Almost as if she were reading his thoughts, she said, “Remember the Sahara? We didn’t know how the adventure would turn out, but we both climbed into that saucer and flew it away. And here we are.”
Another thought occurred to Rip. “How do you know we’ll be parents?”
“Rip. Ripper. How do you think women through the ages have known that their man was going to be a father?”
He goggled. Grabbed her arms and stared into her eyes. “You’re pregnant?”
“Yes.” She said it simply, but it was the most powerful word Rip had ever heard.
Joy flooded him. Oh wow, Charley was going to have his baby! Then he remembered the recent adventures with Adam Solo. “How long have you known this?”
“Oh, a while.”
“And you were dancing on top of a saucer over the Grand Canyon?”
“The little Ripper is going to have to take life as it comes. You and I have had to. That’s what life is, Rip! It’s an adventure. It must be lived that way or it is worth nothing.”
He gathered her into his arms and kissed her.
In the penthouse Uncle Egg and Professor Deborah Deehring were having a glass of wine on their balcony. As it happened, their balcony was immediately above the presidential suite balcony, and they heard every word that passed between Rip and Charley.
They slipped inside and closed the door.
“They’re leaving your life, Arthur,” Deborah said.
Uncle Egg merely nodded. He was smiling, and tears were leaking down his cheeks.
“Adam Solo said he would meet us on the other side,” Egg said. “I’ll see Rip and Charley there too. That will have to do.”
21
The next few days were hectic. DNA samples were taken from volunteer couples, an undertaking that fascinated the press and resulted in worldwide publicity.
Several of the starship crew toured the zoo and oohed and aahed at the extraordinary diversity they saw. Others toured the arboretum, where they took samples and recorded images of plants they found interesting.
The shuttle was loaded with tanks of water, over a ton, and a thousand pounds of carefully selected living plants, including wheat, rice, soybeans and corn, a flock of chickens and two pigs, a male and a pregnant female. Charley Pine wanted to take Amanda to the starship for a look, but with all the supplies, it wasn’t to be. NASA wanted to send two senior engineers to explore, and that plus the first officer, who was flying the shuttle, took all the room in the cabin there was.
Amanda and Charley toured the shuttle when it returned that evening. The first officer answered every question that was asked. Amanda had a wonderful time. Hennessey took her to the White House Press Room, where she answered reporters’ questions.
Through the good offices of Petty Officer Hennessey, who was here, there and everywhere, Rip and Charley got in to see the president.
“We’re going with the aliens on their starship,” they told him. “They said they have the room.”
The president felt a great warmth come over him, much like that produced by a shot of really good bourbon. The saucer aces, Rip Cantrell and Charley Pine, were going to be out of his hair permanently. He beamed benignly. “Godspeed, children.”
“Before we go, however,” Rip said, “we’d like to ask a favor of you.”
The president’s grin vanished. This was too good to be true, he thought.
“We want to get married,” Charley explained, “and were hoping you could marry us. Like tomorrow.”
Relief flooded the Grand Poobah. “I never married anybody before. I don’t know anything about District of Columbia marriage laws. For all I know, I don’t have the authority. We can probably find you a judge or preacher, if you want.”
“Oh, we don’t care about the D.C. laws,” Rip said, making a gesture that swept away all little difficulties. “We aren’t going to get a license. It’s the ceremony we want. We’ll invite the family and the aliens and tie the knot.”
“Oh,” the president said blandly. He was not surprised. In his experience Rip and Charley pretty much ignored other people’s rules and made their own. “In that case, why not? When?”
“Would tomorrow evening work?”
“Sure.”
“Great. We’ll go buy some rings.” They scampered away holding hands.
“I hope my presiding over a marriage doesn’t set a precedent,” the president growled at Hennessey.
“Don’t sweat it, sir. You might tell the press you’ll marry anyone leaving the planet without dying first.”
Charley called her mom and dad and sister, and Rip telephoned his mother in Minnesota. The next evening, as the families and aliens watched, the president read a ceremony Rip and Charley had found on the Internet. Amanda was maid of honor. Everyone wanted to kiss the bride, including the president, who laid one on her cheek.
Uncle Egg snapped a couple of photos of Rip, Charley and the president with Rip’s camera; then the president snapped a few of Uncle Egg and the newlyweds.
The president gave Egg his camera back, then whispered to the White House photographer, “Get some of Rip, Charley and Egg. I want an eight-by-ten of the best one framed for my desk.”
P. J. O’Reilly knew good PR when he saw it, so he had photos of the wedding and watching aliens on the street within an hour.
The next day Rip and Charley fueled the saucers with water from a hose.
While they were at it, Uncle Egg climbed into the Roswell saucer and donned the headset. He knew what he wanted, and he spent over an hour communing with the computer trying to get it. He made notes on a small pad. He wasn’t a physicist, but he was a very competent engineer. Finally, satisfied he had all he could get, he turned off the power and closed the hatch behind him. The closest marine saluted him, and he smiled in reply.
When the saucer he had discovered in the Sahara was completely full of water, Rip sat in the pilot’s seat and told the computer what he wanted. Then he reviewed the graphics to ensure the computer had it right.
Charley Pine did the same for the Roswell saucer. She found John-Paul Lalouette’s bloodstains still on the floor and said a little prayer for him.
Then the saucers launched from the White House lawn. Rip’s went out over the Potomac gaining height and airspeed; then the rocket engines ignited and the nose rose to the vertical. It soared away on a pillar of fire as the world watched on television.
Charley’s Roswell saucer was next.
When the two were gone the starship crew and Rip and Charley said their good-byes. Rip cried, Uncle Egg cried, Charley’s parents and sister cried, and Rip’s mom cried. Even the president’s eyes grew a little moist.
“Thanks for everything, Uncle Egg. You were like a father to me.”
“And you were a son to me. I love you, Ripper.”
Amanda clung to Charley and wouldn’t let go. “I want to go with you,” she said.
“You need to stay here with your family, grow up, get an education, fall in love,” Charley whispered. “Have your own adventures. Live your life, savor it, live it to the hilt.”
“I will, Charley! Oh, I will!”
The president gathered Amanda into his arms.
The aliens climbed aboard the shuttle first. Charley reluctantly released Uncle Egg’s hand and followed her new husband up the little stairway. The door closed with a tiny hiss, and the crowd drew back behind the velvet ropes.
The shuttle flew away effortlessly, without the sound and fury and visual power of the saucers, almost as if it were a dream departing. The antigravity system repelled the earth and slingshotted it into orbit, where it rendezvoused with the starship. A few hours later the starship left orbit on another voyage across the universe.