Chapter 74 Chapter VII

"Damn it, Meren, fasten that rope, or it'll throw you overboard. Come on!" I started hastily.Wet rope is difficult to coil, let alone tie a knot.Xi Li shook her head, as if she couldn't see it, she bent down and tied a knot with one hand. This is our sixth reunion.I missed her birthday by a full three months, but there were more than 5,000 people attending her birthday celebration that day.Global's chief executive gave her a forty-minute speech.A poet read his latest poem, the Sonnets of Love.The Ambassador of the Overlord presented her with a volume of documents and a new ship, a small submarine powered by nuclear fusion. This was the first time that Maui allowed and appeared a nuclear fusion engine.

Shirley had eighteen other ships.Twelve of them were organized into a fast long raft fleet, which regularly traveled between the drifting archipelago and the main island for trade.Two of them are beautiful racing boats that compete in two races a year, the Discovery Regatta and the Deed Memorial.The other four rafts were old fishing boats, ugly and clumsy, well maintained, but still looking like square barges. Sealy had nineteen boats, but we chose a fishing boat—the Kenny Paul.For the past seven days we've been fishing the continental shelf in shallow equatorial waters; just the two of us, casting and closing nets, wading through knee-deep water, past fishy fish and squeaky trilobites, in the Rolling on the top of the wave, throwing and collecting the net, keeping watch, and then sneaking in like a tired child to catch up on sleep.I was not yet twenty-three years old.I feel like I'm used to the heavy labor on the USS Los Angeles, and I'm used to exercising for an hour every two shifts in the pod at 1.3 times gravity, but now, my arms and back are sore from overuse , and his hands were worn out except for calluses and blisters.Shirley had just turned seventy.

"Meiren, go ahead and furl up the fore-sail. And the jib, go down and see if the sandwiches are ready when you're done. I want some more mustard." I nodded and walked forward.For a whole day and a half we have been playing hide and seek with the storm: sailing desperately before it comes, turning corners, but also having to accept its punishment when we can't avoid it.We were very excited about it at first, and it was kind of a break from the endless casting and closing of the net.But once the first few hours pass, the adrenaline rush wears off, and all we're left with is overwhelming nausea, fatigue, and extreme sleepiness.The sea is not merciful.The waves continue to grow until they are six meters high and beyond.So the "Guinea Paul" rolled in the waves, like a lady with a big ass twisting her ass.Everything is wet.My skin wasn't spared despite wearing three layers of rain gear.But for Siri it was a long-awaited vacation.

“It’s nothing,” she said, as the darkest hours of the night lapped the deck, splashing across the battered plastic of the cockpit. "You should come see it when the Simon winds blow." The clouds were still low, blending in with the gray ocean beyond, but the waves were much calmer, no more than five feet high.I sprinkled mustard on a roast beef sandwich and poured steaming coffee into thick white mugs.Walking around with the coffee in zero gravity is less likely to spill it, but it's more likely to float up the ascending shaft of the escalator.Shirley took her cup, which had been spilled on the way, and she didn't say a word about it.We sat quietly for a while, enjoying the food and the warmth of our hot tongues.Shirley went down again to refill our glasses while I took the helm.The light in the blue-gray sky was so dim that it was completely unknown when it suddenly fell into the night.

"Merun," she said, handing me the cup and sitting on the cushions that surround the cockpit bench, "what happens when they turn on the teletransmitter?" I was taken aback by this question.We've never talked before about when Maui will join the Hegemony.I glanced at Siri, and suddenly I was struck by how old she was.Her face was full of folds and shadows.Her beautiful green eyes had sunk into dark wells, and her cheekbones were like blades piercing through brittle parchment.Now she has gray hair short and clumps like nails when wet.Blue discs protruded from her neck and wrists like lint emerging from a shapeless sweater.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "What happens when they turn on the teleporter?" "You know what the council says, Siri," I said aloud, because she was hard of hearing in one ear. "It will usher in a new era of trade and technology in Maui. You will no longer be confined to a small planet. When you become citizens, each will be granted the right to use teleportation gates .” "Got it," Shirley said.Her voice sounded weary. "I've heard it all, Merren. But what's going to happen? Who will be the first to come to us through the teleporter?"

I shrugged. "More diplomat, I think. Cultural engagement specialist. Anthropologist. Ethicist. Marine biologist." "and then?" I paused.It was already dark outside.The ocean is almost completely calm.Our sidelights glow red and green in the dark.I was feeling anxious again, just as I had been two days earlier when the wall of the storm loomed on the horizon. I said, "Then there'll be missionaries. Petroleum geologists. Marine ranchers. Developers." Hillary sipped her coffee. "I thought that the status of your hegemony is far above the oil economy."

I laughed and fixed the helm. "No one is going to climb higher than the oil economy. At least not as long as there is oil. Of course not all of it is used as fuel, maybe you will understand it. It is in plastic manufacturing, synthetic chemicals, food raw materials and carbon. Black industry and other aspects are necessary raw materials. 200 billion people use a lot of plastic.” "And Maui has oil?" "Oh yeah," I said.But I couldn't laugh at all, "The reserves in the equatorial shallow sea alone are hundreds of millions in barrels." "How will they mine it, Merren? Will they build offshore platforms?"

