Tara 3

Untitled Part 7

         Roman Keegan seemed to shout into the communicator. "I'm bored. Someone pick a topic. We can fill all this dead space between us with conversation."

         "Okay, Roman. Let's talk about comets." Lena Chiring's voice sprang over the communicator.

        "Comets? Do we have to? There's so much more worth talking about. Anyway, you always know all the exact dates and facts. I don't"

        "You just don't like to lose Roman. I've seen it when Teddy has creamed you in the racquette ball courts."

        "Teddy never creamed me. Okay."

        "Teddy's beaten you, what? The last three times you've played."

        "Two. Two times, okay Lena." Roman was fighting the argumentive tone he wanted to take.

        "Let's talk about old continents that use to exist on earth."

         "Nah. Let's talk about the countries. There's more of them and it's more interesting."

         "How come you don't want to talk about continents?"

         Roman checked his fuel propulsion gauge and realized he could cut back on the fuel intake and allow 'quiggy' to glide for a while. "Because there's only seven continents and it's too quickly to cut out the boring continents."

          "Which are?"

          "You don't know? Come on. It's easy."

          "Tell me."

          "Antarctica. It was too cold and uninhabitable."

          "How about, uh, Australia. That seemed to be a nice place. From what I've learned of it."

          "Is that where you would have wanted to live?"

          "Lena. That's a mean subject, but I know how you are. You always ask the impending question." Australia? I don't know about livin' there? I'd visit though, but who knows? Who knows Lena? The truth is we'll never know."

          There was a pause that was quickly shattered by Lena's flamboyance. "Okay. What other continent Roman?"

          "Wait a minute. What about you?"

          "What? Which continent would I choose?"

          "Yeah, where would Lena live? Not visit, but live."

          "North America."

          "Why there? North America is garbage land."

          "Not if you lived any time during the 1800's to 2000."

          "I don't agree with that at all."

          "And why not?"

          "Well, help me if my historical memory staggers, but didn't that era contain two World Wars? Who wants to be on earth during that?"

         "There was more than that Roman. There was the different type of sports that went professional. You know a lot of the sports we play here. And?"

         "That's true, but that was the turning point in history, right?"

        "What do you mean? North America wasn't abolished until 2060."

        "Oh, that was still a grotesque era for people. I wouldn't choose that era to live in. Uh uh, no way."

       "When would you live Roman? The Roman era?"

      Roman laughed. "I'd live in North America before the Europeans ever came. When there was no one except the different tribes. To me that's when the earth was best. Sure, they had their conflicts, but it wasn't like the rest of the human race. A lot of things were untouched and pure then. That would've been nice."

       "That's kinduh touching Roman, gettin' all misty on me?" Lena grinned, but quickly removed it as she felt the watchful eye of Captain Farville, and the dutiful nature of Adam Montgomery.

      "I'm surprised you picked North America?"

      "Why? I like North America the best out of all the continents, just not before -what year was it? Fourteen ninety-two? Like I said."

      "I guess you're right about that era and how quickly the human race fell into ruin. It was kinduh stupid actually."

      "Yeah it was. The human race can figure out a million ways to destroy themselves and then they'll come up with a million more. Why did they have world wars? I mean, for what? It all seemed like cattle prodding to me."

      "It was Roman. even here, now, on TARA 3 there's cattle prodding."

     Roman's reply was metallic, bland. "Yeah. Let's talk about the good things of your era Lena. Okay."

       "Okay Roman." Lena wanted to get Roman's positive hype back, and it would take her a little work, but not much. "They use to surf, you know what that is Roman?"

       "Surf. I think so."

      "It was done a lot all over the world. People riding waves on surfboards."

      "It sounds like it was a lot of fun."