He let go of her breasts so that she could sit up straight. For a few seconds, she sat in his lap with her back to him, regaining her self-composure. Then, she gently slipped him out of her, stood up and gazed at the sea, blocking his view of the distant horizon. She detected a movement in the corner of her eye laughing for joy inside when she realized who it was.
The seal was basking on the shoreline further along the beach with her baby pup. Rose decided to keep them a secret. She was good at keeping secrets these days. Decided not to tell him. Their sex had been so sensational, spontaneous, impassioned, all-consuming. She’d let him have sex with her in relentless bouts, ten times in as many days. For good reason. Today would be their last day together on Earth before they entered their separate hibernations. They might not see each other again: the condemned couple engaged in a secret tryst who no-one would ever meet.
She went and lay beside him on the towel where she could stroke his chest, kiss his neck, gaze into those big brown eyes. He held her warm body close to his, never wanting to let her go. He loved her dearly. Life without her was inconceivable. He was busy praying that she survived when he heard her softly spoken voice questioning him,
‘Tiernan?’
He closed his eyes, enjoying the light brush of her lips against his bristled chin, ‘Mm?’
‘If I die in hibernation.’
‘You’re not going to die.’
She persisted, ‘If I die in hibernation, promise to try to save my baby for me.’
Tiernan stiffened, ‘Baby? What baby? Thought you said you were taking the female pill?’
‘So, I was lying!’ she shrieked, ‘You told me you were taking the male contraceptive!’
‘I never did!’
She kissed-him-some-more, ‘Oh yes you did!
He brushed the damp hair off her face, ‘Oh no I didn’t!’
‘Admit it, you lied to me,’ she lectured, accusingly, grinning ear-to-ear, ‘You want a baby as much as I do. I actually think you’d make a great father,’ her teak eyes lit like burning caramels, ‘Imagine the two of us on a new-born bringing up our own little child.’
‘Our own half-cast child,’ he corrected, sombrely, ‘Our own half-black, half-white baby.’
She scratched his chest, making him squirm, ‘But that’s the wonder of it, can’t you see? Our baby will be the first truly equal child to be born in the solar system, first of many.’
‘How?’
‘What do you mean, how?’
‘How can our child be the first of many?’ thundered Tiernan, ‘When Control, bless her, deemed it appropriate to only send one black man and one white woman into space. Who will he, she breed with? What kind of loneliness will he, she suffer after we’ve both died?’
For once Rose was lost for words. She lay quite still, crying onto his shoulder, weeping.
‘Please, Tiernan,’ she begged, ‘If I don’t survive, try to save my baby.’
‘How am I meant to save it?’
‘Claire will show you how.’
‘You mean cut you open like a Caesarean, don’t you? I can’t do that to you, Rose. Can’t hurt you,’ he choked inside, tears welling in his eyes, ‘I love you too much to hurt you.’
‘But I’ll be dead? Do it for me because you love me.’
She snuggled up to him, shutting her brown eyes, shutting out their doubt. The unexpected communique from Control that morning had shocked her to the core:
Communique
Status: Ultra Confidential
ROSE: Beauvoir at AI confirmed: Claire can express feelings. There is a remote possibility that she might experience higher cognitive emotional discrepancies which could result in malfunction. Mission abort at this stage is not an option. Media and political reaction alone would be enough to stimulate widespread civil unrest, rioting, violence, by those humans left without hope. Sorry for this, Rose. I wish you every success with the mission. CONTROL. 12:59, 24.09.50.
They fell asleep, their minds torn apart: tiny shreds of deceit, stark uncertainties, between their dreams of love, rebirth, new birth, on an alien planet – and total isolation, loneliness beyond comprehension.
