Brad looks tired, Felicia thought as she studied his face in the holographic display of their bedroom. She was sitting on the bed, fully dressed, not wanting to stir him when they were so physically separated. And yet …
“They just accepted me,” Brad was saying. “Asked a few questions about where I came from, but aside from that didn’t show much curiosity at all.”
“And you’re making progress with them?” she asked.
Brad was back in his shelter on Gamma. It looked like night had fallen out there: the shelter wall was dark. In the sharp light of the shelter’s solitary lamp, his face looked leaner than she had ever seen it before. There were shadows in the hollows of his cheeks and beneath his eyes.
But he replied cheerfully enough. “Yep. It’s starting to get monotonous, though. Up with the sun, hike out to the village, talk with whoever’s not working in the fields.”
“But you’re learning their language.”
“And their ways. They don’t seem to have any fun at all. Just work all day, have a meal, then go to sleep. Hard way to live.”
“There’s always someone in the village for you to talk with?”
“Yes, but not the same person each time. They seem to rotate the field work and give everybody a day off now and then.”
“Well,” Felicia said, “they’re aliens, after all. We shouldn’t expect them to behave exactly the way we do.”
Brad let out a weary sigh. “Guess not.”
“How are you doing?”
“I’m okay. At least the medics haven’t found anything to worry about.”
“But?” she prompted.
“I sure miss you.”
“We’ll be moving to Alpha in another week.”
“You’ll be even farther away.”
“Only three minutes.”
“Thirty-some million kilometers.”
Felicia didn’t reply. She knew what she wanted to say, but wasn’t certain she had the nerve to say it.
Brad asked, “How are you doing?”
“Oh, I’m fine.”
“Kosoff hasn’t come on to you?”
“Not at all. Whenever we happen to meet, he’s polite and proper.”
“He hasn’t asked you to dinner or anything like that?”
“No,” said Felicia. “Nobody’s interested in me.”
“I am.”
She smiled. “And I’m interested in you. Only you.”
“I miss you, Fil. Wish we were together.”
She took a deep breath, then said, “We could be, you know.”
“What? What do you mean?”
Felicia plunged ahead, “I’ve been thinking about a virtual reality session.”
“VR sex?”
“We could get Emcee to set up a VR link between us,” she said quickly, all in a rush. “We could share a session.”
Brad’s face lit up for a flash of a second. Then he shook his head. “Too many ways for other people to peek in.”
“Emcee could keep the link strictly private.”
“You’ve talked with him about it?”
Lowering her eyes, Felicia admitted, “Yes, I have.”
Brad looked surprised. But then his expression eased into a smile. “Well, we’d better do it before the ship hauls off to Alpha. I won’t be able to deal with a three-minute wait for your responses.”
Felicia laughed delightedly.
* * *
VR sex was a little strange, at first. Weird. Brad had to wear his biosuit, including its helmet. Fortunately the suit’s gloves had virtual reality circuitry built into them. Its urination relief tube served as a makeshift masturbation device.
He was clumsy, at first, knowing that Felicia was in a full-body VR suit. But passion rose swiftly. After his third climax Brad lay on his bedroll, spent and sweaty. I’ll have to clean up the suit, he thought. But he was smiling hugely nonetheless.
* * *
“And no one tried to cut into our link?” Felicia asked Emcee.
It was morning. She had slept blissfully—but not for long—after her VR session with Brad.
“You had complete privacy,” the master computer’s avatar replied from the holographic display.
Does that include you? Felicia wanted to ask. But she held herself back. She was afraid of the answer.
Instead of making breakfast for herself, Felicia went to the cafeteria. She saw Dr. Steiner, head of the biology department, sitting alone, and went to her table. Ask her, she told herself. The worst she can do is say no.
“May I join you?”
Steiner looked up at Felicia and nodded. They made a study in contrasts: Steiner, tall, blond, regal; Felicia, petite, dark, elfin.
Ursula Steiner had scant patience for idle chitchat, Felicia knew, so without preliminaries she said:
“Dr. Steiner, for some time I’ve been thinking that I would like to study the octopods on Alpha full time.”
Steiner’s pale brows rose a centimeter. “Full time? The whole department is concentrating on the Gammans. Professor Kosoff’s orders.”
“I know. But surely you can spare one person to study the octopods. There’s so much about them that we don’t know.”
“Yes,” Steiner replied slowly. “That’s true enough. But don’t you want to continue working with your husband?”
“There’s not much I can do to help Brad in his work,” Felicia replied. “The octopods are a challenge that we’re ignoring, don’t you think?”
Steiner was silent for several moments. At last she said, “I’ll talk to Kosoff about it.”
“Thank you!”
A rare smile inching across her lips, Steiner asked, “You want to make a niche for yourself?”
“I suppose I do,” said Felicia.
“Tired of standing in your husband’s shadow already?” Steiner asked.
Surprised, almost shocked, Felicia replied, “It’s not that at all! I just want to make a real contribution to our work.”
“Yes, I see,” Steiner said, her smile morphing almost into a smirk. “I was wondering how long the honeymoon would last.”