Ben Bova - Voyagers

“Sure. Everything’s fine—once I signed the security agreement. Now I’ve got the run of the house. Eight rooms. Or is it nine? I’ve lost count. Plenty of food. I have to cook it for myself, though. I’m a lousy cook.”

“I could cook for you, sometimes.”

He ignored it. Reaching for the manila folder, Stoner pulled out the latest stack of photographs. They showed the fat, flattened, gaudily striped beach ball that was the planet Jupiter. He could see exquisite details of the streaming bands of clouds that flowed across the planet: eddies and whirlpools the size of Earth, in burnt orange, brick red, dazzling white.

“Where are the background field pictures I asked for?”

“In the next batch,” Jo replied. “They’re still being processed.”

“I need them,” he said. “And a computer terminal.”

She nodded. “Anything else?”

“Books. Every book on extraterrestrial life you can find. Empty the libraries. I want everything on the subject.”

Another nod. “Anything else?”

He looked into her deep, lustrous eyes. “Why did you come here tonight, Jo?”

“Professor McDermott told me to. I’m a courier now.”

“Why did you accept the job? You didn’t have to.”

For a moment she didn’t answer. Then, “I wanted to see you. To tell you I’m sorry. If I’d stood up to Big Mac…maybe…” She looked away from him. “I’m sorry it turned out this way. Truly I am.”

He reached across the table and grasped her wrist. “Prove it.”

Without another word he led her out of the kitchen, through the tiny, close rooms of the old part of the house, up the narrow stairway to his bedroom.

He closed the door firmly. No need to turn on a lamp: cold moonlight filtered through the gauzy curtains of the window.

For a moment Jo stood in front of the bed. Then she turned toward him. Stoner leaned his back against the heavy wooden panels of the door. Neither of them spoke.

He could see her face etched by the moonlight. She wasn’t smiling. Her expression was strangely placid, tranquil. She began unbuttoning her blouse. Stoner watched. She unhooked her bra and tossed it aside. Reaching down, she pulled off her shoes, then slithered the jeans down her long legs. And finally the skimpy flowered bikini panties.

“Is this what you want?” she whispered.

His throat was dry. “Yes,” he said, with an effort.

She stepped to him and started to unbutton his shirt. He stood there and let her do the work. Finally she was on her knees in front of him and he was naked. She kissed his erect penis.

“Is this what you want?” she asked again. But she didn’t wait for an answer.

Just before he thought he would explode, Stoner dug his fingers into her thick black hair and pulled her away from him. Bending down, he scooped her into his arms and carried her the four strides to the bed. He put her on the coverlet and tented his body over hers.

Jo twined her arms around his neck and pulled him down onto her. He kissed her as he entered her and she was warm and ready and moving in rhythm with him.

It was like being in space again, floating weightlessly, drifting, drifting through the dark eternities while the stars solemnly, silently gazed down.

She clung to him as they convulsed together and then gasped out a single word: “Keith!”

For long moments they lay locked together, hearts racing, breath gasping. He lifted his face from the tufted coverlet and looked into her eyes again.

She smiled up at him. “That’s the first time you’ve kissed me,” she said.

“It’s the first time you called me by my first name.”

They laughed together.

He sat on the edge of the bed. His insides still felt fluttery. Jo traced a fingernail along the length of his spine.

“Is there anything else I can do for you, Dr. Stoner?” she teased.

Turning back toward her, “Stay the night.”

“I have a class tomorrow morning.”

“Oh.” He frowned in the shadows. “Where in hell are we, anyway? Where is this house?”

“In New Hampshire…not far from White River Junction.”

“White River Junction? Then how in hell can you drive to campus in time for a morning class?”

“So I’ll miss the class,” Jo said easily. “It won’t be the first time.”

“That’s what got you under McDermott’s thumb, isn’t it?”

“I can handle Professor McDermott. He’s just a big bully.”

“White River Junction,” Stoner mused. “Maybe you ought to bring up a pair of skis the next time you come.”

“We won’t be here for the ski season, from what Professor McDermott says.”

“What do you mean?”

“He said the whole observatory staff will be heading south in a few weeks.”

“Including me?”

She nodded. “And me. I’m going too.”

“Where?”

“He wouldn’t say. Just that the climate wouldn’t be so cold.”

“Green Bank?” Stoner wondered. “No, it’s just as cold in those West Virginia hills as it is here. It can’t be Arecibo. Not even Big Mac could swing Drake and Sagan out of there.”

“What’s it like to be an astronaut?” Jo asked.

He blinked at the sudden shift in subject. “Huh? I wasn’t really an astronaut…not like the real rocket jocks. They used me as a construction engineer. I just rode up into orbit and helped put Big Eye together.”

“But you spent months in space, didn’t you?”

Shrugging, “Sure. And once they got the telescope working, NASA figured they didn’t need an expensive astrophysicist who did construction work anymore. So I got RIFfed.”

“What does that mean?”

“Reduction In Force. Laid off. Bounced. Fired.”

“And that’s when you came to the observatory?”

“Yes.”

“And your family…where are they?”

So she’s pumping me, Stoner told himself, knowing that sooner or later she would have asked him about his wife and children.

“My wife took the kids back to her parents in Palo Alto,” he said flatly. “The day I got the RIF notice, as a matter of fact. Strictly coincidence; poetic timing. We hadn’t gotten along in years.”

“How old…?”

“Fifteen and twelve,” he answered automatically. “The boy’s the oldest. I don’t see them at all. Last time I flew out to Palo Alto they wouldn’t even come to the front door to say hello to me. Let’s change the subject.”

Jo reached over and pulled him down to her and kissed him. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “It must hurt a lot.”

“It should, I guess. But mostly it just feels kind of numb.”

“You’re covering it over.”

“With work. Right. My work comes first. Doris always said that it did, and she was right.”

“And now?”

“Now I’m onto the biggest goddamned discovery in history. Nothing else matters. I’m going to prove that we’ve found extraterrestrial intelligence. No matter what Big Mac or the Navy or anybody else does—I’m going to prove it to the world.”

Jo leaned her head against his shoulder and made long, soothing, soft strokes of her fingertips down his chest.

“So fierce,” she said in a whisper. “Do you know, you’re just like me? We’re two of a kind.”

“You? You’re kidding.”

“I want them to notice me, too, Keith. I want to be somebody. I want to make the whole world know who I am.”

He found himself grinning. “Well, you’re on the right project for that.”

But Jo said, “Who’s going to notice a little technical assistant, next to the famous Dr. Keith Stoner or Professor McDermott. No. I’m going to become an astronaut. A real one.”

“NASA isn’t hiring.”

“They will be, sooner or later. And women will get special preference, you’ll see.”