The Afterlife of Alice Watkins 2

by Matilda Scotney

  “There is one under construction,” Patrick was always happy to talk engines, “the Magellan. She’ll be finished by the time we return. She’s the same size as the Significator but has four Substance chambers. Theoretically she could stay out for years. Perfect for Ryan. But I expect her maiden voyage will only be two. I’ll be overseeing the Gravidarum and engineering systems when I get back. I’m reassigned from the Significator as Chief Engineer and First Officer until she’s up and running.”

  “Will the Magellan be as fast?”

  Patrick seemed unaware Alice was more interested in keeping him at arms-length than she was in the construction of starships.

  “Yes, but you’re right, two ships will double what we can accomplish; the speed capabilities of the deep space vessels aren’t an issue. Do you remember those people at the assembly on the Significator, studying the effects of space travel?”

  She remembered, it seemed like a hundred years ago.

  “They believe a mission that exceeds two years is harmful to mental health. In the submissions to the Tabernacle, their findings were taken under advisement and discussed in Cloisters—today as a matter-of-fact—and so it seems, two years will be our maximum until we prove there are no ill-effects. I don’t know where they got their information, I think it’s nonsense personally. So does Ryan, but he never wants to come back, anyway.”

  Alice felt a knot forming in her stomach—she resolved then and there that she would never try to keep Noah from doing what he loved most.

  “They used to think,” she forced a brightness she didn’t feel into her voice, “in the early days of trains that speeds above 30 miles an hour would make a person’s face implode,” Alice remembered reading that piece of trivia somewhere.

  “Is that a fact?”

  They were interrupted by Jane and Mary returning. Alice was pleased she kept the conversation steered away from Patrick’s romantic inclinations.

  He jumped to his feet, all charm.

  “Auntie Jane. Auntie Mary.”

  They smiled graciously at his familiarity and breach of protocol, though he did remember to bow. On their walk home, the aunties had discussed Alice’s relationships and decided they would be formal with Patrick, not entirely sure if her interests lay with the handsome statesman or the somewhat enigmatic Principal Ryan.

  “Statesman Patrick, “Jane smiled, “it’s very nice to see you again. I’m sure Alice has kept you entertained,” she did rather carry a few hopes Alice might end up with him.

  He acknowledged her with a smile that assured her, Alice had indeed kept him entertained.

  “How is Belinda?” Alice enquired.

  “Not good. She’s been taken to the City Infirmary. Thomas is with her.”

  “That’s terrible. Will she be alright?”

  “I doubt it,” Jane shook her head sadly. “I think it may be the beginning of the end.”

  Jane and Mary had known Thomas and Belinda for many years. Alice met them a few times, both sweet and funny and devoted to one another. A mixed-race couple, Alice felt sad they’d been forbidden to have children. Losing Belinda would mean a lonely existence for Thomas.

  Patrick, seeing the aunties might be upset, courteously made his excuses.

  “Alice, I must go. I have the observers coming on board briefly this evening, and they are my responsibility. We leave in 36 hours. Ryan is in Cloisters for most of that time, so it’s all left to me. Statesman Junnot is heading to the Tabernacle, so I am both command and welcoming committee.”

  This time, he took Alice’s hand to ensure she accompanied him to the shuttle. She didn’t want to make a fuss in front of Mary and Jane, but she slipped her hand out of his once they were away from the house. He grinned down at her.

  “Still resisting? It’s inevitable, Alice. Why fight it? You’ll miss me during these two years. Wait and see.”

  Now she knew the stories about him, Alice wondered just how much he would miss her on the mission, with all those lovely young crew members on board.

  “I will miss you, Patrick,” she told him truthfully, “but not in the way you hope. Anyway, you might meet a nice alien girl!”

  “I doubt it. No woman has ever spurned me the way you do.”

  “That’s an old-fashioned term, Patrick. Now stay safe.”

