Infinity Beach - Jack McDevitt [109]
They’d grown closer after Ann left. But there was a line between them, and they both respected it.
But Kim had begun to fantasize about Solly. And one evening, midway through the third week, she decided the time had come to make an offer.
It was her turn to choose the evening’s entertainment. She selected Raven, a historical romance set in Equatoria’s second century, when law, order, and civilization had all broken down. The Raven was a dark jewel, supposedly a relic from an unknown and possibly nonhuman technology, which falls into the hands of Clea, a young woman who must transport it through a host of perils to present it finally to its rightful owner. She is pursued by all manner of pirates, scavengers, corrupt government officials and, most feared of all, the bandit chief Aranka.
The program incorporated a nudity selector, which Kim set at a modest level. When they were ready, when the drinks had been poured and the snacks set out, she started the entertainment.
Clea of course wore Kim’s appearance. Was Kim.
She has just rented a flyer and is preparing to cross a rain forest on the last leg of a trip home when a wounded man staggers out of the trees barely ahead of a mob of pursuers. The pursuers have guns and are blazing away. The fugitive sees her and turns in her direction. Clea is his only chance.
She hesitates and throws open the hatch. He leaps on board in a hail of lasers. The flyer bucks but lifts off and they are away.
But the man is bleeding profusely.
Clea examines him and sees quickly that he’s dying. She does what she can. In the meantime, another flyer takes off in pursuit. In a spectacular sequence, she leads it into a tunnel where an oncoming train takes it out. But the aircraft has also suffered damage and is forced to land.
“What happened?” she asks her passenger when they are on the ground. “What did they want?”
He produces the Raven. Minutes later he is dead and she detects movement in the trees around her. She hides the artifact under a seat. Nomads emerge from the woods and take her prisoner.
They talk of selling her into slavery. Clea tries to win the favor of her captors by performing a torrid torchlight dance. It is this sequence which had prompted Kim to select Raven. The viewer never quite gets a good look at the dancer: everything is firelight and shadow, tempo and drum. Passion and temptation.
While her doppelganger writhed and spun, Kim sat back with a mix of satisfaction and nervousness. It was, after all, not very subtle. If Isabella’s DNA had opened the way for Columbus, hers was now performing a similar service for Solly. A smile formed on her lips: the eternal female, real or virtual, civilized or barbarian. The game never changes.
Solly watched the shadow play, but kept his eyes averted from her.
He knew of course what was happening and it was evident he was trying to play his own game, pretending to be objectively amused by the scenario. But she saw the tension in his face.
She lost track of the narrative at this point. The entire world—curious that she would think in that term, given that the entire world, in this reality, consisted exclusively of the interior of the Hammersmith—the entire world squeezed down to Solly’s eyes, narrowed, looking straight ahead, aware of her all the same.
“I don’t think,” he said finally, still avoiding her glance, “this is a good idea.”
She let almost a minute pass. They might have been frozen in place, illuminated only by the flickering glow of the VR. “Okay,” she said at last. “Whatever you think.”
Solly touched the remote and shut down the projector. The room went dark save for the soft glow of security lights along the base of the wall.
Nobody moved.
“Kim.” His voice was low and seemed to come from far away. “I think I love you.”
And there it was: finally out in the open.
She got up and stood before him, entwined her arms around his neck and drew him to her.
“I’ve always loved you,” he said.
“I know.” It was what made the moment particularly frightening. And particularly joyful.
He pulled her down beside him. Their lips