“I shouldn’t be in charge here. I don’t know what’s happening, but I’m beginning to realize that there’s a lot more to the FE software than just a Fair Exchange. So, I’m going to do what I should have done at the start: I’m going to follow the Stranger’s advice.”
“So you’re going to…” Judy was striding hard to keep up.
Saskia wasn’t listening.
“If we’d listened to him right at the start, we would never have got into this mess. Miss Rose wouldn’t be lying there in an autodoc at the moment.
She paused for a moment, bringing Judy to a sudden stop. Saskia took a deep breath.
“I’m putting Edward in charge of the ship.”
eva 7: 2089
“All done,” Alexandr said, smoothing down the new plaster. Eva watched the movement of his hands in fascination. There was something pleasing about the easy way he moved the trowel back and forth.
“Will they be able to see me now?” she asked.
“No,” Ivan said, pouring out three glasses of tea.
“Why, do you want them to be able to?” Alexandr asked, stopping his plastering in mid-swoop. He wore a look of mock concern. A lightning flash of drying plaster ran up the wall behind him. Eva laughed. “I don’t think anyone would want to see me anymore. Not at my age.”
“If you’re sure,” Alexandr said helpfully, “I can have a link in a moment. You can have the whole world watching you as you take a shower.”
“Oh, yes, I’m sure the world would really love that,” replied Eva dryly. Ivan handed her a glass of tea and a lump of sugar. She sipped the tea through the sugar, the way he had taught her. Alexandr tapped at his console and the large screen came on.
“There you are,” he said, “input only.” He took the proffered glass from Ivan, and the three of them sipped as they watched the pictures from the outside world.
Bright white cities were growing from the Earth, their slender spires constructed by humans, the silver scaffolding growing from VNMs. The people that walked the newly minted streets seemed to glow brighter than those Eva had become used to in the RFS. They walked with more confidence; their smiles were deeper; they gave the impression of having a greater love of life.
“You’re not tempted to go back there?” Alexandr asked.
“Not at all,” said Eva.
“Not even to see your daughter?” Ivan wondered. “I would not want to be apart from my Katya for so long.”
“Katya is still young and needs your love. Jessica is a grown woman. She visits me here whenever she can. We can speak whenever we like using the screen.”
“You won’t be doing that for a while,” Alexandr said. “We’ve had to disconnect the outgoing line completely. The VNMs had jerked the bandwidth right up. I’m not sure how we will restrict it again.”
Eva sipped more tea. She was going to miss Alexandr almost as much as she would miss Ivan. She would miss his open smile and his constant attempts to wind her up. He liked to stuff the pockets of her coat with rolled up balls of paper when she wasn’t looking, and then he would act all wide-eyed and innocent when she pulled them out and threw them at him. The young man finished the plastering and dropped his trowel into a plastic self-cleaning container.
“All done,” he said, toasting his work with the glass of tea he held in a plaster-flecked hand.
“I’m going to miss you, Alexandr.”
He gave a wink. “I’ll be back, I’m sure.”
“Don’t you ever think about staying here?” Eva wished that she could take back the words. They made her sound needy and desperate.
Alexandr didn’t seem to notice, though. He sipped slowly as he considered his answer.
