Signs of Interest 11
Dinner with Dane
@J Hontz and S Pickrel 2009 - all rights reserved
Goldie smoothed the silk of her dress over
her hips and stared at herself in the mirror. People couldn't see the fear
there, she hoped. She looked quite normal, the usual ditzy blonde avant-guarde
artist whose reputation was safely set in the
fun-to-tease-but-not-to-take-home-to-family category. She'd found it useful for
a lot of years. Because if she didn't have to meet some guy's family, she didn't
have to introduce him to her father. Not that she was ashamed of her father,
precisely, it was just that it took a lot of explaining, explaining she wasn't
happy about doing.
She'd have preferred Justine had never met
her father, but they'd been too close in college for her to keep him a secret
for long, and Justine had always been good at worming secrets out of her. Not
that she ever had a reason to regret it. Justine even treated her father with
kindness, which made Goldie love her all the more.
Justine's brother Dane, too, had always been
a friend. He'd never asked awkward questions, never poked his nose in things
better left alone. He'd come to visit Justine and encouraged including Goldie in
most of their outings and visits. Goldie had been reluctant at first, but once
she'd realized that Dane was every bit as kind-hearted as Justine, it had gotten
easier, even if it made her heart ache to think about the brother she wished
she'd had.
Well, it was silly to wish for things that
couldn't be. And, quite frankly, things had gotten so weird in her life she was
having enough difficulty dealing with the things that could be, or might be, or
even were, to worry about what might have been.
Justine, suddenly bonded to a guy who was
from someplace else, was sobering. But seeing the look on her face whenever her
eye fell on Luc, and in turn seeing a glance Luc might aim at Justine, well,
again it was rather startling to consider.
As for Justin... she had been startled and
frightened to see that same look in his eyes when he thought she wasn't looking.
He was such a nice guy. And he made her heart flutter in a way it never had
before, and she ached to touch him, but... but... Okay, stop thinking about the
but. If she could just figure out what it was he expected to see in her...
She shook her head, ran a comb through her
hair, finished her make-up and walked out into the living room as Luc and
Justine arrived, both of them all dressed up and carrying an outfit for Justin.
Luc's eyes met Justin's as he handed his
partner and friend his outfit. Luc could easily imagine the torment Justin was
going through at present, but was conservative and conventional enough to think
Justin just really needed to kiss Goldie senseless and take her to bed. Which,
granted, was pretty much what Justine had done to him. Sort of.
Justin grunted. "Let's pretend we're girls
and you can help me tie my tie," he said to Luc, walking past him with an
exaggerated roll of his hips, in a parody of a vaudeville stripper.
Justine whistled. "Very nice. Wanna teach
me how?"
"Sorry, he's taken, and so are you," Luc
commented as he followed Justin into Goldie's bedroom. "How you holding up?" he
asked, once the two of them were alone.
"Not well," Justin admitted, stripping
efficiently. "Are you ready for her brother?"
Luc groaned and sank down to sit on the edge
of the dresser. "Justine is gonna ... she's upset but is hiding it. I'm hoping
her brother will ... I don't know, help her somehow or other to deal with their
separation. Otherwise, I guess I'm staying here."
"You've talked about it?" Justin asked.
"Not exactly. But I have broached the subject
about what we do now. I'm thinking we're in enough trouble with the Corps to put
off any kind of serious planning until we feel out how things lie at home. And
then there's you and Goldie."
Justin sat on the edge of the bed and pulled
on his socks. "How well do you know your history?"
"Enough to know who her brother is, and about
how his progeny affects our world. Not enough to know what happened to his
sister."
"Then you should know that that relationship
is the best protection you'll ever have." Justin finished tying his shoes and
looked up at Luc. "Without his progeny, as you dub them, the Corps is fucking
out of business."
"See, you're being all logical. I'm not sure
my family or the Corps can be logical. They'll see us as rebels and they're far
more interested in enforcing the status quo than they are in thinking."
"Fine, let them. And then Dane Calloway's
descendant, Dane Calloway the umpteenth whatever, will respond to the insult to
his aunt and there'll be a pissing contest the likes of which neither your House
nor the Corps can win." Justin grinned. "And we'll have ring side seats." He
shook his head. "You have no political deviousness at all do you?"
Luc shrugged, not taking it as an insult. "My
father claims my genes are somehow screwed up and I can't possibly be his son.
