He heard her gasp with shock. “Defect? Leave Russia forever? Turn your back on your own people, your own nation?”
“I don’t want to do that, but…”
“They’d kill you, Kirill Vasilovsk.” Maria’s voice was metal-hard, as matter-of-fact as an automatic pistol. “I’d kill you myself before I’d let you do that to us.”
When Stoner looked up from the work on his desk he saw that out beyond his window it was night. Even through the panes, though, the shimmering, beckoning lights made the sky dance.
He glanced at his wristwatch, then on impulse reached for the phone. It took a few minutes to track her down through the island’s central switchboard, but finally he heard Jo’s voice:
“Hello?”
“It’s Keith Stoner, Jo.”
“Oh. Hello, Keith.”
Suddenly he felt schoolboy awkward. “Um…have you had your dinner yet?”
“An hour ago.”
“Oh.”
“Are you still at your office?”
“Yeah. There’s a lot to do…”
“And you haven’t had anything to eat since lunch?”
“No.”
She said, “Well, you’d better get down to Pete’s place. He’s the only one who stays open after nine. I’ll meet you there.”
“But you said you’ve already eaten.”
She hesitated only a second. “I’ll have some dessert with you. Okay?”
“Sure. Fine.”
An hour later, as they left the seedy restaurant, Jo said:
“Remind me to stick to Jell-O next time.”
“The cake was no good?” he asked.
“It must have been left here by the Japs after World War Two, it was so stale.”
He laughed.
Automatically they walked across the empty street, between buildings, heading for the beach. They walked side by side, not touching, but close enough for Stoner to feel the warmth of her. Jo was wearing a dress, a light sleeveless flowered frock that caught the warm, scented sea breeze.
“Keith…answer a question for me?”
“If I can,” he said.
“Why is this rendezvous mission so important to you? I mean, why do you have to make the flight?”
He looked down at her. “Christ, Jo, you ought to understand that. You’d feel the same way, wouldn’t you?”
“I do feel the same way,” she said earnestly. “But I don’t understand why. What’s driving us? Why do you have to go? Why do I want to go?”
He thought about it as they stepped clear of the buildings and out under the trees that fringed the beach. The sand lay white and warm, the surf murmured distantly to them.
Finally, Stoner answered, “It’s my career, Jo. The path I’ve chosen. The work I do.”
“No,” she said. “There’s more to it than that. It’s not a job, it’s…it’s a drive. A fierceness to get into space and leave everything else behind.”
“I’ve got nothing to keep me here,” he said. Then, before she could reply, he added, “Except you.”
Jo put a hand on his arm. “But even…no, Keith, that’s not true. You still want to go out there and meet this alien visitor, no matter what, don’t you?”
“Of course.”
“Why? Why does it have to be you, personally?”
“Because I want to know,” he said with quiet ferocity. “That’s what every scientist wants—to know, to discover, to be the first to uncover a new piece of knowledge, a new chunk of territory.”
“But you could learn that even if somebody else goes on the mission,” she said.
“Not the same! I want to touch it with my own hands, see it with my own eyes. Like a caveman, Jo. Like Doubting Thomas from the Bible. I’ve got to see it for myself. That’s the bang of it. The drive.”
She stared up at his face as they walked along the beach. The sky was lit by the aurora, gleaming, dancing, calling.
“Think about all the people you know,” Stoner said to her. “How many of them realize that the atoms of their bodies were created inside distant stars? We’re all stardust, every one of us. Every atom of your body, Jo, was built up inside a star, eons ago. We’re part of the universe, kid. It’s inescapable.”
She laughed softly. “There’s a poet inside you, somewhere.”
“Maybe,” he admitted. “But there’s a practical side to all this, too. Down here, I’m just another astrophysicist. An overtrained specialist in a field that’s filled with men and women who’re better trained, younger and brighter than I am. I’m only a mediocre scientist, at best.”
“Now you’re being modest.”
“I know my limitations. I’ll never get close to a Nobel Prize or a fat fellowship. I’ll plug along and teach at some second-rate university in total obscurity.”
“Unless…”
“Unless the space program opens up again.” He jabbed a thumb skyward. “I’m good up there. I can lead a team of engineers and scientists. I know both ends of the job and I’m not afraid of living inside a pressure suit at zero gravity.”
“I don’t think I’d be afraid, either.”
Grinning, “No, I don’t think you would, Jo. It’s our milieu, or ecological niche. That’s where my career lies, and maybe yours, too. That’s where we can make the best contributions to the human race’s storehouse of knowledge.”
“And that’s where the alien is.”
“Yes. Like a godsend. We can’t let him pass us by without making contact with him.”
“Or her,” Jo kidded.
“It,” he said.
Jo laughed and suddenly kicked off her sandals. “Come on, take those shoes off, Keith Stoner. Break down and have fun for once in your life.”
He frowned at her. “I have fun…”
“You call chopping boards with your hands fun?” And she dashed away from him, down along the beach, bare feet splashing in the lapping waves.
Stoner watched her for a few moments, then bent down and yanked off his shoes and socks, nearly tumbling onto the sand as he hopped on one foot to finish the job. Then he raced after her, under the glowing sky.
He splashed along the waters of the lagoon, laughing as he caught up with her. Grabbing her by the wrist, Stoner hauled her along at his pace until she shrieked with breathless laughter and they both collapsed onto the shining sand.
“Keith, you’re not fair,” she panted. “Your legs…are so much longer…”
“Oh, jeez, you make me feel like a kid again, Jo. You make me forget everything else and want to play.”
He raised himself up on one elbow and lifted her head toward him. Jo wound her arms around his neck and felt his hands caressing her, warm, strong hands against her bare skin. She could hear the pulsing beat of the distant surf against the reef, but it was quickly lost in the thunder of her own heart. Eagerly they pulled their clothes off and she pressed her naked body against his, wanting him, wanting all of him inside her. She clutched his hair and stifled the scream of ecstasy inside her by pressing her lips against his.
Then they lay side by side, spent, watching the shimmering curtains of pastel lights that flickered across the sky while the warm, tideless waves of the calm lagoon lapped at their feet.
Jo turned her head on the sand and saw Keith staring a million miles off into that sky.
He forgot everything else for such a little while, she thought sadly. Such a little while.
The Kremlin
“And why is the General Secretary not present?” asked the Minister of Industrial Production.
Borodinski, seated at the head of the long, polished table, replied, “He is indisposed. He asked me to preside over this meeting in his place.”
They glanced at each other uneasily. Of the sixteen places around the table, five were conspicuously empty. Their usual occupants would never see the inside of the Kremlin again.