Chapter 36

Schooled by years of self-discipline, Igwanda awoke first. The sun was just over the horizon, he noticed; the night had passed, and they were unharmed and unfettered. He looked quick­ly about him, half-expecting to find himself surrounded by an overwhelming tide of alien faces, but there was nothing; the field was completely clear.

Memories of the previous evening brought a slight flush, unnoticeable against his ebony skin but felt by his body as though it were flamingly evident. He shook his head as if to clear it. Would what had happened make them uncomfortable together, make working with each other more difficult? It might be better if he were alert and busy by the time she waked, he thought, and started to stir himself. The movement awoke her, and she looked up directly at him.

She smiled. "Good morning, Carlos," she said softly.

"Er— good morning, Amanda," he said a bit stiffly. He continued to rise. She stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"I didn't dream last night, did I, Carlos?" she asked.

"Uh ... no, Amanda, but—"

"Are you worried, Carlos?" she teased. "Afraid of commitment? Afraid I'm your wolverine girl?"

"No, not at all ... What is a 'wolverine girl?'"

"You make love to her in the night, then when you awake the next day she's still asleep with her head on your arm," she said with another smile. "Rather than risk waking her up, you chew off your arm." He looked at her in astonishment. "It's a rather grisly simile; wolverines will sometimes do that if they have a paw caught in a leg trap. Am I—"

He interrupted her with a burst of laughter.

"Well," she said as he finished. "I suppose that means no. Then why start off so rigid? Uh, as it were." She reddened slightly.

"Amanda, I was concerned—"

"—that I would be embarrassed, that I would feel awkward?" she took up his thought. "Carlos, it's not my first time. Nor, I hope, will it be my last. I am woman, hear me roar."

He laughed again. "I hear, o lioness. And you were that. But I felt you might have succumbed more to your own feelings than my, uh ... charms, and awake ashamed, and I did not want to make matters—"

"—worse?" she finished. "For me? Shit, Carlos, it was a wild day. It started off with near-enslavement, I killed other living beings for the first time on purpose"—the smile abruptly left her face—"it ended with my not being sure I'd wake up alive—that's a weird way to say it, isn't it, how else would you wake up at all?—anyhow, hell, yes, I had 'feelings, ' as you so tactfully put it. But they were 'feelings' for you, too. Didn't you hear me tell you I've wanted you for a long time?"

"Uh—"

"Yup, you did," she said. "And I have. And now that I've had you, I damn well wouldn't mind it again. That was glorious. But we have another agenda, so a morning-after is out of the question. Still, there'll be other times. I hope?" She looked at him.

"Other times, yes," he said firmly, with the brightest smile she'd ever seen from him. She reached up to bring his face to her for a kiss, which he returned in full measure. "Oh, yuck," she said as they broke, "kissing and no toothbrushing. You taste good anyway. I hope I do."

"You do indeed," he said.

"OK, then, time for work. Now I expect we need to check in with the Gardener. And then breakfast—God, I'm starved. Good sex does that to me. Bad sex, now ... oh, well, never mind. But I hope they don't show up before we have a chance to eat. Do they wake up early, too, do you think? Or do they even sleep?"

He gave a chuckle. "How would I know? But as I told you, I expect we are under observation. They will probably come when they see us awaiting them."

"'Under observation, ' huh? Wonder how they took what they observed last night?" she grinned. "Well, in that case we need to look busy, not just 'awaiting.' You talk to the ship while I do something about food, OK?"

The act of "talking to the ship" proved annoyingly tiresome. Igwanda was greeted by Chavez' combined relief and incredulity that they were intact, followed almost immediately by a carefully phrased reproof for not leaving the communicator active all night so that they might monitor his well-being. The careful phrasing, along with Igwanda's exhilarated mood, saved him another chewing out, but the colonel was still irritated. It was time, he decided, to set down a firm foot.

"We are untouched," he told the sergeant, even as his mind added well, untouched by them, at any rate. "We are about to break our fast. And I plan again to discontinue our transmission while we eat—unless the sounds of our chewing would comfort you?"

"Colonel, there are many of Dr. Meiersdottir's colleagues who want to—"

"After breakfast," he interrupted. "She will speak with them then. As she pleases. And when the aliens arrive, please understand, there will be no interruptions unless expressly invited. None. We will tell you when that time occurs. Then we expect silence only from the Gardener unless it is directly attacked, or we are. Make that clear to all who can transmit to us please. For now, we discontinue transmission as of this moment." He did so.

"They want to talk to me?" asked Meiersdottir. "I just bet they do. I'll do it for a little, listen to all their good advice, if we have time, but it's really up to us, isn't it? You and me?"

"To you, Amanda," he said as he took up the food packet she'd made ready. "Yesterday was my day. I learned what I needed for my own purposes—the purposes of my mission. Now it is your show, your expertise; I can but observe—"

"Oh, bullshit, Carlos," she cut him off. "You and me. We're the opposites that complement each other. You've seen things that I haven't already. Watch for more, look for more, see what I don't. And jump in, both feet. You don't have my eyes and ears and mind, but I don't have yours. We need both if we're going somewhere."

"Where are we going?" he asked between mouthfuls.

"Damned if I know," she responded. "Do you?"

"No," he admitted. "Not other than to learn as much as we can about the ways their minds work. Or their mind works?"

"And to transform a single sociopathic entity, or is that entities, into a social being," she added with a sigh. "Maybe John or somebody else back on the ship has some ideas. Or you do? I confess I'm fumbling in the dark."

"No-one better to find the light," he said.

"You're just saying that because you got laid," she said with a smile. Then her expression changed. "Oh, shit, is the transmission off?"

He laughed. "Yes, it is off," he reassured her. "But soon it will be on. Remember, discretion is the better part of valor; you will have to curb your tongue."

"For now," she said with a wicked grin. "For later ... Oh, hell, keep to business, Amanda. OK, I guess I need to hear what they've come up with overnight. I'm done eating, let's open the floodgates."

For most of the voyage and both lander expeditions Igwanda's opinion of his scientific charges had gone steadily downhill, until by the time of the retreat to the lander he saw most of them as feckless romantics with their noses so glued to their own specialties that they were helpless otherwise. It was an opinion that was about to change.

"Good morning, Amanda." It was Heisinger's voice over the communicator. "May I gather that we have some little time to talk apart from your native companions?"