Chapter 40

Future Interlude X: Proposals In A Tent

Aina time: 4:40 PM day 66 of 1474 H.E. (145 days after memory integration, one week before the start of autumn and the Festival of Harvest)

Ekela finished his portage from Maluhia, the small resort hamlet the Hopewell had recently built along the eastern line of the great rim mountains. The hamlet consisted of a single hotel and a few small buildings for supplies and emergency medical support. The hotel could house a hundred people, but Ekela, Mayoni, and Kalea had never seen it more than a quarter full for the entire two months (36 days) they had been there. As Ekela stood and enjoyed the view from his campsite, he realized he was not even counting his group among Maluhia's population. Except for brief trips for supplies, he and the two sisters had been camping together in the open range.

Ekela stood still and drank from the spectacular vista of the great Hopewell valley. It was a clear day and with the late afternoon summer sun, he looked west and thought he could see forever. Maluhia was hidden by a ridge of native trees. Logically, he knew he could run there in a half-hour and then take a graviton air-cab to Athens. The 300- kilometer sub-orbital trip would take less than five minutes.

But from his mountain view the modern world was completely hidden, and after two months of camping the world's problems seemed like a distant memory. Mayoni and Kalea had happily started to wash his clothes in a mountain stream after he went for the supplies.

Ekela smiled as he thought they were probably the only two young women who knew the technique, and certainly the only two who would be so cheerful about doing it. But Mayoni and particularly Kalea had spent their first childhoods in the 1300's, when such labor was not just common but mandatory and reserved for women and girls. He could hear now the distant sweet song of their voices as they sang traditional Hopewell holoi himeni, wash songs, as they worked.

Ekela stretched and admired his muscles. His small group had taken minor breaks for recreational hiking, but the last two months had been packed with technical climbing instruction under the master tutelage of Mayoni. Ekela smiled at the thought that he was now one of the top mountain climbers of the three planets. The Congress had requested that the three learn the skills before making a formal petition for access to the solar tower.

Ekela chuckled now at his reaction to the request when he first heard it. Most of his mind was overjoyed with the fact the Congress would never request such a thing without the intention of granting the petition. After several near fatal attempts to enter the solar tower in the late 1450's, the Hopewell realized there was still much about the chemical entrance protocols that they didn't understand, and the area was declared off-limits by law.

Ekela chuckled again. A second part of his mind was at first dismayed at the prospect of leaving his studies and research for so long. That dismay was now unfathomable. Ekela knew he would treasure these last two months as the most beautiful and peaceful in his life. His love for Mayoni had grown immensely, and Kalea was as dear to him now as a close sister. He sighed now at the thought of ever leaving this idyllic life, but they were all due back in Athens in four days...

"Oh noble one!" Kalea called out happily, returning to the camp with her sister carrying armloads of clean damp clothes and waking Ekela from his daydream. " Mahalo for the supplies!"

Ekela smiled and shrugged his shoulders and called back, " Mahalo for your excellent work with my clothes!" Ekela joined them by the larger tent and unpacked the new box with the fruit. Super-food plants were both abundant and in season in the area, and there was no need to carry in food from the hamlet. But Kalea and Mayoni were extremely keen for wild oranges and raspberries imported from Earth, and Ekela had grown very fond of them too.

After brief hugs, the group lit a bonfire for drying the clothes and began preparing dinner. "I checked the comm log, no issues," commented Ekela. He was surprised two months ago, when both sisters politely asked him to leave his sub-satellite phone at Maluhia. Now though, the peace and serenity of their retreat were priceless to him.

They spent their next hour eating dinner, turning the drying clothes near the fire, and planning for the next day's lesson. They were already far more proficient than they needed to be to scale the wall to the sunflower fields, but Ekela was looking forward to testing the limits of his expertise. A few minutes after sunset, they gathered around their camp fire and sang songs.

Ekela sat in a marriage class position, wedged closely between two of the most beautiful women he thought he would ever know. They sang and chatted until the last of the twilight faded into a star filled sky. The wind began to pick up, a cool brisk northern wind, brisk and sharp, and the temperature began to drop sharply. Smelling the crackling wood fire, Ekela thought happily of the clean warm and cozy blankets he would soon be wrapped in.

Ekela was surprised a short while later, when he heard Kalea's voice just outside his tent. "Uh, Ekela, you decent?"

Ekela was about to turn in and had already changed into his clean nightclothes, the soft fabric smelling faintly of wood-smoke and candle-nut soap. "Uh, sure. Come in!"

Kalea entered the small one-man tent and gave him a big smile.

Ekela smiled back and asked, "Hi Kalea! Do you need something?"