Between the Strokes of Night

“I’ll stay here,” Charlene said after a few seconds. She turned to look at Wolfgang, and her voice was despairing. “My work is here, in Gulf City. I couldn’t do it in another facility. But Wolfgang, if you go — who could do your work on T-state?”

Judith Niles looked at Sy, who gave a fractional nod of his head. “We have a volunteer for that,” she said. “Sy is keen to explore T-state — and beyond. So now…”

She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes again. “Now comes the difficult question. You are proposing a radically different approach. Am I persuaded that it will work?”

“Wrong question,” said Peron.

She opened her eyes and smiled at him. “True. I stand corrected. We cannot know in advance what will work, and what will fail. The right question, then: do I think a second facility in normal space has a better chance to succeed than one in S-space? The answer: maybe. Just maybe. I thought of many options, but I never seriously considered the Mayfly solution.”

“You can’t afford not to try it,” said Peron. “Even if you reject it, we’ll attempt it.”

“I know. Bad position for a boss, right?” She smiled, then turned to Wolfgang. “And do you know what you are volunteering for? We can give you an extended life span in normal space, but you will still be dead in less than one S-year.” “Give me credit for something, JN.” Wolfgang’s moment of defiance had brought him a new confidence. “I know exactly what I’m offering to do. I’ll go to normal space, and I expect that I’ll die there. So what? I saw that message from Paradise, too. And now I think about it, I never really wanted to live forever. I just want to live for something. Sy can do my work here at least as well as I can, probably a damned sight better. Let’s get on with it, I say.” He did not wait for an answer from Judith Niles. Instead he turned to Charlene and took her hand in his. The room went silent, with everyone watching closely. Charlene’s mind flashed across the centuries, to the time back on Earth when Wolfgang had horrified her by secretly stroking her thigh in JN’s presence. But this time she did not flinch when Wolfgang touched her gently on the shoulder. Her vision was clouded with tears. She moved to meet him when he leaned forward to kiss her, and put her arms around his neck. The final words had not been spoken, but she knew that the decision was already made.

The departure for a second facility could not happen immediately. She and Wolfgang would see each other many times before there was another parting, formal and final.

But this moment was unique. This was their first goodbye.

PART FOUR: THE ROAD TO ETERNITY

CHAPTER THIRTY

Kallen’s World

Sunrise: a recurring miracle, something that no one would ever see in S-space. Peron rolled out of bed and tiptoed to the window. A small sliver of Jezel’s disk already showed above the horizon, its white brilliance muted by a morning haze. As morning advanced and the haze burned off, Jezel would turn to a golden glory in the sky, brighter than Sol or Cassay.

Wolfgang Gibbs, who seemed to have transferred his disdain for sleep from S-space to N-space, was already outside. He was surrounded by the dozen newcomers who had arrived on Kallen’s World four days ago. Peron, moving quietly so that he did not awaken Elissa, dressed and went to join the group. Wolfgang had his back to the house and did not notice Peron’s approach. “Ready to go at dawn,” he said, “and with a good breakfast already inside you. I hope you all remembered what I told you yesterday afternoon, because we won’t be stopping to rest or eat before midday. Any questions?”

A girl with an open, innocent face — to Peron she looked about twelve — raised a hand. “I thought we would be walking because of a shortage of aircars. But last night I learned there are scores of them available. Why are we doing this on foot?”

She was a recent Planetfest winner, which meant she must be at least sixteen. And she must also be in first-rate physical condition. Peron wondered why she was asking. A troublemaker, maybe — the way he and Elissa and their Planetfest group had been troublemakers?

The group was staring at Peron, which made Wolfgang turn his way. He said, “Good morning,” but his raised eyebrows, invisible to the group of trainees, added, “Here we go again! Same old dumb questions.”

Wolfgang addressed the girl. “Tilda — it is Tilda, isn’t it? — you must have been briefed about Kallen’s World while you were on the way here. Right?” “Of course.”

“So I’m sure that you were told you were coming to a pleasant, benign world, well-suited to humans and with few dangers.”

“That’s exactly what we were told.” Tilda, encouraged by a nudge from the short, dark-haired youth next to her — there’s the troublemaker, Peron thought — went on, “It’s true, isn’t it?”