Foundation and Chaos

Page 39

“Yeah.”

“They must know,” Klia said. “They seem to know everything.”

“I don’t want to be quiet,” Brann said. “I want to shout and pound and jump allover--”

“The room?” Klia suggested, and drew herself up on the cot, playacting at being demure.

“Yeah. To show you what I feel.”

“I can hear you. Feel you. Feeling something...But it doesn’t seem to be the same flavor as what I feel.”

“Nothing is the same flavor for people. Everybody tastes different inside, the way we taste them--hear them.”

“Why don’t the words exist for what we can do?” Klia asked.

“Because we haven’t been around for very long,” Brann said. “And someone like you, maybe never before.”

Klia reached out to touch him, still his lips. “I feel like a kitten next to you,” she said.

“You jerk me around like you had me on a chain,” Brann said. “I’ve never known anyone like you. I thought for a while you hated me, but I still felt you calling me--inside. With a taste like honey and fruit.”

“Do I really taste like that, in my head?”

“When you think of me, you do,” Brann said. “I can’t read you clearly--”

“Nor I you, my love,” Klia said, unconsciously falling into the formal courting cadence of Dahl’s dialect.

This seemed to stun Brann. He let out a low moan and leaned forward, nuzzling her neck. “No woman has ever talked like that to me,” he murmured, and she held his head and wrapped one arm around his shoulders, feeling his chest against her drawn-up legs. She let her legs relax, and he pushed onto the cot to lie beside her. There was not room for both of them, so he lifted her gently up onto him. They were still fully clothed, but in the posture of making love, and she felt a lightness in her head, as if all her blood were draining elsewhere. Perhaps it was. Her thighs and breasts felt full to bursting.

“Woman must be stupid, then,” Klia said.

“I’m so big and awkward. If they don’t hear me...If I don’t make them feel affection for me--”

She tensed and drew back. “You’ve done that?”

“Not all the way,” he said. “Just as an experiment. But I could never follow through.” She knew he was telling the truth--or rather, thought she knew. Another uncertainty around another corner! Still, she relaxed again.

“You’ve never tried to make me feel affection for you.”

“Sky, no,” Brann said. “You scare me too much. I think I’d never be able to--”And here she felt him tensing, in the same way she had. “You’re very strong,” he finished, and simply held her, lightly enough that she could lift up and break from his arms if she wanted to. So intuitive, this man as tall and broad-shouldered as the domes!

“I will never hurt you,” Klia said. “I need you. Together, I think we might be unstoppable. We might even be able to team up and persuade the robots.”

“I’ve thought about that,” Brann said.

“And our children...”

Again he sucked in his breath, and she hit him on the shoulder. “Don’t be a sentimental idiot,” she said lightly. “If we fall in love”

“I am,” he said.

“If we fall in love, it’s going to be for life, isn’t it?”

“I hope so. But nothing is ever certain in my life.”

“Or in mine. All the more reason. So our children--”

“Children,” Brann said, trying out the word.

“Let me finish, damn it!” Klia said, again without any sting of true anger. “Our children may be stronger than both of us put together.”

“How would we raise them?” Brann asked.

“First, we have to practice at making them,” Klia said. “I think we can take off our clothes and try that, a little.”

“Yes,” Brann said. She climbed down from him and stood beside the cot, doffing her shift and underslacks.

“Are you fertile?” he asked as he removed his own clothes.

“Not yet,” she said. “But I can be if I want to be. Didn’t your mommy tell you about women?”

“No,” he said. “But I learned anyway.”

He slid back onto the cot. The cot creaked, and something cracked alarmingly.

Klia hesitated.