Chapter 11: Acceptance

Three days later...

Time: January 22, 9570 2:50 PM UCT

"Thanks for the help cleaning up Basel," Eliana said as she put away the last of the dishes.

He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Thanks for helping me prepare dinner." They had a custom of keeping their dinner time free of shop talk, but now it was time to discuss today's progress, and Basel was eager to get started. "You sure you don't want some help with the CAT?"

"Oh, I find the work therapeutic. And I've got the starboard auxiliary engine installed and tested now, 850 kW additional power."

Basel nodded. "I've never seen one of these things fly."

"I wouldn't be surprised if no one alive today has ever flown a CAT. The turbines can handle the power, but their design is just not optimized for flight. I think I'll be able to hover okay, but I doubt the CAT will handle much air speed."

"I have no idea how the distance governor will treat vertical height. Eli, don't assume a spherical shape for the limitation, except maybe as an absolute maximum. We might have a much lower ceiling."

"Okay. Making any progress on the holo data?"

Basel nodded. "Some good news and some bad news and some news I don't know how to classify."

Eliana laughed. "You know my personality. Tell me what I want to hear first!"

"The ground-scanning imaging is working better than I expected. We should be able to detect craters less than a meter radius from the echo delays."

"Excellent!"

"Bad news #1: There was nothing in particular captured in the scanning that recorded the presence of your creature. I detected a hibernating bear at site #2, but nothing seems alive in the imaging at site #4 except you and me."

Eliana sighed. "That is unfortunate. We need more information on this creature. What's next?"

"Bad news #2: Getting the scanners to work inside the CAT's manifold will be trickier than I realized. Assume another five days before we can start our survey."

"Okay. Anything else?"

"A bit of weirdness. Site #4 was a little unusual. The imaging was a little fuzzy, more so than the other sites, but not enough to hurt the scan."

"Fuzzy?"

"More reflections and echoes. I have no idea why. It might be a property of the rocks local to the area."

"That would be something we could test, return to the area and rescan."

"Not a bad idea. Eli, how soon do you think we might be ready?"

"Give me another full day. I want to test all the weapon systems before I try our first flight. We'll have to work out a schedule where I get some flight time and you still have the CAT available to install the scanner."

"Ah, so you're thinking we'll do the scans airborne."

"Sure. I'm assuming the creature is ground hugging. Can't you do your scanning while I hover?"

"Well, we'd have to be very low."

"How low?"

"Let me think about the focal lengths..." Basel thought for a while in silence. "Uh, we might need to be as low as twenty meters, maybe even lower. Would that be okay?"

"I'll take whatever distance I can get. Twenty meters sounds much safer than being on the ground. I'll be ready by daybreak on the 24th. Care to join me for a test flight?"

"Of course! It will be nice to get out." Basel swung his arms and then twisted his shoulders back and forth.

"Any problems?" asked Eliana.

"Oh, just a few kinks. I was doing a lot of tight work in the photonics lab today..."

"Would you like a backrub?"

"Wow, that sounds wonderful. Right now?" he asked hopefully.

Eliana grinned. "My backrubs tend to put people to sleep. How about we take our showers and get ready for bed first?"

Her suggestion was rewarded with a beaming smile from her companion.

Forty minutes later...

Basel came out of the bathroom in a happy mood, completely dry from the hot-air sprays and wearing a fluffy towel-robe. He appeared to be alone on Level-1, and that puzzled him for a moment. He walked over to peek into Eliana's bedroom from her open door. Nothing.

He turned and saw a barefoot, pajama-clad Eliana descending the ladder. He called out, "Ah, there you are!"

"Just checking the sensors, everything's fine."

"No sign of our elusive visitor?"

Eliana sighed. "No. I hope it hasn't left the area. It has the whole world to hide in if it wants to." She paused for a moment and then smiled at her boyfriend. "We haven't talked about this for two days. What's your opinion of my monster now?"

"I guess I'm still sitting on the fence, and given the risks, I've decided to act as if the monster were real. The one hard piece of evidence we have is the UV flash. You were right, without the monster, there's no explanation for what caused it."

They had been slowly walking to his bedroom as they talked. "So," said Basel, giving Eliana a grateful smile, "want to give me a minute to change?"

She batted her eyes playfully. "Well, you'll like this better without the pajama tops. Why not just take off the top half of your robe?"

He raised his eyebrows playfully in return. "Okay!" A moment later he was lying down prone on his bed, arms by his side, the sheets pulled back, the top half of his robe forming a loose ruffle on his butt. He had his head turned in Eliana's direction, but his eyes were closed. Eliana stood and admired him for a moment. Basel heard her give a small cry before she climbed into bed to kneel on top of him, and it touched his heart to realize it was a cry of joy. Kneeling with her legs straddling him and her knees just touching his hips, her hands began to massage the upper muscles in his shoulders.

The sensations were exquisite, and Basel sighed in his pleasure. "My love..." he whispered.

"My love," replied Eliana. The massage continued for many minutes. Eliana could tell that her lover was deeply relaxed but still very awake. She decided to pop a question. "Basel?"

"Hmmm?"

"How is it that you're still not married? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining! But you're such a wonderful catch, kind, handsome, smart, everything women look for when they're looking for a husband. I can't believe my fortune in finding you."

"Ah, well... I am a little shy... Hmmm, that feels divine..."

"No, that's not it. I'm the one who's shy in dating. You're very well adjusted. Trust me, this is a trained Priestess talking."

"Oh, I don't know. I shudder to think how I acted with you, the first time we met."

"You had a perfectly valid reason for being nervous. I could well have been a dominating Commander who had just bagged you as my sex toy."

Basel gave a deep sigh. "Yeah, I do remember thinking that. Beautiful Eliana, the thought seems so impossible now..." He let out another deep sigh as she started working his lower back muscles.

"So how is it possible I still have my chance for you? Why don't you have a crowd of females pursuing you?"

"You really want to know?"

She laughed and gave him a playful swat on his rump. "Basel, don't tease me!"

"Okay..." There was a long pause as Eliana returned to giving her massage. Basel finally sighed. "You know the culture Eli..."

"Hmmm?"

"About one in four adults is a guy, but what percentage of the vote do we hold?"

It was Eliana's turn to sigh. "I know... about 21%."

"It was below 20.7% the last time I looked. My age group is very typical. There are ninety CL6 and six CL7 right now. Only six of the CL6 are men, and none of the CL7."

Eliana squirmed. "It's not as if the guys are slaves..."

"Oh, I know. The advancement tests are blind to gender. It's just that the guys have it so easy, there's so little reason to compete. It's so easy for most guys to find two to four women who are very happy to have him as the male anchor for their marriage. And they will love him and take care of him and give him a wonderful life. But when it comes to deciding when a wife gets pregnant, or what's the next city to move to, or whether to add a new sister-wife to the marriage..."

"Oh," Eliana said defensively, "I know lots of marriages where the wives take the input from their husband very seriously, especially before they propose to a new sister wife. Nobody can force you to marry anybody."