System

25. Into the Storm

Emily stood on a balcony, watching as the last of the boats slipped away from the quayside. It was a long red motorboat with a low rectangular cover. She could just about see the faces of the passengers as they looked up at her.

The rain was beginning to fall quite heavily now, but the small fleet of boats were still sheltered from the wind between the immense hulls of the Swan. Once they were out in open sea, they would have to deal with some choppy waves, but she felt pleased that some of the ship's residents were heading for safety.

She waved and a couple of the more hardy passengers waved back. Most of them looked wet and miserable as they tried their best to keep warm and dry.

'They'll be alright,' Esthra van Pethris said reassuringly.

'I know,' she said with as much confidence as she could muster. 'They've got our most competent sailers with them. It shouldn't take long to get out of the path of the storm and they can just sit tight and wait for rescue...'

'But you can't do anything more to help them, can you?'

She smiled.

'No, I can't,' she replied. 'And you know that bugs me, don't you?'

'I recognise the type,' he murmured.

Emily and the blue man had found a low balcony on the inward side of the starboard hull so they could watch the boats leave. It offered some shelter from the storm, but they were still wearing rain coats to keep the worst of the water at bay.

Emily hated the feeling of water on her fur, and was already becoming uncomfortable. She didn't know how she would dry herself properly with the ship's systems still out of action. There was probably a warm space near to the engines...

'You would rather be here, though,' van Pethris said softly.

It was unclear whether this was a question or an assertion, but Emily nodded.

'I can help more here,' she said in response. 'And there are people we can't move.'

'Like your ex-husband?...'

'Like Travis, yes,' she said without emotion. 'We can't risk moving them while we don't know where they really are, or what's happened to them. They're logged into the system, but we've no way of knowing how to bring them back - or even if that's possible.'

'You still care for him don't you?' he asked bluntly.

She paused before replying.

'You don't stop loving someone, just because you change bodies,' she said with a sharp tone. 'The law says that marriage ends with death, divorce or DNA replacement, but you don't lose your memories...'

Esthra van Pethris continued to look out across the water as the last few boats began to reach open water.

'I have been married five times,' he said after a pause. 'Three times to a man, twice to a woman. All of my marriages were rather... brief, sadly...'

He turned and looked down at Emily was beginning to look rather miserable in her raincoat.

'I know what a relationship is like when it doesn't work,' he continued. 'It is a mix of hope, expectation and disappointment.'

She started to speak but he raised his hand to cut her off.

'I also know what it looks like when two people can make it work,' he said bluntly. 'I see the way they look at each other - the way their emotions rise and fall like waves on the sea - the way it matters to them what the other person thinks... I don't understand, but I do see it when it happens.'