The Engines of Dawn (38 page)

Ben had kept in touch with Eve and Captain Cleddman, but only when Julia was napping. When she awoke, Ben turned his attentions to more important matters: Julia. Then, after a while, he slept, too. This happened every time the captain engaged the Silbarton drive. Adults over the age of fifty did appear to have some resistance to the drive. But when their shifts ended, they hurried home to play catch-up. Everyone had it; no one was immune.

Curiously, the stock of prophylactics and birth-control devices were lying about unused in the student health center. The student health center, in fact, was empty.

On the third day, Ben woke somewhere around noon with Julia entangled in bedsheets, one arm and one leg flung over him, holding him prisoner in her sleep. He decided not to move from where he was.

Instead, he turned on his room's main screen to see the news of the day. Students of the new student newspaper,
The Molotov Cocktail,
were sending out bullets by the hour. New to the staff of
The Molotov Cocktail
was young Bobby Gessner, whose personal mission now was to tell the entire H.C. that organized religion was the bane of humankind, and that humans really had a treat in store for them when they traveled on ships with the new Silbarton drive. He didn't elucidate.

Cleddman had a part in this: he made sure that the captains of every Onesci-powered vessel-many of whom belonged, as did Cleddman, to the KMA-got word as to the nature of their giant Engines. They were to get to nonaligned worlds as soon as possible and abandon their vessels. Help would arrive soon.

But at least the truth was out… and so were the schematics for the Silbarton drive, fully patented by patent attorneys Wangberg and Sammons, formerly of the Eos University Rights Advocacy Office. Every ship in the H.C. would soon have its own stardrive, and the Enamorati would either be put out of business or, as Ben thought more likely, be consumed by the Onesci in a final act of gluttony.

And hopefully before the humans showed up. In large numbers. With weapons.

Julia rolled over and blinked sleepily at Ben, who switched the wall screen off.

"Mmm," she whispered. "What time is it?"

"Time to eat. Lunch, I think," Ben said. "Maybe dinner."

Julia sat up and crossed her legs, pulling back her hair. Ben had been surprised at the fullness of Julia's breasts. The Ennui had prevented him from noticing-
appreciating
-them, even from the moment he had first met her. He began to get aroused just thinking about them.

Julia saw what was happening and leaned toward him on the bed, grasping the "little rascal," as she called it.

"I was wondering," she said, then kissed him.

"Wondering what?"

"What, exactly, does KMA stand for?"

"Cleddman said-" He kissed her.

"Mmm?"

"The captain said-"

"What did the captain say?"

"… means 'kiss my ass,'" he said. "But we're not supposed to tell anyone."

"Well,
I
won't tell if you won't."

Summer vacation had just begun.

PAUL COOK
worked as an acquisitions librarian for five years, many of them spent happily researching at the Noble Science Library at Arizona State University. He is currently working in the English Department at ASU as a Senior Lecturer, and sneaking back into the library whenever possible.

He is also the author of
Fortress on the Sun.