She set her glass down on the table. “You haven’t said a word since we got here, Solomon. What’s the problem? Is it me?”
“It’s not you, my dear.” He smiled sadly. “Jean-Philippe brought up a good point after we returned from Mars, and it’s bothering me.” He took another sip of the full-bodied Martian wine. “We’ve only discovered one Adaari world, and we had to fight the Bleeth robots to secure it. How many worlds like this are out there, and at what level of Bleeth advancement? I’m very afraid that we ran away from one war to fall into another that was half a million years in the making, one that we know nothing about. From what the AIs can dig out of the histories, and our best guesses, we are all Adaari descendants and are flying around in Adaari ships, but were the Adaari the good guys or the bad guys?”
“Merde!” Elora cursed and finished her wine in a swallow. “What do we do now?”
Solomon divided up the last of the bottle between the two glasses. “We finish our wine is what we do. Tomorrow, we check out the second site and begin to make arrangements to transfer all the refugees down to the planet. Finding a suitable replacement for Mount Kailash in Tibet will be difficult, and will probably mean many hours flying with the abbot to find a new home for the Tibetans. After that we find suitable crews for the Lost Horizon and the Diadem, pick a direction, and head out.”
Elora looked thoughtful. “You forgot one thing, Solomon.”
He frowned. “Oh? What did I miss?”
She gave him a look that said very eloquently, “Men!”
Solomon’s frown deepened as he reached down between the couch cushions to pull out a small ornately carved box. “I wonder what this could be.” With a gentle smile, he handed the box to Elora.
Her cheeks flushed, and her hands shook as she took the proffered container. Without opening it, she looked up at Solomon, tears in her eyes. “You shit! You knew that you were going to do this all along. I should… I should…”
Solomon lifted the lid of the small box and removed the plain one-carat diamond in the simple gold setting. “This belonged to my mother, Julia Fontaine. Because I am the eldest surviving child, Giuseppe gave it to me.” He took her left hand and slipped the ring on the appropriate finger. “Now, if you will, it shall go to you.”
Elora looked at the sparkling ring for a long moment before she burst into tears. “We will get married before we leave,” she said in a voice that brooked no argument, then wiped her eyes.
Solomon handed her his handkerchief. “Of course,” he said in a level, slightly playful voice as she blew her nose. “It just so happens that there is a real live abbot on board who, I am sure, would be more than happy to perform that little service. He owes me a small favor, you see.”
She punched his arm. “You had this planned all along, didn’t you?”
Solomon leaned back in the soft, leather couch. “Right now, this is the most important thing in the world for me, so yes, I damned well had it all planned out.”
Her green eyes narrowed for a moment and became as hard as gems. “What would you have done if I’d turned you down?”
His smile faded, and Solomon shrugged. “Gone off into the universe with the Diadem and left you here with your family.”
Her eyes went very wide.
“But you accepted my proposition, and that, my dear, is that.”
“But who will I be, Solomon?” she asked in a small voice. “Mrs. Solomon Draxx or Mrs. Malachai Fontaine?”
He chuckled gently. “I’ve been Solomon Draxx for all the life I can remember. Malachai is… someone else. You will be Mrs. Solomon Draxx, unless you choose to keep your last name, which is perfectly fine with me.”
She snorted. “Which last name? Like you, I have two, and soon, I will have three.” She gave him a smug smile.
“As you will.” Solomon leaned over to give her a long kiss, which led to a second kiss, and then a third…
The bridge of the light cruiser Diadem was unlike anything Solomon had ever imagined, with bridge positions actually built into the flowing structure of the ship itself. Contacts in each of the reclining bridge seats led via direct neural pathways to Areto. Solomon found by trial and error that this connection made controlling and receiving inputs from the ship infinitely faster than working with Gibbs on the Lost Horizon. It also made communication with other bridge personnel nearly telepathic.
In his mind, Elora was humming a soft little melody she’d learned from her mother. That was an absolutely wonderful ceremony, Solomon, she purred in his mind. The abbot is such a dear old man, and to think, we were married on the very site they intend to build their monastery. The humming continued.
He laughed. I’ve seen him angry with one of the Tibetan tribesmen, Elora. There is steel beneath his saffron robes. I wouldn’t care to cross him.
I still think he’s sweet… and did you see what the residents of New Paris built for the Fontaine family? Granted, it’s just four stone walls overlooking the harbor, but some day, it will be a castle. Giuseppe was so impressed that he decided to name the community La Rochelle, in honor of all the Frenchmen who worked on the building, and who died defending Shangri-La.
Solomon could feel her smile.
I think many folks wanted to call the community île Saint Draxx.
The Island of Saint Draxx?? Solomon snorted. Are you kidding? That’s terrible!
The humming continued. Like it or not, my new husband, you are firmly ensconced in the mythology of this world. Someday, they will tell stories of you flying to the stars and slaying dragons. You did save a fair maiden, after all.
Yeah. Speaking of maiden… I wish you had told me that you were still a virgin. I was a little… ahhh… He could feel his cheeks reddening.
You were as gentle as I could ever want, Elora said. As a matter of fact, you might consider not being quite so gentle next time.
Ahhhh… Solomon was at a loss for words, and in his mind, Elora laughed. And on that note, he continued, addressing Areto mind-to-mind, are we set to boldly go, Areto?
Yes, Captain. The Terran crewmen we rescued from the three cutters are fitting in quite well, to a point where several have actually requested Constructs of their own. According to the historical records, the nearest Adaari world to us is Scagua C4JU, at a mere 13.2 light years.
Travel time at normal cruise speed?
Areto sighed. Eighteen days, Captain, but we could go faster, much faster.
Understood, Areto. We will travel at normal cruise speed. If you haven’t forgotten, we have a newly refurbished Adaari frigate accompanying us, and we need to see what that ship is capable of. He chuckled. With our motley crew, we need to see what this ship is capable of. Perhaps a week into the trip, we could drop out of FTL and do a little target practice. What do you think?
Now that would be fun, Areto murmured happily. An Amazon always keeps her weapons sharp and familiar. We could easily make a little side trip to Terra, where—
No! He couldn’t suppress a laugh. If everything is ready to go, Areto, you may take us out.
THE END of the story, but not of the adventure.
Beast Page 23
