Beyond the door was an actual corridor. Marlow had never seen living quarters where the front door did not immediately open upon the main living area before. The corridor had a stone floor, the walls were faux wood and there was a door in each wall. At the end of the corridor were steps leading up to another floor.
Jonah led her along the corridor, then turned through the door on the left. The room beyond was lined with the same faux wood. The curved windows on two sides of the room brought in lots of subdued light. Beyond the windows were the green growing things and that was all.
Almost stealing her breath with surprise and delight was the bench below each window. Each bench had cushions that beckoned her to sit upon them and gaze out.
There was a man sitting in a chair looking out the windows. Jonah moved around the chair and leaned over him and rested his hand on the man’s arm. “Grey,” he said softly. “Told you I’d make it.”
The man looked up at them. He was very old, older than anyone Marlow had met before. His pale eyes were alive with interest and life. There was a board in his other hand that he put down on the table beside him. “I see you’re finally getting some wisdom and learning to keep your promises, Jonah. Is this lovely lady the reason why?”
“She’s part of it,” Jonah said. He drew Marlow forward. “Marlow, this is Greyson Durant, retired Captain. Grey, this is Marlow Fitzgerald.”
“Lieutenant of the Civil Division, yes,” Greyson said, studying her.
Marlow’s breath escaped her. “Oh…”
“Marlow?” Jonah asked, sounding concerned. She couldn’t drag her gaze away from Greyson Durant.
“You’re…I thought you were dead,” she said, her voice bodiless. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, that didn’t come out the way I meant.”
“It’s quite all right,” Greyson Durant told her and his voice gave a small waver, the way very old people’s voices sometimes did. Then it came back strong and firm. “I should have been dead a long, long time ago, according to the experts.”
“Instead he’s about to celebrate his one hundred and twenty-fifth birthday,” a woman said from the door, startling Marlow all over again. “That makes Grey the oldest person on the ship, ever.” She smiled. “Not bad for someone who wasn’t supposed to live much beyond thirty.”
She came into the room. She had silver hair that hung well below her shoulders and curled at the ends, deep blue eyes and an upturned nose. Marlow judged she was beyond her century, too.
“Hello,” the woman said, smiling at her. “I’m—”
“Emmaline Victore,” Marlow finished. She let out a shaky breath.
Emmaline raised a brow. “Have you been talking about me?” she asked Jonah, then moved over to where he was standing back in the corner between the two picturesque windows and hugged him.
Jonah hugged her back just as enthusiastically, while Greyson Durant smiled. “I don’t talk about either of you,” Jonah told her. “That’s part of the arrangement, remember? I guess Marlow has done her own homework.”
Emmaline turned to look at her. “You look like a woman who knows her own mind,” she said in agreement. “Although right now you look as though you could use a drink.”
Marlow pulled herself together. “I’m sorry. It’s a bit of a shock, meeting you. I’ve…I’ve read everything you ever wrote. Including all your Pericles essays.”
Emmaline’s brow lifted again. “Definitely, a drink is in order. Grey?”
“You go ahead,” he said. “I want to talk to Marlow. She and I have something in common.”
“We do?” Marlow asked.
“We both appreciate Emma’s better qualities,” he said. He waved toward the bench against the window. “Have a seat. I’m not so good on my feet these days so I try to do it as little as possible.”
Marlow almost fell onto the seat. Jonah sat next to her.
She couldn’t stop staring at Greyson Durant. “I can’t believe it’s really you,” she said. “Captain,” she added quickly.
He shook his head. “Not anymore. Call me Grey. Everyone does. You must forgive Jonah for his theatrics, Marlow. Emma and I have not been active leaders of the Endurance for quite a while—not since Emma retired from the captain’s chair in two ninety-one. We chose to live a quiet life out of public affairs after that. Jonah is one of the few people who visit us here and we like it that way.”
Marlow frowned. “Jonah said it was an arrangement.”
