Lifeline

Epilogue

ORBITECH 2—Year 3

Ramis watched as Clifford Clancy boosted his daughter up on his shoulders, letting the giggling girl survey the open spread of the newly completed Orbitech 2. The girl’s face had an Oriental appearance, muted and mercifully free of Clancy’s own craggy features. Wiay slipped an arm around Clancy’s waist and beckoned for Ramis to take in the view with them.

As Ramis drew close, Clancy nodded toward the girder webwork of the outer, larger torus still being assembled. “Another two years and we’ll be finished. Orbitech 2 will give us enough growing room for fifty years.”

“A lot will change in that time,” Ramis said, watching the silvery figures moving around in space. Most of Clancy’s construction crew had left the Moon the first chance they could, though some had agreed to stay, apparently to Clancy’s chagrin.

Ramis knew he was being too quiet on his first tour of Orbitech 2, but other thoughts kept him distracted. He remarked on how the colony looked enormous—especially without any growing foliage. Bare steel decks gave the impression that the huge station was naked and cold. But that would change. Several species of Dobo Daeng’s modified wall-kelp would cover the decks in only a few months.

“I wish Father Magsaysay could have seen this,” Ramis said in a quiet voice.

“I thought he wasn’t all that interested in space construction,” Clancy said. “He seemed pretty wrapped up in the Aguinaldo.”

“That is not what I meant,” Ramis said. “He was afraid that once the Americans and the other colonies got over their period of crisis and did not need us anymore, you would treat us as ‘little brown brothers’ all over again.”

Ramis took a deep breath. “But the last time I saw him, he took me to one of the viewing verandas on the Aguinaldo and pointed out to Orbitech 2. He told me his worries were wrong—that we had learned not to focus on the survival of the Filipino race, but on the human race. He was very proud of all of us. I think he felt fulfilled. He was happy to see us growing again.”

Wiay patted her swollen belly. “Cliffy and I are doing everything we can to help. We’ll have Lang Ti’s little brother running around soon.”

Ramis looked away from the viewport, blinking. “Huh? Excuse me, I did not hear you.”

Clancy frowned, rubbing his fingers against Wiay’s shoulder blade. “You’ve been absentminded lately, Ramis. I thought this tour of Orbitech 2 would get you out of the doldrums.”

Ramis shrugged, pulling himself away from his thoughts. “I am sorry, but I am considering too many things at once. Director McLaris has offered me a very good position working with the sail-creatures if I wish to return to Orbitech 1. It is either that or join Mr. Terachyk and Dr. Tomkins on the radio-telescope project. But something makes me uneasy. It all seems so permanent.”

Clancy laughed. “I can’t imagine why a nineteen-year-old wouldn’t want to settle down and choose a course for the rest of his life! You’ve still got wanderlust. You’re looking for some grand challenge; otherwise, you’re not going to be happy.”

Clancy flipped his daughter off his shoulders and over his head. She shrieked as he caught her and held her upside down. Wiay spoke over the child’s laughter. “No one’s going to blame you if you join the Kibalchich, Ramis. That does seem more like your style.”

“I was afraid someone might point that out to me. I thought I was the only one crazy enough to consider the possibility,” Ramis said, looking away.

“I hope Brahms’s trial isn’t held until after I leave. I don’t want to testify.”

Clancy snorted. “I wish they’d get it over with. They’ve had a team of guards by his sleepfreeze chamber for the past three years.”

“Mars may be the best thing for all of us,” Wiay answered.

“Not me,” Clancy said. “I had enough dirt between my toes on Clavius Base. But if the Soviets can make a go of anything, it’ll be getting that colony established. Anna Tripolk seems to be fully recovered now, but a lot of people would still be happy to have her a bit farther away. Once she’s got her mind focused on something, I’m not going to get in her way.”

Wiay sounded wistful. “Cliffy, you can’t tell me you didn’t have any fun on the Moon.”

Clancy snorted. “Our daughter is not going to grow up speaking Russian—okay, so call me a throwback to pre-War patriotism. But I don’t want to miss a day of her life, not even in sleepfreeze. She’ll grow up and lead a normal life here on Orbitech 2.”

Wiay stuck out her tongue. “Spoilsport.”

Ramis turned his thoughts back to the Kibalchich. Mars! If he could talk Karen into going …

He said quietly, “I must get back to the Aguinaldo and inform Dobo of my plans. Since Father Magsaysay died, Dobo is the last family I have there.”

Clancy shifted his daughter and placed a hand on Ramis’s shoulder. “You can always come here to visit us.”

“If I go to Mars, it might be fifteen years before I come back—or never.”

Wiay grinned at him and took her daughter from Clancy’s arms. “In fifteen years, Lang Ti will be old enough to make you settle down.”

Ramis blushed and pointedly looked out the viewport as Wiay and Clancy both laughed. Through the transparent sections of the huge enclosed greenhouse dome of Orbitech 2, he saw a tiny dot fluttering in the open volume. The dot grew larger, approaching one of the window sections. Stubby wings flapped gracefully as the sail-creature nymph soared in its zero-G environment.

The nymph flew free with a dozen or so other creatures, unhindered by people or structures in the core. It had no boundaries, room to do what it wanted. Ramis felt a kinship with it.

He had to go to Mars.

“Salamat po, Sarat,” Ramis whispered to himself as he watched the sail-creature gracefully flap away. “Thank you, Timely One!”