“I managed to catch it and when I handed it back, the poor thing was embarrassed beyond words. Needless to say, I got quite a favorable price for the power conditioners I was selling, but even better than that, I found that I had a bedmate that night.
“Rol turned out to be quite the sexual athlete. We were awake half the sleep cycle, trying out new facets and approaches.” Zun sighed and shook his head wistfully. “Yes, that was quite a night. I’ll maintain some decorum and not go into detail.”
He cocked an eyebrow at Suna, who stuck her tongue out at him.
“So when it was time for me to get my cargo loaded and be off again, I asked Rol whether every client got this kind of treatment.”
“‘No,’ she said, ‘you just caught my eye.’”
The rest of us moaned in pain while Zun chuckled and took some smoke from the pipe. He still had more than half his time left.
“End,” he said, and the timer flashed. The score posted was much higher than Suna’s.
“Not bad,” said Suna. “You even got bonus points for ending early.”
Zun nodded once. “I know how to play this game.”
“All right, my turn,” said Trace. “Let’s get this over with.”
She waved her hand over the device, rose to her feet, and took a deep breath. “Begin.”
“I had an older brother, and when I was young, I looked up to him, wanted to be like him. He was smart, worked hard, and always respected our parents. He showed me what it was to be a good son. Our station went overpop shortly after his eighteenth birthday, and it wasn’t a month before the Fleet took him. Before he went, he asked me to remember him.
“And so I remember him. He was training for maintenance on the exterior crew. Had an expert rating at sixteen—would have had a master’s rating at eighteen if it weren’t for the supervisory requirements. He could handle a hullwelder like a surgeon’s tools. He made me a sculpture of a woman from a scrap piece of hullplate, just using his hullwelder and grippers.
“My parents weren’t happy about that sculpture. They said it was indecent. If you had a dirty mind, you might imagine she was pleasuring herself. I thought she was just standing that way. Knowing my brother, it probably
was
that kind of sculpture, but he argued for me and they let me keep it in my quarters. After he got taken away by the Fleet, I was glad they let me keep it.
“When my friends came around, they always wanted to see it. I’d take it out of the locker where my mom made me keep it most of the time, and put it on the table while we talked and played our games. They liked to look at her, at first, and talk about what women were like and all that, but after a while, she just became a part of the rituals of the day. Go into my room, take out the sculpture, and then do whatever it was we were going to do.
“I don’t know about anyone else, but to me, she seemed like a witness, someone who saw everything that went on, heard all of our conversations, and never had any judgments or condemnations. After a while, I started talking to her at night, telling her about all my troubles. The feelings . . .
“Well. Anyway. When the Scouts came to pick me up, I wanted to bring her with me. There was just enough mass allotment, but instead, Mom took it from me and hid it. Maybe even destroyed it, or gave it to the void.
“I’d like to think she put the statue out an airlock. That she’s out there, somewhere. Waiting for me.
Trace sat down. “End.”
The score was even higher. I certainly couldn’t argue with that. The story had struck me to the core. Trace had lost everything she had ever valued, whether it was given away, lost, stolen, or traded. All she had left was this vague, silly notion that her brother’s sculpture was out there, in the void, watching over her. I hoped, for her sake, that it would be enough.
Zun nodded his head in Trace’s direction. “That one will be difficult to surpass, Challers.”
“I’m wondering if I should even try.”
“Oh, please do,” said Suna. “You couldn’t do any worse than me.”
“All right.” I stood, and triggered the machine. I bowed my head, closed my eyes, and placed my palms together in front of my chest. “Begin.”
I heard the device beep and knew it would be counting down. A bonus for ending early, eh? I could deal with that. Emotional reaction? No. The machine was probably reading
physical
reactions.
I opened my eyes and spoke softly. “A long time ago, a young boy sat on his mother’s lap. He had his hands cupped, like this.” I turned my hands to enclose a small space. “Holding something.”
Zun and Suna leaned forward, looking at my hands. Trace cocked an eyebrow. Tough audience.
“‘What have you got there?’ she asked.
“‘It’s something wonderful.’” My whisper suddenly became a roar. “‘See!’” I flung my arms wide, as if throwing something in their faces.
My audience leapt back. Zun nearly overturned his chair.
“End,” I said.
Trace chuckled. “Nicely played.”
I shrugged, and checked the score. “Well, not nicely enough. Even with the time bonus, you still won the competition.”
Trace shook her head. “Not like it means anything.”
“What do you mean?”
Zun put his chair back into position and sat down to catch his breath. “Winner of the game gets to ask one favor of the loser.”
Suna gave me a little shrug. “Better luck next time.”
To Trace, she asked, “So what would you like for your favor?”
“Remember me.”
I would have liked to see Trace off, but she disappeared completely, as if she had never been there. I had only known her a few days, but when she was gone, I felt a hole in my life where she had been.
Like the bigger hole where Valka had been.
I threw myself into my studies. My research project on the Ovors got high marks, both from the automated instructor and from Shirley. There were even a few facts in there that she hadn’t known—like how the Ovors had preferred the transcendent orgone drive early on, and had designed their stations to separate into individual pieces in order to travel to new systems.
When Astronavigation class finished the math section and started with the scientific and technical material, I actually found that I missed the math—for about five minutes. The reality of faster-than-light travel had always had a strong hold on my imagination, and being able to actually start learning it was an incredible treat.
