A Planned Improvisation (13 page)

“That was all?” Melise asked wonderingly.

“What more did we need?” Iris countered.

“It was beautiful,” Marisea told Melise. “Iris looked at Park and said, ‘You. Me. Us. We’re married’ and Park responded, ‘You. Me. Us. From now on.’” She sighed at the memory.

“Oh!” Melise gasped, “That is lovely! You’re so lucky to have been able to choose.”

“Are you having second thoughts?” Iris asked.

“Not at all!” Melise denied instantly. “I always knew I would have no choice of husband, but if I had, I think Dannet would have been the one I wanted. Did you know we used to play together as children?”

“Dannet told us,” Iris confirmed.

“I haven’t seen him in years,” Melise went on. “I always thought it was just that life had pulled us apart and sent us on our own ways.”

“Now you know it was because your parents had betrothed you,” Genietre commented.

“I can’t fully express what it was like to have that blindfold removed and to find myself looking into his eyes,” Melise told them, “but I’ll never forget it.” She sighed again and suddenly realized that Dannet was sitting beside her. She turned and found he was deep in conversation with Park, so she turned back to Iris and Marisea and asked, “So what’s it like here on Earth?”

Melise might have thought Dannet had not overheard what she had said, but he had heard part of the conversation. “Park, you’ve told me that Tack blessed your marriage to Iris because he thinks you are a part of his vision for Earth.”

“That’s correct,” Park nodded.

“Is that why he is here now?” Dannet asked. “Am I part of his vision too?”

“Maybe,” Park shrugged, “or maybe Tack just likes a good party. Look. Tack is, as Taodore once described him, a good old bug, but his vision is a part of his religion. He truly believes he can see the future, or maybe he sees several futures and is trying to bring about the one he feels is best. We had plenty of seers back in the Twenty-first Century and all sorts of prophesies from them. They didn’t all agree and the people who claimed they were truly prophetic frequently disagreed as to the meaning of those predictions. If you make a prophesy sufficiently vague it can come true many times depending on how you interpret it. From what Tack tells me, his vision isn’t any more detailed or specific that any of those ancient ones were.

“Dannet you can talk to Tack if you like and ask for yourself, but I doubt he will tell you anything concrete,” Park went on. “So far as he is concerned, almost everything that happens here is a part of his vision.”

“Maybe it is,” Dannet replied. “I was just wondering if I had some specific part to play.”

“Of course you do,” Park laughed. “Same as everyone else. You have to be yourself.”

Once the guests had eaten, some migrated back to town while others continued to mingle on the field between the two rivers. Park found himself with Taodore and Rebbert near the first dock that had been built for the colony. He noticed with interest that the boat he and Iris had taken downstream was still tied up and that someone had obviously been keeping it clean and well-maintained even though it was a fair distance from where the rest of the colony had eventually built the town.

The boat was an odd design, specifically built to be portaged easily over two sets of shallows downstream from Van Winkle, with rubber-tired wheels that could be swung down into place. Park wondered who had been taking care of the boat, but hoped that whoever it was had enjoyed her use.

“I say, old boy,” Taodore cut into Park’s reverie, “still with us?”

“Oh, sorry,” Park apologized. “Just thinking. What were you saying?”

“I was just explaining,” Rebbert told him, “how now that the ceremony is over, Dannet and Melise will be kept in isolation together for the next ten days.”

“That’s one way to enjoy a honeymoon,” Park nodded. “Where are they off to?”

“I was just suggesting Cileta,” Taodore replied. “It’s part of a volcanic island chain off the southeast coast of Pangaea; white sand beaches, surf, an active volcano or two. It’s considered an ideal vacation spot. Very picturesque.”

“Nice,” Rebbert agreed, “but that is not our custom. The couple is required to spend the ten days with no one else with whom to interact. At the end of the ten days they have the choice of whether or not to remain married. It is their only chance to back out of the arrangement if they want to.”

“I doubt they’ll want to,” Park laughed. “They could hardly take their eyes off one another all morning and afternoon and even when they did, they were holding hands.”

