Eclipses v1 0, p.18
Eclipses (v1.0), page 18
“Just the legwork,” Aram said. “I’ll take the contracts myself, counsel him.” He smiled.
Beth tried to smile back. “What about the catering contract?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll just keep him busy for nine days at a time; you can have him the tenth for … oh, you mean … well, of course, I’ll leave the larder key here.” He rummaged on his desk a moment, held up a key and placed it ceremoniously on a tray. Then he lifted his eyes to another comm* screen. “I need to talk to Alexi before I go. You can wait that long, can’t you?” Beth heard a man’s muffled reply. “Good, then it’s settled.” He nodded at Beth’s screen.
“But what about Maria? It’s her contract,” Beth said.
“Yes, but she subbed it to you for the winter. When I tell her I don’t plan to renew in the spring, I’m sure she’ll renegotiate now. No reason for her not to, is there?”
It wasn’t a question, but the question of Maria’s feelings were heavy on Beth’s mind. “Will she come back?” Beth asked softly.
“Back? Maria? Of course she will. Loss of one contract out of five couldn’t keep her away. Besides, if I know Maria she’ll have replaced it with something else before spring picnic. She’s always complaining there is so much to do around here and not enough brains to get it done.”
What? Beth wondered. There was never so much as a speck of dust or a squeaky hinge when Maria was around. What else needed doing?
“I’ll try to be home before sundown tomorrow, Beth. I’ll really try. I’ve missed you very much, but the land reclaimer is important.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Beth said. She knew that if he could not learn what he needed to know at Mallow by working round the clock and sleeping on the railcar on the return trip home so that he could share her bed tomorrow night, it simply couldn’t be done in a day.
The screen blanked. Beth was left to her bath, which definitely felt too warm. With no problems left to solve, she no longer felt the need for its soothing qualities. Besides, her skin was wrinkling. She stepped out of the pool and turned on the air dryers.
It had all been so easy. To think that she’d actually worried about it. Why, Aram hadn’t so much as inquired as to why she didn’t want the contracts. She turned off the blower, her hand lingering on the brilliant leaf-green metal lever. He hadn’t even wanted to know why she wanted the catering contract, nor what she was going to do with it that was different from what he had known almost his entire life.
Thoughtfully, Beth reached for the sari draped on the rack. It was blue with silvery trim, and Aram wouldn’t even be here to notice that she was wearing it as the head of his household.
BOOK THREE
Chapter 17
The mountainous slopes above the Water Baron’s mansion were pale green, the rich substance of saplings’ spring buds reflecting the light of early dawn. The vigorous trees seemed lacy, for they had only five years’ growth, planted on the slopes by foresters after the loggers had felled the ripe timber. The tip of the microwave transmitting tower of the RECOM system glittered as the sun rose. Once it was rivaled by tall forest; now there were only a few mature trees left for seeding, and the tower stood as lone sentry over the mansion. Across the graded road that switchbacked down from the ridge and on to Calib’s Dam, the down-valley slopes were still covered with mature forest, dark and dense in its depth but capped with delicate green buds. A silver monorail track sliced through the heavy forest, easing its way downslope to Calib’s Dam and the small support settlement there, then running straight through the verdant valley. A white-water river serpentined near the track, disappearing far down valley into early spring haze. The brimming reservoir still held an early morning fog close to its surface, and the haze muted the brilliance of Calib’s Dam at the water’s southern edge. Almost anyone in the vicinity of the Water Baron’s mansion could see and marvel at the pastoral scene, but Erik could not.
