Swallow the Sky: A Space Opera Read Free

forehead. He could imagine how
much pleasure the locals got from visitors’ discomfort.
    “But you’ll be alright,
you’ve already got a suit.”
    He frowned before
understanding what she meant.
    “You mean this?” He waved
the backs of his hands. As opposed to everyone else’s golden hue his skin was a
deep brown.
    “That’s the result of
accelerated melanogenesis. My last planet-fall was Procyon c; the local sun
pumps out freakishly high levels of UV light so you’d fry if you didn’t boost
your skin’s defenses.”
    “I did wonder – I’d
never seen a birthday suit cover anyone’s face before. You could start a new
fashion.”
    She grinned at him.
    “Can you imagine how it
must have been on Old Earth when people were naturally different colors? How
wonderful!”
    “What color would you
have been?” he asked, finally getting into the game.
    “Oh, I’d be a scarlet
woman!”
    They laughed and lapsed
into an agreeable silence.
    The woman’s eyes
softened. “It’s so sad; all the survivors had to interbreed just to maintain
the gene pool. We lost so much of our past on Earth.”
    She could not have known
it, but she had touched Carson’s soul.
    Oh, what the hell.
    “My name’s Carson” he
said
    “Aiyana, of clan Aniko”
she replied, and to his delight held up her right hand, palm forward. He copied
her gesture and they touched lightly. His skin tingled as they exchanged cards.
In the tradition of Commonwealth societies they both paused, eyes half closed,
and examined each other’s data.
    Much of the information
that scrolled across his retinas was incomprehensible, a parade of unknown
places, institutions, and cultural mores. He did gather that Aiyana was a
mining engineer, living and working on a large asteroid named Eugenia. There
was no mention of personal ties, unsurprising in a business card. He wondered
if she was making any more sense of him.
    “Oh my God you’re a
mailman!” she cried, shouting so loud other passengers turned round to stare.
    “It had to be something
glamorous with that birthday suit. I knew you weren’t just another wretched
tourist!
    Aiyana leaned forward and
dropped her voice to a whisper.
    “Anyhow, no one with any
sense comes this time of year – the coral beds are closed for the Cetacean
mating season.”
    Her eyes brightened “Are
you delivering the mail right now?”
    He nodded, smiling.
    She clapped her hands.
“Do you have the final episode of Exodus? Everyone’s dying to see it.”
    “I’m sorry, Exodus?”
    “Oh, you know, the New
Earth drama about the first colonies.”
    “I’m afraid I don’t know;
I never have any idea what I’m carrying.”
    She titled her head and
contemplated him, eyes slit with mock cunning. “Maybe I should steal it from
you and corner the market.”
    “Good luck with the
decryption” he laughed.
    At that moment the
shuttle, which had been working in silence, decided to announce the final
descent to Kaimana.
    “I love this part” Aiyana
said. “Of course, it’s really just for the tourists.”
    The shuttle spoke up
again. “To enhance your arrival this vessel will now use state-of-the-art
sensoria to render the vertical portion of our descent free of atmospheric
interference. What you will see is not an artificial creation but the actual
view as it would be perceived through clear air.
    “Honored passengers”
declared the craft, its voice rising to a shout as music filled the cabin
“welcome to Kaimana!”
    With its last words the
walls of the shuttle vanished and Carson found himself hovering in space above
an azure sea. Below his feet was the ragged outline of the planet’s sole
landmass, a volcanic island nestling a silvery lake in its crater. His stomach told
him that they were dropping rapidly.
    Aiyana was suspended
besides him, her smiling face illuminated by the planet below. Further away he
could see the other passengers and their luggage, all apparently floating in
the void.
    “Pretty impressive”