One's Aspect to the Sun by Sherry D. Ramsey Read Free Book Online

to.”
    Maja opened her mouth as if she'd protest already, but closed it without saying anything.
    The nurse arrived with the tea just then, so we had to wait while she settled it all on the desk and surveyed us with a sunny smile. How nice, the man's daughters coming to have tea with him , I knew she must be thinking. Finally she left us alone again.
    “Honey,” Hirin continued, and his voice was very soft, “Maja, I haven't got much longer. The virus is at it again and, well, there's just nothing they can do.”
    “But what about—”
    He held up a hand, very gently. “There's nothing. Nothing I want, anyway. I do have one last request, and that's why I've asked for your mother's help. I don't want to die here, in this place. I want to go back to the stars, just one more time, and I want the end to come out there somewhere.”
    Maja's eyes widened. “You can't be serious! Dad, this is crazy! If you stay here they'll make you comfortable, at least, they'll look after you . . .”
    “They won't make me comfortable up here,” he said, tapping a wizened finger to his temple. “And that's what I want most now.”
    “But it's too dangerous! Think of the risks! You'll—” She saw his face and switched tactics. “Why don't you come home with me, instead? I can take care of you. And if you needed a doctor there'd be one close.”
    “That would be lovely, dear, and I'd come and stay with you for a while if I had more time. However, I don't, and this is my chance, when your mother heads out again. I want to take it.”
    “But does it have to be right away?”
    I nodded. “I have jobs I'm committed to, and a passenger. And a lead on your grandmother,” I added.
    She rounded on me. “ Dio, are you ever going to give it up? I can't believe you wouldn't stay here with him instead of hauling him off on some space bucket,” she hissed. “But oh, no, you've got your precious jobs. How can you do this?”
    I looked at her sadly. “I offered to stay here, Maja. I told him I wouldn't take another job as long as he needed me Earthside, but he doesn't want to stay here. This is his idea, it's his wish, and I have to help him as well as I can.” I took a chance. “I love him too, you know.”
    She looked at me for a long moment, then her face crumpled and she buried her head in her hands. It was suddenly clear to me that for a long time now she'd viewed me, not as her mother, not as Hirin's wife, but as someone she had to compete with for his affection. Despite our shared past, to her I was more like the stereotypical younger stepmother than her real mother. That hurt.
    I moved to sit beside her on the bed and put an arm around her. Dankas Dio, she didn't pull away. “Honey, I'm his wife. I've been his wife for almost sixty years. He loves us both. He always has.”
    Maja managed to turn a sob into a long, deep breath. “I know,” she whispered. “I know. It's just so hard. I feel like I lost you so long ago. Now I'm losing him, too.”
    My heart clenched at that and I couldn't force any more words out.
    Hirin got up and shuffled over to the bed, sat on the other side of Maja and silently put an arm over her shoulders.
    “When do you go?” she asked finally in a muffled voice.
    “Two days' time,” Hirin said. “I love you, Maja.”
    We sat like that for a long time, grieving for what we'd had, what we'd lost, and what was about to change forever.

     

    Chapter Four
Secrets Lost and Found
     
     
     
     
     
    I arrived back at the Tane Ikai that night to find a notebug from PrimeCorp waiting for me, hovering outside the main bridge hatch. Viss Feron was there, too, lounging beside the closed hatchway with something cradled in the palm of his hand. His thick, greying hair was untidy, and he still had his shipsuit on—he rarely wore anything else. Took some ribbing about that whenever we were planetside, too, but his usual dry response was that women had always loved a man in uniform.
    “Yes, but usually a clean