Deep Black Road: The Head of the Snake

Chapter 35

As Ricky and Suzanne prepared to leave after the scannings, Dr. Sheppard asked, "What were you thinking of doing after you got your clothes?"

"I hadn't really thought about it," Ricky said. "Maybe go to the moon?"

"The moon?" Suzanne exclaimed. "No way we can ... Wait. You went to Mars. So why the moon?"

"It's the perfect hiding place. It's not that far away; but no way the CDA can get to us."

"That makes sense; and General Orkan can get himself repaired without worrying about them either."

Ricky held up the little ball on its module. "You know, he's probably been stripped of his rank."

"No doubt; so let's call him Philip. That is his first name. And if we're going to the moon, we're not going to need clothes."

"True."

#

As they waited in orbit for their energy reserves to recharge, Suzanne radioed, "I've been wondering. What's with this black skin? How'd you get it?"

"The glow gave it to me when I first went into space" Ricky responded. "It's armour, as you can tell, and incredibly strong. Like, I took that hit by a meteoroid that smashed my elbow, but the skin never broke."

"So it's bullet-proof."

"Oh yeah."

"But not ray-gun proof."

"Obviously."

After a couple of moments, Suzanne radioed again, "So tell me, if your god knows all and sees all, why's the world in such a mess?"

"Because all us humans have taken their free will and chosen wrong; so our problems are all our own fault one way or another. And I think God's left everything like that for now because, if he tried to fix it directly, it'd mess up the whole free-will thing."

"Oh, okay."

#

A day out from leaving Earth orbit, Ricky radioed, "I better give Philip some glow time."

"Let me guess," Suzanne responded. "You think he's lonely."

"Why not? He's human."

"Whatever."

"Come here, little guy," he said, and pulled off the backpack full of electronic components and gravel. Flipping it open, he took out the small ball-which had grown to five centimetres diameter-turned on his glow, and radioed, "I wonder when he'll start developing arms and legs and stuff."

She didn't care; so she didn't bother to respond, and drifted away a short distance to where all she could make out of Ricky was the narrow strip of sunlight on him that was visible to her, and the combined glows of his hands and Philip.

I guess that's why the glow lets me feel where he's at, she thought. I can barely see him in that black skin, even though he's only a few meters away.

I'd sure hate to lose that sense here.

Alone.

In the middle of nowhere.

#

Suzanne stared at the crescent moon that lay ahead of them-above them according to how she felt as they accelerated through space-struggling to keep her cool because, now that there was nothing to distract her, her awareness of Ricky's presence couldn't be ignored.