Free The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke Page A

Bligh was a brilliant seaman, and most unfairly maligned. At this stage, all we need are common sense, good manners – and, as you indicated, caution.”
    Had Kaldor looked in his direction, Loren wondered, when he made that remark? Surely it was not already so obvious …
    After all, his official duties put him in contact with Brant Falconer a dozen times a day. There was no way he could avoid meeting Mirissa – even if he wished to.
    They had never yet been alone together, and had still exchanged no more than a few words of polite conversation. But already, there was no need to say anything more.

16. Party Games

    “ I t’s called a baby,” Mirissa said, “And despite appearances, one day it will grow up into a perfectly normal human being.”
    She was smiling, yet there was moisture in her eyes. It had never occurred to her, until she noticed Loren’s fascination, that there were probably more children in the little village of Tarna than there had been on the entire planet Earth during the final decades of virtually zero birthrate.
    “Is it … yours?” he asked quietly.
    “Well, first of all it’s not an it; it’s a he. Brant’s nephew Lester – we’re looking after him while his parents are on North Island.”
    “He’s beautiful. Can I hold him?”
    As if on cue, Lester started to wail.
    “That wouldn’t be a good idea,” laughed Mirissa, scooping him up hastily and heading towards the nearest bathroom. “I recognize the signals. Let Brant or Kumar show you round while we’re waiting for the other guests.”
    The Lassans loved parties and missed no opportunity for arranging them. The arrival of Magellan was, quite literally, the chance of a lifetime – indeed, of many lifetimes. If they had been rash enough to accept all the invitations they received, the visitors would have spent every waking moment staggering from one official or unofficial reception to another. None too soon, the captain had issued one of his infrequent but implacable directives – “Bey thunderbolts”, or simply “Beybolts”, as they were wryly called – rationing his officers to a maximum of one party per five days. There were some who considered that, in view of the time it often took to recover from Lassan hospitality, this was much too generous.
    The Leonidas residence, currently occupied by Mirissa, Kumar, and Brant, was a large ring-shaped building that had been the family’s home for six generations. One storey high – there were few upper floors in Tarna – it enclosed a grass-covered patio about thirty metres across. At the very centre was a small pond, complete with a tiny island accessible by a picturesque wooden bridge. And on the island was a solitary palm-tree, which did not seem to be in the best of health.
    “They have to keep replacing it,” Brant said apologetically. “Some Terran plants do very well here – others just fade away despite all the chemical boosters we give them. It’s the same problem with the fish we’ve tried to introduce. Freshwater farms work fine, of course, but we don’t have space for them. It’s frustrating to think that there’s a million times as much ocean, if only we could use it properly.”
    In Loren’s private opinion, Brant Falconer was something of a bore when he started talking about the sea. He had to admit, however, that it was a safer subject of conversation than Mirissa, who had now managed to get rid of Lester and was greeting the new guests as they arrived.
    Could he ever have dreamed, Loren asked himself, that he would find himself in a situation like this? He had been in love before, but the memories – even the names – were mercifully blurred by the erasing programs they had all undergone before leaving the solar system. He would not even attempt to recapture them: why torment himself with images from a past that had been utterly destroyed?
    Even Kitani’s face was blurring, though he had seen her in the hibernaculum only a week ago. She was part