Wandering Star

by Steven Anderson

  For the next week, I spent every day with Jake and Erin working to understand the creatures that lived in Dulcinea’s oceans thirty million years ago. In the evenings I attempted to get a couple of hours of sleep. My nights were like a second life, filled with Hannah. We would work on reports and talk and then make love and lie in bed together talking and snuggling, and then we would make love again until it was almost time for me to go to the University.

  “I came to visit you this afternoon on my way to work,” Hannah told me one night as she was taking off her coat.

  “I didn’t see you.”

  “You know the little garden area by your building? With the plants and benches?”

  “Sure.”

  “I could see you through the windows from there. I sat on a bench and watched you working with Jake and Erin for almost an hour.”

  “Why didn’t you come in?”

  “I don’t know. I, ah, I don’t understand it. I was sitting there and feeling very happy just looking at you, and then my whole chest started hurting and I felt all gooey inside. I’m worried about me.”

  I smiled at her. “Hannah, how old are you?”

  “A year older than you, and much wiser.”

  “So twenty-six. How many times have you been in love?”

  “Do you really want to know how many lovers I’ve had?”

  “No, I’m asking how many times you’ve been in love.”

  She looked at me, not understanding the question.

  “I love you, Hannah. What you described? That’s how I feel every time I’m with you or look at you or even think about you. When you love someone you give them a great deal of power over you, power to make you happy or sad, to feel pain or ecstasy.”

  I put my hand under her shirt and placed it on the bare skin above her heart. “This heart may be wild and fierce but have you ever taken the risk to let it be free?”

  She put her hands on me, pushing back, trying to look defiant. “I tell my heart what to do,” she said. “It obeys me. It always has.”

  “I think you may have a rebellion going on.”

  Her eyes softened after a moment, the defiance fading. She started undoing my shirt. “Yeah, I think that’s true.”

  “Have you chosen which side you’re on?”

  She started kissing my chest, using her teeth to gently nip at my skin. “The rebels are too strong for me, I’m afraid. I have no choice but to join them.”

  When we were two days and one night away from departure, Jake seemed depressed and Erin despondent. I kept finding them in some corner of the lab, holding hands, whispering. I was feeling a sense of dread myself. Hannah would be on board with me, but once again under the careful scrutiny of Wandering Star.

  “How do they do it?” I asked Hannah when she arrived in my room that night. “Charlotte and Jenkins and Horace and Angela. Well, maybe not Angela, but how does the team not form ‘romantic entanglements’?”

  “They cheat,” she answered. “And don’t count Angela out. Have you seen the way Professor Vandermeer looks at her? There’s history there. Two months on a planet is plenty of time for things to develop.” She kissed me on the ear. “Remember too, Star and I have an understanding.”

  “I look forward to seeing a demonstration.”

  “Tomorrow is a free day since we’ll be headed to the airport at 2000. What would you like to do?”

  “Jake and Erin are going to the zoo in the afternoon. There’s a concert of local folk music there at 1500.”

  “I’d like that.” She sat on my lap facing me, her knees by my hips, rocking gently. “What shall we do in the morning?”

  I kissed her and she braced her hands on the back of the chair behind me continuing her gently rocking.

  “Hah. I have you trapped now,” she said.

  She leaned back briefly and I kissed her breast where I could see the outline of the nipple through the fabric of her shirt.

  “Ah.”

  I pulled her shirt up and she raised her arms so I could pull it over her head, but I stopped with her hands still entangled. I kissed her again, holding her arms above her.

  “Hey! No fair.” I continued kissing her chest. “No fair,” she said more quietly. I let go of her arms but she kept them crossed over her head, whispering no fair as I lifted her off my lap and carried her to the bed.

  Hannah left early the next morning to go back to her room. She kissed me before she left and then patted her side of the bed.

  “Goodbye comfy bed,” she whispered. “I did my best to wear you out.”

  “I’ll meet you in the lobby at 0900,” I told her. “I love you.”

  She smiled, came back and kissed me again. “I do love you.” The admission seemed to surprise her, so she kissed me one more time as though to be sure. Then she left, closing the door gently behind her.

  Hannah and I spent the morning exploring the local shops, buying small things we didn’t really need and enjoying the late winter sunshine. The zoo was a confusing mixture of Dulcinean life and animals imported from Earth and a dozen other worlds.

  The afternoon concert was beautiful, the music unlike any I remember hearing on Earth. It left me in such a happy mood that I didn’t realize that Hannah and I were holding hands until I noticed Jake was staring at us. I smiled at him, not really caring what he was thinking.

  He and Erin headed back toward the University to say their goodbyes and Hannah and I walked back to the Hotel, the last daylight of our last day on Dulcinea fading quickly around us.

  “You’ll need to let go of my hand now,” Hannah reminded me as we got close.

  “I know,” I said, giving her hand a final kiss before releasing it, “I just didn’t want to.”

  “We have to play the game or leave the service.”

  “If all our planet falls are like this I won’t live long enough to resign.”

