She nodded, "Yes. I used to work in a white building. We had a radio in
lab but it never played when they tested the engines."
"Do you remember the little bar?"
"I think so ... where I danced and a funny man made faces when he
played the piano," she mused. Paul shook his head at us. We had stopped
watching the colors change in the tubes. I could picture the squat
concrete buildings that sat on a checkerboard of dusty roads.
"Karen, try to think. Do you recall when we went to the ship. It rained
for the first time in months that night. We drove in the rain."
"I was afraid of the ship," she said.
I remembered the lights of the truck, dim in the glare of the flood
lights that criss-crossed through the driving rain. I hadn't known who
the new replacement would be as they climbed out of the car and ran to
the shelter. I thought she had come to say good-bye to Paul, using her
father's influence to break regulations. Someone had thrust a watch in
my face and I went out to the ship without talking to her.
Seventeen minutes before blast off I had gone to the small cabin where
I would spend the next century. Karen was there checking the master
control.
"You aren't going along," I had shouted in fear. The area was being
cleared and I knew she was the replacement.
"You cannot change the orders, Captain Corbin."
She had been right. We were sealed in and the official voice on the
radio cut me short, repeating the order only once. We would leave on
schedule.
"Why?" I had shouted. "You're young and beautiful. You're risking your
life in this."
"I have my reasons, as I'm sure you do."
"You cannot come because of Paul."
"It isn't because of Paul," she answered coolly. I was still trying to
get the officials to change it when the ten minute warning sounded.
Then it was too late. I was still wondering why when we switched to
automatic drive, far out in space. Then it was time to press the button
that operated the suspension. The others were all ready in a dreamless
sleep as I watched my arm fall back. The room grew dim. The last thing
I remembered was counting the dials on the panel, saying her name over
and over.
"I was afraid of the ships," Karen said to Paul. "I don't know why I
came."