Hey, works for me." He paused, giving the idea some thought. "I'll need to see
how Justine will feel about that sort of manipulation not to mention expecting
her future relatives to risk quite a bit for me."
"You're serious, aren't you?" Justin didn't
hide his surprise. "You need to find a quiet nook somewhere and let daddy's
genes take over for a few minutes while you think about the implications of
this. And recall why you've got those scars. Besides you think your father
isn't going to see her as an asset? She's
the Dane
Calloway's sister, the other
Dane Calloway's great aunt. You know the terms of the Calloway trust."
Luc looked down at his shoes. "The idea my
father will see her as an asset is my worst nightmare made manifest. I don't
want to be like him, Justin, I don't want to let any dregs of the genes in me
turn me into one of them. And I'm afraid that if I go down that road, I'm lost
for good and will be just like them."
"You don't have it in you. I, however, do as
this conversation demonstrates. And the point of it is twofold. You have to
see the whole board. You're in this game now to stay, one way or another. The
other is what did we tell Dane Calloway the first and what did his sister tell
him that sent him off with what he needed to lay the theoretical foundations of
time and space travel? If anything?"
Luc frowned. "We had -or have - to tell him
something. There's no hint in the history that he mourned the loss of his
sister. If he thought she was dead or abducted or something, he'd have searched
for her, and fought the authorities to look for her. He's way too dedicated a
guy to just let it go. Ergo, we had to have told him she would be safe, even if
she was gone."
"Plus the Calloway Trust. All his work, all
that his grandson did, and everything related to it...ownership of all of it
belongs to the trust, controlled by the oldest living member of the Calloway
family. So I'd say Dane knew plenty."
"Well, see, that could be a problem. What if
Dane Calloway the umpteenth, who's got control now, doesn't want to give it up?"
Justin shrugged. "Then let the games begin.
You have her front and I've got her back. While the reasons for your scars are
ranged on both sides of her."
"Just staying here sounds better and better,"
Luc groaned. "I could get a job as a security guard at the college."
Justin blew a raspberry at him. "You'd be
bored to death."
"Well, my first priority is taking care of
Justine. You seem to think it all can be managed, but if it were Goldie... And
how much more complicated will it be if you do bond with her and take her back
with you too? Brrr," Luc commented. "But your family will have your back on
that. Then, if Justine and I do find a way to take advantage of the trust,
well... man will the four of us ever be targets." Luc shook his head. "I didn't
sign up to be a revolutionary, you know."
"No?" Justin queried, arching a mocking
brow. "Then I guess you just got drafted."
----------------
Dinner had gone well. Dane wasn't the sort to make his sister's life miserable
by cross-examining her lovers, and it was clear to him from the outset that
Justine was in love and amazingly enough so was Luc.
Goldie, on the other hand, seemed a bit less certain about Justin. There was
obviously attraction between them, but Goldie acted like she was afraid to touch
Justin, possibly because she was ready to haul him under the table and have her
way with him.
They adjourned to the bar for drinks after dinner and they all sat back a bit
more comfortably.
Luc, his arm around Justine's shoulders as she leaned back against him, asked,
"So you're a theoretical physicist, Dane, or are you something a bit more, uhm,
practical?"
Dane blinked. Nobody his sister introduced him to ever voluntarily asked about
his work. "Theoretical," he said, cautiously.
"Don't get him started," Justine warned, grinning at her brother.
"Astrophysics?" Luc asked. "Look, I know I'm just a cop, but I'm kind of
interested in this stuff, so tell me more."
"Cosmology. String theory, transversable Lorentzian wormholes." Dane laughed
at the expression on Justine's face. "I work on that so I can get paid for
daydreaming about space and time travel. Too many science fiction books."
"Oh, I don't know," Luc replied thoughtfully. "Who doesn't think about an
eleven dimensional space-time continuum. M-theory is pretty fascinating in and
of itself, but combined with the idea of wormholes and the possibilities they
promise..."
"Whoa," Goldie said, interrupting Luc's musings. "This is fairly creepy. A cop
who talks like Dane."
"We are not doing this," Justine said firmly.
"Superstring theory," Dane began musingly and then stopped short as Justine
punched his arm hard. "What?" he demanded, looking like he'd been pulled back
from the abyss.
Justine just glared at him. "You want to talk shop, make a date for lunch with
these guys."