“An informal one. Jonah has been visiting here since he was quite small, which might have alarmed his parents, if they had known he was spending time with radicals like us. So he learned not to talk about us very much, although everyone in the Palatine knew we were here.”
“It just sort of carried on, even later,” Jonah said.
“Which proved to be fortuitous,” Emmaline said as she moved back into the room. She almost crackled with energy and didn’t seem frail at all, even though her wrists were thin and the flesh about her neck loose. She was carrying three cups in her hands and didn’t seem to be having trouble with them.
She thrust the solo cup toward Marlow. “Enjoy. It’s the best hot chocolate on the ship.”
Jonah took his cup eagerly. “You’re spoiling us,” he said and sipped and hissed at the heat.
Marlow took a more cautious mouthful. She wasn’t a huge fan of hot chocolate. Erron liked it, so she made it as a treat from time to time.
This, though, was different. The chocolate was rich and creamy and filled with indefinable flavors that made her mouth water. She could feel her eyes widening with delight.
Emmaline was watching her, a cup in her own hands. “It’s Palatine chocolate,” she said. “One of the very last batches we were able to grow here before the DNA became unstable and had to be destroyed.”
“Earth-grown chocolate,” Marlow breathed. “I had no idea how different earth-raised food was.”
“I don’t drink it very much anymore,” Emmaline confessed. “It’s too much of a reminder of other days.” She smiled fondly at Greyson. “I was bribed with this stuff to become captain.”
Greyson shook his head. “Lies. All lies.”
Marlow stared at Emmaline. “That’s what got you to go back for your training? Hot chocolate?” She looked down at her cup. “If it tasted like this, then I can understand why.”
“Oh dear. You have been digging into my profile, haven’t you?” Emmaline didn’t sound upset about it.
“Ask her about how she mutinied and kicked Grey out of the Captain’s chair.”
Marlow looked at Jonah, shocked.
Greyson laughed. “Yes, do tell the story,” he told Emmaline. “It gets better every time I hear it.”
Emmaline shook her head. “I didn’t mutiny. You were already ninety and there wasn’t anyone else to take the chair, so I stepped in. Why do men always have to invent melodrama around everything?” She sighed and pulled over an upright chair, settled it next to Greyson and sat down. She balanced her hot chocolate on her knee. “Why, what is wrong, Marlow? You’ve gone quite pale.”
Marlow ordered herself to breathe properly and deeply. “I’m sorry. It’s just…mutiny is…well, it’s been on my mind lately.”
The room held silent for a moment. Then Emmaline looked at Greyson, who sighed.
Emma nodded, as if Greyson had said something. “You’d better tell us everything,” she told Marlow gently.
Chapter Eleven
With Jonah’s encouragement, Marlow slowly eased her way into explaining the complexities of her job, the challenges it gave her these days when everyone on the ship seemed to resent the Bridge and her as the Bridge’s representative.
Because Emma and Grey had both been captain, Marlow didn’t need to spell out for them the Bridge hierarchy. They seemed to be very interested in the personalities of the people in the Bridge Guard.
They already seemed to be very familiar with David Sekar.
“He was the best and brightest person I’d ever met,�
� Emma said with a sigh. “He would have served the Endurance well.”
“No one could have anticipated Anna’s death,” Grey said gently.
Emma smiled at Marlow. “Family history, in a way,” she said. “Anna was David’s great love. He met her when he was quite young. If she had lived, I am sure they would have remained together forever. Anna was just as in love as he. She was one of the engineers who died when the hull depressurized…do you remember that? It was contained quickly and no one died except Anna, who was closest to the leak. When she died, she took part of David with her. I don’t think he ever really recovered.”
“He thought it was his fault,” Jonah said.
“Worse,” Grey added, “he thought it was proof that he wasn’t fit to be Captain. As he was already Captain, that was disastrous.”
“Every decision he’s made since then reflects that doubt,” Emma said. “Above all, the Captain needs to be certain of what he wants to achieve and be just as certain he can achieve it. Doubt can cripple him.”