  “Poor Ted. He suffered so much on this planet.”

  “There were times last night that I thought you were trying to kill me.”

  She smiled at me, her eyes bright. “You’re welcome.”

  We entered the lobby and Hannah was once again just my friend and teammate.

  It is traditional for the RuComm team to share their last meal on planet together. The menu is designed to suggest a hasty departure, consisting of the sort of simple food that you might take camping or on a road trip. Everyone’s bags were packed and lined up along one wall of the conference room reminding us that time was short.

  When Jake arrived he pulled me out into the hall away from the others.

  “Are you insane?”

  “Not that I know of, Jake.”

  “Hannah? Really? Do I need to have Star replay everything you said while I was—”

  “—insane?”

  “Yes, insane. There’s like this bubble of crazy around her. Pull yourself out of it before it’s too late.”

  “It’s too late.”

  He sighed, looking at me. “You’re an idiot.”

  “This is different.”

  “Different how? Different from me? Oh, sure it is. Because you’ve thought it through. Your motives are noble and pure, unlike mine. This is why the contract says what it says, Theodore.” He took a step closer to me. “You probably think she loves you.”

  I pulled my fist back to hit him and he stood there waiting for it.

  “Is that what you want to do?” he asked me.

  I put my hand down and walked back into the conference room to find Angela. She was talking to Charlotte but I interrupted her anyway.

  “Angela, is it too late to request separate quarters? Separate from Jake?”

  Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at me. “Interesting. Jake asked me the same thing ten minutes ago.” She paused, trying to read my face. “Of course. I’ll have your new assi
gnments once we’re on board.”

  CHAPTER 7

  BETWEEN WORLDS

  WE LEFT ON SCHEDULE. A short walk to the bus, a short drive to the airport and we were on board Wandering Star’s port shuttle being pushed into our seats as we accelerated out of Dulcinea’s gravity well. There were no windows to look out of and I don’t think I would have looked anyway. Hannah was in the seat next to me and nearly all my thoughts were that Hannah was in the seat next to me. Twice I had to pull my hand back when it started to drift into her lap. Three times she had to do the same. Finally she crossed her arms and extended her fingers to brush my sleeve. I crossed my arms as well so that our fingers could reach each other. Just being able to touch her was a relief. I adjusted myself in the seat, relaxing and looked over at her. Hannah had her eyes closed, the corner of her mouth holding a secret smile as her fingers rubbed gently against mine hidden from view behind the folds of our coats.

  We passed through the area of fluctuating gravitational fields around the ship and docked. Ship gravity was still at eighty percent, but Star would be increasing it gradually back to full Earth standard over the next week. We were also getting back our twenty-four hour days.

  As I followed Hannah on our way toward the front of the shuttle, Charlotte touched my shoulder. She and Peter Jenkins had been seated behind us.

  “Ted,” she whispered, “I thought you should know that there is quite a large gap between the seats when viewed from behind.”

  “Oh, um, thank you?”

  She smiled. “Don’t mention it.”

  So much for being discreet. At least she seemed to be OK with keeping our secret.

  After we were all off the shuttle, Angela had us gather at the front of the bay for welcoming comments from Captain von Muller. It gave me a few minutes to speak to Alice and introduce myself to Sipa Patel who was joining us for the rest of the mission. He was an economist from Bodens Gate who had been working for RuComm in Palma Sola for the past year. Mid-thirties and happy to be leaving Dulcinea, he seemed pleasant.

  Alice was trying to look as complacent as the rest of the team but I could tell she was excited.

  “Everything is so different,” she said. “It even smells different and does the floor always vibrate like that?”

  I smiled at her. “Yes, all the time.”

  “And the Wandering Star AI, she’s always watching everything we do?”

  My smile faded a little. “And always listening. All you have to do to get her attention is to say her name and ask her a question. She can access any information known, help you find your way around the ship or locate someone.”

  I pulled my display pad out and tapped it. “Star? Where am I?”

  “You are in the port shuttle bay. Welcome back, Mr. Holloman. I’ve been working on the Sonoran Desert simulation while you were away. Let me know when you’re ready to try it.”

  “Thank you, Star, I’ll do that.”

  “She’s like a person.”

  “Yes, think of her as a very nosy neighbor.”

  Von Muller’s welcoming comments were mercifully brief, reminding us that his obligation was to keep us safe and our obligation was to follow his orders including mandatory safety drills.

  Angela spoke to us next, thanking us for our work on Dulcinea and asking us to get our final reports in quickly so she could consolidate and format them for submission to RuComm. She also welcomed Sipa Patel to the team and introduced Alice Vandermeer as our temporary chaplain until we reached Bodens Gate.

  I picked up my new cabin assignment and walked with Hannah into the body of the ship. She had been talking to Sipa while I was with Alice, planning the next section of her paper.

  “Between Sipa’s insights into the Palma Federated States’ economic stagnation, and Mr. Mahajan knowing what’s happening in the legislature, I think we can really show causality for the rapid changes in language happening in the capital.”

