Starship Coda by Eric Brown Page A

to that.”
    Matt glanced across at Maddie, then said, “Tell you what, how about we have a private viewing tomorrow morning? Come along to the dome and you can experience the mobiles for yourself.”
    Kee leaned forward, wide-eyed. “We’d love to, wouldn’t we, Hawk?”
    “Try keeping us away,” he said.
    The years had been kind to Kee. I swear that she looked just as young as she had when I first met her, over twenty years ago. She was slim and lithe, her face unlined. By human reckoning she was in her fifties, but she looked about fifteen.
    Hawk had weathered well, in the way that some men do; his big, rangy frame was a little stooped these days, his craggy face lined, and his hair iron-grey—but it suited him and heightened his disreputable, piratical aspect. They made a fascinating pair, seen side by side.
    Now Kee was staring along the red beach with that fixity of gaze peculiar to the Ashentay. “Look, David,” she said. “You have a delivery.”
    A silver InterWorld courier van had pulled up outside the old vacant lot where the Mantis had once stood. The delivery man climbed out, parcel in hand, and stared at where the ship had been.
    This was the first InterWorld delivery I’d ever received, and I was curious. I stood and called out, and the man turned and waved. He trudged through the sand and climbed the steps of the Jackeral. “Conway? An express parcel direct from Earth.”
    I showed him my ID, thumbed his softscreen, and took receipt of the small, square parcel.
    “Direct from Earth?” Hannah said. “It must have cost a fortune.”
    I set the box on the table and opened it, aware of everyone’s attention.
    “A holo-cube!” Kee said excitedly.
    I turned it around, looking for a note or something to explain who’d sent it. I checked the packaging, but the only thing printed on the silver paper was my name and address.
    “Well, aren’t you going to activate it?” Maddie asked.
    “Here’s goes,” I said, reaching out to the slide on the corner of the cube.
    The jet black facets should have lit up, showing the face of the communicant. As we stared, however, the cube’s planes remained blank. Seconds later a voice spoke.
    “David…It’s Sally. I’m sorry to communicate like this, at such short notice. But I’m coming to Chalcedony and I was hoping we might be able to meet up. We…” there was a long hesitation, and I was aware of the silence around the table, “we really need to talk. I’ll be coming to Magenta Bay on the twentieth. I’ll be in touch when I arrive. I’ll see you then.”
    A brief silence, then the message began again. I reached out quickly and turned it off, then sat back and let out a long breath. “Well,” I said, smiling across at Hannah, “if she thinks she can just announce her arrival like that—”
    Hannah interrupted, “You’ve got to see her, David. You can’t let her come all this way without…”
    “I don’t want to see her, Hannah. Despite what she said, we have nothing to talk about. We got all that out of the way years ago, before I left Earth. It’s presumptuous of her to think she can just…” I gestured.
    The twentieth was the day after tomorrow, Monday. Ideally I would have needed weeks to prepare, mentally, for the encounter.
    Matt said, “She clearly wants to see you about something, David. It can’t do any harm, surely?”
    I sat and thought about it for a long time. At last I said, “I don’t really want to be reminded of…of what happened back then.”
    Matt leaned forward. “But you came to terms with that years ago.” He smiled. “You have nothing to fear.”
    “You’re right. It’s just…” I gestured futilely. “It’s just that I have everything I want here. Life is damned near perfect, and the thought of her intruding…”
    Maddie reached across the table and took my hand. “See her. Exorcise her ghost. Then she can bugger off back to Earth and leave you in peace.”
    I could always trust Maddie to speak