The Chronicles of Ki
Book 1: In The Beginning
© Copyright 2024 Frank Walters Clark ~ All Rights Reserved
JimKas jerks awake, realizing he has nodded off at his work floatable. Thinking that it is time to take a break from his calculations and maybe get outside for some fresh air.
The lab’s overhead lights have been dimmed, and his desk lamp is the only bright spot among the shadows. All his staff members have gone home for the night—except for one.
Second Astro Vey sits in the soft glow of her compudata at the other end of the lab, entering data intermittently andstaring at the screen. She drinks from a cup of coffee at her elbow and immediately spits the cold liquid back in the cup.
“It is very late, Vey. Why have you not gone home?”
“Because you have not, leader.”
Standing at her side, Kas puts his hand on her shoulder, wanting to be of comfort yet implicitly fearing mistaken intent. She is twenty-six sars, much too young for his forty- one, and fraternizing is frowned on by the higher-ups.
She looks up at him smiling, then gently lays her hand over his, soft and warm. In a moment whisking away his unease and sweeping in an invitation.
” I am tired, Vey. Can we at least get some air?”
At mountainous heights on the balcony just outside the lab they stand side-by-side, silently gazing at cool night skies. Ashared wonder draws them closer, weaving tendrils of delight around them, in awe of the stars and planets, of the mystery ofAbwoon’s grace-filled creations.
Vey touches his hand, whether by accident or on purpose Kas cares not. A sensation passes between them, a spark. An unseen force older than the universe, and Kas feels it caress his heart.
The early light of Apsu is beginning to arc the horizon with creamy bands of yellow and orange. The birds sing, welcoming the prospects of a new day.
Both are tired and long for the replenishment of sleep. Each in their own fashion though, longs for something else in their lives.
“Would you… take breakfast with me, Vey?
Discuss Ki’s polar ice shelf or something like that? Make it official instead of…”
Vey smiles knowingly and tiptoes into a less rigid relationship.
“Instead of what… Kas?”
He is embarrassed, and Vey touches his arm then turns away, walking to the balcony door, half-turning back, eyes aglow.
“I know an interesting little cafe a few kilometers from here, in Havt. Good food, excellent coffee. Not very crowded—suitable for ‘instead ofs,’ Kas.'”
In the booth behind them, a portly man and his equally portly wife sit eating pancakes and syrup with a huge side order of bacon, while discussing the high price of groceries with full mouths. Arguing which markets have the best produce at the lowest prices, generally making a nuisance of themselves in loud voices.
Vey sits across from Kas in the booth sipping at hot coffee, then holding the cup in front of her mouth, trying not to laugh out loud. He merely grins: Local entertainment, free of charge.
Between them, attached to the booth’s partition is an old-fashioned—ancient—music box. Shiny punch-button keys, worn dull with use, and a scratched, clear-plastic shell covering a rotary assemblage of disks.
The song list is displayed on a horizontal grid at the bottom of the clear window. The current selection, “I Could NotA Curse Give,” whines from the box’s interior sound system.
“When you said interesting, Vey, you were not joking, were you.”
She laughs, eyes down on the floatable, studying the e-menu selections arrayed across its glassy top. Legs crossed, sheis gently, rhythmically bumping his shin with her toe.
Kas keeps his fingers close to hers, brushing against them on occasion, touching them. He feels faint tingles passbetween them each time.
“Can’t say I did not warn you.”
His face full of laughter, Kas tilts his head and looks at her cross-eyed.
“You did not say, however, that entertainment was included!”
Kas dissolves in laughter and Vey grabs his hand and holds it, unabashedly laughing with him and at his antic.”
She is so lovely, he thinks. Strawberry hair, green eyes…
The chance to turn around and go back the other way has now past. If anything is to come of this, he thinks, it will haveto be in secret, away from prying eyes, away from the lab.
“What are you going to have Kas? Lots of good choices featured on the menu. Potatoes picked daily. Fresh ground spicenut butter.”
“What I want is not on the menu, Vey. I am thinking I will have you.”
No turning back.