The Aftermath

Heads turned. Cheena Madagascar threaded her way between tables, her eyes aimed at Victor. She was wearing a shiny black suit that fitted her like a second skin, polished knee-length boots, a flaming red scarf knotted around her throat.

Victor stumbled to his feet, his face flushed. Theo and Dorn rose, too.

Without being asked, Cheena took the unoccupied chair at the foot of the table.

Flustered, Victor introduced, “Cheena Madagascar, the owner and skipper of Pleiades.”

Cheena made a brittle smile. “Not anymore, Vic. You screwed me out of my ship.”

Victor sputtered as he resumed his seat. Theo almost laughed. He’d never seen his father looking so flummoxed. Then he realized: Madagascar; that’s Altai’s last name, too. And they look so much alike…

“I’m Pauline Zacharias,” said his mother, smiling steel-hard at Cheena.

Cheena nodded. “And you must be Angela. And Theo. And you’re the one we voted to exile.”

Before anyone else could speak, Victor said, “I’ve brought Pleiades back to you. I’m sorry I—”

“Can it, Vic. I don’t own Pleiades anymore. The insurance consortium owns it. They paid off on the bird when you stole it and I bought a new ship, Hyades.”

“Hyades?” Theo blurted. “Then Altai is your daughter?”

“Smart fella,” said Cheena. “Like your father.”

“So what do I do with Pleiades?” Victor asked.

“You don’t have to do a thing. Insurance agents are taking it over right at this instant. They’ll probably want your hide, but that’s not any of my business. Not anymore.”

With that, she got to her feet, blew Victor a kiss, and sauntered away from their table.

Victor ordered another bottle of wine.

* * *

It wasn’t until they were in bed that night that Pauline asked, “Just who was that woman?”

Glad that it was too dark for her to see his cheeks reddening, Victor cleared his throat before replying, “I told you, she owned Pleiades. I stole it from her.”

“And now her insurance carrier has repossessed the ship?”

He stared up at the shadowy ceiling of their bedroom. “Yes, and they want me to pay for damages—the difference between what they paid Cheena and what Pleiades is worth on the open market.”

Pauline fell silent and Victor was glad of it. He closed his eyes and tried to change the subject.

“Big George says he’ll hire me for the new construction program. There’s a lot of building going on here, and new projects in the planning stage.”

“Then we can stay at Ceres?” Pauline asked, sounding pleased at the prospect.

“For as long as they keep building. We won’t have to be rock rats anymore and I’ll be able to pay off the insurance debt, in time.”

“Angela wants to go to Selene, to the university.”

“The Moon? But how—”

“She says she’ll work her way through. She’ll take classes part-time and find a job.”

“Doing what?”

He sensed his wife’s amusement. “She learned a lot while we were on Syracuse without you. She’s got a good head for math.”

“Do you think she’ll be all right, on her own? She’s never—”

“Victor, dear, it’s time for Angie to go out on her own. We can’t keep her with us forever.”

He nodded reluctantly. “I suppose not. But with Angie going to Selene and Theo going to Jupiter—”

“It will be just you and me, Victor. The two of us, alone together.”

“The way it was in the beginning,” he said, reaching toward her.

Pauline melted into his arms, but asked softly, “Just how well did you know this Cheena woman?”

He froze. There it is, Victor said to himself. For the flash of an instant he thought about lying his way through, but he heard himself say, “When I was forced to work on her ship, we slept together.”

“That’s what I thought,” Pauline said, her voice gentle, far from accusative. “She had that possessive air about her.”

“I didn’t have much choice,” he tried to explain. “She was captain of the ship and—”

“And we’d been separated for years,” Pauline finished for him. “You didn’t even know if we were still alive.”

“I didn’t have much choice,” he repeated.

“Neither did I,” Pauline whispered.

It took a moment for Victor to understand what she’d said.

“You and Valker?”

He couldn’t see her face in the darkness, but he heard the remorse in her voice. “Once.”

“He forced you?”

“Not really. I was trying to protect Angie. He would’ve gone after her.”

“I should have killed the bastard when I had the chance.”

“It’s over and done with,” Pauline said. “Let Big George and his people take care of Valker.”

It took Victor several moments before he could reply, “Over and done with.”

“It’s time to start our life together again.”

“Time to start new,” he muttered, wondering if he could. “Fresh.”

She leaned into him and they kissed, neither of them knowing what the future would bring, each of them hoping for the best.

EPILOGUE

There was a Door to which I found no Key:

There was a Veil past which I could not see …

—The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,

Edward Fitzgerald

ASTEROID 67-046: THE ARTIFACT

Tamara Vishinsky absolutely refused to see the artifact again. All the way out to the asteroid Tamara had been Alex Humphries’s willing bed partner. She knew that what the artifact had showed her the first time was the absolute truth: her way to wealth and power lay in her ability to manipulate wealthy and powerful men. It was her path to comfort, to safety. Her way to escape poverty and danger.

During the days of their full-g flight to the Belt she had noticed Yuan regarding her with amused tolerance. Fool! she thought. All he wants from Humphries is to open his stupid restaurant in Shanghai. I want more. Much more. And I’ll get it.

But once their ship established orbit around the asteroid Tamara knew she could not face the artifact again. She remembered the pain of its revelation, the aching remorse of reliving her miserable childhood. Not again, she told herself. Never again.