Erik sat in the uppermost branches of a sturdy spiral oak growing along the “road that passed his father’s mansion. From his perch he could see the mansion’s broad front face. Normally he could see the front porch and identify family and contractors who entered and exited through the huge portals. Today, as for the past week, he could not identify more than the mansion’s monolithic shape rising from a hazy green and gold plane of lawn, for he wore a light-tight patch over his good eye; the other eye had a light-tight dead spot in its center. Peripheral vision of a single eye was not sufficient to identify distant details. Still he watched, and when he saw a white speck bobbing against the backdrop of the mansion, his mind filled in what his eye could not. White, almost assuredly the speck was white, rapidly moving away from the mansion. The color alone was enough to narrow down the speck’s identification. Beth tended to wear desert colors—browns, golds and hazy blues—and Pola liked earth tones of green and bright blue. The speck could not be Hilde or Marc: No one would put either of the roughnecked youngsters in white, for it just wouldn’t stay white for long. Aram might wear white; Aram seemed unaware of the clothes he wore. If someone put white in his wardrobe, he was likely to wear it one day, especially on a warm day as this one was getting to be. Or the white speck could be Alexi, on his way to the dam or the power shack on the ridge.
Erik waited. The white speck enlarged, then blended with the light flagstone path leading from the mansion to the road. Soon there was enough white protrusion into the surrounding turf for a white gorilla shadow. No one but Alexi could fill a shape that large. Erik edged his way back to the tree trunk, shinnied and stretched to lower himself. Erik’s reach was not overly long, but his hands and legs were sure from recent years of boyhood experience. At the lowest limb, he crouched so that he could see portions of the road through the thickly leafed branches. The white-suited figure was striding down the road now and was close enough for Erik to see Alexi’s dark, tangled hair and the sparkling gray eyes, squinting in sunlight and then relaxing as Alexi passed into the spiral oak’s shade. Erik dropped to the road, landing with a solid umph.
Erik looked up to see Alexi prepared to attack. “Peace, brother,” Erik said hastily. Alexi straightened, shaking his head as he glanced at the tree, no doubt wondering if Erik had hidden cohorts there to leap at his next unsuspecting step. It was a game they had played when they were young, a game Erik still considered fun from time to time.
Alexi, satisfied that he was not the object of attack—real or mock—relaxed. “They’re waiting for you to come downstairs,” he said, nodding toward the house.
“I thought as much. That’s why I got up early and came out here to wait for you.”
Alexi’s thick, bushy brows raised suspiciously. “Why?” He glanced back up into the tree.
“I want to know what they’re going to say.”
“Go ask them.” Alexi started to walk again, but Erik stepped in front of him. Alexi stopped and stared down at his brother.
Erik tried to meet his gaze, but the single eye would not cooperate. There was only black where Alexi’s face should have been. “You tell me,” he said. “You know I won’t last five minutes in the same room with Father.”
“Mother is there, too.”
“Then Aram won’t say everything that’s on his mind … come on, Alexi. What have they decided?”
Erik knew his brother was watching him closely, trying to determine if it was fair to interfere with Beth’s and Aram’s plans by discussing the matter with Erik before their parents did. He no doubt finally realized that Erik and Aram could not have a satisfactory meeting, for he went to the roadside and sat down in the grass for a leisurely talk. Erik followed.
“They’re going to extend your juvenile status for a year. They think it will take at least that long for you to make minimum grades on the computer. Until you regain vision in that eye you can’t see well enough to study … and, of course, there’s also your reputation for not studying.”
“It’s just an excuse,” Erik said. He expected Alexi to protest, expanding on the tentative reasons Beth and Aram had already given. Erik had heard the entire argument: It was unreasonable for Erik to think he’d achieve a decent adult-status contract while half-blind, and, since there was a doubly legitimate reason for extending juvenile status past his sixteenth birthday just two weeks hence—the computer grading system had judged him as immature and as lacking minimal contract readiness—he should take advantage of the extra year (two, if necessary) to catch up on his academic training and regain his vision in the bad eye as well.
But Alexi said, “Yes. It probably is.”
“What do you mean?” Erik could not help the question. Alexi was his father’s man, the chosen heir. Even though Alexi had a hair-trigger temper, he was able to get along better with Aram than most other men because father and son usually saw matters as if through the same eyes.
