to do?”
She glared at her brother, suddenly quite angry.
“What I have to do is clear to me, and I can’t understand why you can’t see it too”. There was no use arguing with him any further.
“I’m going now, Marcus. I’ll be at the complex if you want to locate me. It’ll save you the trouble of a tracer if you just try there first.”
“I know where you’ll be, sister.”
“Good. Have a nice ride to the islands. Send me a comm when you get the chance and let me know how the Church is treating you.”
She rose and turned. Just as she left, she looked over her shoulder at her brother and said, “You know, brother, right now I hate you!”
Marcus smiled back and watched her hurry away, all anger and self righteousness
“Yes, I know,” he said. “I love you too.”
She careened through the tables, her anger redoubled. Before Marcus could offer further protest, she was gone, marching deliberately across the concourse toward the transportation area. He watched her go, wondering where her mind was off to now. In spite of the caveats of his Master, he was worried. He was worried and he admitted it to himself without hesitation. In some indefinable way, he knew that his Master was right, that Samia had to seek her own brand of reality in her own way, but he still felt helpless. If only he could do something. If only he could help her somehow.
Then again, he had his own concerns right now. In an hour, he would be aboard another train, speeding beneath the Pacific through rock and sediment and across the great seamounts, bridging canyons miles deep, on his way to the export terminal on Oahu and the shuttle that was the first step on his journey to Rebus and the Church. Marcus had never left the planet, much less traveled a vast distances to a distant world. The unknown loomed before him like a deep, black velvet void, as unfathomable as the space he was about to traverse. Again, he sought solace in the company of his Master, but all that he received was the same message: Accept. Be. It was simply not enough.
CHAPTER THREE
Mathew, Archer and Shamreel traveled directly from the Parliamentary Complex to the Bay of Naples facility, opting for a small eight person skimmer that they could have to themselves. For Mathew and Archer it was an obvious choice. Neither wished to involve themselves with the public, even one exclusively Noble, which was possible with the right choice of public carrier. As for Shamreel, she didn’t seem to care one way or the other. Shamreel loved to travel by public conveyance where she would skitter throughout the passenger compartment, staring up at various travelers and occasionally venturing under some matron’s skirt looking for stray insects, as if they would be any there. Mathew sometimes wondered if on an earlier occasion, she had actually found a morsel in a similar location and just assumed that there might be more. He could swear that their saurian companion actually reveled in the stir she would cause strangers at such times. He wanted none of that on this trip.
The skimmer rose high into the sky on this trip, seeking thinner air for the cross country trip from the west coast to the east, saving time and energy in the process. Skimmers, of course, were called skimmers because originally they only skimmed the surface of the planet, rising no more than fifty or one hundred feet above the ground, but with improvements in technology, mostly due to the expertise of the Skeelar clan, they were now able to move at virtually any height right up to the edge of space. Low orbits were well within their capabilities, thought it was discouraged and tightly regulated.
From their vantage point at nearly twenty miles altitude, the landscape below
Was a mottle of colors with few distinguishable landmarks, and though Archer was temporarily fascinated, Mathew had seen it so often in the past that he didn’t even bother to look, other than in response to some excited comment by his companion. Eventually, the novelty wore off for Archer as well, and they settled into an uncomfortable silence. At length, Archer asked, .Why are we going to this plant of yours, Mathew?”
“I have to rebuild a storage facility there. It was recently destroyed.”
“Oh,” she said and stared at him blankly. Her tone brought Mathew out of his thoughts and into the present.
“You see, the plant produces units that are designed to create buildings; houses, factories, office facilities, even military bunkers and so forth. It’s the technology that the House of Rhoedraegon holds the patents on. It’s our exclusive industry. We supply the entire Empire with these bots to build structures of all kinds. Our storage depot for finished units was destroyed and we need to reprogram several bots to build a new one. Unfortunately, I can do it faster than anyone else, and time is of the essence.”
So you just need to do some reprogramming?” she asked.
“That’s it. It should take no more than a few days, and then we can travel a bit around the continent, see the sights.”
“But why don’t you just do it from your office and send the programs?”
Mathew looked over at her, appreciating her quick mind. “Normally I would, but this is a bit tricky for what we’re doing, and I need to be on hand to make corrections as we go. The bots can be cantankerous if they’re not properly programmed.
“My father used to say that if a program works perfectly the first time you try it, you either missed something or it’s useless,” Archer said almost to herself.
Mathew laughed. “Your father was a very wise man.”
“Do you always take your mistresses along with you when you travel on business?
He looked at her, confused by his own anger, which he hid badly.
“I’m sorry. Was that indelicate of me?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Sorry. I over reacted, I’m afraid. It’s just that I’ve never had mistresses to take anywhere, nor have I wanted any. That’s Helson’s stock and trade. Also, I want you to know that, you’re not my mistress. You are someone I want very much to spend my time with, to share my world with, but you are not my mistress. There are no requirements put on you at all.”
“I…I know,” she said, her eyes beginning to glisten with tears. “It’s hard for me to remember. I forget I’m not your property.”
Shamreel slid down to the floor from his place beside Mathew and hopped up beside Archer. She nudged her elbow with his head, demanding that she move it, and then she nestled against her side, cooing plaintively. Archer reached down, draping her arm across Shamreel’s bulbous body and caressed her without even thinking about it. This was the only person other than himself that Mathew had ever known Shamreel to show such affection toward.
Damn Helson, he thought to himself. Damn the man!
“I feel like I’m damaged, like I’m damaged property, like a discarded broken toy or something that’s been handed down to a younger brother who appreciates it. It’s nice for you to have the toy, but it’s not as good as a new one.”
For a moment, Mathew didn’t know what to say. He felt like reaching out and bundling her in his arms to make the hurt go away, but he sensed that it wasn’t the thing to do right now. Besides, there was no way he could make this hurt go away. Archer would have to do that. He wished
