ancestor. I suppose I did inherit a need to go my
own way, and I have always been skeptical of anything I was told I
ought to believe without question. Those traits did not make me a
likely candidate for the Service, but somehow I managed to keep
myself under control and not cause scandal to my family. I would
have been captain of my own ship one day, but I’ve seen and heard
too much, in the Service and in the Assembly. My older brother is
also in the Service, and my father is a Member of the Assembly.
Whenever we were all at home, I listened to them talking together.
I want no part of Service, or Capital, or Assembly. Not any more.
I’d like to find a quiet world outside the Jurisdiction where I
could live, and someone to live with me, to be my companion.”
“A world like this one?” Narisa wasn’t
certain she could live on a world without the strict regulations
she was accustomed to after so many years in the Service. The
thought was frightening. How could people know what to do without
regulations to guide them? Yet somewhere deep inside, she felt
strangely excited by the idea.
“Well,” Tarik said with a crooked smile, “you
must admit this world is outside the Jurisdiction.”
He would want Suria to live with him, of
course, not Narisa. Beautiful, flame-haired Suria, with her
sensuous body and her sultry voice that could make the simplest
navigational instructions sound like an erotic invitation. Narisa
had met Suria when their duties had overlapped for one day so Suria
could fill her in on the eccentricities of Reliance’s navigational instruments. The woman had been friendly enough, but
she had made Narisa feel totally unfeminine and incompetent. No
wonder Tarik resented Narisa, considering what he’d had to give up
when Suria left the ship.
Narisa looked at Tarik. They sat shoulder to
shoulder, and he was staring into the stream, presenting his
profile to her. He had such sharp, clear-cut features, only
slightly blurred by three days’ growth of beard. Whereas Narisa was
partly in shadow, the orange sun shone directly on Tarik’s face,
and his shoulders and arms glowed with the golden light. Dark hair
grew on his forearms and chest, and his hands were long and
slender, and very strong. She remembered the touch of his hand on
her breast, and began to feel the same warmth she had felt
then.
He must have sensed her close observation,
for he turned his head suddenly. They gazed directly into each
other’s eyes for a long, breathless moment. Then Tarik bent toward
her. He did not have to move very far before his mouth lightly
touched hers, withdrew, and returned for a deeper kiss. Narisa sat
perfectly still, unable to respond.
It had been years since anyone kissed her in
that way. The last time it had been one of those laughing playmates
on Belta, a boy with silver hair and soft gray eyes, and he was
long dead, gone with all the others the Cetans had killed ten years
ago, and no man had kissed her since. That had been largely her own
doing. She wanted it that way. A tear rolled down her cheek. Tarik
wiped it away with one long finger.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. `’I didn’t mean
to make you cry.”
‘I wasn’t weeping,” Narisa snapped at him in
sudden irritation. “I never cry. Tears are a sign of weakness. It’s
the sunlight. I’m not used to it after so long on a spaceship. It’s
so terribly bright.”
Tarik looked hard at her, opened his mouth to
speak, but what he would have said she never knew, for suddenly one
of the birds was there. It was the blue one this time, and it
glided along the stream, its great wings barely missing the trees
and bushes on either side.
Tarik jumped up and stood on the rock in his
bare, wet feet, watching it. The bird flew past them, heading
downstream to disappear around a bend. There was complete silence
after it had gone, as though the very forest held its breath. Then
they heard it far above their heads, the beat of its wings followed
by the call
own way, and I have always been skeptical of anything I was told I
ought to believe without question. Those traits did not make me a
likely candidate for the Service, but somehow I managed to keep
myself under control and not cause scandal to my family. I would
have been captain of my own ship one day, but I’ve seen and heard
too much, in the Service and in the Assembly. My older brother is
also in the Service, and my father is a Member of the Assembly.
Whenever we were all at home, I listened to them talking together.
I want no part of Service, or Capital, or Assembly. Not any more.
I’d like to find a quiet world outside the Jurisdiction where I
could live, and someone to live with me, to be my companion.”
“A world like this one?” Narisa wasn’t
certain she could live on a world without the strict regulations
she was accustomed to after so many years in the Service. The
thought was frightening. How could people know what to do without
regulations to guide them? Yet somewhere deep inside, she felt
strangely excited by the idea.
“Well,” Tarik said with a crooked smile, “you
must admit this world is outside the Jurisdiction.”
He would want Suria to live with him, of
course, not Narisa. Beautiful, flame-haired Suria, with her
sensuous body and her sultry voice that could make the simplest
navigational instructions sound like an erotic invitation. Narisa
had met Suria when their duties had overlapped for one day so Suria
could fill her in on the eccentricities of Reliance’s navigational instruments. The woman had been friendly enough, but
she had made Narisa feel totally unfeminine and incompetent. No
wonder Tarik resented Narisa, considering what he’d had to give up
when Suria left the ship.
Narisa looked at Tarik. They sat shoulder to
shoulder, and he was staring into the stream, presenting his
profile to her. He had such sharp, clear-cut features, only
slightly blurred by three days’ growth of beard. Whereas Narisa was
partly in shadow, the orange sun shone directly on Tarik’s face,
and his shoulders and arms glowed with the golden light. Dark hair
grew on his forearms and chest, and his hands were long and
slender, and very strong. She remembered the touch of his hand on
her breast, and began to feel the same warmth she had felt
then.
He must have sensed her close observation,
for he turned his head suddenly. They gazed directly into each
other’s eyes for a long, breathless moment. Then Tarik bent toward
her. He did not have to move very far before his mouth lightly
touched hers, withdrew, and returned for a deeper kiss. Narisa sat
perfectly still, unable to respond.
It had been years since anyone kissed her in
that way. The last time it had been one of those laughing playmates
on Belta, a boy with silver hair and soft gray eyes, and he was
long dead, gone with all the others the Cetans had killed ten years
ago, and no man had kissed her since. That had been largely her own
doing. She wanted it that way. A tear rolled down her cheek. Tarik
wiped it away with one long finger.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. `’I didn’t mean
to make you cry.”
‘I wasn’t weeping,” Narisa snapped at him in
sudden irritation. “I never cry. Tears are a sign of weakness. It’s
the sunlight. I’m not used to it after so long on a spaceship. It’s
so terribly bright.”
Tarik looked hard at her, opened his mouth to
speak, but what he would have said she never knew, for suddenly one
of the birds was there. It was the blue one this time, and it
glided along the stream, its great wings barely missing the trees
and bushes on either side.
Tarik jumped up and stood on the rock in his
bare, wet feet, watching it. The bird flew past them, heading
downstream to disappear around a bend. There was complete silence
after it had gone, as though the very forest held its breath. Then
they heard it far above their heads, the beat of its wings followed
by the call
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