  “I will. I can stay in contact until we get to threshold. With some luck, we’ll get good communications going on this trip, now we have Junnot.”

  He climbed into the automatrans and looked down at her; it was incomprehensible to him he wouldn’t see her for two years. Her face, upturned towards him, smiling, radiant in the late afternoon sun, so beautiful, he desperately wanted to hold her, convince her of his feelings. But he knew he could only steal kisses from her and catch her unaware with an embrace, otherwise, she kept herself from him.

  “Alice, I’ll miss you. I mean what I say, I love you.”

  “Just stay safe.”

  She waved to him as he closed the door. He smiled brightly, but when she was out of sight, he shook his head.

  “Damn!” he muttered and thumped his fist on the arm of the seat. “Damn!”

  Alice walked along the cliff top with the dogs bounding along beside her for company. She waited until the dying sun cast orange ripples across the sea; then, shivering against the coolness of the evening, she walked back to the house.

  She was up and about early next morning, seeing to the horses and helping Jane and Mary. Another restless night robbed her of her energy, but moping would not help her mood. The memory of the nightmare stayed with her, so when she woke in the small hours of the night, she didn’t venture out to the verandah. She’d dismissed the still hot coffee incident as a coincidence.

  “We’re a little worried you might be sad, with your friends leaving,” Mary said when they met up at the stable where Alice was keeping herself busy.

  “I am sad, Mary, but I can’t change the way things are. Perhaps I should have made friends with people who don’t live in space.”

  “Well, that’s very philosophical. But things seldom work out as we expect. Besides, we love having you to ourselves, and you’ll see Amelia.”

  A tearful Jane appeared at the stable door.

  “Thomas is home, Belinda died, he’s asking for us.”

  “Poor Thomas, let him know we’re on our way,” Mary turned to Alice, “will you be alright?”

  “Of course, shall I come?”

  “No, we’ve been friends with him for many years—he might want to be private. Is that OK?”

  “Of course,” Alice understood completely.

  “I’m not sure how long we’ll be. He has a brother in the Loyalties. I expect he’ll come.”

  Later in the morning, Alice was sitting alone out on the verandah when she heard the registry in her room beep an incoming call—a general link from the Tabernacle. Alice thought it might be Principal Katya, but it was late in the evening at the Tabernacle and Principal Katya only ever called her on the aunties’ registry. She accepted the link. Noah’s face appeared, he was in uniform, leaning close to the console, and whispering urgently.

  “Alice, I’ve despatched a high altitude automatrans. It’ll be there in a few minutes. Can you get away?”

  “Yes. Jane and Mary aren’t here.”

  “I’ll be through here in about 30 minutes. Alice, I must see you just once more before I leave, but we’ll only have a few hours,” he said, glancing away. “I have to go. I’ll meet you when you arrive.”

  Alice’s heart beat fast with excitement. Calming herself, she left a message on the registry to let the aunties know she’d popped out for a few hours, then quickly showering and changing into slacks and a shirt, forgetting her panties in her hurry, she dashed out to the front of the house in time to see the automatrans descending.

  Mary and Jane walked across the field that divided their property from Thomas’s house. His family had arrived, and Mary and Jane felt it best to leave them to grieve in private. They watc
hed from a distance as Alice ran from the house and jumped into the automatrans, it rose vertically at speed.

  “She’s in a hurry,” Mary said.

  “That’s a military automatrans,” Jane stopped and shielded her eyes from the sun. “Didn’t Statesman Patrick return to the ship? I wonder who she’s going to see?”

  Mary nodded. “He did. But if we were playing that wagering game Alice showed us, my money would be on Principal Ryan.”

  Chapter 30

  Cloisters, with its deliberating about this and cogitating about that, was usually a drawn-out affair; late in the evening, a worn-out Principal Katya headed off to the Great Hall her thoughts dwelling on the idea she might be getting too old for all this. These last few days’ discussions involved the Significator, and she questioned the wisdom of spending often up to 18 hours cloistered with plans and protocols. Noah looked tired as well—not an ideal start to the mission. Cloisters business made her tired too, in fact, it made the entire council tired, and she didn’t like important decisions being made by people with tiredness-fogged brains.

