“My name’s Kathia.”
“I usually don’t introduce myself, since people already seem to know who I am anyway.”
And he gestured with his chin toward Mattheus who had stopped at the reception desk.
They stopped too, a few paces behind.
She looked him in the eye and smiled. He felt himself thawing.
“Pleased to meet you, Mr. ‘Usually-I-don’t-introduce-myself’.”
She held out her hand. He followed suit, and was about to shake hands when he realized that it clearly was not the custom here. In fact, she didn’t shake hands either, but remained with her hand outstretched and open. He brought his palm close to hers and felt something like a halo of warmth. Foolishly embarrassed, he snatched his hand back. She smiled again, almost maternally. She continued to look at him with an amused air, like someone bending over a new-born puppy, fuzzy but still clumsy. To hide his embarrassment, Helias asked, “Are you here for biogenetics too?”.
“No, archivist.”
Nothing else? Why were people in this place so close-mouthed? Not that he was particularly loquacious himself, but these two had him beat by a country mile.
Mattheus came back to them with a couple of passes.
“These are temporary, the room number is at the top. They’re on the other side of the building. The registration office is closed now, obviously. You’re expected for the formal registration tomorrow morning, in the office alongside. The rooms should be in order. If you need anything, call Six. Rest well.”
Wow! What a spiel! And almost without stopping for breath.
Mattheus smiled. He looked at Helias with a penetrating gaze. Then he looked at Kathia.
They said goodbye to him, went out of the building and made their way toward the opposite side, with a little detour to walk along the lake.
“What a strange fellow….” murmured Helias. But he got no reaction.
“Had you already met him?”
“When?”
“Before today, I mean.”
A short silence.
“Yes.”
“Do you come from Earth too?”
“Sure.”
“What I mean is, have you just arrived, like me?”
“We were on the same craft.”
Four whole words in a row! He noticed she had an odd accent.
And so that’s where he’d seen her.
Why was it so difficult to engage her in a conversation? Maybe she had problems with the language?
“Where do you come from?”
“Sweden.”
With that accent? Nonsense. Why was she lying, her too?
He didn’t know what else to say, he was too discouraged. He threw out a stupid question, for lack of anything better.
“How did the ‘trip’ seem to you, the transmission, I mean? I was pretty excited….”
“I acknowledge that.”
I acknowledge that?! Craft?! What kind of a way to talk was that? His discouragement was turning to exasperation. A Swede with a Spanish, or maybe Portuguese, accent. To hell with it all! Fortunately they’d arrived at the entrance with the numbers of their rooms.
They went up four flights of wooden stairs. And through a number of corridors. From 331 to 335. It was hers.
“You’ve arrived.”
“Yes, I see.”
He made one last try, since a million questions were gnawing at him.
“You don’t have a Swedish accent. Tell me the truth, where do you come from?”
She smiled again, a disarming smile.
Then she half closed her eyes, put on a sober, level-headed expression and with a perfect European accent pronounced, “You will know in due time.”.
A shiver ran down Helias’s spine and he felt that his hair was standing on end. It was a perfect imitation. The same words Mattheus had used.
The girl started soberly toward her room, but after a couple of steps, without stopping, she turned, winked at him, and swaying her hips disappeared behind the corner.
With the most idiotic possible look on his face, Helias stood as if nailed to the floor.
These people were teasing him.
He couldn’t stand it.
He really couldn’t stand it.
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017
Massimo VillataThe Dark Arrow of TimeScience and Fictionhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67486-5_3
3. Helias Slept Fitfully
Massimo Villata1
(1)Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, INAF, Pino Torinese (TO), Italy
Massimo Villata
Email: [email protected]
Helias slept fitfully. His dreams had never been so confused, or so crowded with people. It was as if he were trying desperately to mix people from his past with those from the present, his only possible present.
Half asleep, he again saw Mattheus who, leaving, shook his hand. Only his, not Kathia’s. Why had he shaken his hand, while the girl had held hers open? Then he sank back into slumber, and Mattheus had become his father, older now, who was looking at his exam results and smiling at him, as he squeezed his arm affectionately. But then he turned back into Mattheus, who with a penetrating glance told him, “You have to discover it on your own, there’s no room for idiots on this planet.” And then the dreams became more and more confused, mixing people from other times, as if they wanted to survive, wanted not to be forgotten. Once in a while, Kathia’s face appeared clearly, smiling at him with her Oriental eyes, now blonde, now brunette, but always smiling and consoling, with a maternal air.
The counselor paced back and forth in the big room. He stopped at intervals, as if trying to stop a thought, stroking his bearded chin.
“In conclusion, what do you think of the young man?”
Mattheus stalled, walking over to stir the fire in the enormous hearth.
