Personal Log 85: 21st - 27th December, 3301
06 Oct 2016Jemine Caesar
21st - 27th December, 3301 Sam's mother, Lil, asked me to spend Christmas at Beta Hydri. I felt awful for turning her down, but Sam assured me that she understood my need to go to LHS 3447.
I decided that I might as well combine the trip with a little courier work. A job taking beef to Lopu Maris netted me 31,000Cr, despite my being attacked by an Eagle on my way to Messerschmid Outpost. The 5,000Cr bounty I received for the victory easily covered the cost of repairs to my ship.
Passing through LFT 1442 on my way to LHS 3447, I received a k-cast from Nathalie.
"Hey, Jem!" she said. Her voice sounded tense and husky.
"Nath," I said. "Are you all right?"
Nathalie's reply was slow and measured. "Yeah, I think so. I'm lying low, trying to hide. It's the Kumo Crew. They are hunting me."
Nathalie explained that she had been followed for several days by Kumo ships, using some sort of data node tracking device. "I think I lost them now," she said.
I explained that I was on my way to see my mother at LHS 3447. "Come with me," I offered, adding, "If you are sure the Kumo pirates have lost your trail, then it should be safe for you to dock at Dalton Gateway and go planetside."
"That would be awesome, Jem!" she said, audibly relieved. "Let's go!"
We rendezvouzed in the LHS 3447 system. At Dalton Gateway, Nathalie registered herself in the name of Sarah Scott, the pseudonym she had used in Koyans. Once we were satisfied that we had not been followed, I booked us into a room for the night. I noticed Natalie's nervous glances as we walked through the starport, and was glad to see her looking more relaxed once we were safely in our room.
"Tomorrow," I said, removing my flightsuit, "we can catch the shuttle to Canterham Starport. From there it's quite a long way to the estate where Barnes and mother live. It's a very remote place. Barnes likes his privacy."
Nathalie had also taken off her flightsuit, and we stood there, in only our underwear, looking at each other. Nathalie reached out and brushed her hand against my cheek. I smiled, then took her hand and gently kissed it. I saw that hungry look in Nath's eyes again, as she moved towards the bed, pulling me along with her.
I didn't resist.
*****
We woke the next morning still in one another's arms. Nathalie's hair, flame-red and luxuriant, was a tangled mess, and mine was no better.
After a shower and breakfast we walked to the starport shuttle terminal, where we waited to board the next surface-bound transport. During the wait I sent Sam a quick k-cast recorded message, and described the circumstances of my rendezvous with Nathalie.
"We were very happy to see each other again," I told him, adding, "if... um... you know what I mean."
I apologised once more for turning down the invitation from Sam's mother to stay for Christmas. "But do thank her for the food parcel you somehow managed to smuggle aboard The Last Thing on her behalf!"
With the food parcel had been a gift-wrapped package, to which a label was attached: 'To my darling Jem. Merry Christmas, all my love, Sam'.
My dataslate beeped Sam's reply just as we were about to board the shuttle. He had understood perfectly my comment about seeing Nathalie.
"I shall turn a blind eye to anything that goes on," he said. "Not only because you have your own free will, but also because I'm not a control freak. Just so long as we indulge a little when you return, I'm happy enough!"
I showed the message to Nathalie. "It's good to know that Sam has no problem with what we've done," she said. "I know we shouldn't have, but... I was way too happy to see you again!"
After the short shuttle flight to the surface came the rather longer overland trip to Arcadia, the secluded estate in which Barnes and my mother lived.
"I hope it's not too hot here for you, Nath," I said.
Nathalie shook her head. "Well," she giggled, "your planet is hot, yeah, but heh, I'm tougher than you can think, you know!"
I had called ahead to my mother from Dalton Gateway to let her know we were on our way, and now, as we walked into Arcadia, she and Barnes stood happily on the doorstep to greet us. The four of us passed a very pleasant afternoon, talking about space travel and holovids. Barnes and mother certainly seemed to like Nathalie.
A little later, when Nathalie and I were alone, I asked her what she thought of them.
