Ammonite Planets (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #1-3 by Gillian Andrews Read Free Book Online

wasn’t used to anybody worrying about her these days. It was an uncomfortable feeling. To her horror, she felt tears welling up in her eyes.
    Vion smiled at her. “You look like you could do with a visit in person. I will be round tomorrow if that’s all right by you?”
    “I … I’m not sure that would be a good idea, Vion.”
    “It seems to me that you would benefit from a friend. How long is it since you had a non-virtual visitor?”
    She had to think about that one. “I guess it must be about two months,” she found herself admitting.
    “Far too long. Whatever is that sister-in-law of yours thinking about? She only lives one floor up, and it certainly wouldn’t kill her to come down twice a week on a non-virtual visit.”
    “She and the children visit on the tridiscreen fairly regularly.”
    “Sure they do. And I suppose they include you in their visits out to other skyrises?”
    Grace was silent.
    Vion nodded his head. “You have been left for too long on your own.” He sighed. “I can’t blame Xenon himself, I know he has spent the last six months off planet. But Amanita should definitely have been more attentive.”
    “I haven’t felt …” Grace was quick to take the blame.
    “Nonsense. Of course you haven’t felt like it. But your friends and family should have forced you to accept their visits. I will be there tomorrow and will accept no excuses.”
    Grace tried to remonstrate, “I’m afraid I …”
    Vion straightened up and put on his official face. “I should like to pay my respects to Xenon 48 in the tanato chamber, Grace. What time would be suitable for such a visit?”
    She knew when she was beaten. “Eleven would be fine, Vion. You honour our house. Will you be bringing your father with you?”
    “I will come alone,” he said curtly. “The voting is about to start. Cutting the connexion now.”
    THE FOLLOWING MORNING, though no change in light announced it, arrived all too soon. Grace was feeling rather nervous, because she had decided to ask a favour of Vion.
    The hiss of the lift told her of the young doctor’s arrival. His family had never been particularly close friends of Xenon’s, nor indeed of her birth family, so it was strange to welcome him now as the first visitor the skyrise had seen in a couple of months.
    He gave her the statutory greeting, “Almagest, Cian, Valhai – the perfect heavenly triangle; may their orbits remain stable.”
    She bowed as protocol required. “And may the flares on Almagest remain quiescent.” And led him into the tanato chamber so that he could pay his last respects to the exquisitely worked magmite sarcophagus that contained the remains of Xenon 48.
    Vion allowed one of his hands to run over the intricate carvings on the magmite. “Beautiful craftsmanship! … Xianthan?”
    Grace nodded. “He told my mother exactly what he wanted soon after they married. Not that he expected it to happen so quickly, of course.”
    “A terrible accident. I hope Xenon 49 is finding his adaptation easy?”
    “I think so. Too easy, perhaps.” Then she wished she hadn’t said those words, for Vion was bound to understand the implications of what she had said.
    “What’s the matter, Grace?” He sat down heavily in an upholstered chair next to the sarcophagus. “You know my job … As a doctor I am genetically modified to empathize with patients’ illnesses. You won’t find a better listener on the whole of Valhai.”
    She hesitated for a moment, and then decided that he was right. So she began to tell him about the visit to the bare planet, what she had seen, and how deeply it had affected her.
    When she had finished, her listener gave a slow sigh. “You’re right. I guess all this genetic modification has stopped us questioning anything at all. It’s the first time I have even wondered if they come here willingly.”
    Grace suddenly realized something. “You must treat them … the donor program apprentices … if they get ill?”
    “That