Gradually, my evening Physicality sessions with Shirley became more and more intimate, though she never went so far as to actually let me penetrate her. When I asked her about it, she maintained that that particular act was reserved for our first session on the ship. Setting it aside would make the experience all the more powerful.
I saw Valka from time to time, usually passing in the hallways, and while she was polite, there was a coldness there that didn’t seem to thaw with time. Every time it happened, I felt my stomach drop another notch closer to my toes. At least she looked healthy; she had gained more than a few milliLowells and the skinny, angular Valka I had known on the station was long gone.
The hideout was empty much of the time. I checked up on it once every few days, but rarely stayed any longer than was required to keep up the supply of dried leaves. I could see evidence that Suna had been there, cleaning the place up, but I rarely saw her. Either she had gotten what she wanted, or she realized she wasn’t going to get it from me. That was fine.
About forty days in, Shirley told me that her old boyfriend, Robert, the one she had been recruited with, would be arriving in a few days. She planned to take a few days off from mentoring me to be with him. Robert’s pilot, Grecca, would replace her while she was away. We would spend a day together, the three of us, to see how we got along.
Grecca met us at the morning Physicality class. She turned out to be a tall, willowy woman with pale skin and long, blonde hair pulled back into a braid running down her back. Her tight Scout uniform revealed a slender figure with only the vaguest feminine curves.
After a brief warm-up of partner movement exercises, Shirley gestured in the direction of a circular padded mat in the middle of the room. “Why don’t you show her what you know, Challers.”
I nodded and stepped out onto the mat. Mentally, I reviewed the movements I had learned, and then shook the circulation into my arms and legs.
Grecca smiled and stretched. “Is he that good?”
Shirley nodded in my direction. “Learn for yourself.”
With a raised eyebrow, Grecca turned and strode out onto the mat. She definitely seemed at home there, moving with even more confidence than Shirley. She rubbed her hands together and then settled into a loose, fluid stance. Her movements were slow, balanced, and measured. Each step had the precision of a drop of water falling into the exact center of a bowl, ripples going out and coming back to the same point.
Her reach, I guessed, would be a bit longer than mine, so I waited for her to make the first move, standing in a ready position. She lashed out suddenly, grabbing for my wrist. I stepped back and to the side, but in the lunge, she had put one foot behind mine and I found myself falling. I twisted and rolled away, narrowly avoiding another grab for my ankle, but I was on the mat and she was still on her feet; a bad position for me to be in. I tried to reverse direction and roll up to my feet, but she was on top of me, and we crashed back down to the mat with her long legs wrapped around my midsection from behind.
On our sides, we grappled for a few seconds—she trying to get control of my arms by forcing them behind my back and me struggling for leverage to get her ankles unlocked. She was quicker, but I was stronger and she had a hard time working my arms backward, even with her good position. I managed to force myself to my hands and knees, lifting her from the mat. Shifting strategies, she tried to lean backwards to pull me back on top of her, but I ducked my head and rolled forward, sending her sprawling onto the map, and letting me slip my abdomen out of her scissorlock.
When I got back to my feet, my shorts had slipped down around my knees, pulled down by the grip of her thighs as I escaped. I could hear Shirley laughing behind me, but Grecca only smiled playfully as she sprang quickly to her feet. She didn’t give me a moment to pull them back up. She leapt at me, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to move quickly. I ducked, trying to roll down under her and kick off my shorts, but she adjusted quickly and landed on top of me before I could roll away. She quickly got my arms behind me, pinned between her arm and her body, and then rolled onto her side to get her legs wrapped around my abdomen again.
I struggled, but couldn’t get free. “Augh! Submit!” I shouted, giving the signal that I admitted losing the bout.
Even though I went nearly naked most of the time at the academy, my face burned with embarrassment at my exposure.
Grecca chuckled. “Is that all I get? Shirley, you have been treating him too leniently.”
Shirley stood nearby, shaking her head. “Perhaps I have.”
“When Robert taught me to grapple, there was a penalty to pay when I lost. Are you ready to pay the penalty, Challers?”
“What penalty?”
“This.”
Her free hand danced on my ribs—a light, rhythmic touch. Tickling. I didn’t think I was ticklish, at least not much, but Grecca was an expert. Within seconds, she had figured out exactly what touch was required, and where, to send me into paroxysms of laughter. Only after I was panting helplessly did she release me, leaving me breathless on the mat.
I climbed to my feet, finally, and pulled my wayward shorts back into place.
“Care for another try?” she said.
“Depends. Do I get to do the same to you if I win?”
“Of course.”
“Then let’s go.”
We took our places on the mat and started again. Grecca was fast and sneaky, but I knew I was a good deal stronger and she needed a lot of leverage to beat me. If I let her grab me on my terms, I could turn that to my advantage.
I lunged, knowing that she’d easily dodge me and grab my arm for a classic hip throw. As I was passing over her back, I grabbed her around the midsection with my free arm and held on, pulling her down as I fell. Her weight fell heavily on my chest, but she was more stunned than I was, and I managed to pull her arms in and pin them both with one arm across her chest. She arched her back and pushed with her legs to try to escape, but that stopped when I wrapped my legs around her, forcing my ankles between her knees, and took control of her legs as well. She was at my mercy.