Starship Fall (Starship Seasons, #2)(8)

“But what’s she doing on Chalcedony?” Maddie asked.

“That I didn’t get round to discussing.”

Matt laughed. “You can ask her the next time she invites you round for a drink, David.”

I returned his laugh with a hollow version of my own and concentrated on the passing scenery. What I’d neglected to tell my friends was that, immediately after she’d extinguished the ghosts of her past, she had taken my hand and dragged me towards a nearby sofa. There, she’d traced a long finger down my cheek and asked me if I realised what a handsome man I was. Fortunately, as she leaned towards me with predatory lips, she’d lost consciousness and collapsed back against the cushions, and then I had fled.

Now I recalled that Hawk had known one of her old lovers. I said, “Did you ever meet Carlotta when you knew... what was his name, the pilot?”

“Grainger,” Hawk said. “No – he talked about her plenty, but I never met the woman. I only knew Grainger briefly. We flew a couple of missions together.” He lapsed into silence.

I watched the shola trees flicker past, thought about last night, and tried to work out my reluctance to get involved with Carlotta Chakravorti-Luna. There was no denying that she was beautiful, and famous, and no doubt rich – and many a man would have fallen at her feet, given the opportunity. But I think I saw her as an unwelcome interruption of a contented life; I was happy for the first time in years, and Luna, with her complicated past and twisted emotional freight, would have been an unnecessary burden.

Beside me, Maddie said, “A penny for them, David.”

I decided to come clean. “Before I left last night, Luna made a pass at me – then collapsed. I was just wondering why I don’t want anything to do with her.”

Maddie regarded me, and with her usual perceptiveness said, “It’s because you haven’t had a relationship for over five years, David, and you’re afraid she’d find you wanting.”

I opened my mouth to protest, then shut it and smiled.

That morning, before setting off, Matt had rung around every car-hire franchise in MacIntyre, asking if they’d rented a vehicle at any time in the past five days to a single female Ashentay. He’d drawn a blank at a dozen places, and then struck lucky. A small firm on the edge of town had hired out an off-road bison to a native, two days ago. Which meant that Kee would have already reached the sacred site.

One hour later we turned off the highway and took a winding minor road through the rucked foothills. Ahead, the central massifs were scintillating facets of purple rock topped by snow, their lower slopes cloaked in jungle.

As we drove, I thought about Hawk and the alien girl. Many human relationships were hard to fathom, but trying to work out the mutual attraction between a fifty-five year-old space pilot and an alien almost half his age was impossible. It was easy to be glib about it and see what Hawk saw in Kee: she was, after all, young and pretty in a fey, elfish kind of way. As to what she saw in him... I’d once asked her about her relationship with Hawk (I was drunk at the time) and she’d merely smiled and said, “Hawk is a good man. In the words of my people, he and I are k’oto.” And when I asked what that meant, in English, she had merely smiled again and shook her head gently. “There is no word in English, David.”

But I saw how Hawk and Kee behaved together, and I could not doubt their love.

We climbed. The road became twistier, and the drop to our left took on a frightening aspect. I’d never been good with heights and I tried not to look. This far inland the vegetation was spectacular compared to the littoral flora of the bay. We passed great multi-coloured blooms that looked like fireworks made flesh, riotous fountains of sparkling leaf and bud. The open-top car was flooded with a heady, honeyed scent.

Maddie pointed far ahead, beyond the mountains. Through the mist, we could just make out the effulgence of the Yall’s golden column, the alien construct which, until five years ago and our discovery, had remained one of the Expansion’s greatest mysteries.

Maddie said, “It doesn’t seem like five years, does it? Do you know something, I never thought we’d survive intact, as a group of friends, after all the media interest.”

“What?” I looked at her. “Did you think we’d be lured by all the offers, the money? The fame?”

She smiled. “When Hawk decided to pilot a ship through the column to the stars... I thought that was the start of the break-up. And then the film offers came in.”

“Which we all refused to have anything to do with,” I pointed out.

“Yes, and how I loved you all for telling the money men to go stuff themselves!” Maddie said. “Little did we realise that the unauthorised film would be so terrible…”

Hawk turned in his seat. “But how do you think the experience did change us?”

“Well,” I said, “we all learned something about ourselves, didn’t we? We grew. I think we became stronger. Happier. I know I did.”

Maddie reached forward and mussed Matt’s hair. “And I found the man of my dreams, didn’t I, deary?”

Matt just laughed.

“And I found I could pilot again,” Hawk said. “Strange thing was, after a few trips out-there, that was enough. To know that I could do it. What mattered was what I had here on Chalcedony, my friends, and Kee.”