Even so, the optical resolution should be better than this.
“Commander Solanki, we’re going to attempt to recover the marines as well,” Auster said.
“I haven’t been able to contact them for over a day. God, I don’t even know if they’re still alive, let alone where they are.”
“None the less, they are our naval personnel. If there’s any chance, we owe them the effort.”
The statement drew him a startled glance from Jeroen van Ewyck and the other two Adamists on the bridge. They quickly tried to hide their gaffe. Auster ignored it.
“Christ but—All right,” Kelven Solanki datavised. “I’ll fly the recovery myself, though. No point in risking your spaceplane. It was me who ordered them in there to start with. My responsibility.”
“As you wish. If our sensors can locate their fishing boat, do you have an aircraft available?”
“I can get one. But the invaders knocked out the last plane to fly into their territory. One thing I do know is that they’ve got some lethal fire-power going for them.”
“So has
Joshua Calvert fell back onto the translucent sheet and let out a heartfelt breath. The bed’s jelly-substance mattress was rocking him gently as the waves slowed. Sweat trickled across his chest and limbs. He gazed up at the electrophorescent cell clusters on Ione’s ceiling. Their ornate leaf pattern was becoming highly familiar.
“That’s definitely one of the better ways of waking up,” he said.
“One?” Ione unwrapped her legs from his waist and sat back on his legs. She stretched provocatively, hands going behind her neck.
Joshua groaned, staring at her voraciously.
“Tell me another,” she said.
He sat up, bringing his face twenty centimetres from hers. “Watching you,” he said in a throaty voice.
“Does that turn you on?”
“Yes.”
“Solo, or with another girl?” She felt his muscles tighten in reflex. Well, that’s my answer, she thought. But then she’d always known how much he enjoyed threesomes. It wasn’t Joshua’s cock which was hard to satisfy, just his ego.
He grinned; the Joshua rogueish-charm grin. “I bet this conversation is going to turn to Dominique.”
Ione gave his nose a butterfly kiss. They just couldn’t fool each other; it was a togetherness similar to the one she enjoyed with the habitat personality. Comforting and eerie at the same time. “You mentioned her name first.”
“Are you upset about her coming to Lalonde with me?”
“No. It makes sound business sense.”
“You do disapprove.” He stroked the side of her breasts tenderly. “There’s no need to be jealous. I have been to bed with Dominique, you know.”
“I know. I watched you on that big bed of hers, remember?”
He cupped her breasts and kissed each nipple in turn. “Let’s bring her to this bed.”
She looked down on the top of his head. “Not possible, sorry. The Saldanas eradicated the gay gene from their DNA three hundred years ago. Couldn’t risk the scandal, they are supposed to uphold the ten commandments throughout the kingdom, after all.”
Joshua didn’t believe a word of it. “They missed erasing the adultery gene, then.”
She smiled. “What’s your hurry to hit the mattress with her? The two of you are going to spend a week locked up in that zero-gee sex cage of yours.”
“You are jealous.”
“No. I never claimed to have an exclusive right to you. After all, I didn’t complain about Norfolk.”
He pulled his head back from her breasts. “Ione!” he complained.
“You reeked of guilt. Was she very beautiful?”
“She was . . . sweet.”
“Sweet? Why, Joshua Calvert, I do believe you’re getting romantic in your old age.”
Joshua sighed and dropped back on the mattress again. He wished she’d make up her mind whether she was jealous or not. “Do I ask about your lovers?”
Ione couldn’t help the slight flush that crept up her cheeks. Hans had been fun while it lasted, but she’d never felt as free with him as she did with Joshua. “No,” she admitted.
“Ah hah, I’m not the only one who’s guilty, by the looks of it.”
She traced a forefinger down his sternum and abdomen until she was stroking his thighs. “Quits?”
“Yes.” His hands found her hips. “I brought you another present.”
“Joshua! What?”
“A gigantea seed. That’s an aboriginal Lalonde tree. I saw a couple on the edge of Durringham, they were eighty metres tall, but Marie said they were just babies, the really big ones are further inland from the coast.”
“
“Yes.” He refused to be put off. “It should grow all right in Tranquillity’s parkland. But you’ll have to plant it where the soil is deep and there’s plenty of moisture.”
“I’ll remember.”
“It’ll grow up to the light-tube eventually.”
She pulled a disbelieving face.
I will have to run environmental compatibility tests first,tranquillity said. Our biosphere is delicately balanced.
So cynical.“thank you, joshua,” she said out loud.
Joshua realized he had regained his erection. “Why don’t you just ease forward a bit?”
“I could give you a treat instead,” Ione said seductively. “A real male fantasy come true.”
“Yes?”
“Yes. There’s a girlfriend of mine I’d like you to meet. We go swimming together every morning. You’d like that, watching us get all wet and slippery. She’s younger than me. And she never, ever wears a swimming costume.”
“Jesus.” Joshua’s face went from greed to caution. “This isn’t on the level,” he decided.
“Yes, it is. She’s also very keen to meet you. She likes it a lot when people wash her. I do it all the time, sliding my hands all over her. Don’t you want to join me?”
He looked up at Ione’s mock-innocent expression, and wondered what the hell he was letting himself in for. Gay gene, like bollocks. “Lead on.”
They had walked fifty metres down the narrow sandy path towards the cove, Ione’s escort of three serjeants an unobtrusive ten paces behind, when Joshua stopped and looked round. “This is the southern endcap.”
“That’s right,” she said slyly.
He caught up with her as she reached the top of the bluff. The long, gently curving cove below looked tremendously enticing, with a border of shaggy palm trees and a tiny island offshore. Away in the distance he could see the elaborate buildings of the Laymil project campus.
“It’s all right,” she said. “I won’t have you arrested for coming here.”
He shrugged and followed her down the bluff. Ione was running on ahead as he reached the sand. Her towelling robe was flung away. “Come on, Joshua!” Spray frothed up as her feet reached the water.
A naked girl, a tropical beach. Irresistible. He dropped his own robe and jogged down the slope. Something was moving behind him, something making dull thudding sounds as it moved, something heavy. He turned. “Jesus!”
A Kiint was running straight at him. It was smaller than any he’d seen before, about three metres long, only just taller than him. Eight fat legs were flipping about in a rhythm which was impossible to follow.
His feet refused to budge. “Ione!”
She was laughing hysterically. “Morning, Haile,” she called at the top of her voice.
The Kiint lumbered to a halt in front of him. He was looking into a pair of soft violet eyes half as wide as his
