Flower-of-Sands_The Extraordinary Adventures of a Female Astronaut Read online

  ‘Thanks!’ Venetia said sarcastically as she pulled away.

  Too late. Whatever was in the smoking stick made her soft and soggy. She tried to feel angry but forgot how to do anger. ‘I’m angry,’ she giggled. ‘I’m not accustomed to being snorkelled. It’s most outrageous of you.’

  ‘My name is Aphrodite,’ the girl said. ‘I want to kiss you. I’ve kissed everybody else, and now it’s your turn.’

  Someone handed her a cocktail glass filled with a smoky, green fluid in which something alive was floating.

  ‘I want to remain in control,’ Venetia blurted though a mouth that seemed to have a life of its own.

  Aphrodite was wearing gold-silk pyjamas that rustled dreamily. She was putting a feathered dress onto Venetia, slipping her arms around her naked waist that somehow had become available in the clothing exchange. ‘I need that kiss,’ Aphrodite murmured.

  ‘Okay, but no tongue.’ Venetia felt wobbly and wondered idly if it was the artificial gravity playing up.

  She closed her eyes and Aphrodite’s lips pressed against hers, but she felt very little. It was as if she were transparent. When she opened her eyes, Aphrodite had gone. She looked for Lex and realized that she was in a large room filled with people talking loudly, dancing, and drinking. A long table down the centre of the room exhibited exotic foods and drinks. Android waiters glided seductively between tables and sofas. A curious, sweet smell came from everywhere. She saw Lex chatting to a group of men and one woman. They looked as if they were having a serious conversation, unlike everyone else in the room. Venetia went over to the food table and helped herself to a plate of seafood and finger snacks. Her head was swimming. She called over one of the androids.

  ‘Can I help? I am here to help.’ He was silver skinned, lithe, muscular, and terribly good-looking.

  ‘I’ve been drugged and need to straighten out. Can you give me something?’

  ‘Of course,’ the silver android said. ‘But do you really want to straighten out, as you put it? You are at a party, after all.’

  ‘Yes, I do wish to straighten out. That … is why I am asking. I have been … spiked, and I have business to attend to. Can you give me something … please, something legal, of course?’

  ‘Everything is legal on Pluto. We have our own laws and regulations, all of which are highly flexible and open to endless interpretation.’

  ‘Please, my head is … swimming and I need to talk with some people about an important … project. I need something effective and harmless to sober me up. I insist you help me.’

  ‘Of course, wait here.’

  The android slid away and was soon lost in the hurly burly of partiers. Venetia filled a plate of snacks and then realized she already had one. Her head was getting worse and, to complicate matters, she was beginning to enjoy the experience. She was out of her head, and she didn’t care, even although she needed to discuss something important, which was...

  A shiny blue female android with a full, sensual mouth whose eyes glinted violet, appeared.

  ‘Hi, I’m Azure Blue. Douglas says you wanted to straighten out.’

  ‘Douglas?’

  ‘Why, your android friend, of course. I repeat, he sent me to straighten you out.’

  Venetia tried to remember what that meant. It seemed an elusive concept. ‘Did he?’

  ‘Yes, apparently, you have an important meeting and need to be clear headed – poor you.’

  ‘Is that so?’ Venetia blinked. The android’s blueness was hypnotic.

  ‘I must say (the android emitted blue flames from her shoulders) that an important discussion at a party verges on oxymoron, unless it is about sex, of course. I can provide that, absolutely. I am designed to give astonishing pleasure to both sexes, and have an extensive erotic repertoire and knowledge of human and non-human anatomy, central nervous and lymphatic systems, prohibited acupuncture points, and erogenous zones. I am available as a gift from the hosts. No fee.’ By way of demonstration, she extended a quivering, delectable tongue that emitted short electric sparks.

  Venetia was tempted, but her state of inebriation and her underlying interest in a mission beyond the Kuiper overrode that temptation. Nevertheless, she felt weak at the thought and blurted. ‘Thank you, but can you just straighten me out, simply that. No extras.’

  ‘Oh, what a shame. Extras are my speciality. My extras are to die for.’