"Oh, sorry, sweetheart," Luc said apologetically. "Just trying to get to know
the family."
"How about them Red Soxs?" Justin offered.
"Who?" Luc asked.
Goldie rolled her eyes, "So, Dane, dating anyone? Find some gorgeous grad
student you haven't frightened off?"
"Women aren't into physics," Dane said. "All my grad students are male and
speak English as a second language."
Goldie groaned. "I didn't say she'd have to be YOUR grad student. You need to
come to SCA events with me and your sister. Lots of busty gorgeous women like to
watch men play with swords."
"Yeah, swords," Justin said, winking at him.
Dane snorted.
"Justin handles a sword really well," Goldie replied a bit defensively. "We
can't all be physicists."
"I"m sure he does," Dane said, winking at her suggestively.
"Hey!" Goldie huffed.
Justin laughed and pulled her close. "He must be psychic."
"Yeah the psychic physicist," Justine quipped.
Luc laughed, "You know, there is reason to think that thoughts can cross space
and time. Who knows. Maybe Dane will create a whole new branch of physics." He
waved for more drinks.
Goldie, who'd tensed up at first when Justin had pulled her in close, relaxed
against his chest. She had to admit it felt good - safe. Right, almost, in a
weird sort of way.
"From everything I've read," Justin said carefully, "in terms of time travel,
accelerating the mouths of the wormhole creating a time dilation relative to its
location is the theoretical approach that makes the most sense. And it is the
approach most easily integrated with using the wormhole to traverse universes or
even just local distances. But what I wonder about is if time travel can happen
using a wormhole, then there would also be the possibility that superluminal
speeds can be attained within one as well. And if string theory is applied,
then the wormholes could be lengthened."
Dane opened his mouth and then frowned. "Yeah."
"Opening a lot more possibilities," Luc added, handing around drinks. "So, I
guess you'll wanna be there for the wedding, Dane?"
"Uhm, what? Whose wedding?" Dane said.
"Mine idiot," Justine said.
"Oh yeah, wouldn't miss it for anything," Dane said.
"Do I need to send you a copy of my resume?" Luc asked. "Hook you up with four
or five personal and professional references? I don't expect you to trust Justin
here. He's more friend than colleague."
Dane shook his head slightly. "I trust Justine's judgment. Superluminal travel
within an accerating mouth?"
"Yeah," Justin said with a grin. "The math's funky but there's a guy in
Russia..."
"I know who you mean," Dane said. "He solved the m-theory Legrange
equations...well, in a manner of speaking."
"Yeah, him," Luc added, sipping his drink and running a hand through Justine's
hair. "If you double check the math you'll see where he went wrong on the
superluminal stuff. Small error at the beginning which of course threw off the
final numbers big time."
Dane's face hardened. "And you got your Ph.D in math...where?"
"Sorry," Luc replied, looking it. "Child prodigy. Burned out young. I had this
thing for numbers. Ask Justin. Made everyone crazy with it."
Justin nodded on cue. "Frankly, he should have stayed in math. He's stodgy
enough."
Luc nodded ruefully. "Sorry, Justine. It's true. I'm a conservative through and
through."
"Not news," she said. Then she grinned. "But he can still sing Happy
Birthday."
"Hah!" Goldie chirped. "My cue!" She waved madly at a server who was peeking
around a corner. A cake appeared with sparklers lit on it, carried forward by
several servers. "Sparklers were my idea. I thought they looked more like
stars than boring old candles."
"And they're much harder to blow out," Justine pointed out.
"Nothing like family," Dane said as the cake was set down in front of him. He
bore the serenade stoically and then made a pass at the sparklers.
Goldie giggled when his attempt to blow them out fizzled and then had all of
them helping Dane. Finally the sparklers, out more because they'd burnt up than
because they'd been blown out, could be removed and cake served.
Goldie, chewing on a piece of cake, looked around at Justin. He had cake
frosting on his upper lip. She giggled.
"Lick it off," he whispered in her ear, his eyes daring her.
Goldie hesitated a moment then moved to do exactly that.
"You're in public," Justine said. "Behave."
Goldie, after she'd succeeded in licking up all the icing, laughed out loud.
"God, they match perfectly. One as proper as the other."
Justine laughed. "Nope, just envy."
"I'll buy whipped cream for later," Luc offered.
"And chocolate sauce," Justine purred, moving closer to him.
"TMI," Dane muttered. "Way too much."