To The Stars

Happily, it was a long time coming. The Road crossed the coastal ranges and cut across the alluvial coastal plain that fringed the continent. This was an almost entirely flat and featureless swamp, formerly the coastal banks, shoal water, lifted up by the engineers. The Road was on a raised dike for the most part, cutting straight as a ruled line through the reeds and tree-grown hassocks. All that the maintenance tanks had to do, for the most part, was burn off intruding vegetable vines and repair the occasional crack caused by subsidence. They moved faster than the heavy-laden trains and were drawing farther and farther ahead, making up most of the two-day lead they had lost. The nights had been growing shorter until the day when the sun did not set at all. It dropped to the southern horizon, a burning blue ball of fire, then moved into the sky again soon afterward. After this it was always above their heads, its intensity increasing as they headed south. The temperature outside had been rising steadily and now stood at well past 150 degrees. When there had still been a night, many people had emerged from the cramped, boring quarters to move about on the Road despite the breathless heat. With the sun now in the sky constantly this could not be done, and morale was being strained to the breaking point. And there were still 18,000 kilometers to go.

They were driving a full nineteen hours every day now, and the new co-drivers were proving their worth. There had been some grumbling among the men at first about women out of their natural place, but this had stopped as fatigue had taken over. The extra help was needed. Some of the women had not been able to learn the work, or had not the stamina for it, but there were more than enough new volunteers to take their places.

Jan was happier than he had remembered he had been for years. The fat chaperone had complained about the climb up to the driving compartment and, when the heat had increased, it had been impossible to find a coldsuit big enough for her. A married cousin of Alzbeta’s had taken the watchdog role for one day, but said she was bored by it and had her children to take care of and refused to come back the following day. Her absence had not been reported at once to The Hradil and by the time she had learned about it the damage — or lack of damage — had been done. Alzbeta had survived a day alone with three men and was none the worse for the experience. By unspoken agreement the chaperone’s role was dropped.

Alzbeta sat in the co-driver’s seat while Jan drove.

Otakar would sleep on the cot in the engine room, or play cards with Emo. Ryzo found it easy to get permission to join the games — Jan cheerfully stood radio watch for him — and though the hatch behind them was open, Jan and Alzbeta were alone for the first time since they had met.

At the very first it was embarrassing. Not for Jan. It was Alzbeta who would blush and hang her head when he talked and forget her job as co-driver. Her lifetime of training was fighting her intelligence. Jan ignored this for one shift, not even making small talk, thinking she would be over it by the second day. When she was not, he lost his temper.

“I’ve asked you for that reading twice now. That’s too much. You are here to aid me, not make my job more difficult.”

“I — I’m sorry. I’ll try not to do it again.”

She lowered her head and blushed even more, and Jan felt like a swine. Which he was. You don’t break the conditioning of years in a moment. The Road was clear ahead and dead straight, nothing on the nose radar. The trains rolled at a steady 110 KPH and the wheel could be left unattended, for perhaps a moment. He rose and went to Alzbeta and stood behind her, his hands resting lightly on her shoulders. Like a frightened animal’s, her body quivered beneath his touch.

“I’m the one who should be sorry,” he said. “I’ll drag Ryzo away from the poker game, it’s time for a driver check in any case.”

“No, not yet. It is not that I don’t like being alone with you, the other way around. I have known that I have loved you for a very long time, but only now am I finding out what that really means.

She put her hands up to her shoulders to cover his, turned her face to look up at him. When he bent his head to kiss her, her mouth came up to meet his. When his hands slid down to cup her full breasts her hands held them tight, pulling him to her. It was he who broke away first, knowing this was neither the time nor the place.

“See, The Hradil was right,” he said, trying to make light of it.

“No! She was wrong in every way. She will not keep us apart, and I will marry you. She cannot stop…”

The flashing red light on the radio console and the rapid beeping sent him leaping to the driver’s chair, thumbing on the radio. Behind him Ryzo shot up from the engine room as though he had been propelled from a cannon.

“Trainmaster here.”