A line of illumination connected the Sun and Sirius, indicating the path that the Wakefields had taken on their odyssey to and from the Node. Another tiny line of light extended from the solar system along the trajectory that had been followed by Rama III since it had acquired the hutnan colonists in Mars orbit. The host spacecraft, which was represented by a large, blinking red light, was currently in a position about one third of the way between the Sun and the star Tau Ceti.
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“I understand the idea for this monument originally came from your father,” Eponine said as the two women stood beside the celestial sphere.
“Yes,” said EHie..”Father is really extremely creative where science and electronics are concerned.”
Eponine stared at the blinking red light. “Does it bother him at all that we are going in a different direction, not toward Sirius or the Node at all?”
Ellie shrugged. “I don’t think so,” she said. “We don’t talk about it very much. … He told me one time that none of us was capable of understanding what the extraterrestrials were doing anyway.”
Eponine glanced around her in the square. “Look at all the people, hurrying here and there. Most of them never even stop to see where we are. … I check our location at least once a week.” She was suddenly very serious. “Ever since I was diagnosed with RV-41 I have had a compulsive need to know exactly where I am in the universe. . . . I wonder if that’s part of my fear of dying.”
After a long silence Eponine put her arm on Ellie’s shoulder. “Did you ever ask the Eagle about death?” she said.
“No,” Ellie replied softly. “But I was only four years old when I left the Node. I certainly had no concept of death.”
“When I was a child, I thought like a child,” Eponine said to herself. She laughed. “What did you talk to the Eagle about?”
“I don’t recall exactly,” Ellie said. “Patrick told me that the Eagle especially liked to watch us play with our toys.”
“Really?” Eponine said. “That’s a surprise. From your mother’s description I would have imagined (he Eagle was much too serious to be interested in play.”
“1 can still see him clearly in my mind’s eye,” Ellie said, “even though I was so young. But I can’t remember what he sounded like.”
“Have you ever dreamed about him?” Eponine asked a few seconds later.
“Oh, yes. Many times. Once he was standing on top of a huge tree, looking down at me from the clouds.”
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Eponine laughed again. Then she quickly checked her watch. “Oh, my,” she said. “I’m late for my appointment. What time are you due at the hospital?”
“Seven o’clock,” Ellie said.
“Then we’d better be on our way.”
When Eponine reported to Dr. Turner’s office for her biweekly checkup, the Tiasso in charge took her to the laboratory, obtained blood and urine specimens, and then asked her to take a seat. The biot informed Eponine that the doctor was “running behind.”
A dark black man with sharp eyes and a friendly smile was also sitting in the waiting room. “Hello,” he said when their eyes met, “my name is Amadou Diaba. I’m a pharmacist.”
Eponine introduced herself, thinking that she had seen the man before.
“Great day, huh?” the man asked after a brief silence. “What a relief to take off that cursed armband.”
Eponine now remembered Amadou. She had seen him once or twice in group meetings for the RV-41 sufferers. Someone had told Eponine that Amadou had contracted the retrovirus through a blood transfusion in the early days of the colony. How many of us are there altogether? Eponine thought. Ninety-three. Or is it ninety-four? Five of whom caught the disease through a transfusion. . . .
“It seems that big news always happens in pairs,” Amadou was saying. “The Mishkin Proclamation was announced only hours before the leggie things were seen for the first time.”
Eponine looked at him quizzically. “What are you talking about?” she asked.
“You haven’t heard about the leggies yet?” Amadou said, laughing slightly. “Where in the world have you been?”
Amadou waited a few seconds before launching into an explanation. “The exploration team over at the other habitat has been in the process of widening their penetration site for the last few days. Today they were suddenly confronted by six strange creatures who crawled out of the hole that had been made in the wall. These leggies, as the
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television reporter called them, apparently live in the other habitat. They look like hairy golf balls attached to six giant, jointed legs, and they move very, very quickly. . . . They crawled all over the men, the biots, and the equipment for about an hour. Then they disappeared back into the penetration site.”
Eponine was about to ask some questions about the leggies when Dr. Turner came out of his office. “Mr. Diaba and Miss Eponine,” he said. “I have a detailed report for each of you. Who wants to be first?”
The doctor still had the most magnificent blue eyes. “Mr. Diaba was here before me,” Eponine replied. “So—”
“Ladies always go first,” Amadou interrupted. “Even in New Eden.”
Eponine went into Dr. Turner’s inner office. “So far, so good,” the doctor told her when they were alone. “You definitely have the virus in your system, but there’s no sign of any heart muscle deterioration. I don’t know why for certain, but the disease definitely progresses more rapidly in some than others.”
How can it be, my handsome doctor, Eponine thought, that you follow all my health data so closely but never once have noticed the looks I’ve been giving you all this time?
“We’ll keep you on the regular immune system medication. It has no serious side effects, and it may be partially responsible for our not seeing any evidence of the virus’s destructive activities. . . . Are you feeling all right otherwise?”
They walked back out to the waiting room together. Dr. Turner reviewed for Eponine the symptoms that would indicate the virus had moved to another stage in its development. While they were talking, the door opened and Ellie Wakefield came into the room. At first Dr. Turner ignored her presence, but moments later he did an obvious double take.
“May I help you, young lady?” he said to Ellie.
“I’ve come to ask Eponine a question,” Ellie replied deferentially. “If I’m disturbing you, I can wait outside.”
Dr. Turner shook his head and then was surprisingly
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disorganized in his final comments to Eponine. At first she did not understand what had happened. But when Eponine started to leave with Ellie, she saw the doctor staring at her student. For three years, Eponine thought, / have yearned to see a look like that in his eyes. I didn’t think he was capable of it. And Ellie, bless her heart, missed it altogether.
It had been a long day. Eponine was extremely tired by the time she walked from the station to her apartment in Hakone. The emotional release she had felt after removing her armband had passed. She was now a little depressed. Eponine was also fighting feelings of jealousy toward Ellie Wakefield.
She stopped in front of her apartment. The broad red stripe pn her door reminded everyone that an RV-41 carrier lived inside. Thanking Judge Mishkin again, Eponine carefully pulled off the stripe. It left an outline on the door. /’// paint it tomorrow, Eponine thought.
Once in her apartment, she plopped down in her soft chair and reached for a cigarette. Eponine felt the surge of anticipatory pleasure as she put the cigarette in her mouth. / never smoke at school in front of my students, she rationalized. / do not set a bad example for them. I smoke only here. At home. When I’m lonely.
Eponine hardly ever went out at night. The villagers in Hakone had made it very clear to her that they didn’t want her in their midst—two separate delegations had asked her to leave the village and there had been several nasty notes on her apartment door. But Eponine had stubbornly refused to move. Since Kimberly Henderson was never there, Eponine had much more living space than she would have been able to afford under normal circumstances. She also knew that an RV-41 carrier would not be welcomed in any neighborhood in the colony.
Eponine had fallen asleep in her chair and was dreaming of fields of yellow flowers. She almost didn’t hear the knock, even though it was very loud. She glanced at her watch—it was eleven o’clock. When Eponine opened the door, Kimberly Henderson entered the apartment.
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“Oh, Ep,” she said, “I’m so glad you’re here. I need to talk to someone desperately. Someone I can trust.”
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