“Tear-jerkers…”He nodded slowly. “What if she wants to bring along her friends?”
She shrugged. “Ifyou’ve done a good job of noticing her, she’ll understand whatyou’re getting at. If not, you might have to put your heart on yoursleeve.”
“What?” Herecoiled. “I like her but I’m not going to kill myself over her!”
“That’s good toknow,” she said, gently amused. “It’s a figure of speech. Ifshe suggests inviting her pals, you might have to say something like‘I was thinking just the two of us…”
“What if shesays no?” he asked, smiling at Adelina who was making her way overfrom the other side of the hangar.
“Then there’sprobably no hope.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorrybut, if you make it plain that you want to spend time with her andshe doesn’t go for it, then you need to move on. Either way, it’sbetter than gazing at her from afar and never finding out.”
“Hack needs a hand,”she said to Adelina as her mother arrived. “Let him practice saying‘hi’ to a cute girl in a chance encounter? Hack, turn to my momand say ‘hi’.”
“Um…” Hack turnedto Adelina. “Hi?”
Adelina couldn’tquite suppress an amused grin. “That’s not very good. Are yougreeting a woman you had a wild drunken night with and you’rewondering if she want’s to forget the whole thing?”
“Try a slightlyhigher pitch.” Gabriella urged.
“Hi!” he squeaked,ears red.
Adelina rolled hereyes. “What the hells was that? You really need to pee and I’m inyour way? You bring a lot to the equation, Hack. Half the women Iknow back home would jump at the chance to spend some time with a guylike you so don’t come at this like you’re nothing.”
“I think the problemis that you’re trying for a tone that says you really likeher,” Gabriella mused. “You don’t want her thinking you’vealready picked out names for the kids. You need to hit a tone thatsays something more like ‘Oh, cookies! What a nice surprise!’”
“Oh, we need to getmore of those,” Hack said enthusiastically. “Next time we stop atIrth, we need to…”
“Just say it,”Gabriella cut him off.
He turned back toAdelina. “Oh, hi!” he said.
Adelina’s eyeswidened a little. “That’ll do the job,” she said, brushing herright hand across herleft collarbone.
“My Lady,” henodded at Adelina before turning back to Gabriella. “Thank-you forthe advice. I think I’ll go try it right now.” He got up andstarted for the exit.
“Mom?” Gabriellareached out and poked her mother in the shoulder.
Adelina was stillwatching him walk toward the group of young women but she shifted hergaze a little higher. “Just want to see what happens,” she said alittle too defensively.
Hack passed Tien’sgroup on the way to the door. She smiled in his direction, notunexpected since they did know each other.
They were too far awayto hear whether he said anything but her smile brightened a littleand her friends were looking at each other, surprise on their faces.
“Yeah,”Gabriella said with satisfaction, “he nailedit.”
“So you’recoaching him on how to pick up girls?”
“Just the one girl,”Gabriella corrected her mother, “but, yes.”
“You’vetaught him well, young grasshopper,” her mother observed. “Hejust gave her tone-lift andhot-friend-ignore. Those other women are totally hot and he justacted like she was the only one standing there. Boy’s gonna makeprogress.”
“And faster than Iexpected,” Gabriella said. “You need to help me pick out a gooddate-movie for them. Maybe we can let them use our living room?There’s not a lot of privacy on this ship if your name doesn’tbegin with a title.”
“You know, you’reright.” Adelina watched the group of young women gently tease Tien.“I should talk to Luna about that. They need to consider crewaccommodations that allow for couples.”
What the Hells?
Holey Grounds
North Highlands, near Unity
Frank dropped hisbundle of stakes and wiped the sweat from his forehead. His EVA armorkept him cool enough but he preferred to keep the helmet stowed whilehe worked. The last twenty minutes had been in a patch with littleshade and he’d neglected to bring a hat.
He stepped into acooler patch of shade and looked back at the markers he’d planted.The long rows of holes stretched ahead through the partially clearedforest.
Each hole for acoffee saplinghad a small pile of dirt on each side, one from the top of the holeand the other from the bottom. They were barely visible under thethin layer of fine mulch left by the Quailu machinery they’d usedto prep the area.
One nice thing aboutthe nanite-based farming tech was that they could program nearlyendless variations in their capabilities. The thing was still up onthe hill, now building a cistern to hold water.
It had preppedholes for the saplings, mulched them to prevent excess degradation ofthe soil and planted rows of Frank’s cannabis, all in oneoperation. Damn sight better than anything I’ve everimagined on Earth, he thought.
But they couldn’t getthe machine to place stakes at each cannabis plant, for some reason.In truth, he was glad to have a chance to put some sweat into thecrop.
Otherwise, would hestill feel like a farmer?
The trees hummed as abreeze tickled the canopy, too high for him to feel on the forestfloor. A scatter of leaves floated slowly down to land around himand he shivered.
The alien life aroundhim was singing, chattering and creaking. The forest creatures wererarely quiet but now they almost seemed to be calling out together.
In fact, now that hewas paying attention, they all seemed to be coming into sync. Likea group of people walking across a rope bridge, he thought, thewords in his mind conforming rhythmically with the animals withouthis notice.
He could swear therewas a... whispering sound as well. It matched with the animals butit seemed to be leading, rather than following – a formless mantrathat brought temporary order to the chaos of nature.
His blood poundedlike bass-drums in his ears as he stared with superstitious dreadinto the dark shadows of the forest. Hisfocus seemed to narrow on one dark tunnel of leaves and branches, thescene growing to fill his vision.
And then, suddenly, thewhole thing was over. He shook his head, reaching up to run hisfingers through his hair, surprised at how hot it was.
He looked around.I know
