Earth 2788 (20 page)

He clapped his
hands. “Bar command slow dance music!”

Music started
playing from the overhead speakers, and people began swaying from side to side.
As they moved, unexpected flashes of bare skin kept appearing.

“Drago, do you
think my dress would impress the men of Gamma sector?” called a beautiful,
raven-haired girl.

I turned to look
at her, and she deliberately span round on the spot. Every cutaway on her
sapphire-blue outfit triggered at once, so for a second or two she was only
wearing flying lengths of blue ribbon. Everyone applauded her.

I choked. “I
think it would have a devastating effect on them.”

She grinned at
me. “And how about you, Drago? Does it have a devastating effect on you?”

Betan courtesy
demanded I give her a deeply appreciative smile and a compliment. “The lovely
dress, and the display of its even lovelier contents, has so utterly devastated
me that I need a glass of wine to help me recover. May your humble subject
offer you wine as an apology for his overlong absence, Asante?”

“I shall have a
glass of wine from Aether,” said Asante.

We went across
to the nearest drinks dispenser, I ordered two glasses of the distinctive,
sharp-tasting, red wine from Aether, and we took the drinks to a small table in
the corner and sat down. The rest of the crowd accepted the current
entertainment was over, and drifted back to sit at their own tables and resume
their interrupted conversations.

Asante studied
me for a moment before speaking. “Why are you buying me wine, Drago? You should
be eagerly pursuing the enchanting Clarinda after that charming invitation she
gave you.”

“Clarinda is the
girl in blue? She must be new here, because I’ve never seen her before.”

“Relatively new,”
said Asante. “She’s been coming to my MeetUp for a year now, so she’s heard all
about the irresistible Drago Tell Dramis. She seems eager to be your partner
while you’re here on leave, and you’d have a lot of fun together.”

“I’m sure we
would, but I’m not interested in tumbling a girl who must be ten years younger
than me.”

“If I remember
correctly, Drago, you’re 28,” said Asante.

I nodded.

“And Clarinda is
22 not 18.”

I shrugged. “She
looks younger.”

“She’s very attractive.”

“She’s stunning,
but I’m still not interested.” I paused. “The truth is that I’ve fallen in
love, Asante.”

“Ah ha!” He
leaned back in his chair. “So you bought me wine because you wanted to tell me
about your lover. Does he, she, or they have a name?”

“Her name is
Marlise, and I need you to advise me what to do about her.”

Asante frowned.
“I’d have thought it was obvious what you should do. I know you’ve enjoyed your
years of freedom and exploring casual relationships, Drago, but you’re 28 now.
It’s time for you to start thinking seriously about settling down into a
permanent relationship. The look on your face shows you’re besotted with this
girl, so why not marry her?”

I groaned. “Please
don’t start preaching to me about Betans traditionally settling down and
marrying by 30, Asante. I’ve been having that lecture from my father at least
once a month for the last three years, and anyway it’s not needed. I want to
marry Marlise, but we’ve been nothing more than friends so far, and I’m scared
to push things between us.”

“What?” Asante
dramatically hit his forehead with his right hand, and his laurel wreath nearly
fell off. “The irresistible Drago Tell Dramis is a Military hero, smothered
with medals, and never scared of anything.”

“I’m not just
scared, I’m petrified,” I said. “If I ask Marlise to marry me, and she turns me
down, then …”

Asante sighed. “I
don’t understand what’s going on here, Drago. You’re irresistibly handsome, and
I’ve seen you charm a girl into tumbling you in less than two minutes, so why
are you panicking that your Marlise will turn you down?”

“Because Marlise
doesn’t seem to find me irresistible, and because …” I glanced round to make
sure that nobody was lurking close enough to hear what I was saying. “Because
the last time I asked someone to marry me, they didn’t just turn me down, they
laughed in my face.”

Part
II

I looked at Asante’s startled
expression. “I’d better get us some more glasses of wine before I tell you
about that.”

“You’d better
get us a bottle,” said Asante. “This could be a very long conversation. You’ve
never mentioned a failed marriage proposal before.”

