The stars are a marvelous symphony of light.
—Billy Jeeling, to his son Devv
Lainey appreciated everything Billy did for her. This private dance studio, for one thing. It wasn’t large, because space was limited on Skyship. But it had a nice hardwood floor, sturdy bars for stretching, and even mirrored walls, so that she could watch her moves and perfect them. Paintings of dancers adorned the walls, including one that was her favorite of all, a reproduction of The Rehearsal, by Edgar Degas.
Dancing had always seemed so natural to Lainey, as if she had been born with the ability. She had never taken lessons, but recalled performing in her home as a small child, with her parents, brothers, and cousins for an audience, and their enthusiastic applause. They had always encouraged her, and so had Billy.
Now she wore a white skirt and black leotard, as she went through a series of jazz dance exercises that she liked to do each day for conditioning—energetic moves that included acrobatic leaps in the air, tumbles, and jazz splits. It pleased her that she could perform some of the most difficult routines without professional training, but today she felt a little out of breath. Yet, overall, her conditioning program had a positive effect on her. When she completed these exercises, she often performed a series of graceful pas seul ballet routines.
Billy Jeeling seemed to care deeply for her, but at times she had the uneasy sense that she was not enough for him. Other women flirted with the famous man all the time, but as far as she knew he didn’t return their attentions. Even the relationship he had with Dr. Rachel Ginsberg seemed platonic—Lainey was more confident about that now, though she had once harbored doubts, and fears, about what was going on between them. But recently she and Rachel had engaged in a long, heart to heart conversation, and Lainey went away with the strong impression that the scholarly woman was not her competitor, at least not directly. Rachel was devoted to Billy; that much was quite apparent. Yet she insisted that she didn’t expect more than a professional relationship with him. Then she’d qualified that statement by adding, “Not as long as he cares about you as much as he does.”
Assuming that was true, it put Rachel in a backup position to Lainey—one woman waiting for another to make a mistake. Lainey didn’t like that tenuous arrangement, but at least Rachel had seemed truthful, and honorable in her actions, and didn’t impress her as the type who would do things behind Lainey’s back. If the roles were reversed, Lainey might have acted the same way. Even at Billy’s advanced age, he was an extremely attractive man, and she held no delusions that other women would not line up at his proverbial doorstep, seeking his affections. Rachel seemed to be at the head of that line, and keeping this in mind, Lainey always took great care not to make mistakes, while showing Billy how much she cared about him all the time, constantly telling him how much she loved him.
Lainey took a short break, used one of the stretching bars for her calves and hamstrings. In the stillness of the moment, she heard those irritating machine sounds again. Faint and barely perceptible, like a person with mild tinnitus of the ears who heard ringing whenever focusing upon it, yet trying not to think about it most of the time.
Her thoughts returned to Billy, as they did so often. Was she showing him too much affection? Was she smothering him with her attentions, leaving him no room to breathe? At times he did seem mildly irritated with her, or perhaps it was his natural impatience to get back to his important work. The truth be told, Lainey realized, his work came first, and both Lainey and Rachel were in line for whatever he had left after devoting his energies to his critical environmental restoration work. It was because of his tremendous success in that endeavor that he was the most famous man in the world, and probably the most famous man who would ever live.
Sensing movement on her left, she saw Devv Jeeling enter the studio and stand just inside the doorway, waiting for her. He wore his blue Security Commander’s uniform, neatly pressed. The young black man carried his silver-braided officer’s cap, and his curly hair glistened, as if he had just showered.
Lainey and Billy’s son were good friends, and professionally they often discussed police and other security matters that Devv handled for the great ship, and how they coordinated with Lainey’s public relations efforts. Sometimes she even relaxed her guard and told him how she felt about his father, and the young man was kind enough to give her useful advice.
Now she completed her dance routine, finishing with a double somersault and landing perfectly on her feet, facing him.
“Not bad,” he said, reaching out to touch her forehead. “A little more perspiration than the last time I saw you, though. You need to maintain your conditioning better.”