"I have no problems with your par... your grandparents," she began. "But the fact is, I know they are lying to you, and... I can't handle that! I hate facing liars, you know. That is the reason people fighting each other at the very base. I want them to face the truth that we know. But I'll be okay. Anyways, I'm with you, that's the most important thing to me at this moment."
Christmas Day came. Barnes and mother never exchanged gifts, since they had all they wanted. The package from Sam contained a lovely midnight-blue evening dress and shoes. There was also some gorgeously slinky black lace lingerie, which I rather suspected was really more Sam's present than mine!
I gave Nathalie a silver friendship bracelet, the symbol of infinity forming one of its links.
"Thank you, Jem," she said. "It's beautiful. But I didn't get you anything in return..."
I put my finger to her lips. "You didn't really have much opportunity, Nath, hiding away out there in the dark systems. But you're here and we're friends, and that's what counts."
*****
When Christmas Day was safely over, the time had come for me to tell my mother that I knew the truth of my birth.
Barnes had taken Nathalie for a morning stroll around the lake, and I guessed they shouldn't be back for an hour or so at least. Finding mother alone in the arboretum, I took a deep breath and began to speak.
"Grandmama, there's something I have to talk to you about..."
She, however, insisted on speaking first. "Jemine," she said. "I can carry on the deception no longer. It's killing me. I should have told you the truth years ago. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I was wrong. So wrong."
She told me everything. About the wild nights at drama school, about Edward Harvard, about the 'Star's End' tour, everything.
"I never told Barnes, of course," she said. "I made up the story about being raped by Harold Duval, thinking it was the perfect way to keep the secret of my indiscretion. Poor Barnes has never known the truth."
And it was at that moment that Barnes walked in on us. He and Nathalie had returned far earlier than I had expected. Barnes stood in the doorway, an impassive look on his face.
"My dear Bekka," he said, quite calmly. "I've always known the truth!"
There was a shocked silence. Then, leaving mother and Barnes to talk, I found Nathalie and told her what had just transpired.
*****
The conversation between Barnes and my mother wore on for several hours. The words could not be heard, but the tones coming from the arboretum were low and dreadful.
Nathalie remained in her room, resting from the heat of the day. I busied myself in the kitchen, though in truth there was not much to be busy with. Arcadia may be in the middle of nowhere, but it was still equipped with all modern conveniences. I stared absently out of the window towards the distant mountains.
Suddenly there came the sound of a door closing. Moments later I saw Barnes and mother speeding away from the house in their ground car. I stood aghast, watching the car leaving the estate and onto the road towards Canterham. The round trip would take them the best part of five hours. Convinced that they would return sometime that evening, I settled down with Nathalie to watch one of Barnes' many holovids from his collection.
But Barnes and mother did not return that evening, nor the following day either.
"Oh, Nathalie!" I wailed. "This is awful. I'm frightened they've done something really stupid. What do I do?"
Nathalie was thinking far more clearly than I was. "Jem," she said. "I got an answer. If you have their comms frequency, I can launch a research in the Darkangel. If they are in a fifty lightyears radius, I should get them. Give me their frequency, and I'll start researching them."
I was doubtful. "I'd be very surprised if they are off planet," I said. "Barnes hardly ever leaves the estate! Canterham is probably the furthest he's been in years. But there is an old Adder, in storage at Trevithick Dock... wait a moment..."
I grabbed my dataslate and established a link to Trevithick Dock's traffic log. "Nathalie, the Adder has gone! It took off with two people aboard, Barnes and Rebekka Darrell. I can't believe it!"
Nathalie took the slate from my shaking hand. "Well," she said, "they haven't been kidnapped, anyway. So where did they go? And why? Hmm." She made a few more swipes on my dataslate. "OK, I got the frequency," she said. "It's 386.3076.743. We'll need to return to the Darkangel to run the scan."
We hastily packed our belongings, then endured an agonisingly long wait for an airtaxicab to take us to Canterham Starport. There we were dismayed to learn that the next shuttle was not departing until twenty minutes to midnight.