“It’s not
something I enjoy talking about.”

“Then why tell
me?”

“I told you, I
need your advice. I trust your judgement on relationships more than anyone else
I know, but you’ll never understand why I’m so scared about pursuing things
with Marlise unless I tell you about Gemelle.”

I went over to
the drinks dispenser, got a bottle of wine, and topped up our glasses before
sitting down again. “Do you remember meeting my cousin, Jaxon? He’s Military
too, and nearly two years older than me.”

Asante nodded. “You’ve
brought him here four or five times over the years.”

“Gemelle is his
younger sister. She and I are close enough in age that we ended up in the same
class at the Military Academy. Up until then, she’d just been a cousin that I
met occasionally at the clan hall, but at the Academy we were spending almost
every waking hour together. We became close friends, and eventually I realized
I was in love with her, but there was a big problem.”

“Was the genetic
link between you too close?” asked Asante.

I shook my head.
There were Betan dialect words to describe every possible genetic relationship,
but after barely speaking dialect for two years, I couldn’t remember the right
one. I explained it the long way instead.

“Gemelle’s
grandmother and my grandfather were brother and sister, so a relationship
between us was perfectly legal. The problem was that Gemelle was already
involved with a boy in the same class as us. I’m afraid that didn’t worry me to
start with. Back then I really did think I was irresistible. I was certain I
could steal Gemelle from him, and I didn’t care how he’d feel about it.”

I paused to pull
a face of self-loathing. “I was a horribly selfish boy, so I didn’t spare the
slightest thought for anyone’s feelings but my own. I had a routine of casually
using my looks and my smile like weapons to make girls fall for me, so I
smirked at Gemelle and expected her to swoon at my feet.”

“But she didn’t?”
asked Asante.

“No, she told me
that she was in what she believed could become a long-term serious
relationship, and I should find another girl to tumble.”

I gulped down a
mouthful of wine. “This is where it starts getting really bad. I’d never been
rejected before, and I couldn’t believe Gemelle really preferred someone else
to me. I pestered her for a few months, thinking she was bound to change her
mind, but she didn’t. My ego still couldn’t believe she didn’t want me, so I
came up with the theory that she was only staying with her boyfriend because
he’d convinced her he wanted a serious relationship. We were nearing
graduation, so I was getting increasingly desperate. I decided I had to prove I
wanted a serious relationship too, and tried to … outbid the boyfriend by
proposing marriage to Gemelle.”

Asante blinked.
“Wasn’t proposing marriage a little drastic in those circumstances?”

“It wasn’t just
drastic, it was ridiculous,” I said. “Looking back at it now, I can understand
why Gemelle’s reaction was to laugh at me. She was totally happy with her
current relationship, but this ridiculously egotistical boy thought he only had
to say the word and she’d dump her boyfriend and marry him. Back then, though,
I was shocked and angry to be laughed at like that. I was used to getting my
own way all the time and …”

I groaned. “I
was a truly disgusting person back then. I’m deeply ashamed of what I did next.
I hope I’ve changed and would never act like that again, but I can’t forget …”

Asante frowned.
“What the chaos did you do next, Drago?”

“I set things up
so Gemelle thought her boyfriend was cheating on her. My plan was to split them
up, so Gemelle would get together with me instead. The first part of the plan
worked but the second didn’t. Gemelle dumped her boyfriend, but she still
wasn’t interested in me, and she was obviously really distressed about what had
happened.”

I was silent for
a moment. “That was when it finally started occurring to me that I wasn’t the
centre of humanity’s space. Other people weren’t toys for me to play with or
toss aside at my whim, but human beings with feelings and rights. I sat down
and thought hard about what I’d done to Gemelle, and how I’d feel if someone
had done that to me. I decided I had to try and put things right, so I went and
told her the truth.”

“What did
Gemelle say to that?” asked Asante.

“She didn’t say
a word. She just broke my nose, then stalked off to talk to her ex-boyfriend.
Unfortunately, my broken nose was easier to fix than their broken relationship.
When we graduated from the Military Academy, the boyfriend was still refusing
to forgive Gemelle, which meant she wouldn’t forgive me.”