"Yes. Platform. Subsea oil well. Establish subsea colonies, equipped with specially trained workers imported from the Infinitus Sea." "What about those mobile islands?" Sealy asked. "They have to migrate back to the shallow equatorial waters every year to replenish the cyanobacteria and reproduce. What will happen to these small islands?" I shrug again.I've had too much coffee and now my mouth is full of bitterness. "I don't know," I said, "they didn't tell the crew much. But Mike had heard, on our first trip, that they planned to develop as much of the island as possible in order to preserve the rest."

"Development?" Heely's voice showed surprise for the first time, "How do they develop the island? Even if the first family wants to build a tree house there for leisure, they must obtain the consent of the sea people." I laughed that Shirley used the local term for a dolphin.The colonists of Maui become childish when it comes to those damned dolphins. "Plans are all set," I said, "128,573 mobile islands large enough to build houses on. Their leases are already on the market. Smaller islands may be subdivided, I think. Main archipelago It will be developed as an entertainment destination."

"The Amusement Park," Sealy repeated, "how many people will teleport here from Overlord...to this Amusement Park?" "You mean at the very beginning?" I asked, "there will only be tens of thousands in the first year. As long as the only portal is built on Island 241...that is, the trade center...the number of people will be limited. By the second After the portal is also established at the first station in two years, there may be 50,000. That will be quite a luxury journey. After a seed colony is opened to the ring network for the first time, this is generally the case.” "and then?" "After the five-year probationary period? Thousands of doors will be erected, of course. I imagine twenty or thirty million new residents will teleport in during the first year that the Overlord is granted full citizenship." "Twenty or thirty million," Hillary said.The light from the compass stand below illuminated her wrinkled face.She is still beautiful.There was neither anger nor shock on his face.I thought she would come with both emotions. "But then you'll be a citizen yourself," I said, "with freedom to go anywhere on the World Wide Web. There will be sixteen new planets to choose from. There may be more in time." "Yeah," Siri said, setting her empty baby aside.The drizzle streaked the glass walls around us.A rough radar display embedded in a hand-carved frame showed the sea was empty and the storm had passed. "Is it true, Meirun, that the Overlord's inhabitants have homes on many planets? I mean, a house with different windows facing different skies?" "Of course," I said, "but there aren't many people like that. Only the rich can afford a multi-star mansion like that." Siri smiled and put her hands on my knees.The backs of her hands were full of spots, and the veins were bulging. "But you're rich, aren't you, crew?" I turned my head away. "No, I don't count." "Ah, but that day will come soon, Merren, soon. How long will it be for you, dear? You will be returning to your overlord planet in less than two weeks here. It takes you five more months to bring the final parts back, and a few more weeks to get everything in place, and then you're a rich man, teleporting home. Traveling home through the void of two hundred light years .What a bizarre thought...but where would I be? How long? Not even a standard year." "Ten months," I said, "three hundred and six standard days. Three hundred and fourteen days for you. Nine hundred and eight shifts." "Then your exile is over." "yes." "Then you'll be twenty-four and a rich man." "yes." "I'm tired, Meiren. I want to sleep now." We set the tiller, set the mag alarm and went down deck.The wind was blowing slightly again, and the old ship rocked from crest to trough of every swell.We undress in the flickering light.I climbed into the bed first and covered myself with the quilt.This was the first time Shirley and I slept together, and no one was left on duty.I remembered her shyness at the villa the last time we saw each other, and I thought she was going to put out the lights.But she stood for a minute, naked in the cold air, her thin arms hanging peacefully by her side. Time had reached out its mighty hand to Siri, but it had not destroyed her.Gravity has taken its inevitable toll on her breasts and hips, and she's getting thinner and thinner.I gazed at the outline of her bony ribs and sternum, and thought of her at sixteen, with the plumpness of a baby and the warm velvet of her skin.In the flickering cold light, I looked at Ciri's sagging skin and thought of her bud-like breasts in the moonlight.Somehow, strangely, indescribably, standing in front of me was the same Siri I remembered. "Move away, Mei Run." She retracted into the bed next to me.The sheets were cold against the body, and the rough blanket was fine.I turned off the light.The boat swayed rhythmically with the breath of the ocean.I heard a pitiful creak of masts and rigging.In the morning we will continue to cast and collect the net and mend the net, but now there is plenty of time to sleep.I gradually dozed off to the sound of waves lapping on wood. "Meirun?" "What's wrong?" "What if Separatists attack Overlord visitors or new residents?" "I thought the separatists would all be taken to the island." "They've been taken there. But what if they resist?" "The overlord will send the army of the military to beat the crap out of the separatists." "What if even the teleporter is hacked... and destroyed before it can be activated?" "impossible." "Yes, I know, but what if that's the case?" "Then nine months later, the 'Los Angeles' will come along with the overlord's army, and blast the separatists into ashes...and wipe out all those who dare to stand in the way on Maui." "Nine months on board," Sealy said, "is eleven years for us." "It's unavoidable anyway," I said. "Let's talk about something else." "Okay," Siri said, but neither of us spoke again.I listen to the creak and sigh of the ship.Siri snuggled up in my arms.Her head was resting on my shoulder, her breathing was so deep and rhythmic that I thought she must be asleep.When I was about to fall asleep, her warm hands slid on my legs and hugged me gently.I was startled for a moment, and the thing began to move and stiffen.Siri whispered the answer to the question I didn't ask. "No, Mei Run, a person can never really grow old. At least not so old that he doesn't want warmth and affection. You decide, dear. I won't be dissatisfied anyway." I made a decision.Towards dawn, we fell asleep.