She smiled stiffly. “I am not one of your departmental recruits.” By that, she meant the human ones. “Is there a problem?” she inquired, while leading him to a tiny alcove where she kept a dispenser machine for coffee, tea, and other beverages.
They ordered cups of steaming aromatic coffee, and stood while sipping them, instead of sitting on chairs that could be folded open from the wall.
“I want to talk to you about Sonya,” he said. “I asked her to marry me, but she said she has too much work to do on Skyship for that, too much responsibility with her job. Her job? She’s a proctor, working for you, Lainey. That’s not such a huge job, not like mine; you have several other proctors like her. From what I hear, their workload isn’t so big. In contrast, I run an entire police-and-security force, more than four thousand machine and human officers. I’m the one with all the responsibilities and concerns, but Sonya makes a comment about her job? I’m deeply afraid that it’s just an excuse, that she’s slipping away from me.”
“Maybe she really means that your job is in the way, not hers.”
“Then why doesn’t she just come out and say that? Why be indirect?”
Lainey smiled. “Women can be like that at times. But you might be on the right track. Maybe it is something else, and not her work at all. I’ve watched you two together, and talked with you enough to think that maybe you need to back off a little, Devv. Maybe you put too much pressure on Sonya. She could feel smothered by your constant attentions.”
“Did she tell you that?”
“No, but I bring this up because I’ve been wondering the same thing about my own behavior toward Billy, if I’ve been pushing him too hard, not giving him enough space. It could be, so I’m wondering if you and I are both making the same mistake.” She paused. “I can’t say for sure if that’s what either of us are doing wrong, if anything, but it’s just a thought.”
He shook his head. “No, I think she has other reasons. I’ve been getting reports on Sonya from my officers, so I know she’s flirtatious with some of the men on the ship, including her own students. Perhaps it is all innocent, but she is playing with fire, especially with her physical beauty.”
“I’ve never seen her doing anything like that.”
“Actually, I have confirming videos taken by robots on my force. Her flirtations are mild, at least in public, but they do exist. I’m not making it up.”
“I see. It sounds rather, uh, French? Or Italian? Innocent flirtations are a way of life in some societies, and Sonya’s father was French, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, you could be right. Maybe I’m reading too much into it. But I always think of the old adage, ‘where there’s smoke there’s fire,’ so I’m going to keep my eye on her. Both eyes, in fact.”
“You are a policeman, after all, among your duties for the security of Skyship.”
Devv nodded.
“She is awfully pretty,” Lainey said, “so other men naturally take notice of her. Tall and blonde with blue eyes. You have your hands full.”
“You and I are both suffering from unrequited love,” Devv said, ruefully. “Maybe we should get involved with each other and forget those other two.”
“We’re good friends, Devv. You know that. Just good friends.”
He sipped his coffee as he stood there, made a face as if it didn’t taste good and slipped it into a waste processor chute, generating a brief noise of machinery.
“Yeah,” he said. “I know that. Anyway, thanks for the talk. Now I gotta get back to work.” He turned and walked away, crossing the practice floor.
It seemed to Lainey that something was not quite right about Devv Jeeling; she’d been thinking this way for some time now, without knowing exactly what it was that bothered her. She had no evidence that anything was wrong with him, not in the slightest, except for a nagging tickle in her brain that wouldn’t go away, a sense that something was slightly off about him, something he wasn’t revealing to her.
He could not possibly be a danger to Billy, because he was the great man’s son and heir apparent, and Billy had always treated him extremely well. Devv had never complained to her about Billy, and had always challenged anyone who dared to make even the slightest negative comment about his father.
She knew, as well, that Devv had saved his father two years ago from an attempt on his life, when a pair of assassins managed to get past several levels of security, and were apprehended when Devv saw the scan reports on them, and noticed their suspicious behavior. He later said he only sensed something about them, that they were not really the legitimate businessmen they had been portraying themselves to be, and were not actually there to discuss making a large financial donation to Billy’s pet project.
Devv had sensed something then, just as Lainey was sensing something about him now. She felt absolutely certain that he posed no danger to Billy. So, it had to be something else. But what?