Read Online Xenopath by Eric Brown - Free Book Online
Authors: Eric Brown
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their life cycles are analogous to the human institution of
marriage, Mr Vaughan. Would you agree?"
He opened his
mouth to reply, but allowed a few seconds to elapse before saying,
"Could I interpret that as a comment on how you viewed your own
marriage?"
She looked away,
feigning interest in a vulgar, liverish bloom like a lolling ox
tongue.
"Come, I'll
show you to the house. One can become intoxicated by the atmosphere
in here after a while. Coffee?"
Taken aback by
her matter-of-factness, Vaughan followed her.
They left the
domes, crossed the lawns and entered the arrowhead dwelling through a
sliding rear door. She escorted him up a wide helical staircase and
into an open-plan study overlooking the greensward and the glittering
sea.
She told him to
make himself comfortable and left to fetch coffee. He moved around
the room, glancing at the ranked books—academic treatises on
horticultural subjects—and holograms of riotous blooms.
He stopped to
examine a shelf of holo-cubes. Each one showed a man and a woman
against an alien backdrop. The woman was Hermione Kormier, at various
ages from perhaps thirty to the present. The man was her husband,
handsome and smiling in every cube, his arms around his wife, staring
out in blithe ignorance of what the future held in store.
Vaughan felt
something catch in his throat and turned away.
"Are you
married, Mr Vaughan?"
She was standing
in the doorway, carrying a tray. Evidently she had been watching him.
He was still at
that stage of his marriage where he felt compelled to tell people
about it. "Nearly two years now, to Sukara. We're expecting our
first child in three months."
"Are you
happy?"
He smiled,
looking away from the woman and staring out to sea. "I would
never have thought that I could be so happy, before meeting her. I
worked as a telepath for years before that. It made me cynical."
"As it
must, I imagine, reading the minds of the criminal and corrupt."
"Of course,
our happiness is conditional on personal experience."
She looked
across at him. "Are you still a telepath?"
He nodded. "But
I haven't been for two years—"
"As long as
you've been married?"
He smiled.
"That's right."
"The cynic
in me would say that either the resumption of your telepathic duties,
or a few years of marriage, might blunt your happiness."
He had seen so
many relationships founder that he felt fear for his own marriage
and, at the same time, guilt at his happiness.
Hermione Kormier
crossed the room and laid the tray on a coffee table before the
window. She indicated a wickerwork settee and sat down opposite.
Vaughan picked
up a holo-cube and joined her. The cube was recent, he guessed. He
held it up. "You look happy in this one. It can't have been
taken that long ago?"
"Oh, I
don't deny that I was intermittently happy. Robert was a wonderful
man. I was in love with him until the very end. But I also hated him,
just as passionately, from time to time."
"Can you
tell me why?"
She sipped her
coffee, then said, "You aren't reading me?"
"Not yet."
She inclined her
head. "Robert could be very self-centred. Driven. Ambitious.
I've no doubt that he loved me—but, you see, I've no doubt also
that my love for him was stronger. He could do things which I
interpreted as neglectful, unloving, things which I would never dream
of doing to him. He wouldn't think twice about going away on a field
trip for months on end, without me."
"What
exactly was his job?"
"He was a
xeno-zoologist, latterly for the Scheering-Lassiter Corporation."
"He studied
alien wildlife?"
"That's
right. He was well respected in his field. We met on Cavafy, Vega
VI—the planet of a million moons. You can't get much more
romantic than that!"
"How long
ago was that?"
"Twenty
years ago. We were married the same year. We managed to mesh our
working lives pretty well, arranging it so that our field trips
coincided. We saw a lot of the inhabited worlds together." For
the first time,
marriage, Mr Vaughan. Would you agree?"
He opened his
mouth to reply, but allowed a few seconds to elapse before saying,
"Could I interpret that as a comment on how you viewed your own
marriage?"
She looked away,
feigning interest in a vulgar, liverish bloom like a lolling ox
tongue.
"Come, I'll
show you to the house. One can become intoxicated by the atmosphere
in here after a while. Coffee?"
Taken aback by
her matter-of-factness, Vaughan followed her.
They left the
domes, crossed the lawns and entered the arrowhead dwelling through a
sliding rear door. She escorted him up a wide helical staircase and
into an open-plan study overlooking the greensward and the glittering
sea.
She told him to
make himself comfortable and left to fetch coffee. He moved around
the room, glancing at the ranked books—academic treatises on
horticultural subjects—and holograms of riotous blooms.
He stopped to
examine a shelf of holo-cubes. Each one showed a man and a woman
against an alien backdrop. The woman was Hermione Kormier, at various
ages from perhaps thirty to the present. The man was her husband,
handsome and smiling in every cube, his arms around his wife, staring
out in blithe ignorance of what the future held in store.
Vaughan felt
something catch in his throat and turned away.
"Are you
married, Mr Vaughan?"
She was standing
in the doorway, carrying a tray. Evidently she had been watching him.
He was still at
that stage of his marriage where he felt compelled to tell people
about it. "Nearly two years now, to Sukara. We're expecting our
first child in three months."
"Are you
happy?"
He smiled,
looking away from the woman and staring out to sea. "I would
never have thought that I could be so happy, before meeting her. I
worked as a telepath for years before that. It made me cynical."
"As it
must, I imagine, reading the minds of the criminal and corrupt."
"Of course,
our happiness is conditional on personal experience."
She looked
across at him. "Are you still a telepath?"
He nodded. "But
I haven't been for two years—"
"As long as
you've been married?"
He smiled.
"That's right."
"The cynic
in me would say that either the resumption of your telepathic duties,
or a few years of marriage, might blunt your happiness."
He had seen so
many relationships founder that he felt fear for his own marriage
and, at the same time, guilt at his happiness.
Hermione Kormier
crossed the room and laid the tray on a coffee table before the
window. She indicated a wickerwork settee and sat down opposite.
Vaughan picked
up a holo-cube and joined her. The cube was recent, he guessed. He
held it up. "You look happy in this one. It can't have been
taken that long ago?"
"Oh, I
don't deny that I was intermittently happy. Robert was a wonderful
man. I was in love with him until the very end. But I also hated him,
just as passionately, from time to time."
"Can you
tell me why?"
She sipped her
coffee, then said, "You aren't reading me?"
"Not yet."
She inclined her
head. "Robert could be very self-centred. Driven. Ambitious.
I've no doubt that he loved me—but, you see, I've no doubt also
that my love for him was stronger. He could do things which I
interpreted as neglectful, unloving, things which I would never dream
of doing to him. He wouldn't think twice about going away on a field
trip for months on end, without me."
"What
exactly was his job?"
"He was a
xeno-zoologist, latterly for the Scheering-Lassiter Corporation."
"He studied
alien wildlife?"
"That's
right. He was well respected in his field. We met on Cavafy, Vega
VI—the planet of a million moons. You can't get much more
romantic than that!"
"How long
ago was that?"
"Twenty
years ago. We were married the same year. We managed to mesh our
working lives pretty well, arranging it so that our field trips
coincided. We saw a lot of the inhabited worlds together." For
the first time,
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