I pulled a face.
“I’d made a total mess of everything for both of us. On our last day at the
Academy, I tried talking to the boyfriend myself. That didn’t help, and Gemelle
thought I’d been trying to cause yet more trouble. When we came home to the
clan hall on leave, she did everything she could to avoid me, even pointedly
walking out of the dining hall when I accidentally sat at the same table as her.”

“Disagreements
between clan members cause trouble for the whole clan,” said Asante. “I’m
surprised your clan council didn’t talk to you both about it.”

“They did,” I
said grimly. “I admitted everything was my fault. Gemelle was generous enough
not to say exactly what I’d done, and fortunately clan council didn’t insist on
hearing the details. We agreed that I’d stay away from Gemelle whenever
possible, and she wouldn’t cause a scene when we were forced to be together by
something like a clan gathering.”

“She never got
back together with the boyfriend?” asked Asante.

“No.” I sighed.
“Gemelle finally started seeing someone else, and things have improved between
us to the point where we have brief and awkwardly polite conversations at clan
gatherings, but she still doesn’t trust me. When she got married, she made me
swear never to talk to her husband except when she was with him.”

I paused. “Only
Jaxon ever heard the full story of what happened between me and Gemelle. My
first posting after leaving the Military Academy was as a member of his fighter
team. Gemelle stopped visiting him, because she didn’t want to risk meeting me.
He thought she was over-reacting to some trivial disagreement, so I had to tell
him everything.”

“What did he
think about it?”

“I thought for a
moment that he’d break my nose too, but he didn’t. Of course he was my team
leader at the time, which limited his options. The Military doesn’t approve of
its officers fighting, and Military Regulations are especially forceful about
not punching officers who are directly under your command. As it turned out,
Jaxon had done something himself that he deeply regretted. Like me, he’d never
been able to make things right. We ended up getting drunk, and making some
extremely incoherent vows about becoming better people and putting the
happiness of others ahead of our own.”

We sat in
silence for a while. “Have you made a decision yet?” I asked at last.

“About what?”
asked Asante.

“Whether I’m
allowed to keep coming to your MeetUp after what I did. I know you have strict
standards on behaviour.”

“I don’t allow
troublemakers in my MeetUp,” said Asante. “If I ever see the boy you’ve
described in here, then I’ll throw him out, but I don’t think he exists any
longer. You’ve been coming to my MeetUp for eight years, you’ve never tried to
push your company on anyone, never been ungracious turning down unwelcome
advances, and never made anyone unhappy.”

He picked up the
bottle and poured more wine into our glasses. “You’re telling me that your last
marriage proposal was a total disaster, so now you’re scared to propose
marriage to your Marlise in case it ends just as badly.”

“Exactly. People
constantly tease me, saying I’m irresistible, but the truth is that after my
disaster with Gemelle I stopped taking risks. I don’t chase after anyone who hasn’t
already offered me an unmistakeable invitation, like Clarinda did earlier, so
I’m never turned down. I don’t have a relationship that lasts for longer than a
few weeks, so it can’t develop into anything serious. I don’t get emotionally
involved, so I can’t get hurt.”

I paused. “The
situation with Marlise is different in every way. She hasn’t given me the
faintest sign she’s interested in me. We’ve been friends for over a year. I’m
already emotionally involved.”

Asante thought
for a moment. “Even if you proposed and Marlise turned you down, it couldn’t
possibly cause as much trouble as last time. Marlise isn’t a member of your
clan, is she?”

Marlise wasn’t a
member of my clan, she wasn’t even Betan, but she was Military which was what
really mattered. Sometimes marriage with a civilian could work, my own mother
was a civilian, but part of my attraction to Marlise came from our shared love
of the Military life.

Given Asante’s
views on people from other sectors, I thought I’d better not mention that
Marlise wasn’t Betan. I wanted him advising me on how best to court Marlise,
not trying to talk me into accepting Clarinda’s invitation instead.