“He’s bright, no doubt about that.”
“Don’t evade the issue, you know perfectly well what I mean. Is he how they described him?”
“I think so. But I’d like to check some more. Kathia listened to him more than I did. I have to talk to her. Tomorrow.”
Mattheus took his leave and the counselor returned to pacing back and forth.
Helias woke late, without understanding whether he was really awake or still dreaming. Bit by bit he collected his thoughts and put them in order, separating dreams from reality, where he placed all the events of the day before, though in fact they hardly seemed real at all.
He decided not to think about it anymore. Not for the moment, at least.
To start the day, he strode up to the big window, ramming on his glasses as he did so. For a better look at the landscape, he went out on the balcony. The place was stupendous, as he had been able to notice yesterday evening. He promised himself that he’d give it more attention in the future.
He washed, in the Alkenian way, in a glass booth that filled with detergent steam. He put on a shower cap so as not to wet his thick wavy hair, which fell almost to his shoulders. The steam was followed by a real rinse, with real water.
He phoned Six, to find out where to have breakfast. They told him where to find the restaurant, where he ate and drank plentifully.
He went to register, hoping in his heart not to meet Kathia.
He didn’t see her. They gave him all the instructions he would need to settle in at the Center, and even a diskette containing useful information for his stay. This was until he could be issued with a computer for receiving all the info online, since his portable was obsolete and no longer compatible. Right after that he passed his eye examination.
Then he went to his department, where he was expected. Here, too, they gave him a diskette with which he could bring his research ‘up to speed’. He had twenty days to study it and assimilate it, more or less. That ‘more or less’ encouraged him a bit, since he would have to be looking at the findings from forty years of work.
For the whole day, except for lunch and supper, he buried
himself in his work, promising himself a little break, maybe tomorrow, with a nice walk around the lake.
Actually, he didn’t go out on the following day, and not even the morning after that. Barely time for meals, without talking to anyone, and a breath or two of fresh air on his balcony. Immersing himself in his studies was everything he could wish for, and he didn’t want any distractions.
As he was going out for lunch, however, the inevitable happened.
Just like the other times, more or less instinctively, he glanced down Kathia’s corridor. Usually it was empty. That day, though, he saw her coming around the corner, down at the bottom. She was looking at some printed sheets and didn’t see him right away. He took a step back, concealing himself behind the corner, uncertain whether to turn around and go back. Too late, here she was with a big smile, as if she had been expecting to find him there, behind the corner.
“Good morning!” she said, winking.
Actually, she wasn’t winking, but she continued to open and close her eyes.
“Are you having trouble with your eyes?”
“It’s these contact lenses they’ve given me, they should fit better. They must have got the wrong size.”
“I’ve not put mine on yet. It takes me a while to get used to new things.”
“So you’re still putting on your glasses to go out?”
“Well, I hardly ever go out. The lenses would certainly be convenient, though. Do they really work as well outside as in here, with the white light?”
“So it would seem. If only they didn’t bother me so much…. Were you going to lunch?”
Helias nodded.
“If you’ll wait a sec, I’ll come too. I’m just going to take off these lenses, I can’t stand them anymore.”
Well, he could hardly refuse, could he?
Kathia returned a moment later, clearly relieved, even if her eyes were still watering.
They served themselves at the buffet and sat at a table, facing each other.
“So, how are you doing here? I like it well enough.”
“So do I. Or should I say, ‘I acknowledge that’?”
“Touched a nerve somewhere, have I?” she said with her usual disarming smile.
He didn’t answer. He was looking at her tray: he was appalled by the amount of food on it.
“Is that all for you? Or are you hiding somebody in your room?”
Still chewing, she nodded, then shook her head.
“I’m quite a glutton. Don’t worry much about my figure.”
She was still wearing loose coveralls, though not the same ones.
“I wouldn’t have said so, you look like you’re in pretty good shape to me.”
“Thanks”, she said, sipping a little water. Adding, “How are you doing with the voice commands?”
“I haven’t tried them yet. As I told you, I don’t trust new things. I always use ordinary things, even the intercom.”
“You’re old-fashioned, good for you. I’m making a real mess. Yesterday, instead of turning on the light, I turned on the microwave. And instead of switching on the computer, I opened the window. Not to mention the filter panes, I haven’t understood a thing yet.”
“It’s easy. There are four buttons. The first on the left for completely transparent. The second works through pressure, the longer you hold it down, the darker the glass gets. The third lets you see out but not in. The fourth is for a ‘Venetian blinds’ effect, with transparent and semi-transparent strips. Obviously, combining them together, you can get different effects, if you like, different on different glazing panels, different windows.”
“And to think that with the voice commands I barely managed to get light and dark….”
“Probably the fault of the Swedish accent.”