“They are very lucky,” Rebbert pointed out. “Normally a couple getting married in the traditional manner does not even know each other before the wedding. The man generally knows the name of the woman, but nothing more. They won’t have ever met before. Well, that’s considered rather old fashioned these days except among the nobility. That’s why I was so careful in selecting someone for Dannet, but I agree; they are not likely to want to go their separate ways at the end of the trial.”

“Wait,” Taodore thought of something. “The Dennseean ambassador is going into seclusion for the next week and a half? He and I have been negotiating a trade agreement lately.”

“Oh, that’s not a problem,” Rebbert chuckled. “I can handle that for him. I’ll be staying on until after the trial period. Someone who witnessed the ceremony has to certify the marriage after the trial is over and I think I can certainly represent my own world while my ambassador is on his, what did you call it?”

“Honeymoon,” Park supplied.

However, Dannet and Melise still had three days of seclusion left when news of trouble arrived from Dennsee. “It’s not Dennsee that’s in trouble, thank the gods,” Rebbert explained over a hasty dinner with Park and Iris. Taodore and Marisea were there that evening as well. “However, several Gallseean ships have been attacked in their own system by a ship similar to the one you faced and there are reports of other incidents coming in from other Alliance systems.

“No one knows who is behind these attacks,” Rebbert went on, “but so far the attackers have only targeted the weaker systems who have been politically pro-Earth in the Diet. I need to return to Dennsee and then to the Diet on Owatino forthwith, but therein lies a problem. I was supposed to certify Dannet’s and Melise’s wedding, but now I must leave within the hour.”

“I’ll do it,” Marisea volunteered instantly.

Rebbert smiled indulgently, but replied, “It should be done by someone who is a bit older than you, dear, preferably someone who has already been married. Park, I would ask you, but you were Dannet’s companion so you also do not qualify. Taodore, will you do the honors, please?”

“I’d be delighted, old boy,” Taodore accepted. “Is there any special ceremony to be observed?”

“No,” Rebbert shook his head. “This part of the wedding is remarkably prosaic. There is a marriage contract for them to sign after which you will sign it as well.”

“Ah, as a witness then,” Taodore observed.

“And as a judge,” Rebbert amended. “You will fill both those roles in certifying the marriage. Well, I’m sorry I cannot stay for the dessert course, Park, Iris, but I really must get to the port. It’s something about windows…”

“Your launch window,” Park told him as they all got to their feet or, in the case of Taodore and Marisea, to the tips of their tail flukes. Park recalled that Rebbert, in spite of all his interstellar travels never did quite understand the mechanics of such travel. “Technically you could leave at any time, but the launch window represents your most efficient time at which to leave. Miss the window and you will spend much more time and fuel getting to where you want to be.”

Lord Rebbert nodded and left soon after.

“Well, it might be best that he has to leave,” Iris commented into the resulting silence. “Tomorrow is the first test flight of our new star ship,
Independent
, and he gets so nervous whenever we so much as mention anything about the new star drive ships.”

“I saw your new ship last night,” Arn told Park the next morning over coffee on the hilltop. “It’s a bit cramped inside.”

“We have enough room for everything but a jogging deck,” Park shrugged. “She’s not a cruise ship and, with the star drive mechanism ending up larger than we expected, we did not have any space to spare.”

“Why is it larger than expected?” Arn asked. “I thought Ronnie copied the drive from those two Alliance ships we had a few years ago.”

“She did, or rather she tried to,” Park explained, “but evidently she missed a trick or two and our first drives are a bit bulky. She doesn’t miss many tricks, though, and I’m sure subsequent ships will have more room in them. Besides, from what Sartena tells me, our older ships have far more open space inside them than Alliance ships, probably because of the star drive.”

“
Independent
, huh?” Arn noted. “Good name.”

“Appropriate, I think,” Park nodded. “Some of the crew wanted us to name her
Enterprise
, but after all the jokes about my Captain Kirk chair, I decided to veto that, although the second star ship will bear that name. We have several on the assembly line just waiting for the successful test before we finish them. It may be a while before we bother to retrofit the new drive into
Phoenix Child
and the other older ships if we ever do. We’ll have to gut them and start over so it might be easier to just relegate them to in-system work and build fresh ships.

“Iris is worried about that mystery ship attacking us again and
Independent
is not fully armed yet,” Park went on, “so we’re taking
Phoenix Child
and
Defense
as escort ships.”

