other stuff, Horss thought.
"Yes, well, I think I understand. I'm calling Doctor Mnro now."
"Do you want privacy?"
"No! I want help!"
"Is she that bad? The Mother of Immortality?"
"Mother Superior! Oh, I guess not. It's just that... You'll see."
Mai placed her call to Doctor Mnro. An old-fashioned virtual display panel above the surface of her desk showed the route of the call as a graphical representation of the Earth-Moon system and a red line connecting points on each sphere. The line turned green when the lunar headquarters of the Mnro Clinic answered the call. A person's image appeared in one quadrant of the display.
"Luna Mnro Clinic," the receptionist - perhaps a real person - greeted. "Sugai Mai. How may I help you?"
"I need to speak to Doctor Mnro."
"Just a moment." The man glanced briefly away. "She isn't here today but let me check for special instructions." The display quadrant went gray for a while then restored the receptionist's image. "There's a block on calls to Doctor Mnro until further notice. You can leave a message."
"I have to speak to her now!" Mai demanded, impatiently. "This is an emergency!"
"I can connect you to Deputy Director Ramadhal," the receptionist responded with concern. "That's the limit of my authority."
"Thank you. Do so, please."
After a lengthy pause the entire display filled with the image of a dark-skinned man in surgical grays as he traversed a hospital corridor in the gliding hops required by weak lunar gravity. "Sugai Mai! Greetings to you! Is there some emergency there on Earth? Ah! It's Opera Week! Do you have critical needs, then?"
"No, sir. My staff is busy as usual but they'll survive. I need to speak directly to Doctor Mnro. Now!"
"Don't we all! You are agitated. Is it serious?"
"It's a... private matter, but, yes, very serious. She will want to know about it. I'm sorry, I don't feel free to discuss it... here."
Doctor Ramadhal came to a halt in the hospital corridor. He looked around, frowned, put one finger in the air. "Let me call you back in just a moment." The picture disappeared.
Mai and Horss looked at each other. Mai leaned back in her chair. The display then indicated a call of local origin requesting connection. She waved at the display and the image of Jarwekh appeared.
"Good evening, Doctor Sugai, Captain Horss. I am, of course, on duty. I need to warn you that there will be more trouble than usual, more injuries, and more fatalities. There's a rumor that Pan has been arrested by the Navy. He has missed several rehearsals. That will have a destabilizing effect on much of the population."
"I agree. Is there anything you want me to do? I can call the EPA."
"You might put them on alert. I don't anticipate complete anarchy, unless there's a cancellation of the Opera."
"Try not to kill too many, Jarwekh. We don't have many empty stasis units left."
"As you always command, so I always obey." Jarwekh terminated his call.
Horss moved closer to Mai, put a hand in one of his shirt pockets, and sprinkled the contents of the pocket in a little pile on Mai's desk. "Do you know what that is?"
"Some kind of plant material and soil," she answered, frowning at the mess on her desk.
"Tundra, I would guess," Horss said. "From the Arctic. The stuff in the hole in Daidaunkh's floor." Horss was disturbed by this weirdly out-of-place material. He was even a little concerned for the admiral's safety, perhaps because she had the boy with her. It was unfair that Samson was threatened by Demba's predicament.
"They were transmatted to the Arctic, then," Mai said. "But why would they bring back some tundra?"
"A lot of it! Did you see the pile? I've never seen a transmat do that. People with other objects, yes, but that mound was probably the ground they were standing on. Very strange!"
"That's almost scary," Mai said, after thinking about it for a moment.
Horss was cleaning the mess from Mai's desk when the call was returned by Deputy Director Ramadhal. Doctor Ramadhal reappeared, this time in a private office.
"This is a secure circuit," Doctor Ramadhal said. "First, introduce me to the person beside you. I may have to ask him to leave."
"This is Captain Jon Horss, Union Navy. He's to be the captain of the Freedom."
Horss almost laughed at Mai's assumption. He knew he would never set foot aboard the ship.
"I'm sorry," Ramadhal said. "I'm not aware of many Navy matters. Is that a ship?"
"Yes. It's the new ship that's being sent on an exploratory mission to the galactic hub. Captain Horss was the captain of the Navy's flagship, the Eclipse. He's Navy but I trust him."