  She walked through the Great Hall to Statesman Mellor’s favourite seat near the library, where he liked to sit in quiet contemplation and muted light at the end of the evening, usually in the company of a bottle of single malt. He had the right idea. She’d said goodbye to her nephew before he retired to his suite in the courtyard; he would leave for the ship before daylight.

  Statesman Mellor’s usual spot near the library was empty.

  “Principal Katya!”

  He called to her from much further down the hall, a bottle of whisky in hand and already pouring her a glass. The Tabernacle staff believed Statesman Mellor sat in the Great Hall for solitude, but seldom did he drink alone—someone always strayed in.

  “Not your usual spot, Statesman?”

  “I’ve relocated,” he laughed. “As I age, Principal Katya, I confess I find even these late summer evenings a little cool. It’s less chilly here, and the view of the lake is restful at night.”

  “I agree, Mellor, my bones feel a chill these evenings also. Summer will be over soon enough, and we will be into fall. The next summit and Cotillion is not even six weeks away,” she took the glass from him and sat down with a sigh of relaxation. Lifting her legs onto one of the low stools, she allowed her sandals to slip from her feet and wiggled her toes.

  “A long day, Principal Katya,” Statesman Mellor sympathised. “I anticipate this expedition into threshold will be the most successful so far. Evesham is disappointed the last one ended with a quarantined sector.”

  “I personally do not see how we manage to debate so much about something of which we know so little, Mellor. Perhaps the debate needs to start after the Significator returns, and we have a clearer picture of what it is we deliberate on.”

  “We have to debate, Principal Katya. There are guidelines, conventions.”

  “You sound like my nephew,” she flicked him a weary glance. “Just let them go, I say—chart the space, explore, contact, anything they need to do with no restrictions. This convention, that convention, it gives me a headache. Let Principal Ryan decide, let his statesmen decide, and between them, they will do what is necessary. They are not fools. We are here on our bottoms and in no place to direct and insist.”

  “You can veto, Principal Katya.”

  She laughed.

  “If you think that, Mellor, you are not ready to take over my job.”

  Statesman Mellor grinned into his whisky. He suspected he would be very old before her job became available, thank goodness.

  “But this time,” he pointed out, “they are travelling without any help from the A’khet.”

  “The information from A’khet before was of no assistance if we go by the accounts of the last contact. This area of threshold space is unknown even to them. The A’khet’s abilities set them apart, but humankind also has many attributes. The Significators crew will employ those attributes if they encounter life forms, I do not believe as a species, we will be found wanting.”

  He agreed, but didn’t answer. They were both exhausted from such debates and wanted no more, prefering to sit in companionable silence, musing privately on the day’s events, gazing at the nighttime view across the lawns, and watching, in quiet and individual contemplation, as a military automatrans descended silently onto the grass.

  Visitors to the Tabernacle this time of night were rare, even rarer arriving in a principality ship vehicle. The lights from the Great Hall cast a dim light across the garden, but Principal Katya recognised her nephew as he ran across the lawn. Alice climbed down from the transport and ran towards him, jumping into his arms. He caught her and lifted her up, her legs curled around him, her arms around his neck and his hands under her buttocks. Noah swung her around before setting her down, and the two of them walked off together towards the courtyard, arms about each other, secure in the belief that a quiet ship and the lateness of the hour had guaranteed their privacy. They’d reckoned without Statesman Mellor’s decision to change his long-held position in the Great Hall from where previously, he would not have had a view of the garden.

  Neither Principal nor Statesman spoke as the scene unfolded. Principal Katya sensed Statesman’s Mellor’s incredulity as he slowly turned his head towards her.

  “Don’t say anything. Ever,” she said.