“We could need them here on Earth,” Arn pointed out.

“There are twenty-two active duty ships on Earth and Luna,” Park pointed out. “Borrowing two of them for this is not a great risk.”

“How long do you expect to be off Earth on this test?” Arn asked. If he was nervous, Park could not detect that. The question seem almost like idle curiosity. That was rare for Arn, but maybe he was getting used to the nature of Park’s work and the way he did it.

“Three weeks, I should think,” Park replied. “About seven days to get beyond Saturn’s orbit a quick hop across the system to Saturn itself on the other side of the system, a few days going back and forth to really shake down the drive and then home.”

“Good luck then,” Arn replied, shaking his hand.

“I didn’t want to admit it,” Park told Ronnie a short time later as he boarded
Independent
, “but this ship really is cramped.”

“Couldn’t be helped, Park,” Ronnie admitted. “I just don’t know how they managed to get the Alliance drives so small.”

“Well, after we establish ourselves with the Diet as a full member of the Alliance,” Park replied, “We can buy a few of their ships for you to pull apart and see what you can improve on.”

“Thanks, skipper!” Ronnie laughed.

“By now I figure I owe you a really big birthday present,” Park retorted, “and what else do you buy the engineer who can build anything?”

“Aw, you spoil me, Park,” Ronnie laughed. “But you’d better hurry up to the bridge. We’re due to take off in a few minutes. You almost missed the flight.”

“Beyond my control,” Park admitted. “Arn wanted his morning kaffee klatsch.”

“I should have known,” Ronnie laughed. “Did you solve all his problems this morning?”

“Maybe,” Park shrugged. “We spent most of the time watching the sun come up.”

“Silly men!” Ronnie told him. “The sun doesn’t come up. It’s the horizon that goes down.”

“Don’t tell me that,” laughed Park. “I’ll spend the whole day worrying that I might fall off.”

The rest of the ship may have seemed cramped, but the bridge here was the same as it had been on the previous ships, which is to say not an inch of wasted space but with sufficient room to move from station to station without interfering with anyone else working there. That was important, especially this trip on which nearly all stations would be filled on every watch. The only exceptions would be the weapons technicians. Ronnie had fitted a gravity canon to the ship, in fact it was part of the interplanetary drive this time and there was a phaser mounted on the bow of the ship, but there had been no time to redesign the missile racks to fit into the new hold’s configuration. There were plans for two more phasers and a plasma-caster, but Park had been more concerned with the star drive itself.
Phoenix Child
and
Defense
would handle any holes in their defenses.

“
Defense
reports she is in orbit around Titan,” Marisea told Park as they taxied to the runway. “They’re getting inquiries from an Alliance trader ship that has a base on that moon.”

“Are the traders paying rent for the use of Titan?” Park asked.

“I’m not sure,” Marisea shrugged, “but if you like, I will instruct
 
Defense
to ask to see their contract.”

“Do that,” Park smiled. “If they are in arrears we’ll make them sweat a while before letting them off with a warning and the collection of back rent, of course. I wonder why they chose to set up there, though. Most of the other Alliance traders in this system are out in the Kuiper Belt where they’re allowed to homestead free.”

“Ships coming in to Earth or Luna break out of Other Space just beyond Saturnian orbit most of the time,” Iris pointed out. “I suppose they thought Titan was a good place to catch ships coming and going out of the system.”

“Assuming Saturn in the right part of the sky at the moment,” Park argued. “Orbits are large and planets are relatively small. Even Jupiter is just a point relative to its orbit. Most of the time, I’ll bet, Saturn is too far out of the way to make a living that way.”

“Well, they claim to be traders,” Iris shrugged. “A maybe they are mining as well. Titan is a very large moon, larger than Mercury, in fact. I imagine there are all sorts of resources they might be exploiting.”

“We charge more for mining rights, don’t we?” Park countered. “Marisea, as soon as we’re aloft, patch me in to Colonel Theoday – hmm, it may be time to update his title to mayor or governor – I want him to look into that base and get back to us. If they’re squatting, they have a lot of nerve questioning our presence there and if they’re legit they may be worth getting along with.”