“The reasons are all correct; but, underneath, he’s too protective of his family. Look at Pola. She’s had adult status for two years, but he won’t let her take a contract with Research City. It would mean she’d go away, and Father likes his family close by.”
“Pola will go. She’ll wear him down with all her reasonable arguments and he’ll finally have to let her go.”
Alexi nodded. “Perhaps that’s what you should do.”
“I’m not Pola. I can’t let him chant for an hour and then calmly counterpoint like a computer as Pola does. And I’m not like you. I can’t drown his arguments by the mere loudness of my voice.”
“I don’t need to argue with him very often,” Alexi said, smiling at Erik. “He’s really a very brilliant man, you know. He does things well, if you’d only take the time to notice.” “I know that. But try seeing it from my point of view. Why should I continue my education? You’re the heir. The Empire doesn’t need me.”
“For your own good, you should at least complete minimal standards. It’s not so hard. Pola and I were finished before we were fifteen, and if you’d spend time in the computer room instead of roaming around the countryside, you’d be done in less than a year. What’s a year?”
“Too long to waste on something I neither want nor need. I’m not the heir.”
“You keep saying that, but I’ve never heard any official declaration. If you’d show an interest there could be two heirs … or more.”
Erik sighed. He knew Pola was not interested in the interfacing or dictatorial functions Aram and Alexi performed, though she was deeply involved with certain aspects, . which Aram considered a valuable contribution. She was dissatisfied with the kinds of applied research opportunities in Aram’s Empire and wanted to go to Research City to join one of the new programs available there—or, better yet, start her own. With her single-mindedness, Erik knew Pola would eventually have her way and there would be no wave in her wake when she did. Aram would be mollified, Beth resigned and Alexi left as heir, for, though there were still two very young children in the family whose ambitions could not be anticipated yet, Alexi would be firmly established as Aram’s successor by the time they grew up. Erik was certain in his own mind that he wanted no part of the confining life required of the Empire’s dictator.
“Erik, between us we could make this Empire into something Aram never dreamed of.”
Erik held up a protesting hand. “One heir is enough. You’re it. I never wanted it. I don’t even want a part of it. I want out. There’s plenty of room for more empires to be made on this planet. There’s more to see than just this Empire or even the coast.”
Erik couldn’t bear the thought of a whole world waiting while he sat within his father’s borders. Alexi just didn’t share his wonder. Once he had seen the barony, being his father’s heir, as a means to conquer the world. Now Alexi was older, more realistic, and he had modified his world-encompassing dreams to certain futures for the Empire. Alexi’s gray eyes seemed compassionate as they gazed into Erik’s. The single blue eye was probably glittering, and if the other were unpatched the pair would nearly burn with desire. Erik couldn’t shake loose of his dreams, wouldn’t!
Alexi sighed. “Aram will hold you back for a year, but under the circumstances I think he’s justified,” he said.
“I won’t let him. I’ll have to run.”
“What?” Alexi gave him a startled look. “That’s infantile. You can’t run away from your problems.”
“I’m left with no reasonable alternative. There’s no other solution.”
“The alternative is reasonable. Finish your education and get that eye straightened out at the same time. There is no shame in it. Half the males on the planet don’t, take adult status until they’re seventeen or eighteen.”
“No! The educational standards are for people who want to be a part of the Water Baron’s Empire or want to go to Research City. I fit neither category.”
“There are no other categories … unless you want to farm. I believe you have the minimal standards for lubricating field-tenders, but I can’t picture you staying on ten acres of land for the rest of your life.”
“I can’t, either. But you see, that’s the problem with you and Aram. Neither of you can see a future without the Empire. What about the rest of the planet?”
“With all the refugees pouring in from Earth, what about it? Until Father builds more dams, every drop of Empire water is spoken for. You need Aram’s water and Aram’s power to turn barren land into tillable soil. This planet is desert and rock.”
