Binary System by Eric Brown

Author:Eric Brown [Brown, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Rebellion Publishing Ltd
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

DELIA LEANED AGAINST the rail and enjoyed the view.

The sun sank behind ribbons of bloody cloud far to the east, and the riverboat floated down a river so wide that, at some points, she was unable to make out the banks. She had spent the morning playing chess with Oma – her Imp projecting a board and pieces in the air before them – and that afternoon she’d rested on a padded divan in one of the berths that lined the decks. Privacy was not a concept very highly regarded by the Fahran, whose tribes encouraged communal living. Delia didn’t mind sleeping in full view of her fellow passengers, but she was acutely embarrassed when having to perform her toilet before a host of staring Fahran.

As the massed stars rose above the horizon, an incandescent glow unlike anything Delia had seen from any other world, Oma sought her company and murmured, “It’s beautiful.”

“It reminds me of the lights of a city seen from orbit,” Delia said. “I recall the first time I saw Rio de Janeiro from the Amsterdam, coming in slow over the terminator.” She shook her head. “It took my breath away. I... I recall how good it felt to be back on Earth again.”

“Delia, how are you? How are you taking...?”

“How am I taking the fact that I’ll never see Earth and loved ones again?” She shook her head. “It’s going to take a long time to come to terms with the idea.” She smiled at the South African. “It’s a bit like grief. A bitter pain, at first so severe you wonder how you’ll cope. But you do. It gets a little less painful as time goes by, but never in a way that makes sense. I mean, you think the worst is over, and then you’ll be pole-axed a week later by the realisation...”

“You sound as if you’ve lost someone close.”

“My brother. I was twenty, Daniel just sixteen. A stupid, stupid traffic accident. My parents were devastated.”

Oma reached out and took her hand.

“The strange thing is,” Delia went on, “I had someone on the Amsterdam. Timothy Greene. We’d only been... I’d only known him a few months. I suppose I should be grieving – but the odd thing is I can only really think of the pain my parents must be going through.” She smiled, brightly. “But anyway, what about you?”

Oma shrugged. “I have no family, and few friends on Earth. My parents are dead and I’m an only child. I split up with someone a couple of years ago and there’s been no one since.” She shrugged. “So I can’t say I’m grieving for lost loved ones. Of course I’m missing a few people, most of them on colony worlds. But what’s more painful is just the small, inconsequential things. The thought of never tasting real coffee again, or a good Thai meal – or any Thai meal! – and never seeing the Kaizer Chiefs playing in the cup final.” She glanced at Delia from under her eye-lashes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.