Chapter 50

Aina time: 11:29 AM, day 286 of 1449

Earth time: 11:10 AM Eastern Standard Time, Sunday, July 19, 2043

"... But vanity, not love, has been my folly. Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Until this moment, I never knew myself."

Jennifer sighed and looked up from her reading, her mind deep in thought. The sun on her lounge chair was warm and pleasant. She placed the silk ribbon inside Chapter 36 of Pride and Prejudice, and quietly closed her leather book.

"Until this moment, I never knew myself..." Jennifer thought. "That about sums it up for me... No, wait! Jennifer! Damn it! Be honest! I used to know! I used to know how to love. My family! My dear family! How did I ever allow myself to forget? How did I ever allow myself to hate?" There was a knock outside her open door. Jennifer gulped and looked at the clock. "11:30 AM! At least my lunch date is on time..."

"Come in!" she called out.

A man walked in and smiled at her. Jennifer's internal reaction was totally unexpected. Her heart began to beat rapidly, and she gasped. Her mind was in turmoil. "That face! Who?! Who?!"

"Hi Jennifer. Long time no see."

The voice brought a shock of recognition. "MARK?!?"

Mark's eyes opened wide in astonishment. "My gosh! You didn't know?!"

An hour later...

Jennifer sipped her dessert fruit drink, gazing out at the lush countryside from the rooftop gardens. "I just remembered another clue. When I first came out of sedation, Mayoni knew how old I was. I asked her how. She told me her father told her. I never followed up... Ha... Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Mark smiled. "I'm really going to have to talk with Va'an about this."

"To punish her?"

"Huh? You're joking, right?"

Mark saw Jennifer relax and smile. "Well, yes... I am now."

"Va'an has an extremely playful personality, but I don't think that's what's happening here. Her vocation in the tribe is social councilor, and she's the best there is. Perhaps she thought you weren't ready for me, or maybe she didn't want to take away the joy of us finding each other..."

"So your wife Kara killed Steve Roper, huh?"

"Uh..." Mark felt awkward for a moment. Steve was Jennifer's boyfriend. "Yeah... Bert too."

"Way to go sister! I'll have to tell you my side of the story. I was running all the comm links. I heard it all. Wow! Just think! Mayoni and Amy were within a few hundred feet of me, back in Parsons back then..."

"My brother Leon too..."

"Yes! Your older brother! Wow!"

"Well, not nearly as much my older brother now as he used to be..."

"Duh... What?!"

"Let me tell you what happened in spring of 1418..."

An hour later...

Lynda reached out her hand and stroked the granite rock. Jennifer's attention was divided between the rock face and the Blue Ring. Lynda spoke up, "It's right before my eyes and I'm still struggling to believe it. Thanks Mark, for giving us this tour."

Jennifer nodded her thanks also. "Mark, what would happen if you started to drill?"

"Right here at the Ring bubble interface? Ah, that's an interesting question. Our chief physicist Kalea says the answer does not have a well defined... uh, I forget what words she used, something about shifting quantum shadow layers and reality-creation interfaces. I tried to pin her down, but got totally lost... You're welcome to try with Kalea herself when you meet her. Ha! Tell me if you understand anything! I'm baffled about how we still manage to have gravity down here. Hiapo calls it the bubble-bounce graviton effect."

Lynda was still curious. "How about if you drilled in from the outside?"

"Ah, that we have an answer for. We actually did it, when we building the Level-four lobby of Spirit House. The core bubble extends right to the lobby floor. Strictly speaking, we're not on Aina at all when we're below the lobby. Anyway, we were laying additional foundation support, and came at the bubble from the side, just below floor level of the lobby."

"Yes! Exactly!" Lynda said happily. "What happened?"

"It's like a mirror, a mirror that reflects everything. Lights, cosmic rays, gravity. Kalea says even space-time singularities, black-holes, would bounce off of it... It's not really a mirror. Hiapo calls it a U-turn at the edge of space."

The three started walking back to the airlocks. Mark went back to being a tour guide. "You might be wondering about all these airlocks... We're trying to limit more contamination between the worlds. The slip-bubbles themselves are also tuned to be bio- filters. Microbes get stopped by the quantum shadow layers... Just don't ask me what that means!"

