Earthbound by DM Arnold (read book .TXT) 📕

to select the largest and clearest crystals. He carried a large polymer fiber bag of raw diamonds to the groundcar and climbed in. By now the dune should be cleared, he figured. “Car, the Residence ... confirmed -- car, go.” The groundcar pulled onto the roadway and headed toward the east.

Nyk walked into the kitchen and opened a cold breakfast package. The vidisplay signaled a call. He scanned his wrist and saw Veska.

“Nykkyo, Senta hasn't heard from you in twenty days.”

“Nor have I from her.”

“Hasn't this gone on long enough?”

“Why don't you ask her that?”

“Don't you think it's time to return to her?”

“You can ask her that, too. Veska, Senta left me, not the other way around. She left me stranded here without transportation. Since she did the leaving, she should do the returning.”

“Nyk, I know I shouldn't interfere with how a man and his wife manage their relationship.”

“But you will, in this case. You're hardly an impartial arbiter.”

“It pains me to see Senta unhappy.”

“I'm not sure she is unhappy. I don't think she misses me as much as she misses her control over me.”

“I'm calling to negotiate a truce between you two. Senta will have you back if you give up the Earth woman.”

“I can't give her up. I don't have her. She's two hundred light-years away, and I'm stuck here for at least two years if not forever.”

“Give up your love for her.”

“You might as well ask me to give up breathing. I can't turn on or off how I feel for someone. I'll always love Suki, even if I can't have her. You can't ask me to give up my love for her.”

“I'm not asking you. Senta is.”

“Veska, what do you know of forbidden love?”

“More than you might imagine, Nykkyo.”

“Ask Senta how she'd feel if I insisted she give up Andra as my terms to return to her.”

“Is that one of your requirements?”

“No ... I don't care if she has Andra as a friend. I don't care if she has her as a lover. I won't give up my love for Suki.”

“Then we're at an impasse.”

“Senta's at the impasse.”

“I'll speak to her some more. To be frank, Nykkyo ... I think you're right. I don't see how your fondness for your Earth friend injures Senta. But ... I can't take that posture.” The vidisplay went blank.

Nyk walked out, onto the bluff and down to a shallow, bowl-shaped depression lined with black sand. He stretched out on the sand, laced his fingers behind his head and gazed at the indigo sky. Recollections of his childhood came to him -- his boyhood days in the house; how he had little to do but walk the beach and lie looking up at the sky. It was all he wanted to do. But that was then.

He arose, returned to the house and picked up a datacel containing the original Esperanto of Koichi's journal.

The setting sun sent shafts of bronze light through the open structure. Nyk sat at a vidisplay putting the finishing touches on his translation of Koichi's journal. He worked while munching some snack wafers. An incoming vidphone call interrupted him. He scanned his wrist.

“Oh, Nykkyo!” Suki looked at him through the circuit. He could see dismay on her face. “I'm pregnant!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I'm sure.”

“I was expecting this, in a way.”

“I was expecting this, too. I've been sweating bullets for the past three weeks, ever since the...” She stroked away a tear. “I missed my last period. I never miss periods -- I'm never even late! A couple days ago I took one of those home pregnancy tests, and the results were positive. Yesterday, Mom took me to the doctor. They called this afternoon with the results -- confirmed.”

“What will you do?”

“I don't know. I should've taken the morning-after pill. What do you think I should do?”

“I shouldn't advise you,” he said.

“Mom thinks I should have an abortion.”

“Do you think so?”

“I don't know that, either. I know what you say about destiny, and maybe this is my destiny. But I don't think I have the strength to go through with it. I wish you were here. I'm scared, Nykkyo. I wish we didn't have to be apart. I so long to feel you hold me. You have a way of holding me that makes the hurt and the fear go away.”

Nyk kissed his fingers and placed them against the vidisplay camera. Suki did the same. “That helps, Nykkyo. It's like we're reaching across the lightyears. Mom made an appointment for me at the clinic. It's in two weeks, Monday at two.”

“Appointment for what?” he asked.

“To have the abortion. Mom thinks it's the right way. We know nothing of the kid who raped me. We don't know his medical history or if there are genetic problems. It would set back my career. I'd feel fraudulent applying for a job knowing I'm pregnant. And then I'll have a baby to care for...”

“Those sound like reasons a mother would give. Is that how you see it?”

“I don't know... I guess I do see it that way. It'd be so much easier if I heard you say you see it that way, too.”

“I'm not sure it's right.”

“Do you have abortions on Floran?”

“Yes, but they're very rare. Our people plan families with great care. We have no choice, the fertility control policy ensures it. Make sure it's your choice, Suki, and not your mother's.”

“You're right, Nykkyo. Good night, and I love you.” The vidphone session terminated.

Nyk pressed his hand to his eyes. “Destiny wants her child,” he muttered. “I displaced the man who was to be in her life. Destiny needs her child. I can't be the father, so Destiny sent the rapist to her. Oh, Suki, will you understand? Will you ever forgive me?”

He stood and looked out to the west. He could see the tops of Sudal's tallest buildings silhouetted in the ruby disk of the setting sun. “Destiny must have your child, Suki. Don't ... don't terminate the pregnancy!” He paced around the living room and stopped to gaze at the sea. “Two weeks. Ten Floran days.”

Nyk sat at a vidisplay and composed a telemessage. He returned to his work on the journal, his mind wandering to Suki. The sun had set and the house's ambient lighting came on. He stood looking into the dark toward the east.

The vidisplays signaled a call. He answered and saw Veska. “Nykkyo, what do you want? Are you ready to talk about Senta?”