  We stopped at my new quarters. “I’d love to see what you have so far. Can I stop by in an hour or so after we get settled?”

  Hannah’s cheeks flushed slightly. “Sounds good. I think you’ll find it exciting.”

  My new cabin was smaller than the one I had shared with Jake, but seemed less crowded without him in it. I dumped clothes and the rest of my stuff where they belonged and adjusted the picture panels to show images of my favorite geologic locations. I then searched for an image Angela had used in a presentation at the start of the mission that showed pictures of all of the team members with their names and a three line biography. I found it and moved it to the largest screen. The small picture of Hannah in the corner perfectly captured the confident, aggressive smile that had been on her lips when she had stolen my geosim program. I smiled back at her picture.

  “Are you feeling all right, Mr. Holloman?” Star asked.

  “Yes, why do you ask?”

  “Your heart rate has jumped fifty percent above your normal resting rate.”

  “I must just be excited to be back on board.”

  “Of course. I’ll disregard it for now.”

  I met Alice in the corridor while I was walking toward Hannah’s cabin.

  “Lost or exploring?” I asked her.

  “Is there a difference?”

  “It’s exploring as long as you don’t miss a meal.”

  “Wandering Star has promised to guide me if I get lost.”

  “Yes, she enjoys doing that.”

  “Would you like to join me?”

  “I’m sorry, I promised Hannah that I would review a paper she’s working on with Mr. Mahajan.”

  Her smile slipped away. “I understand.”

  “I really am sorry.”

  “I know you are.” A touch of her smile returned and she patted my arm. “Go.”

  Hannah answered her door at the first tap and invited me in.

  “Let me show you what we have so far, Ted.” She opened her pad and brought up an icon labeled Sleeping Star. She touched it and the screen changed to a timer counting down from one hour. She tipped her head and looked at me. “Impressed?”

  “Uh, not yet.”

  “Star, where am I?” she asked.

  There was no answer

  “Star, where is Ted?”

  There was still no answer, so I tried it. “Star?” I smiled at the silence. Hannah wrapped her arms around me and kissed me, sliding her hands down inside my back pockets. She let go after a long moment, nuzzled my neck, and glanced at the ceiling.

  “Impressed. How do you do it?”

  “All of the Star series ships use an older language system for their AIs. I’m good at languages. I found a way to hide myself within her matrix without tripping any of her safety monitors, or leaving a trace in the security logs. I think of it as like putting a pile of sand in a shallow stream. For a time the water diverges around it, but it soon washes away and you can’t tell it was ever there. I worry that she’ll feel it if I go over an hour or do it too often, but for an hour she is blind and deaf to what happens in this cabin.”

  “How often is too often?”

  Hannah shrugged. “I don’t really know. I’ve never used it more than once a day and never more than two or three times a week. I’m afraid that she’ll notice that I’m punching holes through her brain. We also need to make sure we’re close to the same location where she last saw us, or I’m afraid she might notice the jump.”

  “Have I told you that you’re brilliant?”

  “Yeah, but you can tell me again.”

  I kissed her and held her tight against me. “You’re brilliant,” I whispered.

  “You really should look at the paper we’re working on. Mr. Mahajan sent me updates while we were on the shuttle. I want you to see them, it will only take a few minutes.”

  “OK.” I released her and she pulled up the new p
ages and we talked about the way the data was being interpreted. I made a few suggestions for changing chart types to better show the correlation between her variables and constants. We looked at the results and tweaked a few more things.

  After a while she said, “Now, my love, where were we?” and settled herself on my lap.

  I looked at the timer on her pad. “Ten minutes from the end.”

  She swung her head around to see the display and I felt her body go limp as she buried her head on my shoulder.

  “Why did you let me talk so long?”

  “I love listening to you talk and working with you.”

  “But we could have done that it the lab tomorrow.”

  “Not like we did. Did you notice that our bodies were in contact the entire time we were talking?”

  “Yes, I noticed, believe me I noticed. But that was supposed to be just the preamble for much greater touching. Enhanced touching. Brilliant touching.” She looked at the timer again, watching the seconds streaming by. “Just hold me, please. Anything else would make it worse at this point.”

  “Try again tomorrow?” I asked, nuzzling her ear.

  “Yes. And no talking, none.”

  “Just grunts?”

  “Groans would be OK too. Maybe moaning.”

  I went back to my cabin and slept fitfully. It was strange to be alone, no one’s hand to hold in the middle of the night, no one sleeping on my shoulder.

  Alice was eating breakfast when I arrived in the mess hall the next morning. I picked up a couple of rolls and a cup of coffee and sat down next to her.

  “How did your explorations go last night?”

  “I only got lost twice,” she said, proud of herself. “Star showed me the gym and the running trail you’ve been using. I’m going to have to exercise more as the gravity builds up. I feel heavier today.”

  “We’ll be at Cleavus in three weeks. Gravity there is only a little over point eight five so you should be OK. Bodens Gate will be harder for you. They’re just over Earth standard.”