Earthbound by DM Arnold (read book .TXT) 📕

“Oh, Nick ... Nykkyo...” She opened her arms, embraced him and kissed and stroked his face. “... I love you, too.”

“Believe me -- the fact Destiny has given you this ... role in my planet's founding does nothing to alter how I feel for you. I'd love you the same way even if Destiny were tracing a different path.” He held her and smoothed her hair. “The thought you'd find yourself so alone and so hopeless to resort to... It breaks my heart, Suki.” He brushed another tear from his face. “It especially breaks my heart because I was within walking distance, and I'd have come to you and held you and together we'd have solved this.”

Suki looked away from him as he spoke. Tears ran down her face.

“I love you. I've always loved you, and I'll never stop loving you. Remember that. No matter what Destiny has in store for you, and no matter how difficult your path appears, remember there's someone in the galaxy who loves you and who'll never stop loving you. Someone who'd be crushed to learn you succumbed to hopelessness. You need never abandon hope. Promise me you'll remember that.”

“For the past three years, everyone and everything told me I was worthless,” she replied. “All I wanted was to make it on my own, and I couldn't do that. When I was told I was being fired ... I had just begun to believe I might make it on my own. That's why it hurt so much.”

“I'm sure it had nothing to do with your qualifications or your performance. It was simply college politics. No one is immune from politics now and then.”

“Do you think so?”

“Of course. I recognize politics when I see them. The new department head was probably making room for some crony.” He stroked her face. “Or, maybe a mistress.” She smiled. “Can you promise me you'll never try anything like that again?

“I can't promise, Nykkyo. I promise I'll think of you.” She stroked away more tears. “You said to me what I wanted my father to say when I swallowed the aspirin.” She wept. “I just don't want to be alone!”

“If you ever need help, contact me and I'll do what I can for you. That's my promise.” He brushed away more tears. “We might be separated, but we'll never be alone. There will be a way for us to be in touch.” He embraced her again. “I wish this pallet was wider. I'd lie with you and hold you.”

“I'd like that,” she said.

He held her and stroked her back until he felt her begin to calm. “It's late and I'd better go and get some rest. Aahhn and his staff will take good care of you.”

She nodded. “I know they will. I'll be fine, I'm sure.”

He kissed her lips. “Sleep tight. I'll see you in the morning.”

“Nykkyo?” she said as he headed toward the door. He turned to face her. “Thank you.”

Nyk approached his apartment and pressed his wrist to the scanpad. The door popped open. Senta appeared from the bedroom wearing a short, sleeveless robe. She was adjusting a ribbon she wore to control her unruly hair.

“I'm sorry about last night,” she said. “You surprised me, that's all.”

“I'm sorry, too,” he replied.

She smiled at him. “You said you were saving your desire for when you're home on leave. Let's spend some tonight.” She walked to him, put her arms around his waist and looked into his eyes. “We have some drugs that might make tonight more... special.”

“Please, Senta -- I'm exhausted and not...”

“Aren't you happy to see me?” She stroked his bare arms and lay her face against his chest. Her eyes focused on his xarpa. “What's this?” she asked and plucked something from his sash. She looked at it carefully. “If I didn't know better, I'd say it's a hair. A long, black one, like the ones you brought for me to sequence.” She continued to examine it. “It is a hair. Here's the root.” She backed away from him. “That Earth woman's here. You brought an Earth person onworld. She's your special project! Nykkyo, how could you?”

“She was hurt -- dying. I knew our doctors could save her.”

“If she was dying you should've let her die.”

“She's important to the founding of our world. If she died, there'd be no Koichi.”

“How do you know that? How do you know Destiny wouldn't have found some other way? There's another reason. You love her, don't you?”

Nyk looked at the floor. “Yes... a bit.”

“More than a bit!” Senta's lower lip was trembling. “How did you convince Dad to permit this?”

“Veska doesn't know. He thinks I brought an injured comm tech for treatment. We arrived via a diplomatic shuttle that didn't stop at the transit platform.”

“You lied to my dad!”

“I never lied to him. He asked me who was hurt, and I said someone on the relay station. Suki was on the station, so it wasn't a lie.”

“You misled him, tricked him into bringing your Earth lover here!”

“I saved a life. I'd have done it for a stranger.”

“No, you wouldn't. You know you wouldn't.” She glowered at him. “Get out. Get out of my apartment.”

“I have every right to be here.”

“Get out!” she screamed and advanced toward him. Nyk backed away from her. She lifted her hand to strike him. He turned and pressed the actuator. The door opened and he dashed into the corridor. It slid shut and latched.

He paced outside the apartment for a few moments then pressed his wrist to the scanpad. It read entry denied. He descended the lift to the tubecar platform, rode a tubecar back to the clinic and curled up for the night in a waiting room chair.

The clinic's morning bustle roused Nyk. His eyes were bleary from lack of decent sleep, his tongue felt fuzzy and he had a dull ringing in his ears. He went into the unisex restroom near the waiting area and purchased a single-use razor and some soap from a personal-care products vending machine, paying for it with a wristscan. He stood at a basin, lathered his face and began shaving his sparse beard.

Aahhn walked in, stood at a urinal and hiked up the front of his tunic. “Good morning, Nykkyo. I saw you sleeping in the waiting room. Your friend's out of danger. You've no need to mount a vigil for her.”

“Senta threw me out of the apartment last night.”

“Why would she do that?”

“She found one of Suki's hairs on my xarpa and put two and two together.”

