Buying Time by Robert Greenberger

Author:Robert Greenberger
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science-Fiction:Star Trek
ISBN: 9780743476089
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2003-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter

6

On the da Vinci ten years in the future, Dantas Falcão was finishing her meal in the mess hall when Bart Faulwell sat beside her. He carried with him a leather portfolio and a small satchel that he spread out on the table. She watched in fascination as he pulled out a sheet of parchment paper and an elegant pen. Setting it down, he rose and went to the replicator, returning a minute later with a plate of cookies and a mug with steam rising from the top.

“We haven’t met,” he began, a broad smile on his face. “I’m Bart Faulwell. You’re Dantas Falcão, the new medtech. So tell me, how are you enjoying the ship?”

“How’d you know who I am?” she asked with some confusion in her voice.

Faulwell just grinned and returned to his letter.

Dantas frowned for a moment and then glanced at the letter he was writing. “Wow, I haven’t seen pen and parchment in a long time.”

“Well, they say the old tools are usually the best tools,” he said.

“Which they?”

Now Faulwell frowned at the simple question and took the opportunity to bite into a cookie. He finally shrugged and replied, “There’s always a ‘they,’ I’ve been told.”

“Who told you?”

He stared at her in surprise and then said, “You’re messing with my head, aren’t you?”

Dantas grinned at him and swiped a cookie from his plate, took a bite and chewed happily. Bart looked at her, his pen, the plate, and finally back at her.

“So, there’s always a ‘they’ and someone’s always telling you things. How long has this been going on?”

“What?”

“These voices? What does Dr. Lense say about it?”

“There are no voices,” he said.

“Then who tells you these things?”

“What things?”

“Things like old tools being the best tools. You ask me, I’d prefer our computer interface to pen and ink.”

Bart broke into a grin. “Ah, now there you’re wrong! Ever since pen and ink and parchment came together on Earth, nothing has replaced it. Having something to hold, and keep, in someone’s own hand is far more personal, and if I might say, romantic, than a voice on an isolinear chip. What do you find romantic?”

She paused, stopping a reply from being uttered. Clearly, she had thoughts on the issue, he noted, but he was willing to have her think this one through. He sipped from his mug and wrote out a few more words while she pondered.

“To me,” she began slowly, “romantic acts are more spontaneous. A sudden present, a surprise for dinner, running away from home and going for a picnic. I guess my kind of partner acts more from instinct than careful planning.”

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing I’m taken,” he said with a grin. She blinked at him in surprise.

* * *

Down on the asteroid, P8 Blue was shuttling back and forth between consoles, checking readings and tentatively triggering controls. Soloman knew she was increasingly concerned over the imbalance that was building on the schedule she charted hours earlier. There was less than eight hours to go before things grew critical and the asteroid was likely to explode.

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