On a certain even watch he had, though, been seated before his telescreen. Lights were turned low in order that he might fully savor the image. Auxiliary craft were out in a joint exercise, and a couple of their personnel used the opportunity to beam back-views of what they saw.
That was splendor. Starful space made a chalice for Chronos. The two huge, majestically counter-rotating cylinders, the entire complex of linkages, ports, locks, shields, collectors, transmitters, docks, all became Japanesely exquisite at a distance of several hundred kilometers. It was the solar sail which filled most of the screen, like a turning golden sun wheel; yet remote vision could also appreciate its spider web intricacy, soaring and subtle curvatures, even the less-than gossamer thinness. A mightier work than the Pyramids, a finer work than a refashioned chromosome, the ship moved on toward a Saturn which had become the second brightest beacon in the firmament.
The door chime hauled Scobie out of his exaltation. As he started across the deck, he stubbed his toe on a table leg. Coriolis force caused that. It was slight, when a hull this size spun to give a full gee of weight, and a thing to which he had long since adapted; but now and then he got so interested in something that Terrestrial habits returned. He swore at his absent-mindedness, good-naturedly, since he anticipated a pleasurable time.
When he opened the door, Delia Ames entered in a single stride. At once she closed it behind her and stood braced against it. She was a tall blond woman who did electronics maintenance and kept up a number of outside activities. “Hey!” Scobie said. “What’s wrong? You look like”-he tried for levity-“something my cat would’ve dragged in, if we had any mice or beached fish aboard.”
She drew a ragged breath. Her Australian accent thickened till he had trouble understanding: “I … today … I happened to be at the same cafeteria table as George Harding-”
Unease tingled through Scobie. Harding worked in Ames’s department, but had much more in common with him. In the game group to which they both belonged, Harding likewise took a vaguely ancestral role, N’Kuma the Lionslayer.
“What happened?” Scobie asked.
Woe stared back at him. “He mentioned … you and he and the rest … you’d be taking your next holiday together … to carry on your, your bloody act uninterrupted.”
“Well, yes. Work at the new park over in Starboard Hull will be suspended till enough metal’s been recycled for the water pipes. The area will be vacant, and my gang has arranged to spend a week’s worth of days-”
“But you and I were going to Lake Armstrong!”
“Uh, wait, that was just a notion we talked about, no definite plan yet, and this is such an unusual chance-Later, sweetheart, I’m sorry.” He took her hands. They felt cold. He essayed a smile. “Now, c’mon, we were going to cook a festive dinner together and afterward spend a, shall we say, quiet evening at home. But for a start, this absolutely gorgeous presentation on the screen-”
She jerked free of him. The gesture seemed to calm her. “No, thanks,” she said, flat-voiced. “Not when you’d rather be with that Broberg woman. I only came by to tell you in person I’m getting out of the way of you two.”
“Huh?” He stepped back. “What the flaming hell do you mean?”
“You know jolly well.”
“I don’t! She, I, she’s happily married, got two kids, she’s older than me, we’re friends, sure, but there’s never been a thing between us that wasn’t in the open and on the level-” Scobie swallowed. “You suppose maybe I’m in love with her?”
Ames looked away. Her fingers writhed together. “I’m not about to go on being a mere convenience to you, Colin. You have plenty of those. Myself, I’d hoped-But I was wrong, and I’m going to cut my losses before they get worse.”
“But … Dee, I swear I haven’t fallen for anybody else,
and I … I swear you’re more than a body to me, you’re a fine person-” She stood mute and withdrawn. Scobie gnawed his lip before he could tell her: “Okay, I admit it, the main reason I volunteered for this trip was I’d lost out in a love affair on Earth. Not that the project doesn’t interest me; but I’ve come to realize what a big chunk out of my life it is. You, more than any other woman, Dee, you’ve gotten me to feel better about the situation.”