Investments by Walter Jon Williams Read Free Book Online Page B

Digging around in old Fleet construction contracts was the most useful thing he’d done in ages.
    But he knew what Terza meant. “I’ll try to remember to look at the stars now and again,” he said.
    Her arms tightened around him. “I had thought we might make good use of the time.”
    Martinez smiled. “I have no objection.”
    Terza drew her head back, her dark eyes raised to his. “That’s not entirely what I meant,” she said. “I thought we might give Gareth a brother or sister.”
    A rush of sensation took his breath away. Martinez’ marriage had been arranged, not an uncommon phenomenon among Peers— and in Martinez’ case, Roland had arranged the marriage with a crowbar. For all that Martinez had genuinely wanted a child, Young Gareth had been arranged as well. Martinez knew perfectly well that Terza had been lowering herself to marry him— Lord Chen required significant financial help from the Martinez clan at the time— and Martinez had always wondered just what Terza had thought of the long-armed provincial officer she’d been constrained, on only a few hours’ acquaintance, to marry.
    Wondered, but never asked. He never asked questions when he knew the answers might draw him into sadness.
    He had watched with increasing pleasure as Terza floated into his life, supported by that quality of serenity that was, perhaps, just a bit too eerily perfect. He had never been completely certain what might happen if Lord Chen, his finances recovered, ordered his daughter to divorce. It was always possible that she would leave her marriage with the same unearthly tranquility with which she’d entered it. He had never known precisely what was going on behind that composed, lovely face.
    Until now. A second child was not part of the contract between their families.
    He and Terza were writing their own codicil to the contract, right now.
    “Of course,” Martinez said, when he got his breath back. “Absolutely. At once, if possible.”
    She smiled. “At once isn’t quite an option,” she said. “I’ll have to get the implant removed first. Kayenta’s doctor can do it, or we can wait till we get to Chee.” She kissed his cheek. “Though I’d hate to waste the next twenty-three days.”
    Kayenta’s doctor was a sour, elderly Lai-own who had scarcely been seen since the beginning of the journey, when he gave the obligatory lecture about weightlessness, acceleration, and space-sickness. Whatever the quirks of his personality, however, he was presumably competent at basic procedures for interspecies medicine.
    “I think you should see the old fellow first thing tomorrow,” Martinez said. “But that doesn’t mean we should waste tonight.”
    Her look was direct. “I hadn’t intended to,” she said.
    Hours later, before the forenoon watch, Martinez woke from sleep with a start, with a cry frozen on his lips. Terza, her perfect tranquility maintained, slept on, her head pillowed on his chest.
    He hadn’t had one of these dreams in at least two months. For a moment, blinking in the darkness of Kayenta’s guest suite, he had seen not Terza’s black hair spread on his chest, but hair of white gold, framing a pale face with blazing emerald eyes.
    His heart thundered in his chest. Martinez could hear his own breath rasping in his throat.
    There were several reasons why he hadn’t asked what Terza thought of their marriage.
    He had his own secrets. It seemed only fair that he allow Terza to keep hers.
    *
    The cable of the elevator descended from geostationary orbit, a line that disappeared into the deep green of the planet’s equator like a fishing line fading into the sea. On the approach, what Martinez could see of the elevator itself was a pale grey tower of shaped asteroid and lunar material, the massive counterweight to the cable. The tower terminated in a series of sculpted peaks that looked like battlements, but which were actually a kind of jigsaw mechanism to lock additional weights into place