Wormbender's Circus

While Zoe and Sebastian took turns in the shower, Casey lifted the Semiramis out of the sticky black mud and back into space. He gave the navigational computer new co-ordinates to set them back on course again.

Zoe reappeared in the control cabin, wearing some of Sebastian’s clothes. She had had to tie a cable round her waist as a belt, and had rolled up the sleeves and the trouser bottoms several times.

Casey held up the brandy flask he had by his side. “Drink?”

She sat down. “Thanks.”

Sebastian appeared in the doorway. Casey noted with annoyance that his partner was watching her every move as if he had never seen a woman before.

Zoe sipped her brandy. “I’m really grateful to you guys for showing up back there. I don’t know how long I would have been sitting in that swamp if you hadn’t happened along when you did.”

“Think nothing of it,” Sebastian smiled. “Anyone else would have done the same.”

“There was only you on that ship?” said Casey.

Zoe nodded.

“What were you doing out here?”

“Supply run to Theta Triplex.”

Casey nodded in turn. “What happened?”

“To the ship? Reactor blew its stack. Old tub…” She looked around and seemed about to say something more, then thought better of it. At last she added: “I was behind schedule, pushed her a bit too hard, and wham!”

“Looks like you just got out in time,” Casey observed.

“Yes,” said Zoe. “I was lucky.” She settled back in her chair and took another sip of brandy. “Lucky, too, that you two showed up when you did. You don’t exactly see a lot of traffic in these parts. Mind if I ask what you’re doing out here?”

“Not at all,” said Sebastian. “You said you’d heard about the circus. Well, here we are, trying to get our acts together. We were aiming to get some protonoids. There are supposed to be some likely gas giants in Sagittarius, seemed a good place to look.”

“I think so,” said Zoe. “What acts do you have so far?”

Sebastian grinned triumphantly. “We just passed through Rann.”

Zoe looked at him incredulously. “An erg? You have an erg?”

“We sure do.”

“Well, where is it? How come it doesn’t fill the ship?”

“They’re capable of shrinking down to a very small size. It’s in the cargo hold. Come and take a look.”

Sebastian proudly led the way to the hold. They had turned up the heating to remove the last vestiges of the ice, but everything remained damp to the touch, and drips echoed loudly in various dark corners.

The erg was still hovering in the same spot.

Zoe gazed at it for a long time, then she turned to Sebastian with wonderment in her eyes. “It’s fantastic.”

As if in response, the erg became a mirror image of the two of them for a moment. Zoe squealed with joy.

Sebastian suddenly noticed that she was shivering. “You’re still cold,” he said. He looked down and saw her bare feet on the icy steel floor. “And you lost your boots. Let’s go back up into the warm.” He turned to go.

Zoe took his arm. ’I want to stay a little longer,” she said. “I’ll be okay if you hold me. Keep me warm.”

She put her arms round him and pressed her face against his chest, staring all the while at the erg. Sebastian enfolded her in a warm embrace, holding her close, feeling her trembling. That strange tingling sensation he had felt before in the swamp was back, stronger now, and more tightly focussed on his loins.

She murmured softly, “I thought I was going to die back there.”

Sebastian was juggling fruit. In the midst of juggling, he put an apple to his mouth, took a bite, and continued to juggle the apple. Every so often he would take another bite until eventually he was juggling the core.

“Catch.”

He threw Zoe an apple, then an orange. She tossed them in the air, kept them going quite successfully. Sebastian watched her jade eyes flash from the fruit to her hands and back again, measuring the trajectory, exercising a natural co-ordination of hand and eye.

“Try three.”

He tossed her another apple. She threw the two apples and the orange up in the air, once, twice, then a slip and the orange was rolling away across the floor.

“Give it time,” he smiled. “You’ll get the hang of it.” He picked up the orange and threw it to her. She started juggling again. Before you know it, we’ll have you juggling zap-sticks on a unicycle.”

“Zap-sticks?” said Zoe. “What are they?”

“Batons with a little charge in one end. Way back they used to juggle sticks that were actually on fire. The zap-sticks are what we use now.”

Zoe kept juggling. By the end of the day she was getting quite proficient with three pieces of fruit.

“Sebastian. Seb.”

Sebastian turned. She put an apple to her mouth and took a bite. She mistimed it, and the other apple and the orange fell to the floor.

Sebastian laughed. “Let’s not try to run before we can walk.”

Zoe bent down to pick up the fruit. Sebastian bent down also. Their faces were scant inches apart. Zoe looked into his eyes, and he was seized with the desire to kiss her.

At that moment, Casey cruised by in his saucer. He looked down at them with a steely glare and moved silently on. Zoe looked up at his departing back and had the measure of the situation in an instant.