She trusts me? Horss wondered. I don't even trust myself!
"Captain Horss, a pleasure to meet you. Sugai Mai, I have shocking news for you. Doctor Mnro is retiring from the Clinic!"
"I need to speak to her now."
"What is wrong? Did you hear what I said?"
"Ordinarily I would be picking my chin off the floor. It's an historic piece of news. But it's of secondary importance to me at the moment. It may also be of secondary importance to Doctor Mnro when she hears what I have to say. How do I talk to her?"
"Now you worry me! Call her residence. I'll give you her private number and a priority code. I confess, I've just used the priority code today, to verify her intention to retire. She didn't actually use the word 'retire' when she notified the deputy directors that she would be leaving. Unfortunately, the priority code didn't gain me access to her, which leaves me rather hurt and bewildered. Perhaps it will work for you. Everyone knows you're her favorite field director."
"Everyone but me!"
"Please, if you're able to talk to her, ask her the questions I would ask her. Tell me what she says. I'm certainly intrigued by what you say could be more important to her than this momentous change in her career. Record this."
Mai listened and committed the private communication number and the priority code to augmented memory.
"Thank you, Doctor Ramadhal. I promise that, if I'm able, I'll contact you with information about Doctor Mnro. Goodbye."
Mai cut the connection and quickly fed in the private number. The red line lanced toward the moon and landed on a small crater near the eastern limb. The line stayed red for a long time while a security barrier decided whether to allow connection, and finally the line turned green.
A recorded message played: "Aylis Mnro is unavailable. Please leave a message."
Mai slapped her desk with the palm of her hand, quickly suppressed her frustration, and then composed her message.
"Will you please answer your phone? Ramadhal told me to say apocalypse. I'll give you a better word - Pan. The Opera Master. It's vital I speak with you! Call me as soon as possible."
Mai waved the connection off, got up, and paced around the room. As she passed near Horss he reached out and guided her into his arms. When she began to resist Horss released her. He was astonished he had done it. He was also surprised she initially allowed it.
"Bad timing," she stated.
"That sounds encouraging."
"This is just sexual instinct, Captain," she said, subdued. "What Pan didn't tell you - what I didn't tell you - is that I'm leaving Earth, going on a hiatus from the Clinic. In order to have a baby."
"Oh."
"Feel differently about me now?"
"I feel happy for you," Horss replied, slightly delayed by an odd feeling of something very much like disappointment. "Parenthood is a wonderful thing."
"You've been a parent?" Color rose in Mai's face. She was embarrassed at having asked the question.
"I apologize for holding you," Horss said without replying to her question. He had lost the small spark of daring that overrode his Navy training and his accursed physiological augments. Now he was truly disappointed. He still wanted to hold Mai. He didn't want to answer her question. He didn't want to ask his own questions. Did she have a partner, a husband somewhere?
&nbs
p; "You're a parent?" she queried again and immediately seemed irritated at having done that. She turned away from Horss, hiding her expression.
Horss felt defeated and lonely. Why did he think so much of Sugai Mai? He would never be close to her after this. Silence would be a form of lying. He had to confess: "I had a wife and daughter."
"Had?"
"We go to the heart of things in a rush." He found courage, useless though it was. Horss circled Mai to observe her face. She pivoted to avoid his eyes. "You blush even to the back of your neck," he commented hopefully. "What does that mean?"
"It means I can't control how I feel about you!"
Horss was amazed at learning Mai had favorable feelings toward him. He was shocked that she might feel romantic about him. He didn't trust how he felt about her, he didn't understand it, and he was still too close to the Navy Way of Life and feared such a relationship. Yet he was careless in his response. "I'm in a similar state."
"You've met your quota."
"My quota?"
"The 'Price of Continuity.' One man, one woman, one child."
"You considered me as a potential father for your baby?"
"Yes. No! My mother would probably never approve such a match. I'm confused! I have absurd thoughts."
"I'm deeply honored. I'll treasure your absurd thoughts."
Mai turned to Horss with a storm of emotions on her blushing face. Horss extended a hand to her, palm up: a peace offering. She looked at his hand and grew calm. She took his hand and held it. As she opened her mouth to speak, the communications display flashed with an incoming call. She waved it on with her free hand before thinking.
"What is this now?" The caller announced with mock severity,