“Doubt infects the rest of the ship, too, from the Captain’s chair down to the youngest mechanical engineer,” Grey added. “That’s what you’re seeing now.” He sighed. “That’s David’s legacy.”
“Why doesn’t he step down, if he really believes he doesn’t belong there?” Marlow asked. Then she blinked as she realized she was talking about removing the current Captain of the ship from power with the two previous Captains of the ship. “I mean…not that I’m suggesting he should. Yet if he believes that…” She bit her lip. She was talking herself into a corner.
Emma smiled mischievously. “Oh dear, you’ve just remembered who we are. I thought we’d moved past that.” She leaned forward and patted Marlow’s hand. “I trained David and he would have been a marvelous captain. Alas, I am not blind to what is happening on the ship, now. I sneak onto the Forum every morning and I am no closer to an answer than you are. I also think that removing David from the Captain’s seat won’t solve anything. There is no one who can replace him.”
As she said it, Emma’s gaze flicked toward Jonah. Then she gazed at Marlow once more and her smile returned.
Marlow’s heart gave a little flutter. “I’m beginning to understand why Jonah spent so much time in your company,” she said slowly.
“Jonah is unique,” Grey said shortly. “Too smart for his own good.”
“Too emotional,” Emma added with a soft smile for Jonah.
Jonah rolled his eyes.
“It’s true,” Marlow told him. “That temper of yours....”
“Yes, exactly,” Emma said. “That’s why I suggested many years ago that Jonah would be better off moving out of the Palatine and dumping his coding job, before he calcified in the position and killed off all his potential.”
“You said he should leave the institute?” Marlow said. She was barely able to feel any surprise. These two were handing out little shocks and startlements every minute or so. The way they thought and what they believed was so different from the negative, doomsday-filled gloom of most people, these days. It was refreshing. It was invigorating, too.
“It was Emma’s idea that I try out different things, to see what appealed to me,” Jonah said quietly.
“And that he write out his thoughts and observations and post them,” Emma added.
Just as Pericles had done.
Marlow stared at Emma, her heart really starting to hurt. “The whole ship thinks Jonah is the Spanner faction’s mouthpiece.”
“Despite my best intentions to avoid that,” Jonah said sharply.
“The ship is polarizing,” Grey said. “If things keep going the way they are it will soon be impossible to not pick a side.”
“But why?” Marlow demanded. “That’s what I don’t understand. Being angry at the Captain about the food rations—that, I understand. But no one talks about rations anymore. If you listen, they complain about almost anything and most of it seems to be that other people have it better than they do. They keep looking at everyone else and comparing.”
Grey nodded. “The plebeians are looking at the patricians and the patricians are looking down their noses. That’s because this isn’t an issue over food rations. Rations were just the excuse that got it started.”
“Then what?” Marlow asked.
“Power,” Jonah said softly.
Emma sighed. “This is really all my fault,” she said, sounding apologetic. “Well, not the failure of the crops and the DNA implosion. That was due to happen, anyway. It’s a hundred and fifty-year cycle and we were overdue. The ship would recover from that as it did the last time, if everyone pulls together. But they’re not pulling together anymore, because of me.”
“You?” Marlow said.
Emma looked uncomfortable. “I got rid of the mentor and protégé system,” she said. “I put training institutions in their place.”
“That was absolutely the right thing to do,” Marlow said firmly. “Letting people pick their own professions, to find their own way, it empowered them…” She halted, processing what she had just said. “Empowerment…” she breathed as it all came together in her mind.
“Jonah, you should grab this one and make sure she never strays. She figured it out. I had to tell you,” Grey said softly.
“Self-determination is an infectious idea,” Emma said. “Once a man can decide for himself what work he wants to do, he starts looking around to see what else he can change to suit his preferences. He starts to question things like quality of life and the authority that dictates it.”
“He starts comparing his life to others,” Marlow finished, “and becoming unhappy, as a result.”