“No,” I said, “Marlise
isn’t a clan member, but making a mess of things with her would still cause a
lot of trouble. I’m the leader of a fighter team, and Marlise is my deputy. If
we’re on bad terms, it’s not just awkward for everyone in the team, but
positively dangerous. We wouldn’t be getting lectures from clan council but
from our commanding officer, and one of us would probably have to be reassigned.”

I shook my head.
“What happened with Gemelle was dreadful enough, but the idea of Marlise hating
me and leaving my team is hideous. I’d have lost someone who’s very important
to me as both a deputy and a friend.”

“But you won’t
be making a mess of things this time. You aren’t the same person now, Drago.
You’re older and wiser, and Marlise doesn’t have a boyfriend.” Asante gave me a
questioning look. “Or does she?”

“She did when
she first joined my team to replace my previous deputy, but she decided to end
that relationship a few months later. I swear that was absolutely nothing to do
with me.” I lifted both hands to proclaim my innocence. “Once I was sure the
relationship was over, I tried hinting that I’d like us to be more than
friends, but Marlise just told me not to play my Betan flirting games with her.”

“So you gave up?”
Asante shook his head in disbelief.

“I didn’t give
up exactly.
Planet K21228 was nearly ready to be handed over to
its first colonists, so
I decided that the safest thing would be to wait
until the handover party before doing anything drastic. When the Military hand
over a new world to its first colonists, there’s a big party for all the
officers who’ve helped made the world safe, with a point at the start of the
party where people traditionally propose to each other. I thought it would be
much easier for me to say something then, and if Marlise rejected me then the
whole team would be going on leave for months. That would give Marlise and me
time to sort things out between us, and get back to being friends, before we
were all together again.”

“So what
happened at this party?” asked Asante. “Did you propose, or just ask her to
tumble you?”

“I sort of
proposed.”

“You sort of
proposed?” Asante waved both hands. “What does that mean?”

“I was trying to
be a little … ambiguous about it. I thought if Marlise didn’t like the idea,
then it would make life easier if we could pretend I hadn’t really been talking
about marriage but friendship. Anyway, Marlise stared at me and asked how much
I’d had to drink to make me turn so sentimental. I still can’t work out if she
realized I was talking about marriage at all.”

I shrugged. “At
the end of the party, everyone headed off on leave, and I came to beg you for
your expert advice, Asante.”

He poured the
last of the wine into our glasses, picked up the empty bottle, and put it on
the metal disc in the centre of the table. “Furniture command table cleanup.”

The metal disc
obediently swivelled aside, letting the bottle drop into the cleanser chute
below. A mechanical arm extended to wipe the table with a cloth, before the
metal disc closed again. Traditionally, tables made a noise to indicate that
cleanup was complete. In Asante’s MeetUp, the noise was a loud, self-satisfied
burp.

“What is Marlise
like?” asked Asante.

“She’s
incredible.” I grinned. “I always have a flight simulator duel with a new team
member to assess their flying ability, and Marlise was the first one to ever …”

Asante lifted a
hand to stop me. “Yes, but what does she look like? Can you show me an image?”

I tapped at the
lookup on my left sleeve, and projected a holo image in midair above the table.
“This is Marlise standing next to her fighter. The dead thing on the ground is …”

“The dead thing
on the ground is messy and irrelevant.” Asante studied the holo for a moment
then nodded. “Marlise isn’t beautiful.”

I glared at him.
“Yes, she is.”

“No, she isn’t.
We can ask everyone in the MeetUp to vote on the question if you like, they’re
all nosily staring at your holo, but they’ll all say the same. Marlise is just
a moderately attractive girl.”

I shut down the
holo. “Her looks don’t matter. I didn’t fall in love with them, I fell in love
with her adventurous soul, and the way she …”

Asante raised
his imperious hand again. “But her looks do matter. Given you’re so handsome,
the fact she isn’t beautiful is the key to your relationship dynamics. I
suspect Marlise finds you as irresistible as everyone else, and that influenced
her decision to split up with her boyfriend.”