After passing through several airlocks, Mark took them over to a storage area. "This area was kept large to facilitate cargo transfer between Earth and Aina, if we ever need to do that. Right now it's just used for some odd storage... Ah! I just remembered something!" Mark walked over to a series of storage bins, and opened a drawer labeled 1436 Expedition and pulled something out which he handed to Jennifer. "It might go into a museum someday, but for now we're just storing it here..."

Jennifer stared at the Desert Eagle in her hand. "Yep. I was with Steve the day he bought it. All this tiger striping is unique to each gun. Yeah, this is it..."

Lynda asked, "Can I see it?" She inspected the gun. "Wow, what a canon!"

A short time later they were touring Level-two. Mark continued his descriptions. "This is the business level of Spirit House. Ring control, building operations control, and mission ops rooms are over this way. Power supply interface, water, atmosphere and waste system controls are over there. And in that direction are communications, backups, and Oh! Hi Keona!"

"Hi dad!" Keona was coming from a lab area adjacent to Ring control, carrying out some empty food containers. "You might want to be quiet if you enter Mayoni's lab. She's finally sleeping." Jennifer poked her head in and saw Mayoni sleeping on a cot in the dim light. The whiteboards around the small lab were filled with equations.

"Hi!" said Lynda quietly, extending her hand. "So you're Dr. Mayoni's husband. I'm very pleased to meet you."

A short time later, the four paid a brief visit to Level-three. Keona spoke. "It's still empty, except for the core elevator bays. You get the best perspective of the size of Sprit House from here. We're leaving it to future generations to decide a purpose for this level."

Level-four was the lobby, one section functional to service cargo doors, the rest filled with lounging areas of couches and chairs. Extensive artwork graced the marble walls, and the light pale colors were both soothing and cheerful. The group sat down near one of the self-serving snack tables.

Jennifer took a bite from the fruit in her hand. She blinked at the unexpected intensity of the flavors, and then decided she really liked it. "So, all this stuff gets hauled up here by cable car?"

Keona nodded. "Yep. It's a small one now. We can build something larger if we ever start hauling cargo. There's an area below us, just a few hundred meters from here, which used to be called the transfer station. It's a mini-village now. People like to come here for short periods, a week or two, to work in the orchards, or study, or just relax... It's nice... Look! Lynda! Congratulations!" There had just been a transition. Lynda's arm monitor was now showing one blue and three greens.

The group decided to split up in the lobby, Keona and Lynda chatting as they walked the granite perimeter of Spirit House, and Mark continuing the tour for Jennifer to Level- five. "It's a pocket hospital, only 4000 square feet. Just four patient rooms, one triple, one double and two singles. It has an extensive E.R., O.R., and diagnostic setup, the best on the planet. Well, no, I take that back. Our new hospital at Athens is number one now. This was designed to treat expedition teams, in case of disasters..."

The tour of Level-six was brief, Jennifer and Mark admiring the artwork in the different bedrooms, and Jennifer feeling the memories of her bewilderment as they toured the dining / conference room. Mark smiled at her. "So, where next? Want to lounge on the roof, or go back downstairs?"

Jennifer glanced at her arm, four yellows. "My body's a little tired, my mind is enjoying this immensely. Would you still stay with me for a while, if we go down to my room?"

"Sure! I'd love to."

They were soon back in Jennifer's hospital room. Jennifer headed for her small private bath. "Just let me let into some loose clothing. I'll be right out." A few moments later Jennifer came out barefoot and climbed onto her bed. Mark sat down in a chair by her side. Jennifer looked nervous, and then she took a deep breath and wiggled her toes. "Well?"

"Huh?"

"Huh? Oh! I'm so sorry! Am I getting this custom wrong? Lynda was explaining this to me this morning. If a man and woman want to share personal things about their lives with each other, the man pets the woman's feet first. I have so much to tell you. Lynda said it didn't mean sexy! If I misunderstood, I'm so sorry!"

"Jen, wait... I'd love to pet your feet. Lynda was correct... sort of... Actually, the social standards are a bit more complex... especially in this case... I wasn't going to tell you... maybe I should..." Mark reached out and gently held her foot. "May I?"