“There are springs in some places.” Alexi’s blink dismissed springs indifferently. “And hydroelectric power is not the only kind of power.”
“Ha! They’re burning up petroleum on the coast so fast that there won’t be anything but hydroelectric power in another fifty years.”
“What about new oil fields?”
“How will you find them unless you specialize in geology?” “Hire someone.”
Alexi snorted. “What will you contract with?”
“Ten acres of prime land, deeded to me by my father at my birth.”
“Ten acres is not likely to bind contracts as ambitious as the one Aram let for oil exploration.”
Erik shrugged. “There’re other sources. Wind, solar, geothermal. A little ingenuity and I might put the Water Baron out of business.”
“Pipe dreams, Erik. You can’t compete with him.”
Erik sighed. “I don’t plan to try.”
“You can’t run. Your father is the Water Baron. You couldn’t get fifty kilometers without being recognized and hauled back.”
Erik shrugged. “I’ll just run again. He can’t keep me tied up.”
“He could put you on an outpost with ten tough people to watch you.”
“Wouldn’t serve his purpose. I might like an outpost, and I don’t think there’s an educational computer extension in one of them.”
Alexi stood up and kicked a clod of dirt with his boot. It shattered, but a stone shot straight out across the road and ricocheted off a tree. “Where can you go with one lousy eye? You’ve everything to gain by staying. You must realize you owe him something.”
“No!” Erik saw Alexi’s fist clench and knew it was time to back off. “But I’ll think about it, Alexi.” The white knuckles eased a bit as Erik backed away. Alexi had learned to control his fist-swinging impulse quite well these last few years because he finally met citizens who could match him blow for blow. Erik could not, and even when his slight frame filled out over the next few years he would still not be a match for Alexi. But what Erik didn’t have in brawn he made up for in wit. Alexi had been difficult to master in brains, too, but paying the consequences of Alexi’s steel fists had made Erik a brilliant student of his brother’s character. Alexi could argue just so long before his voice grew loud and his hands clenched. Finally, he’d swing. He might not be right, but he gained tremendous personal satisfaction out of a good fight. But Alexi couldn’t fight passivity. Whoever could remain passive ,or feign passivity when Alexi was angry was the person in control. Erik was now in control. “As you say, Alexi, I will consider my alternatives.”
“There’s only one reasonable one.”
“You’re probably right. Well, thanks for the information.” Erik walked up the road as if he were going to the mansion. Without turning he could feel Alexi’s eyes burning holes in his back. He’d be wondering whether to mention this conversation to Aram and Beth, especially to Beth, for her intercession was often the only way to avoid Aram’s wrath. Yet Alexi would know that Erik, despite his impulsive nature, would be most likely to take “the easiest way out, which in this case would appear to be conceding to their parents’ wishes. Alexi would not make a decision immediately. He would brood over the discussion until nightfall or until morning at the latest, when the family was certain that Erik was gone. Then he’d tell his parents.
When Erik reached the place where the stone path intersected the road, he stopped and looked back at Alexi. His brother was again a white shadow moving in a blurred background. Intellectual cross-references told Erik the road turned. Momentarily Alexi was out of sight. To be certain, Erik peeled back the patch on his good eye, blinked in the sunlight and looked again. Alexi was gone. Erik looked up at the mansion that stood so mightily on the mountain slope. He liked the house. He loved the people in it. But he was an alien in their midst. Erik pocketed the eye patch and walked across the road to the woods, striking quickly and steadily for the glen where he’d left his packboard.
Without unseen branches to hamper him, Erik made good time across his father’s land. To his knowledge, no one particularly cared that the glen was the loveliest area on the mountain slope. It was deep within harvest-ready forests of fine timber, which no one in the Empire needed yet. Foresters passed through it at least twice a year, checking for disease and pests, but picnickers preferred the reservoir’s open recreation areas and hikers the higher and more rugged slopes. There was a faint trail, worn mostly by himself and his friends, but Erik kept far upslope of it.
