Power Play - Anne McCaffrey [101]
Bunny awoke and looked around for Diego in the other sleeping bag on the floor of their host house. He was gone. Gentle snores arose from their host family.
That was good, actually, because she didn’t want to talk to Diego this morning as much as she wanted to try to get a moment alone with Marmion. Diego might not understand. She planned to say she was just going to help Marmie with her fire and breakfast.
She dressed quickly and left the cabin, closing first the inner door so the cold wouldn’t reach the family, and then the outer, entrance door beyond the arctic foyer where the snowshoes, skis, extra dog harness, and other tools were kept.
She knocked lightly on the Sirgituks’ door, and a rather dreamy voice called, “Hello?”
Marmie looked less put-together and much happier than Bunny had ever seen her. She wore the tunic jacket she had been captured in as a robe over long-handled underwear bottoms and woolly socks. She was sitting at the Sirgituks’ table sipping something steamy from a cup. Her expression was bemused, to put it lightly.
“Thought you might need help putting a kettle on,” Bunny said.
“Not at all. If you’ll remember, I’m rather a good cook, and this stove is not so different from the one at my grandfather’s hunting lodge on Banff Two, where I sometimes spent my holidays as a child.”
“Must be nice to get to live any way you like,” Bunny said, pulling off her mittens.
“Ye-es, it is. What’s the matter, Buneka dear? You sound rather sad, and I just can’t bear that when I’m feeling so good myself. Have a cup of this lovely berry tea and tell me all about it and we’ll see if I can fix it.”
“Thanks,” Bunny said with a little smile. “The tea will be great, but I don’t think there’s anything you can do about the rest of it.”
She finished taking off her wraps, poured her tea, and sat down, warming her hands on her cup and watching the steam rise between herself and Marmie. Marmie had a way of making you feel like you were the most important person in the world when she was talking to you. Bunny wished she could be like that.
“I wouldn’t want you to get me wrong, Dama, I love Petaybee. I never want to live anywhere else—permanently, that is.” Marmie nodded encouragingly, as the words had a hard time coming out. “But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. See, the thing is, I never knew what all was out there before. All we ever saw was SpaceBase, and that was pretty grim, and a lot of the recruits who left didn’t return and if they did, they sometimes wouldn’t even sing about it. I never dreamed there could be some place like Gal Three or some of the stations and planets Charmion showed me holos of.”
Marmie smiled. “ ‘How ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree?’ ”
“ ‘Scuse me?”
“Another old song. Sorry, dear, it just means that once you’ve seen some of the universe, you can develop a taste for more. Is that what’s troubling you?”
“That’s part of it. I suppose I might not care so much if I thought I could go other places if I wished. ‘Cept, that’s not exactly true. Y’see, there’s so much to learn out there. I saw things I think we might be able to manage for Petaybee, and not hurt anything, if only someone knew how. But I can’t learn about them here. I’ve always been mechanical, you know, and Diego showed me some gadgets that sure would improve servicing the snocles, for instance. I don’t know. I guess I’m not saying it very well. It’s just knowing that I have to leave by a certain time or I won’t be able to . . .”
Marmie placed her hand on Bunny’s. “We all resent our limitations, dear. Actually, though, you’re starting school a little later than most do. There is no reason why you couldn’t begin long-distance studies here and then, when you find you absolutely must go off-planet to satisfy your curiosity, you can go—surely that will be before you’re twenty or so. And you can always come back, you know, whenever you like. Petaybean troops do. It’s just that I suppose you have to decide now instead of waiting till