Somebody Else's Space Program
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Chapter Eighty Six
Adibud-Dha took a taste of wine from the squeeze-tube. Her eyebrow rose. "Better than I expected. Evyss takes care of you."
"He says it doesn't cost any more to send up good wine than bad. Station regulations means it's strictly rationed, of course." Ross waved toward a mesh-fronted cabinet filled with exotic foods in light-weight but durable wrappers. "Same with things like caviar and smoked oysters. Why send up mere corned beef?"
"For variety?"
Ross smiled and shrugged. "I suppose. But I have all manner of folk willing to do me favors in trade for a packet or two of non-standard rations. So I can get corned beef if I really want some."
She grinned at him. He thought about it for a minute, then, "No. Not that kind of favor. I _have_ a partner, even though I don't see him as often as I would like. Actually... I was looking over some of the possible applications of your equations."
"The reduced gravity."
"Yes. If that works, I could go home."
"If that works, we can have multi-gee ships for interplanetary travel. I'm still working on things."
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It was strange to feel gravity under him again, after two years in orbit. Adibud-Dha said, "I have it set for one-sixth right now."
Ross carefully pulled himself to his feet, holding on to a vertical. "My head's spinning a little bit. I never expected to be under gee again, so I didn't keep up all of the exercises."
"This wasn't the application you were interested in anyway. You wanted something that would reduce a standard gee to no more than the moon's."
Ross tried to walk around. A bit more success. "It looks like even that will be a bit more than I can readily handle. I didn't realize you were so far along with the actual mechanism."
"It wasn't me. I've got a really smart kid who attached himself to the project. Not much head for theory, but he can build things."
"So I see. I'd like to meet him."
She looked him up and down. "I'm not sure that's a good idea."
"Oh? Which one of us needs his virtue guarded? I'm not going to molest him, and _he_'s not going to have any interest in an old man."
"He doesn't see you as an old man. He has a poster of you standing next to the rocket with Theniol, before the first launch. That's who he's seeing."
"_That_ could be trouble," Ross agreed. "He knows about Envyss, I trust?"
"Yes, of course. Envyss is in the photograph. They've met, too -- your partner stops in every week or so to see how we're doing."
Standing up was suddenly just a little too much work, and Ross folded up gracefully and sat on the platform. "Ask Envyss to bring him up when he visits next."
"That should be a clear enough signal. Not that the youngster has any problem getting attention. If he were a girl, I would expect her to spend her life pregnant."
Ross smiled, and deliberately swept Adibud-Dha with the same appraising glance she had given him. She giggled. "He's not interested. Not in me, not in any of the younger women."
"I see. Is he bothering Envyss? My partner wouldn't mention something like that to me, but I certainly won't want to bring both of them up here if there is an unpleasantness."
"As far as I can tell, they get along well. But I'll ask."
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Tests of the new principle as a drive were disappointing. "I'm missing something in the equations."
Ross looked out the portal at the blue/white globe beneath him. "I was always more practical than theoretical. And Nat Drummond is gone these ten years." Ross turned away from the sight. "_That_ makes me feel old more than anything else -- losing more and more people I knew."
She drew the sun-shade across the view. "I lost most of my people when Akshobhya closed its borders. They were inside, and later... no trace. Ross, there are always new friends."
"I know. Except that in the middle of the night, the ghosts outnumber the living."
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The compartment was both bedroom and lounge, with a curtain secured across both ends of the doorway for minimal privacy. "Dr. Colburn?"
Ross was sure that the kid was only barely twelve, certainly not old enough to be... no, Adibud-Dha had only said "no problem getting attention." She hadn't actually said anything about bed-mates.
What no one had bothered to mention was that he was almost a bleached blond, a far cry from the dark-haired hruss. "Baldridge, sir. Frank Baldridge," offering his hand.
Accents of home. But in trouble there if he preferred other men as company already. "How did you end up with the hruss?"
He grinned, "I ran off. Your people have a better space program, anyway. That's where I wanted to be." He looked around, pushed off from the bulkhead. "_This_ is where I want to be." He anchored himself on the opposite wall, not bothering to align to a vertical.
"If you stay up here, _this_ turns into a prison that you can never leave."
"With all of the universe at my front door, why would I ever want to go back _there_?"
Well, he certainly had the space bug. "There are reasons."
And, perfectly timed, Envyss's voice in the corridor. "All right, I left him here _somewhere_... Ross, do you have a guest?"
"Yes. He's just introduced himself."
Envyss slid the curtain aside far enough to enter the room. A slight push-off from the wall, and into his partner's arms.
A long kiss, and a longer hug. Ross was startled at the amount of grey that had appeared in Envyss's hair since he had been up last. "Oh, that? I decided to stop hiding it. It keeps some of the pursuit away."
Ross shot a look at Frank. Envyss shook his head. Softly, "No. He's never even offered. I don't know _what_ he wants... except space. And that we can understand all too well."
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The loose clothing that Envyss favored didn't work quite as well in microgravity, so he was wearing standard coveralls, with the rose-on-blue patch where other would usually have a department designation. Ross smiled when he noticed. "Still?"
"Always. Its ashes will be mixed with mine, when the time comes." A sad smile, "If they recover a body. That's not guaranteed, coming up here."
"If you're wearing the badge at the time, does it matter?"
"Only if they recover most of the pieces but not all." Envyss laughed at the expression on Frank's face. "No, I don't expect to be blown to bits. I've been riding these things since before they were anything but experimental." Envyss shifted to hold Ross in his arms, both of them facing Frank. "Tell Ross what you've been working on."
Frank launched into an explanation, but Ross was distracted by something poking him in the lower back. Envyss started giggling in Ross's ear, which didn't help. "Frank, I'm sorry, this is going to have to wait."
Frank grinned but didn't blush, surprising Ross. "Where should I wait?"
"I showed you where you'll be staying. Wait there."
"Done. Anything I should do to the door to..."
"I'll take care of it. Get."
---
"If he gets it working, I can come up here every few days."
"Or I can move back downstairs. That would be nice. There are only three dozen people up here -- I've heard all of their stories, over and over. And listened to them gripe about their love-lives... for some reason, I'm a great confidant."
"Because you aren't in the same game? I think it's because you radiate a feeling of peace -- that there aren't any problems that can't be dealt with. So they can think things through."
"That's not always the best thing for a love affair."
"Oh? How would you know?" Envyss shifted in Ross's arms, took Ross's face carefully in his hands. "I love you dearly, but I don't think you've ever raked yourself over the coals the way other people do. You're too rational. You never had love affairs, you just had the occasional bed-mate."
"What about you?"
"I've been in love since I was two years old. And the only doubts I ever had were before I actually landed you. And no regrets, ever. So I'm not one to ask, either."
"_Do_ you get asked, for advice?"
"Sometimes. I can't help them, though. Their problems don't make any sense to me. Especially the ones that fight with a lover."
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