He ended it as if in relief. Thus far everything was satisfactory. For a while he sat quiet, like his companions. Radiance made a halo of his baldness.
At last he said softly, “Mother of God, a man might die quite happy after this.”
Dozsa grinned, not too mirthfully. His accent thickened. “If you wish.
Me, I have a wife and children at home. Here is the kind of experience I like to have had.”
Rueda looked surprised. “And still you came along?”
“What else? I agreed we must go search, and I am best qualified.” Dozsa was piloting, since besides past practice, he was a martial arts enthusiast, trained into strength and speed. “Don’t get me wrong, Carlos. I am not afraid.
In fact, I relish the challenge. But I will relish it more in retrospect.” He crossed himself. “Or in the afterlife, if God does not will we succeed. Our death ought to be clean and quick.”
“Aye.” Caitlin was barely audible. “A shooting star in a sky like that –
sure, and there are many harder fates, there are.”
“One feels near to God on this mission, no?” Rueda said, almost as muted. “But He is not the kindly old Father the sisters told me of in school, nor the just Lord our priest called on.”
“He is those and more,” Dozsa replied. “Caitlin, you pagan, even you must be hearing Him out of your childhood.”
Side 118
Anderson, Poul – Avatar, The She shook her head. Braided, her hair was a chiaroscuro around it. “No.
Perhaps they were too Catholic in Ireland for me, a part of their seeking to rebuild after the Troubles and keep the faith after the Others… and I a rebel born. I’ve no anger in me any more, though.”
Dozsa smiled. “Well, let’s not argue. We have not the energy to spare.
If you don’t mind, I will include you in my prayers. Most likely I shall be thinking a few.”
Rueda looked behind him to where she sat. `What do you believe in, if I may ask?” he inquired.
“In life,” she said.
They fell silent, watching the planet draw closer, night recede across it and brightness grow. Presently a fresh set of demands for readings and confirmation of flight plan details rattled forth. Having complied, Rueda added.
“That was unnecessary, my friends.”
Brodersen’s voice replaced Joelle’s. It was almost unrecognizable: “My fault. I insisted. You’re really okay?”
“Never better, my darling,” Caitlin made bold to answer, “save for not having you here. And this cabin is rather cramped for sports anyhow. Make up our bed before I come back. It needs it, you will be remembering.”
“Pegeen, please-”
“I’m sorry.” She reached toward the loudspeaker as if toward him. “You fear for me. But would I not be fearing for you, were you bound off like this?
Ah, don’t be selfish, be glad for me on such a grand adventure.”
“I’m… trying…”
“No, more than an adventure. Magic they never dreamed of in Tir na nog.
Do you know, I was thinking we’ll need a name for our planet, do we win to its people. We can scarcely pronounce theirs, whatever it be.”
Brodersen hesitated. “And?”
“I thought of Danu, the mother goddess of the Tuatha de Danaan, they who became the great Sidhe.”
“Done, by thunder!” he decreed.
Williwaw entered perceptible atmosphere more abruptly than above Demeter, for this air was compressed hard by gravity. Her path and vectors had been computed with that in mind. She got continuous guidance from Joelle, holothetically linked to instruments whose operators Fidelio had told what to probe for. Else her mission would have been suicidal.
As was, in the first hour Dozsa used himself to limits beyond what he had been sure were his. Rueda was nearly as busy, handling communication back and forth, often helping steer. The cabin soon stank from their sweat. It filled with monstrous roars, shrieks, rumbles, whistlings. Their own weight hauled at the humans, two and a half times what their race was evolved to bear. Every finger grew heavy, an arm was a burden, necks strained to keep heads positioned, guts sagged, hearts toiled, ribs ached from breathing, mouths dried out and throats went raw.