Pandora: Liminal Space Book 2

Chapter Thirty-One

The private observation deck was busy with people, all of them key players among the new colonists. Jezria was there, with Stephen beside her. The captain of the ship was there as well, and standing beside him was a familiar petulant face: Tamara. He had a hand on her shoulder, and the resemblance between the two of them was strong enough that Garrett was sure she was his daughter.

No wonder she knew so much about ships. And no wonder Jonah's threat of telling her dad was so potent. Next to Jezria, Captain Carson was the most influential person on this expedition. He certainly wouldn't like hearing that his kid was breaking in to other people's ships.

Garrett looked around for Jonah, but he didn't see his broad shoulders and sandy brown hair standing out in the crowd. After a moment of searching, he felt a tug on his hand. Garrett looked down and saw Cody standing next to him, holding onto his sleeve for all he was worth. "Hey, Cody."

"Hi," the boy said quietly, then held out his arms. Garrett had seen him do this with Jonah and knew that it meant pick me up. He complied, a little surprised at how light the child was. Cody wrapped his arms around tightly Garrett's neck, almost choking him.

"Hey, now." Garrett gently pulled until the stranglehold relaxed a little. "Where's your dad?"

"He was here, but he had to go help do something with the controls and he told me to stay in my chair until he got back, but I wanted to look around and then I got lost until I saw you." His big brown eyes, the same eyes as his father, gazed happily at Garrett, as though the child was actually comforted by his presence. Which was somewhere between funny and ludicrous to Garrett's mind, but he wasn't about to complain.

"Want to go look at the planet?" Garrett asked.

"I wanted to before, but I couldn't see as high as the windows."

"I'll keep holding you up."

"'kay," Cody said, and Garrett maneuvered them through the crowd and over to the observation part of the deck as smoothly as he could. He nodded to Jezria and ignored Martina's glare on the way, and then they were at the windows, and the perfect, cloud-covered sphere that was Pandora was clearly visible against the black background of space.

"It's very small," Cody said disappointedly.

"We're still pretty far away. It'll get bigger fast," Garrett promised him.

"As big as Olympus?"

"Pandora is about as big as Olympus," he agreed.

"As big as Earth?"

"Pretty close," Garrett said. "I think it's a little smaller than Earth."

"Why don't we all still live there?"

"Because there are too many of us for one planet," Garrett told Cody, picking the easiest answer. "There are too many of us for a dozen planets. That's why we keep having to find new ones."

"I'd like to have my very own planet," Cody said dreamily. "If I had a planet, I'd name it Kiko."

"After the monkey?"

"Yeah. And it would be red and there would be lot of fun animals, and Daddy and you could live there with me and all my friends, and Daddy would be happy there."

"Isn't he happy here?"

"No." That was all Cody would say, and the two of them watched in silence for a while as Pandora loomed larger and larger. Shades of purple and violet began to mix with the navy blue, and teal and satiny gray as well. It was beautiful, at this distance.

"It's stormy down there," Jonah commented from over their shoulders. Garrett whirled around and Cody reached out happily towards his father, who took him with a kiss. "The landing's gonna be a little rough. We should strap in for it." He pointed towards the seats, which were already filling with people. The official announcement that they were preparing to land came over the intercom a moment later, and Captain Carson left the room after sitting his daughter down in a chair. There were three empty seats next to her, and Garrett took the one beside her while Jonah occupied himself with getting Cody strapped in.

Tamara looked at him and flushed, but didn't say anything. Her lips were pursed in a tight line, and she was trembling slightly, like she was about to break down into tears.

Garrett didn't say anything to draw attention to her, something she clearly didn't want. Instead he sat down and fastened himself in silently, letting his arm brush hers but carefully not looking at her. She didn't move away, but she didn't look up either.

Pandora filled the observation deck, the slow-swirling clouds getting closer and closer. Familiar small fingers tightened over Garrett's own, and they all watched in silence as the Neptune began to enter the atmosphere. The ride became bumpy, the inertial dampeners working overtime to control the shock of their descent. The ship plunged through a thick layer of white, which got darker and grayer by the moment, and after a seemingly-eternal instant they emerged into a dark, rain-soaked sky. Garrett glanced over at Cody and saw that his eyes were squeezed shut again; he stroked the child's hand reassuringly.

The faint lights of Pandora City swam into sight, and the pilot expertly maneuvered the Neptune into position to dock. The environmental shields retracted to let the massive colony ship in, and after a surprisingly brief amount of time, they were on the ground. The captain gave the go-ahead to move around again and the observation deck erupted into excited chatter, people freeing themselves and milling around and hurrying to get a spot in line to leave the ship.

Most people wouldn't be leaving the ship yet,actually; in fact no one would be living off of the ship until the permanenthousing was built, which would take at least four months, but Jezria and thecaptain and a few other people were going to greet Pandora's stay-at-homecolonists tonight, and everyone wanted to be there. Almost everyone.

After Garrett got up he glanced over at Tamara. He was shocked to see hercrying, and struggling angrily with the latch on one of her shoulder straps.Moving quickly, he unfastened the strap and helped her to her feet. She glaredat him, shoving white-blond hair out of her eyes, but her heart wasn't reallyin it.

"Are you all right?" he asked quietly.

"Do I look all right, you stupid doll?" she muttered at him. "I'm fine,just leave me alone." She turned and walked quickly out of the room, almoststumbling on the step at the door before making it out.

Garrett considered going after her, but she seemed to want some privacy, andsuddenly Cody was up and chattering in an excited voice, running over to thewindow and tracing the trails of raindrops with his fingertips, leaving smudgymarks behind.

"Thanks for takin' care of him," Jonah said softly as he watched his son.

"He actually found me, just after I arrived here," Garrett demurred.

"So he said. Didn't want t'leave him alone, but they needed a hand in control."The two men stared silently out into the darkness for a moment, a thicker,richer darkness than anything they saw in space.

"So this is Pandora," Jonah commented awkwardly after a moment.

"This is indeed Pandora. Lovely, wet, cold, stormy Pandora. Welcome home,"Garrett added, a trifle sarcastically. "I hope you find what you want here."

"What I want..." The sudden desire in Jonah's voice was almost palpable. Hecaught Garrett's eyes, and the look that passed between them was so shockinglyheated that Garrett felt himself respond almost instantly. Jonah's pupils wereblown wide open, his nostrils were flared and his mouth was firmly compressedover what seemed like rapid breaths. Garrett swayed towards him, like a mothcaptured by a fickle flame, but before they could make contact Cody was runningback over to them. Jonah shuddered and broke their gaze to look down at hisson. "What is it, bucko?"

"Can Garrett come to dinner tonight?" the little boy begged. "'Cause it's aspecial night?"

Jonah hesitated for a long moment, and then surprised both of them when hesaid, "Sure."

"Really?" Garrett couldn't help asking.

"Yeah, really," Jonah said, smiling at his incredulous look. "It is a specialnight and all. Gotta celebrate it somehow. If you want to, that is."

"Well." Garrett insinuated himself closer and grinned with pleasure as hewatched Jonah's eyes widen with lust again. "Then I guess I can come todinner...since it's a special night." It could be a very special night, hethought to himself. He just had to keep himself from blowing it.