrolling up the screen of the video display at the back of his desk.

  "Another star system opened up," he said out loud. Then, as he watched more information flow up the screen, he added, "Not much money, though."

  "What did you say, dear?" asked Rose.

  "C.C. Wong has finally arrived at UV Ceti on his way to Tau Ceti," said Randy. "Not much there, since the two stars in the system are so small."

  "That's nice, dear." Rose was thinking of something else. "I ought to be going home again soon," she said. "The children's spring vacation is coming up, and they both do so much better being at home."

  "It's almost time for me to decelerate Spacemaster, so you'd have to go home soon anyway," said Randy. "We have to fold up the living quarters since the ship will be at high gees."

  "What happens to the garden when you decelerate the ship?" asked Rose, now concerned.

  "We do what we can by supporting the larger plants and inducing a nine-month 'winter season'," said Randy. "But only some of the plants can survive that kind of treatment. In fact, Konstantin started fall earlier this week. The birch leaves are starting to turn yellow."

  "That sounds lovely," said Rose. "Let's take a stroll through the woods and look at the autumn colors from the gazebo."

  "I'll bring along a warm blanket," said Randy. "In case we want to dally a while."

  THE NINE-month-long deceleration period was finally over and Spacemaster had arrived in the Epsilon Eridani planetary system. Randy got up off the deceleration couch, shed his virtual helmet and gauntlets, and took his seat at the pilot console. Spacemaster was still decelerating at one gee.

  "Have your telescopes found anything unusual, Konstantin?" Randy asked the icon on the videoscreen.

  "Nothing that the telescopes on Backside had not identified before we left," said Konstantin in English. "Four gas giants and two dirt balls. The second one out looks interesting."

  "Let me see it," said Randy. The icon of Konstantin shrank, moved to the upper left corner of the screen, and was replaced by the picture of a red-and-yellow planet with small white spots and gigantic polar caps that went halfway down to the equator.