  Venetia felt the android bombarding her with pheromones. ‘Yes, but, please, you must …’

  ‘Or perhaps you would prefer Douglas. He has body-parts that bring new meaning to the term “better than nature.”’

  Venetia decided that it was not in her interests to hear more. ‘Please,’ she said resolutely. ‘Sober me up, or go.’

  Azure Blue was smaller than Venetia, which did not make her less desirable. She beckoned Venetia to lean towards her. ‘Here,’ she commanded.

  Stupidly, Venetia leant forward and Azure Blue blew something misty into her face.

  Again, Venetia felt she would collapse. Now, instead of swimming, she was spinning, which was unwelcome news. Swimming, although distracting, was preferable to spinning by about 200%. She managed to place her plate on the table, but nearly fell, except Azure Blue was holding her. ‘What have you done, Azure? You have made me worse.’

  ‘Hold on,’ she heard a faraway voice.

  Suddenly, it was all over. Almost disappointed, she looked around. Azure Blue had disappeared and Lex was waving to her and mouthing something. She felt so straightened out that the reality around her looked tacky. She made her way over to Lex, feeling depressingly normal and sober.

  ‘Hi Vene.’ Lex’s eyes were burning with enthusiasm. ‘You look like you need a drink.’

  One of the men beside Lex turned to her, handed her a long multi-coloured cocktail in a tall glass, and introduced himself.

  ‘I’m Harrison Standard, astral-engineer, and these are my associates, Lester and Adriana.’ He motioned towards two quiet and thoughtful colleagues, who looked self-conscious and out of place and clutched wine glasses as if they were foreign objects. ‘Lex has been suggesting that you and she accompany us on our research trip to and beyond the Kuiper. You are an expert on the area, I understand.’

  ‘I am something of an authority, yes.’

  ‘Actually, I know about you. I have read your blogs on the subject. Your contribution is invaluable. We would love to have you, provided Lex can wangle it.’

  Venetia looked up at him. He was tall and fair with closely cropped hair. ‘I’m sure Lex can. She can wangle anything, except ….’ Here Venetia stopped herself.

  Harrison fiddled with his glass and looked suspiciously around the room. ‘We have to be careful not to do anything too illegal; otherwise we could lose our funding. Realize that there are others with similar ambitions. We must get our proposal in with a clean slate. But, wow, you would be most welcome, if, as I said, you can wangle it.’

  ‘We can wangle it,’ Lex said, taking Harrison’s arm. ‘No one cares what we do, and it is a commercial enterprise and not likely to result in a Nobel Prize of some description. Unlike the Kuiper-Oort Mission.’

  Harrison looked thoughtful and nodded. ‘I heard about that.’

  ‘Yes, well, it’s a sensitive subject,’ Lex said, looking askance at Venetia.

  ‘Which we have learned to live with,’ Venetia said lightly, sipping her new drink, and looking vaguely around.

  Azure Blue was suddenly in their midst, sweet smelling and seductive. She smiled alluringly at Harrison before casting a sultry look at Venetia.

  ‘It is Venetia, is it not?’ she purred.

  Venetia was speechless.

  Azure laughed. ‘I understand you are hoping to join us on the mission. It would be wonderful to have such an authority on the outer solar system aboard, and to have your friend Lex would be a bonus.’

  Having delivered this mortal blow, Azure Blue walked away, leaving Venetia open mouthed and aghast.

  ‘W
hat did she mean by us?’ Venetia’s voice was horrified.

  ‘She is the standard android, computer system. Her presence is a legal requirement.’

  ‘But why her, specifically?’

  ‘She is a leading expert model on deep space exploration. And she has a nice personality, adjustable, of course … ah, I see, did she try to seduce you by any chance?’

  ‘You might say that. She bombarded me with pheromones …’

  Harrison roared with laughter. ‘That was Azure Blue, the escort model. The one you just spoke to, who welcomed you onto the tour, as it were, was Laic-La, the propulsion-tech Alpha 345 model. The blues are all the same to look at, but Laic’s software is entirely different from Azure Blue’s I can assure you. Azure Blue is a party Android, not fit for long-haul space missions. Bless you, Venetia.’

  Feeling foolish and patronized, Venetia looked to Lex for assistance.

