Neptune Crossing (BVC edition) by Jeffrey A. Carver

Author:Jeffrey A. Carver
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Carver, chaos theory, short stories, novels, Science Fiction, alien artifact, alien intelligence, hard sf
ISBN: 9781611383829
Publisher: Starstream Publications / Book View Cafe
Published: 2014-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Julie

AS HE SIPPED his glass of the watery stuff that passed for beer here on Triton, he shifted unconsciously into observer mode, guiltily watching those who remained in the rec lounge. There weren’t many, to his relief. He felt a profound desire not to interact with anyone. He was angry with Charlie, and angry with himself, for what they had done to the datanet. And he was terrified that he would somehow be connected with it.

The first half of the first beer went quickly, before he slowed down, remembering the painkillers he was on. His gaze wandered to the far corner of the EineySteiney area, where two women were playing. He blinked, realizing with a start that the two women were Georgia Patwell and her friend, Julie Stone. How had he not noticed them before?

/// You’ve been . . . distracted, ///

croaked the quarx, who seemed more than a little distracted himself.

/I guess so./ In truth, this wasn’t exactly a time when he wanted to see anyone he knew—though as he watched them play, he found his isolationist resolve softening ever so slightly. Still, there was a weightiness surrounding his thoughts. Oddly, he found himself more interested in the women’s EineySteiney shots than in the women themselves. The table-holo was programmed with some fairly sophisticated gravity-well combinations, and the two women were making slingshot banks through the maze of curves and valleys. The tabletop was a vibrant grass-green color, and the balls winked with faces that Bandicut couldn’t quite make out; probably it was the cartoon-character program.

It was strange enough, his choosing to ogle trajectories instead of women—but odder still was the fact that he found himself not only following the motions of the balls, but visualizing practically impossible trajectories for them, with an extraordinarily sharp inner eye. Suddenly he realized what was going on, and it didn’t make him happy.

He turned away and drained his glass and walked around the bar for a refill. /Charlie, quit mokin’ with my brain! If I want to look at women, I’m going to look at women! You have any idea how long it’s been since I was with a woman?/ He returned to his barstool and continued watching.

Georgia made a nearly impossible three-body shot, and he found suddenly that he didn’t care so much about the shot.

/// Sorry.

I guess I got carried away.

What they’re doing is very . . .

interesting. ///

Bandicut grunted. The weight lifted from him a little, and he found a new appreciation of Georgia’s graceful movements around the table. She was married, of course, so it was just harmless appreciation; but Julie wasn’t married, and Julie moved with a quickness and intensity that he found even more appealing. He watched as she lined up a shot—and missed spectacularly, sending the ball on a loop off the far end of the table, where it vanished in midair with a great burst of stars. Julie laughed good-naturedly. It should have been an easy shot. He liked her laugh.

He cleared his throat, suddenly self-conscious.

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