Chapter 4

Teric pulled the aircar lower to the ground and parked as close as possible to the front door of Gorsh’s residence.

The small, unpretentious outward appearance of the house did not reflect the owner’s wealth.  The private land that surrounded and secluded it did.

She climbed out of the vehicle and turned to walk towards the house.  Gorsh was standing in the open doorway, arms akimbo, looking at her shoulder length dark brown hair sway back and forth with her purposeful, gliding walk; observing the way her hair softly framed her round chin, large dark green eyes and wide nose; watching the curves of her hips alternately swing forward around her small, trim waist and athletically firm stomach; admiring her with a mixture of reverence and lust.
She had been intimate with a few people when she away from him for extended periods of time.  But it was always for purely physical satisfaction.  Shortly after any sexual encounter she couldn’t recall or experience any significant emotional attachment.  Being with Gorsh was different.  With him, she felt at once a complete ease, while at the same time, full of charged tension.  It was a sense of completeness along with a yearning to be closer that mere physical contact.

He escorted her into his house, seated her at a table prepared with a dinner for two, kissed her hand and seated himself across from her.

They ate and had an uncomplicated, easy conversation.  Afterward, they took a brief walk through the newest section of his labs that sprawled extensively beneath the ground.  The private workspace was accessible only through a hidden elevator in the center of the house.  Along with several trusted employees and colleagues, Teric was one of very few people that had ever seen it.  Gorsh loved seeing her in this setting and gave her free reign to touch, look and question as she pleased.

When they arrived at the newest area, filled with equipment and experimental setups devoted to his latest research she thought she was going to see something extraordinary.  He had been so atypically cryptic about his latest work.  But, he answered all of her questions about it without the slightest hint of guardedness.  She wondered to herself why he had been so forthcoming now but not before.  It couldn’t have been for fear of communication security, for there seemed nothing resembling a secret breakthrough he wanted kept quiet.

After a while he suggested a more leisurely walk through the thick and colorful vegetation that was his backyard garden.

Finally, Teric decided it was time.

“Gorsh, it’s been a wonderful evening.  But I’ve got to bring this up.  I want to know,” she said, visibly bracing with tension.

He said with and easy smile, “You want to know if I’m going to SatSix.”
“Yes, of course.”

Gorsh stopped walking and stood looking at the distant lights of the city, “I have given it a great deal of consideration.  And none at all.”

Teric also stopped and looked at him.  She was used to his occasionally odd manner of conversation but it didn’t help to relieve the slight anxiety she felt waiting for him to get to the point.  After the small pause he continued.

“As you have seen, I have a lot of research projects started in my labs that can’t be moved any time soon.  I’ve had several other interesting offers that you don’t want to hear about right now.  I admire you, Teric, because of all the things you could have said tonight, and before, but didn’t,” she looked away at the distant lights as he turned to look at her.  “You could have reminded me that this is an incredibly important project.  That I should probably be present to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible; that the procedures, tests and potential vaccinations that I invented are administered properly.  And that it would be the ultimate test of my skill: to find a cure for a new disease that threatens all of civilization.”

She said softly, “It would all be true.”
“But irrelevant to what we’re talking about that you haven’t mentioned.”

She looked at him from underneath her eyelashes and inaudibly mouthed, “Yes.”
“Tell me.  Tell me why you want to know.”

She stood up straight and raised her head to look directly in his eyes, “I want you to be with me.  Not simply when we have the time.  Not between meetings during conference seminars.  Not for the occasional emergency medical briefing.  Then having to wait days, months and years for the next convenient stolen moment.  I want you to be with me. Now.  Until I die.  You know that SatSix could turn into a long project.  Maybe a lifetime.  I couldn’t leave without telling you.  I want you.”

She took a deep breath and let it go with all the pent up tension of her body.  She had come to say what she had never said to the man she loved.  And she had said it.

Gorsh smiled again, “Thank you.  I love you too, Teric.  By the way, I have decided.  I’m going to SatSix because I want to be with you also.  Now.  Until I die.”

They spent the rest of the night in the garden, under the stars, that together they would soon be traveling towards.