Chapter 64

The wedding went off flawlessly. Igwanda had agreed that all but a skeleton crew for the Gardener might gather on the surface for the event, and even those who remained on board could take their choice of views on the ship's monitors from among transmissions of several holographic broadcast units set up specially to record it.

Igwanda was briefly surprised to see the size of the Edenite contingent, which seemed to match the number of humans. Not until he actually counted did he recognize that the match was exact; he was amused that they had reverted to the numerical symmetry they maintained during the early days of the humans' visit. The aliens paid rapt attention as the ceremony proceeded to its conclusion.

As best man, Akakha's only actual duty consisted of passing Igwanda the wedding ring. The colonel had fashioned it himself out of a small specimen of iron from the natives' mine, using their own forge for the work. He had earlier apologized to Meiersdottir for the rudeness of its workmanship and for the lack of gold or platinum. "I regret that no-one had the foresight to include spare quantities of either metal in our stores," he told her. "But I will of course replace it with a more traditional ring when we return."

"The hell you will," she retorted. "I'm not giving up being the only woman on Earth with extraterrestrial jewelry, and jewelry that was made by her husband on top of it. Besides, this way you can just pull out a magnet when you want me."

In the somewhat bizarre custom of human weddings, almost immediately after the ceremony concluded the two who had just been joined together in matrimony found themselves wending separate ways among the attendees accepting congratulations and good wishes. Feeling awkward in such a setting, Igwanda mostly stood in one place while the occasional well-wisher approached him, whereas the sociable Meiersdottir reveled in her special popularity as bride by circulating happily.

The colonel was feeling slightly bored by the whole activity when Monte Smith came up to him.

"Colonel, congratulations, and I also want to say I owe you a much-belated apology."

"Oh?"

"You see, I was one of the ones who tried to shout you down that day on the ship when you spoke about delaying the landing."

Igwanda smiled. "That day has long been forgotten," he said gently.

"Yes, but, well, I have a bad memory of calling out something particularly insulting. You were trying to talk about how you needed time for surveillance of the natives and to interpret the results, and ... well, I'm not proud of it, but I remember yelling at you that you didn't have the brains to interpret Dick and Jane if you had a Tarot deck to help you."

Igwanda chuckled.

"Of course, I guess I don't need to say it, but that's a long way from what I feel now."

"Ah? Then you now believe I could make such an interpretation with that assistance?" asked the colonel straight-faced. Smith flushed, and started to sputter that of course that wasn't what he meant when Meiersdottir appeared to reclaim her new husband.

"Sorry, Carlos, I'm just busy enjoying being a bride. Hi, Monte, what are you two talking about?"

"I believe Dr. Smith was offering me the use of a set of aids to literary analysis," Igwanda told her blandly. Smith's flush deepened as Meiersdottir stared at her husband in puzzlement. "Never mind," he said, smiling. "Monte, please put it from your mind. At least your remark had the benefit of refreshing novelty. And I thank you for your congratulations."

"What was that all about?" asked Meiersdottir curiously after Smith had made a fairly hasty and still somewhat embarrassed departure.

"Only a reminder of how far we have come since we arrived here," he said. And, as he looked around at the commingled crowd of humans and Edenites, he mused briefly on just how greatly they had indeed progressed from the caste-divided contingent who had first made contact with an alien species secretly bent on their deaths and enslavement.