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were no towels, so she was squatting naked by the fire when Gene put his arms
around her.
She jumped, scattering burning twigs, and pushed his hands away from her b
reasts.
"Hey, stop that." She struggled, and broke away. He was not at all abashed.
"Come on, Rocky, it's not like we've never touched each other before."
"Yeah? Well, I don't like people sneaking up on me. Keep your hands to your
self."
He looked exasperated. "Is it going to be like that? What am I supposed t o do
with two naked women running around?"
Cirocco reached for her clothes.
"I didn't know the sight of naked women made you lose control of yourself. I'
ll bear it in mind."
"Now you're angry."
"No, I'm not angry. We're going to have to live close for some time, and it w
ouldn't do to get angry." She pressed the fasteners of her shirt and eyed him
warily for a moment, then repaired the fire, careful to sit facing him.
"You're angry anyway. I didn't mean anything by it. "
"Just don't grab me, is all."
"I'd send you roses and candy, but it's a little impractical."
She smiled, and relaxed a little. It sounded more like the old Gene, which was
an improvement over what she had seen in his eyes a moment ago.
"Listen, Gene. We didn't make the greatest pair back on the ship, and you know
i t. I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I still feel dirty. All I can say is, if I
feel re ady for anything, I'll let you know."
"Fair enough."
Neither of them said anything as Cirocco built the fire bigger, carefully
keepin g it on the little shelf they had dug into the dirt.
"Are you . . . do you and Gaby have something going?" She flushed, hoping it
wasn't visible in the firelight. "That's none of your business."
"I always thought she was gay underneath," he said, nodding. "I didn't think
you were."
She took a deep breath and looked at him narrowly. The darting shadows rev
ealed nothing on his blond-bearded face.
"Are you deliberately needling me? I said it was none of your business."
"If you weren't queer for her, you'd have just said no." What was the matte r
with her? she wondered. Why was he making her skin crawl? Gene had always
operated by his own bonehead logic when it came to people. His bigotry was
carefully suppressed and socially acceptable, or he would never have been
chosen for the trip to Saturn. He blundered cheerfully through his relation
ships, genuinely surprised when people took offence at his tactlessness. It
was a common-enough personality, so well controlled, according to his psyc
hological profile, as to barely qualify as an eccentricity.
So why did she feel so uncomfortable when he looked at her? "I'd better set y
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
ou straight so you don't hurt Gaby. She's fallen in love with me. It has some
thing to do with the isolation; I was the first person she saw afterward, and
she developed this fixation. I think she'll grow out of it because she's nev
er been significantly homosexual before. Nor heterosexual, for that matter."
"She covered it up," he suggested. "what year is this? Nineteen-fifty? You
astonish me, Gene. You don't hide anything from those NASA tests. She had a
homosexual affair, sure. I had one, and so did you. I read your dossier
. You want me to tell you how old you were when it happened?"
"I was just a kid. The point is, I could tell about her when we made love. No
reaction, you know? I'll bet it's not like that when you two make it."
"We don't-" She stopped herself, wondering how she had been drawn in as fa r
as she was.
"This conversation is over. I don't want to talk about it, and besides, Gaby's
coming back."
Gaby approached the fire and dropped a net full of fruit at Cirocco's side.
She squatted, looked thoughtfully back and forth between the two of them, th
en stood up and put on her clothes.
"Are my ears burning, or is it my imagination?" Neither Gene nor Cirocco s
poke, and Gaby sighed.
"Here we go again. I think I'm starting to agree with the folks who say man
ned space missions cost more than they're worth."
The fifth day took them irrevocably into night. There was now only the ghost
ly light reflected by the day areas curving up on each side. It was not much
, but it was enough.
The ground was noticeably steeper, with a thinner layer of dirt. often they
walked on the warm, bare strands, which provided surer traction. They bega n
tying themselves together, and were careful to see that two were always h
anging on while the other climbed.
Even here the plant life of Gaea had not given up. Massive trees splayed root
s flat to the cable, sending out runners that scrambled into the surface and
hung on tenaciously. The effort of wresting a living from such uninviting ter
rain had robbed them of beauty. They were gaunt and lonely, their trunks tran
s- lucent with a pale inner light, their leaves the, merest wisps of nothing.
In places, the roots could be used as ladders.
At the end of the day they had come seventy kilometers in a straight line, and
were fifty kilometers nearer the hub. The trees had thinned enough for them to
see they had climbed above the level of the roof, well on their way into the
narrowing wedge of space between the cable and the bell-shaped mo uth of the
Rhea spoke. They could look back and see Hyperion spread out bel ow, as though
they rode on a kite tied to a monster string tethered in the rocky knot called
the place of winds.
They saw the glitter of the glass castle early on the sixth day. Cirocco and G
aby crouched in a tangle of tree roots and scanned it as Gene carried the rope
to the foot of the structure.
"Maybe that's the place," Cirocco said.
"You mean your elevator lobby?" Gaby snorted. "If that's it, I'd as soon ride
a roller coaster with paper rails."
It looked something like an Italian hill town, but made of spun sugar, a mill
ion years old, and half melted. Domes and bal- conies, arches, flying buttres
ses, battlements, and terraced roofs perched on a jutting shelf and dripped o
ver the edge like syrup poured over a waffle and quick-frozen. Tall towers
jutted at all angles: penci ls in a cup. They were tall and spindly. In the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]