“No -- I need transportation to Earth.”

“Whatever for? It can't be Agency business.”

“It's personal business.”

“Nykkyo, if you were on active status, I couldn't refuse your request. Since you're suspended, I must get approval from your superior.”

“There's no other way?”

“No way, Nyk.” Veska's eyes narrowed. “You're not trying to arrange an assignation with your Earth woman, are you?”

“No -- not an assignation. Please, Veska -- it's important. I'm your friend and son. Remember?”

His father-in-law regarded him through the circuit. “I remember you were, once.” The vidphone session terminated.

Nyk entered Seymor's locator code. The session activated. “Hello, Nykkyo. To what do I owe this honor?”

“Seymor, I need to travel to Earth on personal business.”

He chuckled. “Lad, I salute your audacity. Your request is, I'm afraid, out of the question.”

“Aren't there any assurances I can give you?”

“Nyk, I'd love to have you here. But if word got back to my superiors that I authorized transit for you, they'd have my head on a platter. If there's nothing else...”

“No, Seymor.” The session went blank.

Nyk paced around the main living level, then composed and transmitted another telemessage. He went into his bedroom, slipped out of his tunic and lay on his bed. The night land breeze was wafting through the open house and he could hear the surf washing against the rocks at the base of the bluff. He laced his fingers behind his head and tried to relax.

Thoughts of Suki swirled through his mind. Could Destiny find another way? Doubts plagued him. This is the child -- of that he was sure. He couldn't drive these thoughts from his mind, and the more he thought, the more agitated he became.

He rose, headed for the storage room and rummaged through trays of drugs. His fingers touched a sleep aid cartridge. He picked up an injector, flipped it open, cocked the roller and loaded the cartridge. Back in his bedroom, he sat on the bed and jabbed the needle into his thigh. A touch of the trigger released the roller and sent the drug into his muscle. He stretched out and an unsatisfying sleep spread over him.

Nyk arose and found a cold breakfast in the storage room. The vidisplay called him from his meal. He pressed his right wrist to the scanpad.

“Nykkyo, what a surprise!”

His caller raised his left hand, pressed the heel of it to the vidphone camera and Nyk reciprocated. Nyk stroked his left wrist. Beneath his thumb was a mark Zander made. He recalled a day, years ago, when he and Zander were no older than thirteen each. They were sitting on the beach below the bluff.

“Are you ready to bond?” Zander had asked him. Nyk looked down at a scalpel, a bottle of healing salve and a polypack containing tiny silicone beads used for cosmetic scarification, a fad at the time.

Zander grasped the scalpel and Nyk presented his wrist. “You must cut deep but not too deep,” Zander said as he made an inch-long incision beneath Nyk's thumb. The wound oozed blood and Nyk began to feel lightheaded. “You're not going to pass out on me, are you?” Zander made a second, small cut adjacent to the first. He picked up some beads and pushed them into the cuts. Healing salve Zander dropped onto the wounds closed them over the beads, leaving two permanent bumps in Nyk's skin.

“Now, you do me.” Zander handed Nyk the scalpel and turned his left wrist toward him. Nyk held the blade above Zander's wrist and hesitated. “Come on, don't be a coward!” Zander chided him. “If you can't make the cut, I will.”

Nyk could feel his pulse pounding in his neck. He drove the blade into Zander's flesh and worked in the beads. Healing salve closed the wounds and he and Zander washed away the blood with seawater. Then Zander tapped his fresh scars against Nyk's. “This will be our greeting ritual.”

Later, after Zander had left by groundcar for his home in Sudal, Nyk's mother called him into the Residence for dinner. Nyk and his mother frequently dined by themselves as his father often worked late. His mother pointed to the scars on his wrist. “How did you come by those?”

He looked at his wrist. “I ... I fell against some rocks on the beach, and scraped myself.”

“Nykkyo, how many times have I told you not to climb on the rocks? What if you had fallen and hit your head? You could lie there half a day before someone missed you and came looking for you. You're not to go on the rocks by yourself.”

“But Mom -- Zander was with me.”

“Zander Baxa! That boy is trouble. I wish you'd make a few new friends...”

“I received your telemessage,” Zander said. “What can I do for you?”

“I need transit to Earth, on personal business. I can't get there through normal procedures.”

“Yes, I heard about you smuggling that Earth woman onworld. I'm sure you're at the top of the Agency's shit list. That act earned you some of my respect, Nyk.”

“You're a Service career man, Zander. You know your way around the Agency. I thought you might have some ideas.”

“Right. A good operative won't let a few regulations or red tape get in his way. When do you need transit?”

“Nine days ... Or, sooner. I must be in New York before next Monday noon.”

“Perhaps I can be of some help. I'm finishing up some business on Altia, and I'll be returning to Floran City on dot-197. Why don't you stop at my apartment and we'll discuss.”

Nyk walked out of the Residence and pressed a control on the exterior panel. The storm shutters slammed down and the house went into a slumber. He loaded his travel case into the groundcar, climbed in and directed it to the train station.

After disembarking the train at Floran City, Nyk ordered a tubecar and rode it to the apartment building. He took the lift to the 353rd floor and pressed his wrist to the scanpad outside the apartment door. It read: “entry denied.”

He pressed the doorchime. He pressed it again. The door unlatched and slid open. He walked in. “Senta, I'm just here to get some...” It dawned on him he was looking into a pair of pale blue eyes.

“Who's there, Andra?” he heard Senta call from the bedroom. She walked out wearing her robe, untied