Eternity's End by Jeffrey Carver

Author:Jeffrey Carver [Carver, Jeffrey]
Format: epub
Tags: Science fiction
ISBN: 0-312-85642-2
Publisher: Carver, Jeffrey A.
Published: 2009-03-16T09:41:56+00:00

* * *

He only gradually became aware of the tingling in his arm, mostly after Tracy-Ace took her hand away to gesture toward a food-plaza. "Breakfast," she said.

Breakfast. Legroeder tried to think what he had been feeling a moment ago. She'd been touching his arm—but as a polite gesture, or a personal touch—or was she making a data connection? He cocked his head at her. "Were you reading my mind a moment ago?"

Was that a twinkle in her eye? "And if I was?"

That startled him; he'd been expecting a denial. "Usually people ask first."

She gazed appraisingly at him. "What if I said I was letting you read my mind?"

"Uh?"

Tracy-Ace raised her chin slightly. The gems around her eyes glittered with reflected light from the ceiling. "I thought it might be helpful," she said. "During the download yesterday, I caught a few things about you—"

He drew back.

"Nothing profound. But I sensed you didn't quite trust me. And if we're going to—" she paused "—work together... I thought it might help if you knew more about me."

Legroeder felt flattered and puzzled at the same time. Why, he started to ask, would you care if I trusted you?

Before he could voice the thought, he was startled by the appearance, inside his head, of two converging arcs of ruby light signifying new information about Tracy-Ace. She was twenty-seven years old, Free Kyber standard calendar. No immediate family, but a couple of cousins who might have been real biological relatives. Parents, from one of the old Kyber worlds: came to join the Free Kyber alliance, and died in a border dispute when she was four. (Oh.) Raised by the local childcare collective. Adept in the system; rose to the ranks of node administration before most of her contemporaries had even finished school. For three years, Node Alfa.

She was peering at him, emotions unknown.

Liked the challenge and the responsibility—and the proximity to power. Socially unattached, but willing to consider unusual liaisons. Had a fondness for rebels.

He felt his blood rise, wondering if he qualified as an "unusual liaison." Or a rebel.

// That part of the analysis is ambiguous. Shall we probe further?//

(No, thank you.) He cleared his throat. But Tracy-Ace was talking—about him—and he'd missed the first part of it. Something about his being useful to the outpost.

"...have skills we need, and knowledge. Possibly for special operations. I believe my boss will want to talk to you, soon." Tracy-Ace was studying him again. "I see you wondering. But part of my job is to evaluate people and situations, to look for the unexpected. To make judgments for the benefit of the outpost. And the Republic." And the colonizing fleet? At the outer corner of her left eye, a tiny red bead glowed for a moment, as though she were photographing him for a security check. A smile flashed across her face. "Besides—I rather like you."

He felt a moment of lightheadedness. Was it the implants, fracturing away all of the normal inhibitions? Everything seemed accelerated here. A momentary vision of Greta the Enforcer flickered across his mind, giving him a shiver.

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