“I know it’s sudden, Robert,” Ellie said, growing fearful that she had underestimated the difficulty of her task, “but I couldn’t have told you any earlier. It would have been too dangerous. What if you had slipped and said something to Ed Stafford or another member of your staff, and one of the biots had overheard?”
“But 1 can’t just leave without saying anything to
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anybody.” Robert shook his head vigorously. “Do you have any idea how many years of work would be wasted?”
“Couldn’t you write down what needs to be done on each project?” Ellie suggested. ”And maybe summarize what’s already been accomplished?”
“Not in one night,” Robert replied emphatically. “No, Ellie, it’s really out of the question. We can’t go. The long-term health of the colony may depend on the results of my research. Besides, even if I accept that your parents are living comfortably in that bizarre place you described, wherever it is, it certainly does not sound like a good place to raise a child. And you haven’t even mentioned the possible danger to all of us. Our leaving will be viewed as treason. We could both be executed if we were caught. What would happen to Nicole then? . . .”
Ellie listened to Robert’s objections for another minute and then realized that the time had come for her declaration. Summoning all her courage, she walked around the table and took both her husband’s hands. “I have been thinking about this for almost three weeks, Robert. You must understand how difficult this decision is for me. … I love you with all my heart, but if we must, Nicole and I will go without you. I know that there is a lot of uncertainty in leaving, but life here in New Eden is definitely not healthy for any of us.”
“No, no, no,” Robert said immediately, freeing himself from Ellie and starting to pace wildly around the room. “I don’t believe any of this. It’s all a bad dream.” He paused and looked across the room at Ellie. “You cannot take Nicole with you,” he said with passion. “Do you hear me? I forbid you to take our daughter.”
”’Robert” Ellie interrupted him with a shout. Tears were now streaming down her cheeks. “Look at me … I am your wife, the mother of your daughter. I love you. I beg you to listen to what I am saying.”
Nicole had come running into the room and was now crying beside her mother. Ellie composed herself before continuing. “I don’t believe that you are the only one in this family who is allowed to make decisions. I have that right
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as well. I can respect your desire not to go, but I am Nicole’s mother. If you and I are to be separated, then I believe that it would be better for Nicole to come with me.”
Ellie stopped. Robert’s face was contorted in anger. He took a step toward her and, for the first time in her life, Ellie feared that Robert was going to hit her.
“What would be better for me,” Robert shouted, with his right hand raised in a fist, “would be for you to forget this foolishness.”
Ellie backed up slightly. Nicole continued to cry. Robert struggled to control himself. “I swore,” he said, his voice quavering with emotion, “that nobody and nothing would ever cause me to hurt like that again.”
Tears burst from his eyes. “Goddammit,” he said, smashing his fist down on a nearby table. Without saying anything else, Robert sat down in the chair and buried his face in his hands.
Ellie consoled Nicole and said nothing for several seconds. “I know how painful it was for you to lose your first family,” she said at length. “But Robert, this is an entirely different situation. Nobody is going to harm Nicole and me.”
She walked over and put her arms around him. “I’m not saying this is an easy decision, Robert,” Ellie said. “But I’m convinced it’s the right thing for Nicole and me.”
Robert returned Ellie’s hug, but without much enthusiasm. “I will not keep you and Nicole from going,” he said resignedly several seconds later. “But I don’t know what I am going to do. I would like to think about all this over the next several hours, while we’re out in Avalon.”
“All right, dear,” Ellie replied, “but please don’t forget that Nicole and I need you even more than your patients do. You are our only husband and father.”
9
N,
Iicole could not contain her excitement. As she put the finishing touches on the decorations in the nursery, she imagined what the room would be like when the human children were sharing it with the two avians. Timmy, who was now almost as tall as Nicole, clambered over beside her to inspect her handiwork. He uttered a few jabbers of appreciation.
“Just think, Timmy,” Nicole said, knowing that the avian could not understand her exact words but could interpret the timbre of her voice, “when Richard and I return, we will be bringing you three new roommates.”
“Are you ready, Nicole?” she heard Richard yell at that moment. “It’s almost time for us to leave.”
“Yes, darling,” she answered. “I’m here in the nursery. Why don’t you come and take a look?”
Richard stuck his head in the door and gave the new decorations a perfunctory inspection. “Great, just great,” he
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said. “Now we need to move. This operation requires precise timing.”
As they walked together to the Port, Richard informed Nicole that there had been no more reports from the Northern Hemicylinder. The lack of news could indicate that Joan and Eleanor were too involved with die escape, he said, or too close to a possible enemy, or even that the implementation of the escape plan was in trouble. Nicole could not remember seeing Richard so nervous before. She tried to calm him.
“We still don’t know if Robert is coming?” Nicole asked a few minutes later as they approached the submarine.
“No. Nor anything at all about how he reacted when Ellie told him the plan. They did show up together in Avalon, as scheduled, but they were busy with his patients. Joan and Eleanor did not have a chance to talk to Ellie after they helped Nai pick up Benjy at the ward.”
Richard had checked out the submarine at least twice the day before. Nevertheless, he issued a sigh of relief when the operating system engaged and the craft slid into the water. When they were submerged in the waters of the Cylindrical Sea, both Richard and Nicole were quiet. Each of them was anticipating the emotional reunion that would take place in less than an hour.
Images of all six of her children filed slowly into Nicole’s mind. She saw Genevieve, her first child, bora on the Earth after her union with Prince Henry. Next in line was serene Simone, whom Nicole had left at the Node with a husband almost sixty years her senior. The two oldest girls were followed in the mental procession by the four children still living in Rama, her wayward daughter Katie, her precious Ellie, and her two sons by Michael O’Toole, Patrick and the mentally handicapped Benjy. They are all so different, Nicole thought. Each a miracle in his or her own way.
I do not believe in universal truths, Nicole mused as the submarine drew closer to the tunnel under the wall of what was once the avian/sessile habitat, but there cannot be many humans who have lived through the singular experience of
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parenting without being irrevocably changed by the process. We all wonder, as our children grow into adults, what we have done, or not done, that has contributed to, or detracted from, the happiness of these special beings we have brought into existence.
The excitement inside Nicole was overwhelming. Richard checked his watch and began to maneuver the submarine into position for the rendezvous. When their ship broke through the surface of the water, they could see eight figures standing on the shore at the appointed location. When the water stopped running down the window, Nicole recognized Ellie, her husband Robert, Eponine, Nai holding Benjy’s hand, and the three small children, including her granddaughter and namesake, whom Nicole had never seen before. Nicole’s eyes brimmed with tears. She pounded on the window, knowing that it was senseless, and that none of the people on the shore could possibly hear or see her.
Richard and Nicole heard the gunshots as soon as they opened the door. A worried Robert Turner glanced behind him and then lifted little Nicole quickly off the ground. Ellie and Eponine each picked up one of the Watanabe twins. Galileo struggled against Eponine and received a reprimand from his mother Nai, who was trying to guide Benjy into the submarine.