“The crop failures were coincidental,” Emma said, “and they were a perfect accelerant.”
The board on Grey’s side table warbled and chirped, sounding like a forest bird.
“That’s Victoria,” Emma said happily and got to her feet.
The front door opened before she could leave the room. “Hello! Where is everyone?”
Footsteps on the stone in the corridor tracked to the door.
Marlow looked up.
The woman who entered was as silver-haired as Emma, only her eyes were dark and her chin pointed. She was very tall and moved with the same energy as Emma did.
Victoria looked around the room. “No one is ready yet? The guests are going to start arriving in an hour or less, you two! Hello, Jonah. Are you staying? This party could do with some scandal to liven it up. Ma and Far don’t cause nearly the ruckus they used to, anymore.” She smiled.
Jonah smiled back. “Thanks. I already have all the scandal and ruckus I can handle at the moment.”
Victoria’s smile faded. “I heard.” Then she pulled herself up straight. “You should be more careful, Jonah.” She shifted her gaze to Marlow. “Lieutenant Fitzgerald. Did you get lost?”
Even though it was a rude question, Victoria’s smile was as full of mischief as her mother’s and Marlow found she was smiling back. “Jonah brought me here.”
Victoria looked back at him. “Definitely too much scandal for you to handle, Jonah. I’m surprised the Lieutenant hasn’t dumped you and gone looking for a real man.”
Marlow’s jaw loosened and she caught it up without saying anything, for Jonah was laughing. This direct-to-the-jaw banter was clearly an old game with him and Victoria.
Marlow had never met Victoria Greytore before, although she knew her by reputation as clearly, Victoria knew her. Victoria had run the training institute for genetic biologists for many years, before retiring last year. Captain Sekar had attended her retirement party.
Nothing about her professional reputation had hinted at this observant and cheerful aspect of her personality. Even Grey was smiling.
Emma, though, got to her feet. “You’re quite right, Victoria. It is getting late. Marlow, I’ll walk you through the security screen.”
Marlow got to her feet and waited as Jonah stretched and eased to his. They had been sitting ther
e for quite a while.
“No, you say goodbye, Jonah. I’ll walk her to the perimeter,” Emma said firmly.
Jonah hesitated then said easily, “Very well.”
“It has been a deep pleasure to meet you, Captain Durant,” Marlow told Grey.
He took her hand and shook it, then held on with a grip than was firmer than she expected and looked into her eyes. “When you come back to visit, we’ll have more chocolate waiting.”
Marlow flailed around for something to say to this unexpected invitation. “I…guess…thank you,” she said inadequately.
“There he goes, coaxing another woman into his lair with hot chocolate,” Emma said, sounding vexed. She was smiling, though.
Victoria also held out her hand. “I wish I had arrived a bit earlier. It would have been nice to get to know you a little. Next time, then.”
Marlow shook her hand. “Yes. Thank you.”
Emma led her back through the tiny house and out into the forest. It was getting darker. The nightline was approaching. Marlow caught up with the older woman and walked along side.
“Does Jonah know?” she asked Emma.
“Know what?”
“Does he know you’ve been his unofficial mentor for the last thirty years?”
Emma smiled. “I knew you would see it.”
“But I thought you didn’t like the mentor and protégé system?” Marlow said. “You spent two decades dismantling it and building training institutes and the new work system.”
Emma nodded. “Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. The truth is, Marlow, I outsmarted myself. I hated being told what I was going to do with my life and that’s all I could focus on—making sure no one else had to face that in the future. But the one role on the ship that can’t have an institution is the Captain’s, because there is only one Captain.” She sighed.
Marlow walked slowly alongside her. “It’s hard to believe you could make a mistake,” she said honestly.
“Oh lordy, Marlow, I’ve made so many the number is beyond reckoning. Mistakes are where improvements are made. Errors make one learn and grow. Well, if I’m smart, they do. There was a certain mechanical engineer I knew as a child who would make the same mistake every day if someone wasn’t watching over his shoulder.”
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