Aahhn stifled a chuckle. “I've known Senta a long time. She may be many things, but dim-witted isn't one of them.”

“Certainly not,” Nyk replied.

Aahhn stood beside Nyk to wash his hands. “We took Sukiko down for some scans, to make sure there isn't any other neurological damage we need to treat. It turns out one of our neural imaging techs served an Agency tour on Earth about ten years ago. He still knows the language and was quite helpful. Sukiko is a very pleasant woman. She's also quite a beautiful one, in a different way. How common is her ... configuration on Earth?”

“Quite common,” Nyk replied. “There's amazing diversity on Earth, people of all shapes and colors. People with light skin, dark skin and every shade in between. One doesn't need much time there to realize how dull our world is in comparison. I love that planet.”

“I can't believe her eyes,” Aahhn said.

Nyk looked up at the ceiling. “Her eyes... I melt every time I gaze into her beautiful, dark eyes.”

“Nykkyo, I think I'm seeing what Senta must've seen last night. How deeply are you involved with this girl?”

“I love her more dearly than I've ever loved anyone. I love her more than life itself.”

“I'm going to give you some advice as an old friend, Nykkyo. Once she's recovered, take her back to Earth. Then you must disengage from her. A continued relationship with her can have only one outcome, and that's heartbreak for both of you.”

“My mind tells me I must do that, but my heart tells me something else.”

“Break it off now, Nyk. It'll only be more difficult with time. Some day, you'll return to Floran for good, and you'll have to leave her behind.”

“Maybe not. Maybe I'll go native. It's been done before.”

“I can't believe I'm hearing you say that.”

Nyk began washing the shaving detritus from his face. “Maybe I'll become an Agency career man.” He blotted his face on a fabric towel and tossed it into the laundry.

“That would effectively end your marriage with Senta.”

“That's if it's not effectively ended already.” Nyk tossed the spent razor into the waste reprocessor. “I do have options, Aahhn.”

“We're transferring Sukiko to a convalescence room on the 50th floor,” Aahhn said. “I'll ride the lift with you. She should be finished with her tests by now.” Nyk pressed his palm against Aahhn's and they laced fingers. He and Aahhn headed, holding hands, toward the lift.

Nyk followed Aahhn into Suki's room. He found her dozing on a pallet adjusted into a sitting position. She was dressed in a Floran tunic. Her room was spacious -- a sofa lined one wall and a low table sat before the sofa. A large window looked out on the city.

Aahhn picked up a handheld vidisplay and began poking its touchscreen. “Her scans were negative. She'll make a full recovery. We can discharge her as soon as her blood volume's at least seventy-five percent her own. That'll be a few days, yet.”

“Her color looks better.”

“Yes, she's doing well -- better than I expected when I first saw her.”

“What about her heart?”

“Nothing's presented itself yet. She's a very lucky woman.” Aahhn turned the vidisplay toward Nyk. “I have the psychomedic's report. I shouldn't be divulging this to you, but you're the closest to immediate family she has here. Dr Krulla believes she's not despondent and not imminently suicidal. Remember, though, this is her second suicide attempt. It says she's not completely stable and she's prone to depression and anxiety. Her profile is consistent with someone who was sexually molested as a child.”

“Oh, Aahhn -- I had no inkling.”

“She also has self-abusive tendencies.”

“How could Dr Krulla determine that? She never asked about it.”

“Sukiko suffers, or suffered, from bulimia nervosa.”

“Bulimia? What makes you think that?”

“On the knuckle of her right middle finger are some marks -- some scars -- characteristic of a bulimic. They're made by the front teeth.” Aahhn made a gesture to imitate cramming his hand down his throat. “The marks aren't fresh, so we're assuming she's a recovered bulimic.

Nyk looked down. “Suki never mentioned any of this to me...”

“She should be encouraged to seek whatever counseling is available on Earth. She's fragile emotionally, Nyk. There's little we can do to help her here. Since she doesn't appear to be an immediate hazard to herself, we have psychomedical clearance to discharge her. That leaves the blood as the only obstacle to sending her home. Please make sure she gets help once she's there.”

Nyk approached Suki and placed his hand on her forehead. “Good morning, stranger.”

She opened her eyes. “Bon'matina.” He hugged and kissed her. “Nykkyo, everyone's been so sweet and so considerate. I knew you were the sweetest, gentlest person I ever met. Now I see where it comes from.

“And look at this room. I've never seen a hospital room like this. It's more like a hotel.” She lifted the bedcover and swung her feet to the floor. He followed her to the window. “This city makes New York look like a small town. What's the population here?”

“Around seven hundred fifty million.”

“That's three times the population of the US! In one city!”

“About half our total population live in Floran City.”

“You tell me I'm a major figure leading up to the founding of all this. It's hard for me to believe, and it makes my petty concerns seem so self- absorbed.”

“Destiny traces for each of us a path we must follow. Your path leads, ultimately, here.”

“Then it was in your destiny to bring me here.”

“No, I'm afraid not. I believe it's possible for some outside event to interfere with your destiny. I believe my friendship has so interfered with yours. Who knows what might be if I wasn't your friend?”

“I'd still have been fired, and I still would've slit my wrists. Without you, I'd be dead.”

“Are you sure? How do you know you wouldn't have ... sat with someone else instead of me at lunch -- a visiting professor who offered you a fine position at another university, and you'd welcome being fired because it freed you from an obligation you no longer wanted?”

“I suppose that might have happened,” she said. “No one knows.”

“Might-haves don't count,” he replied. “I shouldn't have made you my friend. I should've