  Alice lay under Noah’s arm, close to his heart, their legs intertwined and her arm across his chest, watching the moon on its slow voyage past the window. She sighed. They’d been given these few precious last hours. Bitterly sweet and bitterly sad, but she wouldn’t have missed them for the world.

  “Are you cold?” he asked suddenly, reaching for the sheet.

  “No, you are a cuddly warm bear,” she said, wriggling in closer, giggling.

  “I don’t suppose anyone on the ship would think that about me.”

  “They don’t know you. What’s it like? Being Principal of a starship?”

  He didn’t answer right away, he’d never considered it, just took it as another opportunity to ensure he remained in space.

  “It can be very solitary,” he said after a moment, placing one arm behind his head and gently stroking her shoulder with his other hand. “I don’t mind though. Once we get into deep space, I spend most of my time on the bridge or in celestial mapping. With this mission, we have no information as to what we might find. We’ll enter threshold space at the same point we left it on our last mission and travel the edge of the quarantined sector. The planets on that grid are charted, but after we move from the grid, we’re on our own.”

  “Are you afraid?”

  “Afraid?” he looked down at her,“Afraid of what?”

  “Of what or who you might meet?” she went back to resting on his chest. “You might meet someone hostile, I mean really hostile,” she’d thought about the possibility a great deal.

  “I’m not afraid, Alice, but I do think it’s wise to proceed with caution, and I won’t take chances. The ship has incredible speed and manoeuvrability, and it has a defence capability.”

  “Weapons?” It hadn’t occurred to her.

  “Not weapons of aggression. If we got fired on—and it would have to be a substantial attack—the hull has an armour generator which sets up a harmonic rate equal to the blast. If the attack is repeated, it deflects. Of course, we don’t know what weapons are out there, possibly far superior to our defence shield, and though we doubt it, a hostile species might have a way of disabling Substance, so all systems are affected. It’s all assumption. We hope anyone we meet will have good intentions. Humans have been exploring since time immemorial and lived to tell the tale.”

  “Do you get on with the crew?”

  “You are full of questions, aren’t you? I have little to do with the crew apart from the bridge officers and those I need to work with directly. I make it a point to meet with team leaders, and I have a knack for putting names to faces. I familiarise myself with the crew manifest so even
if I never speak directly to a crew member, I know who they are, but it’s really Patrick who’s the true leader. Everyone gravitates towards him. Any problems, any issues, he’s their first choice, and he always finds a resolution. The crew respect and admire him.”

  “Don’t compare yourself to Patrick. Everyone has something special, some spark that sets them apart from other people.”

  She twisted up into a kneeling position, and his eyes wandered over her body. He gently stroked the front of her thigh. She looked pale and golden in the moonlight and his breath caught in his throat. She asked if he was afraid. Yes, he was—afraid of being without her.

  She stroked his chest and waited for him to respond to her statement.

  “I didn’t mean to compare,” he understood what she meant. “I’m a specialist in my field and Patrick, a specialist in his. I take my role seriously and expect the same dedication of the crew. My standards are high, and that makes me seem unapproachable.”

  “I used to think that,” she could smile about it now, even though she’d just called him a teddy bear.

  “I assume you didn’t tell Patrick about us when he came to visit?” he said.

  “No. He talked a lot about the mission; he seems to be very positive. I expect by the time the two years are over, he will have forgotten all about me. Either way, I’m not going to be one of his floozies. He believes I’ll change my mind.”

  “A floozie! Alice, what on earth is a floozie?”

  “Never mind, but I won’t be one. Patrick is dear to me, but as friends only.”

  “I wasn’t too worried, I knew your aunts would be there.”

  “They weren’t there, Noah. A neighbour had a crisis, so I was alone with him. But it’s fine, he really is just a friend, and he only stayed a few hours.” She knew he knew but wanted to reassure him . There could be no doubts between them.

  “I’m glad to hear it.”