It was late, by ship’s time, and everything was quiet. Sebastian was lying on his bed, brooding, when Zoe entered. She sat down on the bed next to him.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “It looks like I’m lousing things up between you guys.”

Sebastian turned to her. “No you’re not,” he sulked. “If Casey’s got a problem, well, it’s his problem.”

“No it’s not,” said Zoe. “You’re his buddy, so it’s your problem too.”

“He’ll get used to it. You being around.”

Zoe sighed. “Don’t you see how he must be feeling?”

“Sure, but…”

“It’ll make things a lot easier if we… don’t.”

Sebastian looked at her quizzically. “Don’t you…?”

Zoe leaned over him, kissed him with a passion that caught him totally off guard. She looked him in the eyes, and the warmth he saw there was unmistakable. It occurred to him to wonder if she might merely be feeling gratitude for being hauled out of the swamp so promptly, but he didn’t say so. In any case, he didn’t care. This was all just so wonderful, and Casey could go to hell.

“Of course I do,” she whispered.

He drew her to him, his fingers massaging her back through one of his own sweaters, and he locked with her in a searing embrace. She responded in kind, rolling across the bed with him, her mouth crushed against his, her legs wrapped around his, thrusting already, her whole body an expression of the most intense desire.

“Case?” Sebastian entered the control room. Casey was staring moodily at a monitor. He didn’t respond. “Casey, can we talk?”

“It depends what it’s about.”

“It’s about Zoe.”

“In that case, I’d rather not.”

“I know it’s not easy…”

“I said I’d rather not.” There was a brroding silence. Casey drew a heavy sigh. “I don’t have anything against her. It’s not her fault she’s here, and it’s certainly not your fault you’ve got the hots for her. It’s just that if she sticks around, she’s going to screw things up for sure.”

“In what way?”

“Taking your mind off the job, for Chrissakes!”

Sebastian knew that was light years away from the real reason, but he let it go. “Garbage. She won’t take my mind off the job. In fact I was thinking of asking her if she wants to stick around permanently as part of the team.”

“I guessed as much,” Casey snapped. “We don’t need her.”

“Yes we do. A circus needs a good looking woman.”

“That’s crap. That kind of thinking is bloody mediaeval.”

“But Casey…”

And then, in an instant, Casey’s fortress of rationalisation crumbled, laying bare his true motivation. “Holy smokes, Seb. Do I have to spell it out to you? I am jealous as hell. Now get out of here and leave me alone.”

Sheepishly, Sebastian shrunk away.

“What do you know about protonoids?” said Sebastian.

Zoe was absently stroking his chest. “Mmmm?”

“What do you know about protonoids?”

“They’re hellishly painful,” said Zoe. “You just can’t sit down at all!”

“Protonoids!” Sebastian yelled, laughing. “Idiot!”

“Oh, protonoids,” said Zoe with a grin. “Very primitive life-forms, from what I’ve heard. They live in the atmosphere of some gas giants, somehow feeding on the gases. They are very brightly coloured, and capable of moving very fast. They put on quite a show, not that too many people have ever seen it.”

“They’re our next quarry.”

But how will you keep them?”

“We’ve got a tank in the hold which we’ll use to display them. We’ve rigged something up to fill it with the kind of atmosphere they live in.”

The Semiramis suddenly rolled sideways. Sebastian crashed to the floor with Zoe on top of him. The ship lurched again, sending the pair of them flying across the floor in a tangle of naked bodies, arms and legs. They heard Casey roaring furiously somewhere.

“Here we go again,” Sebastian muttered. “What is it this time?”

Sebastian scrambled to his feet, and without bothering to put anything on, he ran to the control room, cannoning off the corridor walls as the ship rolled erratically this way and that. Casey was seconds behind him.

Sebastian consulted the terminals. Zoe walked in behind the others, draped in bedclothes.

“Nothing serious,” Casey surmised, angrily. “A meteorite shower, and the ship took evasive action automatically.” He turned to Sebastian. It would not have been so dramatic, and I would not have come close to splitting my skull open, if you had been on station, as you were supposed to be. Now stay put!”

Sebastian was about to protest that he might at least be allowed to dress, but from behind Casey’s back, Zoe caught his eye and gestured for him to stay calm. He had, after all, neglected his duty.

Casey turned and looked at Zoe, almost catching the gesture, and then back at Sebastian. “And you tell me she won’t take your mind off the job.”

He turned back to Zoe, but she was already walking away. Outside the control cabin he caught up with her. His hand came down on her bare shoulder. She turned. She was scarlet and close to tears.

“Casey, I’m sorry…”

“I don’t want to know. I just want you off this ship at the earliest opportunity. Clear?”

She drew herself upright, struggling to contain her emotions. “Clear.

“Good.” Casey swept away.