It looks like one of those Mediterranean towns, Pancho thought. The village in the distance was set on the gentle slope of a grassy hill, overlooking a shimmering blue lake. Like the Amalfi coast in Italy. Like a picture out of a travel brochure. This is what a perfect Mediterranean countryside would look like. She made out farmlands farther in the distance, square little fields of fresh bright green, and more villages of whitewashed buildings dotting the gently rolling hills. There was no horizon. Instead, the land simply curved up and up, hills and grass and trees and more little villages with their paved pathways and sparkling streams, up and up on all sides until she was craning her neck to look straight overhead at still more of the carefully, lovingly landscaped greenery.
“This is better’n any of the Lagrange point habitats,” Pancho told her sister. “This is beautiful.”
“It has to be,” Wanamaker said matter-of-factly, “for people to make it their permanent home.”
Pancho shook her head in wonderment and uttered a heartfelt “Wow.”
Holly beamed at them. “And I’m in charge of the human resources department.”
“Really?” Pancho asked.
“F’real, Panch.”
They dispatched Wanamaker to find the quarters that he and Pancho had been assigned to while Holly led her sister to her own apartment.
“Home sweet home,” Holly announced, as she ushered Pancho into her sitting room.
“Nice,” said Pancho, taking in the sparse furniture and minimal decorations. The place looked tidy and had that citrusy, almost antiseptic tang of a recent cleaning. She’s tidied up the place for me, Pancho thought, as she asked, “Are those smart walls?”
“You bet. I can program them to show almost anything you want.” Holly went to the desk in the corner and picked up a remote control wand. One entire wall of the room suddenly showed a real-time image of Saturn and its spectacular rings.
“Whoosh!” Pancho exclaimed. “It’s almost like being outside.”
“Sit.” Holly gestured toward the small sofa. “I’ll get us something cold to drink.”
Pancho sat on an upholstered chair while her sister went into the kitchen. Well, if she’s clanked up about me dropping in on her, Pancho thought, she sure doesn’t show it. She looks really glad to see me. Hope I didn’t embarrass her too much, sockin’ that Eberly creep.
“The walls don’t have voice recognition circuits?” she asked.
“Turned it off,” Holly called from the kitchen. “Too sensitive. Can’t hold a conversation without the walls thinking you’re talking to them.”
Pancho chuckled to herself as she pictured the wall screens flashing through a kaleidoscope of pictures while people chatted with one another.
From around the kitchen partition, Holly brought in a tray holding two tall frosted glasses and put it down on the coffee table, then sat beside her sister on the sofa.
“You’re lookin’ really good, kid,” Pancho said with a beaming smile. “Really good.”
“You too,” Holly replied guardedly.
Anyone would have recognized at a glance that they were sisters. Both women were tall and rangy: long, leggy and slim. Their skin color was slightly darker than a well-tanned Caucasian’s. Both their faces were sharp-featured, with flaring cheekbones and square, stubborn chins. Their eyes were the same dark brown, bright with intelligence and wit. Pancho had let her hair go entirely white and kept it cropped into a tight skullcap. Holly’s hair was still dark and cut in the latest spiky fashion.
“Is Eberly really the chief administrator for this whole habitat?” Pancho asked, reaching for one of the glasses.
“All ten thousand of us,” Holly replied. “He won a free and fair election.”
“But he was involved with those fanatics who tried to kill you. How can—”
“That’s all in the past, Panch. And he did try to stop them, y’know. Not very effectively,’ course, but he did try.”
Almost sheepishly, Pancho said, “Guess I shouldn’t have decked him.”
Holly giggled. “He sure looked surprised.”
Pancho grinned back at her and took a sip of her drink. Fruit juice. Good. Susie had done more than her share of booze and drugs. Pancho hoped Holly was different.
“Panch, why’d you come all the way out here?” Tension showed in the tone of Holly’s voice, in the sudden stiffness of her body.
“To spend the holidays with you, of course,” Pancho answered, trying to make it sound warm, natural. “You’re the only family I’ve got.”
Holly tried to unbend. “I mean, what do you intend to do here? This habitat isn’t a tourist resort, y’know.”
Pancho’s smile dimmed a little. “Listen, sis, I’m a rich woman, a retired multimillionaire. I got a terrific guy living with me, and we can go anywhere in the solar system we want. I decided to come out here and see how you’re doin’.”
“I’m fine.”
“Don’t be a shit-kicker, kid. I’m not here to pry into your life or try to tell you what to do. You’re a big girl now, Sooze, and I wouldn’t—”
“My name isn’t Susan anymore,” Holly snapped. “Hasn’t been for years.”
Pancho grimaced. “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. Just slipped out.”
“And if you’re still worried about me and Malcolm Eberly, you can stop worrying. That’s over. Never got started, really.”
“I should think so, after what he did to you.”
“Not him, really. His friends. They tried to take over the habitat. It got a little rough for a while.”
“But it’s all over now?”
“His friends were shipped back Earthside. Malcolm’s the chief of the habitat’s government.”
Pancho’s brows rose. “I thought Professor Wilmot was in charge.”
“Not anymore. We set up our own constitution and government and all that soon’s we reached Saturn orbit.”
“And Eberly was elected to head it?”
“That’s right.”
“I wonder if he’ll take any action against me for sockin’ him.”
Holly thought a moment, then shook her head. “If he’d wanted to, he’d’ve got the security guards to take you into custody right there and then.”
“You think?”
“Yep.” Holly’s grin broke out again. “He knows he deserved what you gave him.”
Pancho grinned back at her. “You know the old saying about Hungarians?”
“Hungarians?”
“If you meet a Hungarian on the street, kick him. He’ll know why.”
The sisters laughed together, long and loud and unforced. But then Holly asked, “How long’re you going to stay?”
“Jeeps, kid, I just got here! Give me enough time to unpack my bags, huh?”
Frowning, Holly said, “I didn’t mean it that way, Panch. It’s just … well, I don’t need a mother hen anymore. I’ve been on my own for more’n three years now.”
Pancho grinned at her. “And you don’t want your pain-in-the-butt big sister lookin’ over your shoulder. Can’t say I blame you.”
Shifting her tactics a bit, Holly asked, “So who’s this guy you came with?”
“Jake Wanamaker?” Pancho’s grin turned mischievous. “Former admiral in the U.S. Navy. Headed military operations for Astro during the fighting out in the Belt.”
“You’re living with a sailor?”
“He’s my bodyguard.”
Holly looked at her sister for a long moment, then they both burst into laughter again.