  ‘What is the flight plan, roughly?’ Lex asked quickly.

  Harrison turned to Lester who had been staring at his wine glass as if it contained an unlisted alien life form. He stepped forward, gazing intensely at Venetia, and happy to be on familiar territory. ‘We take a detour to Eris, which, as you well know, due to its highly-inclined orbit, is currently closer to the sun than Pluto. There we will pick up three research astronauts and continue on to Triton’s space port, where we will prepare for our trip.’

  ‘We need to prepare and train thoroughly,’ Lex threw in.

  ‘Exactly,’ Lester said. ‘We will take off from the Neptunian Space Launch, which is nearly finished, as I speak, and proceed into the Kuiper Belt, take a week equivalent on Makemake, check out its moon MK2, and then proceed towards the scattered disk area and beyond, possibly take a look at Sedna along the way – quite a tour, and, I would guess, attractive to you both. We hope to make many fascinating discoveries.’

  ‘We have new tech from the Large Magellanic Cloud contingent which will boost our enterprise and pave the way for interstellar and intergalactic space exploration,’ Harrison said.

  There was a tense moment. People rarely mentioned the aliens. ‘What, have they agreed to give us technology directly?’ Lex asked.

  ‘Well, as usual, it is more a nudge in the right direction.’

  Venetia was suddenly alert. She longed to meet the so-called aliens from the LMC. ‘Are there actual beings from the LMC on Earth, or just a line of communication? It has never been clear.’

  Harrison sighed with mock mystification. ‘No one really knows. The headquarters are in Washington USA. It could be a communication via some sort of Faster than Light frequency that connects us. Above top secret hardly describes it.’

  ‘But Earth applied for galactic membership. Has that not gone through?’

  Adriana – a small, compact woman with large enquiring eyes – cleared her throat and started to speak. ‘Ratification has been held up due to a suspicion that crime may have returned to Earth.’

  ‘Crime? How come?’ Venetia asked.

  ‘To become a member of the Galactic Confederacy of Liberated Worlds, Earth must have been free of war and crime for a thousand years. There are rumours that the Confederacy was considering Earth for early entry, but something has happened to interfere with that; there has been a disappearance, the nature of which indicates crime.’

  ‘But surely,’ Lex complained. ‘It’s an isolated occurrence.’

  ‘Not from the viewpoint of our LMC friends. The absence of crime must be absolute, or they will not consider us – and this disappearance means there is at least a potential threat of a return to crime, which could mean an eventual return to war. Our diplomats are working on the matter, but it does not look good.’

  For hundreds of years, aliens from the Large Magellanic Cloud had discreetly occupied Earth. Benevolently and diplomatically, these very human aliens had provided Earth with wonderful advances in science and medicine, but indirectly, never interfering, always gently guiding. The aliens’ touch was so discreet that the inhabitants of Earth were hardly aware of it and conducted political affairs, space exploration, and culture, as if it were not there. However, the aliens were there, monitoring humankind’s progress, and willing to help in accordance with their strict ethical code of non-invasive interference with the evolution of a species. Linked to this was the promise of Earth becoming part of the Galactic Confederacy of Liberated Worlds which would mean that collectively and individually Humankind would have galactic citizenship – all this contingent on Earth being free of war and crime.

  ‘This is unwelcome news,’ Venetia said. ‘By the way, who has disappeared? What are the details?’

  ‘All I know is that it is a young man from Afghanistan – a musician, a very talented one, apparently,’ Adriana said.

  ‘I know more,’ Lester said. ‘The LMC headquarters has just released a statement indicating that he is off world, indeed out of the solar system. If they have more information, they are not disclosing it.’

  ‘Extraordinary,’ Venetia whispered, almost to herself.

  ‘Anyway,’ Harrison said. ‘We will be leaving in a few days for Eris, travelling at half-light speed. Lex, you and Venetia need to decide quickly, forty-eight hours at the outset. We would love to have you, but we have a flight plan from which we must not deviate.’

  ‘I’ll sort it,’ Lex said, winking at Venetia. ‘Meanwhile, we should enjoy the party, since we have come all this way.’

