The Ascension Collection

  *

  They were inside the cruiser now being briefed on their flight-plan and journey by the ship’s AI.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen, NtCorp would like to welcome you aboard flight ninety three. We will extend every hospitality to you on your stay aboard this vessel. Flight time to Earth will be seven days. You will arrive at Sau Aucetia space-port where a shuttle will be waiting to take you the rest of the way. FTL translation is already underway and we should be at faster-than-light in just under one hour. Please consult your boarding passes to find out which room is reserved for your accommodation.’ The AI winked out of existence after delivering her message.

  ‘So which incredible accommodation will you be having on this fine flight?’ Kalen asked cheerfully.

  Salem smiled at her with a glee he found unusual considering he hated flying more than he hated Tahena. ‘I’m in the business section, room seventy three.’

  ‘Aha, what a coincidence,’ she exclaimed and showed him her pass. ‘Looks like we’re going to be neighbours.’ He could have wept for joy. What the hell was wrong with him? He never fell for people so easily. He couldn’t even reply. Instead his eyes focused on her cheekbones, her clear blue eyes that made him want to swim within them.

  She darted a nervous look into his and said, ‘you wanna get something to eat?’

  He nodded and she grabbed his hand. With her hand in his she dragged him towards the communal sections of the vessel. He almost skipped the entire way there.

  They had eaten most of their dinner in a matter of moments. Salem wondered how either of them could have managed it. He could have sworn that he had not even been hungry just minutes before the meal arrived. He guessed that it was some effect that she had on him. They had not been able to speak much so far considering the speed at which they were demolishing their meal, and he was keen to know a little more about her.

  ‘So have you got family on Earth?’ he asked.

  She attempted to reply but almost choked on a noodle. She swallowed heavily and then replied with a smile, ‘yes, my mother and sister. They can’t wait for me to arrive. On Tahena they were calling me every five minutes. They have never been off-world you see. You should have seen them when I told them I was going out here, out into the wilderness. They were so jealous.’ She laughed heartily. ‘What about you, do you have any family over there?’

  ‘No, not anymore.’ He saw her expression and knew he would have to elaborate further. He knew that there would be no escape from the story. ‘They all died a little while back. They were in the Cheneti building.’

  She gasped, her eyes widening. ‘I am so sorry,’ she whispered, her eyes clouded a little. ‘Is that what...well,’ she couldn’t finish.

  ‘Yes,’ he replied with only a little emotion. ‘They were on the seventieth floor. They shouldn’t have even been there,’ a single tear rolled down his face. He wiped it and pushed the feelings away. ‘Two Alliance bombers. Double suicide. Anti-matter warhead. The explosion was just below them. They died instantly.’ He saw the look of horror on her face and decided he needed to say something to avoid that awkward moment that breaks down a conversation. ‘It almost did me good, you know. After the accident I got my act together. Really made something of myself. I know they would be proud.’

  She stared at him for a little while. She measured out every part of him, mapping him in her gaze. She must have seen something, a moment of inspiration,n because her expression changed to something approaching seriousness. ‘Sometimes there are things that happen and these things can often bring out the best in us. I think sometimes that human beings are wired differently from all the other animals in the world. It is in our greatest anguish that we find our deepest inspiration.’ She smiled at him almost sadly. He almost fell into that smile.

  ‘Kalen, I really like talking to you. I haven’t really ever connected with anybody like this in my entire life.’ He looked at her pleadingly, asking her for something.

  ‘I really like talking to you too,’ was her response. He smiled for joy. A mischievous grin crossed her face. ‘Say you wanna go for a swim?’ He practically chased her towards the pool.

  The water was cool and wonderful. A couple of solitary palm trees were growing along the banks of their private oasis. Everybody else on the ship had gone to bed. The flight had, after all, departed at night.

  She had stripped down to her perma-skin and dived into the water, screaming for joy as the cool liquid enveloped her. It had taken him a little longer to strip down. Since he never wore perma-skin, he stayed in his boxers. He stood at the edge of the pool and lowered himself in, inch by inch.

  After he had managed to lower himself in to thigh height she asked him. ‘What’s with the flesh?’ He wondered if it offended her that he didn’t wear the perma-skin. Some people thought it was unhygienic to interact with people stark naked as they would have put it. However something in her eyes made him convinced that she found it interesting. A thing to look on positively.

  ‘I just don’t like the idea of never really touching anything. Of never really interacting with the world. I wouldn’t want to live feeling through an artificial skin.

  She laughed and swam away from him a little. ‘I was exactly the same,’ she replied. ‘I always hated the stuff. It itches me everyday. You can’t even sweat without some nano-whatever mopping it all up for you.’

  He joined in with her laughing. ‘So why do you wear it now?’

  She dived underwater for a second. When she emerged she shouted to him. ‘Just thought I would get with the times. You can’t remain an antique forever.’ She circled her hand in the water. Her fingers drawing in every sensation, testing it as if to somehow catch it out. As if it wasn’t really water. ‘But your right,’ she continued, ‘it’s not the same’. In a moment she had placed her hands behind her head and was drawing the perma-skin from her, until she was totally naked, stark bloody naked. If he had been wearing glasses he would have had to rub the mist from them.

  ‘I hope you don’t expect me to be doing that.’ He was a very self conscious man after all.

  But she swam towards him dangerously. He could see it in her eyes. ‘No, no. Now don’t you dare.’ She kept swimming closer, like a predator approaching its prey. ‘Kalen don’t! Don’t Kalen!’ But it was too late. She grabbed a hold of his boxers and pulled down with all her might.

  ‘There now I won’t feel so self conscious.’ She was loving every second of his humiliation.

  ‘But what if someone sees us?’ he urged.

  ‘They won’t.’

  ‘But what if they do.’

  ‘Then I’d get in the water so they don’t get such a good view.’ She started to swim away from him and playfully ignored him. With a sigh and a deep intake of breath he dropped himself into the water and swam over to join her.

  They tumbled and moved together as though in one fluid motion. In the sapphire waters they dissolved away from their bodies and became one. The totality of themselves combined to create a greater living whole. Not quite alive, not quite real, but firmly drawn together by gravity. At one moment they swam apart and became discernable as separate beings. A moment later they joined and merged forever.

  ‘Excuse me!’ called a voice from afar. A voice that existed in the world beyond theirs. They could barely pay attention to it. ‘Have you no shame. Children use this pool. Never in my life have I seen such things.’

  They both jumped apart from one another at this point and became aware of their nakedness. A crowd had gathered to witness the events that were unfolding. Though nothing sexual had occurred, they felt the pangs of embarrassment. These people could not see the things that they had seen. Instead they saw two people behaving disrespectfully.

  Salem cowered under their glaze, their steady judgmental glares. Kalen seemed a little disturbed by them too. That was until she whacked on a whopping great smile and shouted, ‘come on guys, if you wanted to watch all you needed to do was ask.’ She laughed with delight a
s the onlookers shuffled their feet and filed out of the pool-room in order to give them their privacy.

  In a moment they had showered and dried and were heading off to the bar for a drink.