“That makes sense,” I murmured. I hesitated, then said, “And what were these visions?” I stopped myself, and made a performance of hitting my forehead with the palm of my hand. “Sorry. I forgot. You can’t talk about them, can you?”
She smiled at my play-acting, appreciating the humour. “What I said the other day, about not being able to talk about them… I said that because Hawk was there.”
I felt a sudden apprehension. “I don’t see…” I began, though I did see, dimly.
She went on, “I can talk about what I saw, but I do not want to tell Hawk about what I saw. So, please, do not say anything to him. Do you promise?”
“Of course,” I said. “What is it, Kee?”
“I smoked the bones, David, and then I passed out. I experienced… oh, words cannot describe the wonderful feeling. It was bliss, it was… a word Hawk sometimes uses… eu- eu…”
“Euphoric?” I suggested.
She nodded. “Yes, euphoric. I was in a different place, and I was gloriously happy. And then the visions began.” She looked down at her hands, her fingers twisting.
“What did you see?”
She looked up, staring at me with massive eyes. She seemed frightened. “I saw Hawk. He was in the sacred cavern. You were there, and a tall woman with dark hair. I saw Hawk, standing beside the entrance to the chamber, and he was shouting at someone, and arguing…”
She stopped there, shaking her head from side to side as if in disbelief.
“What happened?” I prompted.
“And then… then Hawk was attacked. I think he was stabbed. He fell, holding his chest.” She was crying now, hunched and weeping. She shook her head. “Then the vision changed. I saw myself alone, and weeping.”
“Who attacked him?” I asked.
She shook her head. “The image was vague. I could not make out his attacker…”
I nodded, aware that my throat was dry. I told myself that what Kee had told me was no more than alien superstition, utter nonsense that had no rational bearing on how events in this world would play themselves out. I said, “And the other visions?”
She lifted her shoulders in a quick shrug. “In the other visions I saw me and Hawk, on an alien world, walking hand in hand beside a silver sea… and another vision showed me in old age, with Hawk looking after me…”
I gestured. “Well, there you are, then. Two of the three showed a happy outcome.”
She screwed her pretty face into a mask of anguish. “But the first vision, the strongest vision, showed Hawk dying. This means… this means that this is more likely to happen, unless we work hard so that it will not.”
I nodded, playing along with her. “And how do we do that?”
She said, “You must tell our friends, Matt and Maddie, tell them what I saw, tell them that Hawk must never again visit the scared cavern, yes?”
I nodded seriously. “Of course I’ll do that.”
“You see, if he does not go to the cavern, then he cannot be stabbed, can he? He will live, and I will be happy with him beside the silver alien sea, and we will live to old age together, which is what I want more than anything in the world.”
“I’ll go and see Matt and Maddie,” I promised. “I’ll tell them what you saw, okay?”
She smiled with relief. “But you must not tell Hawk that I have been to see you, David. Do not tell him about the vision, yes?”
“I won’t say a word to him, Kee.”
She smiled, and the expression lighted her face. “Thank you, David. I knew I could trust you.”
She finished her sava juice and looked down at the glass. “I feel better now. I will go back to the yard. Hawk is working on one of his ships, as usual.” She stood up.
“I’ll show you out,” I said, leading the way from the lounge to the drop-chute. We crossed the foyer and I slapped the sensor panel to open the sliding hatch, and Kee turned to me, stood on tip-toe and kissed my cheek.
“Goodbye, David,” she said, and turned.
She stopped dead, as if yanked back on puppet strings, and stared at my approaching visitor with wide eyes.
Carlotta stood before the ship, adopting an expression of superior amusement. Kee moved around Carlotta, watching her intently, then hurried away around the ship and out of sight.
And I suddenly recalled what she’d told me, minutes ago: You were there, and a tall woman with dark hair.
Carlotta turned to me and raised an expressive eye-brow. “And who’s your little girlfriend, David?”
I smiled, hiding my confusion. “That’s Kee, Hawk’s girlfriend. You know◦– Hawk, the pilot.”
“She seemed… shocked to see me, David?”
I shrugged. “She’s an odd creature,” I temporised. “She’s often uneasy around humans.”
“But not around you, I see.”
I decided to tell her the reason for her visit, omitting mention of the tall, dark woman.
“Kee underwent the bone-smoking ritual last week,” I said. “And me and a few friends followed her, hoping to find her before it began. Look, why don’t you come inside and I’ll tell you all about it.”
She nodded. “You didn’t mention this before, David.”
I led her into the ship and to the lounge. I poured her a sava juice and sat beside her on the chesterfield. “I’ve had other things on my mind, Carlotta,” I said. “Hey, you’ve stopped calling me Conway.”
She reached out and stroked my cheek. We kissed. She said, “Tell me about the sacred cavern.”
So I gave her the story, doing my best to describe the cavern, the aliens, and the strange ritual, or rather as much of it as we’d witnessed. She hung on my words, and I could see that she was imagining her ex-lover, the pilot Grainger, going through the same ritual.
“But why did the girl come to see you?” Carlotta asked. She opened her mouth in a silent, “Ah…” then went on, “It was about what she saw, yes?”
I nodded, and described what Kee had told me, editing the ‘dark woman’ from the account. I knew, rationally, that this could not refer to Carlotta, but even so I thought it best not to confuse the issue by mentioning it.
“And she said that Hawk’s death was the strongest image?”
“She did. Not that I hold much credence in it–”
Carlotta was looking at me oddly. “We scoff at mysteries we do not understand at our own expense, David. From what I know of the drug… well, there’s something in it.”
I stared at her. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
She nodded. “There were times, after Ed had smoked drug, when he’d make a decision that would turn out to be spectacularly correct.”
I laughed. “Intuition,” I said. “He had a drug-induced vision, believed in it so much that his strength of will brought about the desired result.”
She tipped her head, her lips screwed to one side in a maybe gesture. “Or perhaps the drug did grant him a foretaste of the future.”
I hesitated, then said, “When you smoked the stuff… you believed what you saw?”
“I told you what I saw◦– myself, alone… and it was enough to make me believe, and to beg Ed not to go…”
I smiled and shrugged. “Anyway, to be on the safe side we’ll make sure that Hawk doesn’t visit the sacred cavern in a hurry.”
She nodded seriously. “I’d do that, David. Now,” she said, with a lascivious smile, “I thought that kiss earlier was going to lead to something more.”
“I think perhaps it might,” I said.
Carlotta left a while later, arranging to meet me at the Jackeral that evening, and I realised that I’d never got round to asking what she’d picked up from the Telemass station that afternoon. I showered, dressed, and decided to visit Matt and Maddie and tell them about Kee’s visit.