  ‘Agreed.’ Venetia finished her cocktail in a few large gulps. Turning, she faced the pandemonium of dancing, inebriated people. She would have another cocktail, eat some more finger snacks, dance, and, if luck was on her side, have a light and capricious romance, preferably not with Azure Blue.

  ***

  A steady throb behind Lex’s left ear indicated the ship’s approach to Eris. Turning over, she looked across the cabin to Venetia’s room, guessing she was already up. Her sleep had been so peaceful; she wanted to stay like that – suspended. She prepared for a few further minutes of blissful semi-consciousness. But the throb wasn’t having any of it. She must wake up and get up.

  After showering, she put her head around the open doorway and saw that Venetia was already up, her bed unmade, and her nightclothes scattered across the bed and on the floor. Lex sighed; she liked tidiness, and Venetia verged towards the opposite; not dirty or messy, but chaotic, except when it came to mathematics, physics, and astrophysics. Sighing again, this time with early-waking pseudo-fatigue, she dressed into the dark navy coverall that was the ship’s uniform and left for the canteen.

  A din of at least fifty excited personnel hit her like a blast of warm air. Many scientists and astronomers had fought to be on this trip to the dwarf planet, Eris. They would not be on the mission to the Kuiper Belt, but would stay on Eris for the equivalent of an Earth year, immersed in observation and discovery, before their eventual flight back to Earth.

  After a short stay on Eris, the Harrison crew would collect a few additional crew members from a group of scientists studying there, and, after a brief stay, board a smaller ship and head for Triton. This journey around the outer solar system was lifeblood to Venetia and Lex, who had spent most of their time observing and analysing astronomical data, between occasional sprees into holographic dramas, comedies, and storytelling warmed by samples of Harrison’s exotic special brew, fermented, he claimed, in vats buried deep in Pluto’s Ice Plains. ‘I don’t believe you. That is absolute rubbish. Its bad science,’ Venetia had routinely said before passing out.

  Lex fixed herself a coffee and a croissant from the food queue and crossed the canteen looking for Venetia. She saw Harrison who was waving her over to his table. He was grinning broadly, probably in anticipation of the Eris landing.

  ‘Have you seen Venetia?’ Lex said as she pulled up a seat beside him.

  ‘Err, I saw her with Laic-La. They looked excited about something. There’s an early shuttle to the surface. They could well be on that.’

  ‘Early shuttle?’ Lex close
d her eyes as she sipped her coffee.

  ‘Yes, it’s a special one for geeks, well, extra geeks. After all, we are all geeks on this trip.’

  ‘What is special about it?’

  ‘Taking off prior to the mother ship achieving orbit. It will fly low, taking in the terrain. Might even land somewhere interesting.’

  ‘Venetia will love that. I wish she had said, though. We are supposed to be best friends. It’s a bit unlike her, to go off by herself. Hey, there is Laic-La now.’

  Laic-La approached their table, her mouth curved in an attractive smile, her eyes deep blue. She was carrying a coffee – although an android, she performed excellent simulations of human behaviour.

  ‘Laic, have you seen Venetia?’

  ‘Yes, she went on the early shuttle.’

  ‘That’s strange. It’s unlike her to not tell me.’

  ‘She was very excited about Eris. She probably forgot to tell you.’

  ‘Yes, but Vene is a sharing person. She collaborates and tends not to strike out on her own, except when it comes to maths and physics, that is.’

  ‘Well, this must be an exception.’ Laic-La’s eyes crossed for half a second. ‘I can confirm that she is not on the station, so she must be on the shuttle, although there is no record of her boarding. There was a … fluctuation somewhere … some sort of magnetic disturbance around the time when the shuttle left. That would explain the anomaly. Look, don’t worry, she is not on the ship, so she must be on the shuttle.’

  Lex was apprehensive. There was something odd about Venetia going on the early shuttle without telling her. It was outside her modus operandi. At an incredible time like this, Venetia would wish to share her experience with her friend, not shoot off by herself.

  A slow, deep chime indicated that passengers should collect their things and make way to the shuttle bay. The walls and ceiling of the canteen went into holo mode revealing the awesome sight of the dwarf planet Eris as the ship locked into orbit. It was a busy, exciting time – and one of considerable concern for Lex.