Cadmann was crowded away from the cooler by three enthusiastic partygoers. Cadmann grabbed a spare pouch, then took one of the young women by the shoulder. "Mary Ann. Juniper berries."
"Eh?" Mary Ann Eisenhower looked wary. Her blond hair was plastered down with ocean spray. "What?"
"Juniper berries. You're in agriculture. Did we bring the seeds?"
Mary Ann wrapped her towel around her shoulders more tightly, brushed a few grains of sand away from her cleavage. "Cadmann, I don't know! Why?"
"I want to make the first drinkable martini on Tau Ceti Four. That will earn me a statue."
She frowned, then grinned widely. "You're on. I'll look!" She reached toward him shyly. "Uh, want to swim?" Like many of the others, she had stripped down to shorts.
"Cold, isn't it?"
"Sure! But it's nice when you get out." She reached toward him.
"Mary Ann! Come on!" Joe Sikes called. Cadmann didn't like him. His wife had had a baby only a week before, and he was already running after other women.
Mary Ann turned, mouth set in a line. "If you're in such a hurry, why don't you just go find Evvie?"
Joe glowered, unable to think of an answer, and slunk back toward the ocean.
"Cad?"
It was Sylvia. Cadmann turned. "Speaking." The corner of his eye caught Mary Ann disappearing toward the water. Where Sikes was waiting. It irritated him, and he wondered why he gave a damn.
Sylvia was over by the fire. She wore a two-piece swimsuit, something from an Earth designer who had understood what to conceal and what to reveal.
Cadmann started toward her, then stopped as Terry came into the circle of firelight. Terry kissed her cheek, then took the roasted samlon steak from her stick and handed her a much bigger one. Terry chewed contentedly.
"Ah-Cad, did you fix the fence?" Sylvia asked.
A voice too close behind Cadmann laughed. "I am not the only admirer of Senorita Faulkner, si?"
"Senora. Go jump in a thorn bush. Here." He tossed his spare beer pouch over his shoulder. "Think fast! Good catch."
A guitar twanged nonsensically, then produced a tune Cadmann had not heard since his youth. Mamie McInnes played while Barney Car and her husband, Jerry, sang with good-natured tonelessness. Two much better voices dominated the choruses from somewhere on the far side of the fire: Ernst and La Donna Stewart.
Phyllis danced for her own pleasure, for the colonists, and most especially for Hendrick, who watched her with pride and hunger.
Carolyn watched for a few seconds, then humphed and stamped off.
Carlos watched Phyllis for a dozen bars, examining her movement with the eye of a master sculptor inspecting a block of marble. "She is good, that one," he said offhandedly. "She must learn the real flamenco technique."
"And you'll be glad to teach her."
"But of course."
"Go for it. Talk to Hendrick though. She may need a teacher, but he definitely needs a sparring partner."
"Sparring partner? No comprendo."
"Hendrick Sills was Golden Gloves middleweight champ about six years before we left Earth. Bet he'd love to discuss it with you."
"On the other hand..."
Cadmann ambled over to the roasting pit.
Spicy meat smells rose from the grill. Much of the food was reconstituted, pouched and freeze-dried and soaked in water or wine-but there were two chickens and a turkey. Cadmann imagined he had known from the smell.
Morale must be worse than I thought if Zack authorized this burnt offering. Lost crops and too much work.
Thornwood logs made excellent coals when hot enough. The oily wood smoldered with a tantalizing hickory scent that blended nicely with the moist breeze from the ocean. Twin moonglades danced in the surf.
Sylvia poked in the grill with a long metal skewer. She glanced to her left where Terry was eating. He wasn't half finished. "Almost done. Cad." She turned the samlon steak. Even this cross section of the creature was queer, unearthly. The meat was pink like salmon, but two big arteries showed alongside its heavy spine-for heavier gravity-and the shape showed its flattened belly and strong bones.
"Big enough for two, Cad. Another minute."
"Sure." He sat beside her. "Hi."
"Hi yourself. I thought you might not come."
"So you sent Terry to fetch me."
"Sure." She speared a samlon. "Just right. Share?"
"Love to."
She hoisted it up and nibbled at it, and sputtered as she burned her mouth. Cadmann couldn't help laughing at the face she made. She looked serious, pointed toward the stars, and when he looked up, stuffed one of the hottest portions into his mouth. "Laugh at me, will you?"
"Molten metal, molten metal-you do know the punishment for witches, Esmeralda."
"Sure, they hanged her goat. But Charles Laughton will give me sanctuary. Have some more."
He held up his hands in protest. "No, thanks. My tongue would never forgive me." But the first fragment had cooled, and it tasted fine. Taste of salmon, texture of... what? It wasn't flaky like fish. Beef heart? Striated, no fat...
She jabbed the second portion at him again, and he splashed some sand at it. "Get that poor dead thing away from me before I spank you."
Her eyes sparkled. "You..." Terry was close behind her, close enough that she fell silent, smiled and went back to tending the sizzling barbecue. Terry watched her go, then sat next to her with his cooling plate of canned vegetables. He stared across the sea.
Ernst and La Donna stood up from where they'd been eating, buried turkey bones into the dark and walked after them. Ernst waved cheerfully as they passed. Cadmann smiled but didn't wave; he could see La Donna's sudden embarrassment.
Good. Salvage those good genes. La Donna! With luck the kids would look like Ernst, too. La Donna was nice, but plain.
Cadmann moved to the edge of the magic circle of light, away from the others. The waves seemed vast inky shapes, rolling up and thrashing themselves into foam on the sand. There were shrieks of pleasure from the colonists playing in the water. A pleasantly rounded shape ran from the darkness to the light.
"We have them."
"Have-?"
"Juniper berries, silly. I remembered." Mary Ann shook water onto him and handed him a towel. "Dry me?"
He smiled good-naturedly and buffed her. Her hair was ash-blond, it glowed in the double moonlight, and her skin was baby smooth and clear. Her body was toned and well-rounded. Rubens would have lusted to paint her-or something. Avalon's increased gravity had added six pounds to her weight when she set foot on the ground. All of the colonists showed better muscle tone, and so did Mary Ann.
She giggled and leaned back into him in a clear invitation. Methodically he scrubbed out the wet tips of her hair and worked his way quickly down her body.
She sighed and shuddered slightly. "You have talents I didn't know 'bout, Cad."
"Part of the service. Where's Joe?" He moved his hands under the towel.
Her eyelids fluttered with brief, suppressed pain. "We don't keep track of each other." Her expression tightened. "Ah. I owe you a rub now."
Her skin beneath his hands was cool but growing warm. She's willing, she's nice... nicely shaped... isn't she smart enough? Isn't she Sylvia? He said, "We'll take a rain check on that."
"Coward." Mary Ann brought her pug nose close to his. "I'll never live to see the day."
He winked at her. "I may surprise you yet."
"Hah!" she said, and jiggled off to another bonfire. The men there shouted as she approached.