She laughed, and regarded him for a long time, still eating.
They continued to eat in silence. Helias with his eyes on the tray.
“Tomorrow is a day of rest.” she said.
“I haven’t even looked at the calendar yet. What is it, a sort of Sunday?”
“More or less. It’s a pause for socializing, or for relaxing at least. It’s one out of every five days.”
“Ah. I’ve studied like mad for two whole days. And today makes three. I’d say I almost deserve it.”
“I’m going to the lake.”
He was about to answer, “I’m not”, but he thought better of it.
“And you?”
“I don’t know yet, I was thinking of going round.”
“On foot? But of course, you’re old-fashioned.”
They finished lunch and rose together.
“Why don’t you come to the lake with me?”
“To do what? To have you tease me again?”
She was quiet for a moment, as they climbed the stairs.
“You didn’t like it?”
“No.”
“And if I were to tell you the truth?”
“I don’t trust you.”
“You’ll come?”
“Maybe.”
They arrived at her corridor.
“You’ll tell me the truth?”
“Maybe.”
They laughed. She held out her hand and he put his close to it. The same sensation of warmth. Like a promise.
Helias went back to studying, for the whole afternoon.
Before supper, he decided to go for a stroll. He walked along the lakeshore in front of the castle, looking around. The castle was immense. It occupied most of the ground between the mountain and the lake. In fact, it was almost embedded in the mountain, down there at the northwest corner.
Two sides of the castle gave onto a flat stretch of land. One faced roughly east, toward the lake, where he was now and where, luckily, his room was located, on the right, or in other words toward the north. The other side faced south, onto a plain that further on rose gently toward the mountain.
He went back in and had supper.
Then he stopped by the emporium, where he had all the possible filters for his camera lens explained to him. He chose the one that would have given him the same colors he saw with his glasses, and an adaptor ring.
He went up to his room and put the filter on the camera. He went out on the balcony and looked through the viewfinder: splendid. He snapped a few of the best shots, even though, by now, the lake was lit only by the last shimmer of the sun setting behind the mountain.
He went out with the camera, to try some more shots. He went around the east and south sides. When he reached the west side, he had to start climbing up a trail between the rocks. The castle was literally embedded in the mountain. One slip, and he would have ended up against the top of the surrounding wall. At a certain point, a sheer cliff ahead of him prevented further progress, and he was forced to descend toward the wall. He followed the wall as far as the northwest corner, along a sort of flagged path. Here the mountain was less rugged, with a few grassy patches. He went down along a crest that flattened out as it approached the lake. It was an artificial crest, in the sense that here the mountain had been excavated to make room for the north wall, dotted with windows and balconies, like the walls on the east and south. Most of them were probably living quarters, while the majority of the offices and labs gave onto the inner courtyard. Many of the windows were dark, perhaps just screened or obscured from inside. Others were lit but milky, giving no view of the interior. Others, a very few, were transparent, showing details of the occupants’ lives.
Outside, the light was fading fast, even wearing concentrator lenses. The building’s external lighting went on, yellow and orange, just as he had seen that first evening from the spaceship, approaching the north side.
There was a meadow between the crest he was walking along and the castle, probably artificial, sloping slightly and punctuated with shrubbery. He preferred to go that way, safer in the dark, and made his way diagonally across the meadow. He paused for a couple of snapshots with the yellow and orange lights. Through the viewfinder, he
saw a light go on and a girl coming toward the window. It was Kathia.
She fiddled a bit with the window controls, making several attempts. At the end, she settled for the Venetian blind effect. Without perhaps realizing that you could see in from outside. And in fact she began to undress.
Helias, embarrassed, hurried to take his picture before the worst could happen.
He was about to put the camera away and leave when the girl, now in her panties, came up to the window and put on her glasses, as if she had heard something.
Helias froze, crouching near a bush and, to understand the girl’s movements, couldn’t help but look at her.
She was just beautiful, he thought. Now she was looking in his direction, and he even held his breath. He was still doing so when she moved away from the window, but this time for other reasons: the girl had taken off her panties and was going toward the bathroom.
It was the right time to leave, like a true gentleman.
No, he couldn’t refuse a heaven-sent gift like that.
She left the bathroom door open. Quite rightly.
From where he was, he could see half the shower stall.
He shifted position. And used the camera’s zoom lens, for the details.
No, the steam shower, no. The rinse was much better.
Almost without realizing it, he started filming a video, feeling not the slightest embarrassment. The gentle water rinse. The massage shower, with dozens of jets from all angles. Better than any advertising footage on the subject. Thanks, obviously, to the leading lady. The blow-dry, with the blonde hair floating freely in the warm air, while the base of the booth and that sublime form rotated gently.
The Dark Arrow of Time Page 3
