Voyagers II - The Alien Within (39 page)

Jo nodded gravely. “While you were frozen.”

He lay there for a moment, head resting on his fist. Jo seemed perfectly calm, glad she had told him the truth and totally unrepentant.

Stoner broke into a low chuckle. “I should have guessed.” He flopped down onto his pillow and laughed. “Of course! That’s exactly what you’d do.”

“I wouldn’t bear his child,” Jo said. “I wouldn’t allow anyone else to bear his child.”

“But you’d have mine.”

“I
want
yours!”

“I’m glad you do.” He tried to be serious, failed, laughed again.

“I don’t see what’s so funny about it,” Jo complained.

“It’s the difference between men and women,” he said. “Men see sex as a goal. Getting laid is what they want, and that’s it. Women see sex as a
means
to some other goal: usually it’s having children.”

“That’s not true.”

“Isn’t it?”

“No.”

“Then why did you take the risk of crossing Nillson to substitute my sperm for his?”

“Because I wanted to,” Jo said with great finality, as though dismissing the subject.

Stoner tried a slightly different tack. “Look at An Linh. When you thought she was trying to invade your territory, you were determined to get rid of her.”

“That’s natural enough.”

“Of course it is. And although she was willing to use sex as a means of attracting Nillson’s attention, she really was in love with Baker.”

“I don’t understand what she sees in him.”

“The same thing you see in me, Jo,” he answered. “A father for the children she’s going to create.”

Jo frowned but said nothing.

“When she thought Baker was dead, she turned her sights on me. Nothing calculated about it. Nothing devious or Machiavellian. She was just seeking a father for the babies inside her, the same way the female of any species seeks out a mate.”

Jo’s frown deepened. “Is that what the alien’s taught you? That human women are nothing more than baby machines?”

His grin returned.

“If that’s what you think,” Jo said, “then you men are nothing more than brainless sperm carriers.”

He moved over toward her. “Oh, you’re a lot more than a baby machine, Jo. Human beings are much more complex than that. But making babies is fundamental. It’s more important than anything else we do.”

She smiled up at him and twined her arms around his neck. “I thought you just wanted to get laid.”

“Of course I do. That’s all men want, didn’t you know that?”

“Like nightingales singing or bullfrogs croaking,” Jo said, teasing him. “That’s what you told me, remember?”

“That’s right. Everything men do, from graffiti on cave walls to exploring new worlds in space—it’s all done to attract women.”

“Okay, so you’ve got my attention.”

He laughed and took her in his arms once more.

Later, as they lay in each other’s arms, flesh against warm flesh in the shadows of the darkened bedroom, Jo teased, “I’ll keep the frozen eggs as a backup.”

“Do you think we’ll need them?”

“Hardly.”

He gazed up at the blue-and-white globe in the hologram projection. “It’s a good world, Jo. Well worth saving.”

But she reached toward the headboard and turned a dial. The picture shifted. The Earth slid away to reveal a field of stars glittering in the infinite expanse of the universe.

“I wonder which star he came from,” Jo whispered in the darkness.

“You can’t see it in this view,” Stoner said.

She turned her head sharply. “You mean you know?”

“Yes. Of course.”

“Is it close to us?…I mean…”

He laughed. “It’s more than ten thousand light-years away.”

Jo looked back at the stars, pinpoints of light against the blackness.

“To think he came all that way. All that time.”

Stoner felt himself smiling inwardly. Distance means nothing. Time means nothing. The universe is vast, but it can be spanned by intelligence.

“And he just stumbled blindly here,” Jo murmured. “Just happened to find Earth, out of all the billions of worlds….”

“Not blindly,” Stoner said. It was such a low whisper that she almost missed it.

“What did you say?”

“It wasn’t blind chance that brought the starship to Earth.”

Even in the darkness he could sense the thrill of excitement that raced through her. “But you said…I mean, when Ev asked you if the alien had brought a message, you told him…”

He smiled gently at her. “Do you think I’d trust a madman with the message from the stars?”

“You mean there
is
a message?”

“Of course.”

“What is it?” Jo’s voice was high with anticipation.

Stoner saw the world that his brother had left behind, the beauty and harmony of it.

“It’s a very simple message, Jo. So simple that someone like Nillson or Madigan would never have believed it.”

“Tell me!”

He smiled and kissed her and said, “The message is this: We are not alone. There are other intelligences among the stars, but they are very far apart, spread very thinly. The universe welcomes us, Jo. We can spread through a million star systems, if we want to. If we don’t destroy ourselves here on Earth.”

“The universe welcomes us,” she whispered back.

He nodded. “How would you like to find the world where my brother came from?”

He could barely make out the features of her face, but he heard her breath catch.

“Could we?” Jo gasped. “I mean, do you think…?”

“I know the way there, Jo. We’ve got a lifetime of work to accomplish here on Earth first, but we’ve also got several lifetimes after that, ahead of us.”

“I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid,” Jo said.

Smiling, Stoner replied, “You will be. We’ll sail out to the stars together, Jo. The universe welcomes us.”

She was trembling with joy.

“When?” she asked. “How soon can we…”

Stoner took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “There’s so much to do here on Earth first, Jo. It won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick.”

“But someday?…”

“Yes,” he said. “Someday we’ll seek out my brother’s homeworld and meet his people.”

“Someday,” she whispered, like a promise to herself.

Stoner nodded. “We’ll do it together, Jo. But for now—I think I can use a little nap.”

And for the first time since his reawakening, he closed his eyes in sleep.