AWFULLY

2414 CE

In the morning they lay twined across each other, naked, warm and lazy. Miriam loved the feel of Allan‘s long, skinny body hot against her softness. He was as tall as she was short, as bony as she was curvy; his pale, tan skin contrasted with her golden olive-brown. She picked up her head to stare at their mirror image. His face was long and narrow, almost gaunt, like an El Greco saint. Hers was round and pretty, with a big tousle of black hair which Allan‘s bony male hand now seized to pull her back down to the bed again.

“Hey!” she said, kicking at him.

Allan let her go and scratched his side. “Three million people are making this trip. What is Hau Ren getting out of it? They’re doing all this work and burning incredible amounts of energy. Why? Who’s paying for it? It doesn’t make sense, unless the Interplanetary Union is giving them something.”

Miriam wondered the same thing. The governmental IU was the sole force keeping the Hau Ren combine from taking over all operation and control of solar space. Hau Ren currently ran everything off-Earth except for the Earth/Moon range belonging to Terre-Lune Administration. “That’s probably it, but it still doesn’t add up right. Hau Ren‘s only competitors out there are VingZero and Nguyen Syndicate, and they’re both small. Any IU concessions to Hau Ren would wipe them out.”

“So then Hau Ren must have something to offer the IU in return. It can’t be the permanent removal of three million highly-trained people.” Allan stroked her thigh, higher and higher.

Blood rushed to her face, and she rolled onto him, saying playfully, “And we won’t care. We’ll be awfully long gone.”

He stared thoughtfully into her eyes. “That’s awfully, awfully true. My parents cried.”

“Mine too. It’ll be worse when we have to say goodbye.” And now their lovemaking resumed, with a tinge of urgency pressing against Miriam‘s growing sense of loss.