Aethernet Magazine #11 by Ed. Barbara Ballantyne

Author:Ed. Barbara Ballantyne
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub

49: Radio Billy

Hey there, Billy!

Coleman Daughter Sphere! How are you?

Billy could hear the pleasure in his own voice. He told himself to calm down, to play it cool. He didn’t want to embarrass Coleman Daughter Sphere. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to have noticed.

Oh, Billy! I don’t know how I carry on! I sometimes think that you’re the only person in the universe that really understands me!

Pleasure filled his chest like an inflating balloon. He felt as if he could float.

That’s such a nice thing to say, Coleman Daughter Sphere. But I’m sure that it’s not true! Everyone loves you!

I don’t think so, Billy! You wouldn’t believe what’s happened to me now…

Billy waited patiently for Coleman Daughter Sphere to collect herself. He didn’t mind waiting, it was lovely floating here in space. He looked at the stars all around him. They were just as he had always imagined them to be, pointed shapes that twinkled white and ice blue. The planets hung amongst them, banded in orange and green and red. He could see Earth, a blue and white marble, and there was Mars, just hidden behind it.

I’ve been out in space for so long. I’ve flown straight and true, despite the fact that my hyperdrive hasn’t been tuned properly. I’ve hit the gradients just at the right angle so that my passengers haven’t been disturbed in the slightest. I’ve kept the atmosphere inside me sweet and pure and clean. No one, NO ONE, Billy would know the turmoil that I’ve suffered. But you know me Billy, I always put others first.

That you do, Coleman Daughter Sphere.

That’s so kind of you to say so, Billy. I really do try. And so was it too much to ask that I be allowed a little time off to enjoy the hunt? It’s such a little thing to ask, but every time they have run the hunt I’ve floated just outside the Rock and watched. I’ve chatted with the passengers. Brandy Marsalis herself came to visit me on one occasion. Farmer Joe always sends me a little present: some fruit or some organisms tailored to live in the life support system.

You’re very highly thought of, Coleman Daughter Sphere.

Billy was at peace. A comet flew by his ear, its long tail tickling him as it went. The pain in his body was forgotten.

I am, aren’t I? I do my best. And so, Billy, just think how I felt when I came to Eunomia this time. You know what they said? They said that I wasn’t welcome here. Zunel himself said that! Nasty, cold, alien Zunel. He said that the Rock was closed for the immediate future and I had to leave!

Eunomia. The Rock was floating somewhere behind Billy. He didn’t want to turn to look at it.

I’m not going any closer! It’s too dangerous!

Who said that? Not Coleman Daughter Sphere. It sounded like Armistead.

The voice set off a cold fear inside him. For a moment he felt sick and exposed, he felt as if he were trapped in a stony coffin, being bounced backwards and forwards.

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