This section covers the changes in George's personal affairs.
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New Arrangements
Marita left George pondering about what she had not said. He knew that she wanted to be his partner but dare not say it. The only person who could give her an answer was Tai Yin So. Absence was never a reason for breaking a partnership. Separated partners could share as they wished. The only way that a partnership could be dissolved between active Spacers was by mutual agreement. Yin So would not be in Singapore for ever. However, when she came back, George knew that he would face an invidious choice.
As George gave his order to the robowaiter, Commander Sincayvitch joined him and Marita at the table. He came straight to the point.
"The Rear Admiral and I have been given confidential orders about your safety this evening. Admiral Chang has arranged that Lt. Cdr. Adedeyo will return here to organise a special security team. Fortunately she has been able to train a group of volunteers in the short time she has been at the College. They will come with her. In addition, the queen has arranged for a personal bodyguard for you Marita. She started to organise this shortly after Admiral van Wijk was kidnapped and rescued. I have been told that the woman is very much like you in appearance. She is as tall as you are and is a constable in the Swedish police. Apparently she has the nickname 'Rimmed Flick Can'."
Marita laughed, interrupting him.
The Commander looked surprised, wondering what the joke was. Marita enlightened him.
"Rymdflickan means 'The Space Girl' in Swedish. She must look like me to get a nickname like that. I am sure that you know famous I am in Sweden. My picture is frequently on the front cover of magazines. I can't go anywhere without being begged for my autograph. I'm sorry sir, I interrupted you."
"Apology accepted Marita. I should have asked what it meant. I took it as a phrase in English that didn't make much sense. Constable Shersteen Brewberry has been to the Spacers College to learn basic protocol and to practice wearing a formfit. Lt. Cdr. Adedeyo has given her lessons so that she can either look exactly like you or quite different. She has been given the official rank of cadet so that she can be treated as a Spacer, but she will have no tattoo. She can use makeup to copy your tattoo when she has to act as your double. However, if she gets into difficulty, she can prove that she is not you because she has not got a real tattoo. The council has decreed that since Constable Brewberry is not a real Spacer, she can be made a Special Constable in Britain. Superintendent Abdullah has cleared this with the Chief Constable to minimise bureaucracy when she arrives."
Marita looked at George and winked. "How do you think you will cope with two of me?"
The Commander laughed. I don't think that Constable Brewberry knows much about the Spacer share system. I think that she is going to receive a big surprise."
Marita said. "Sir, It would seem that you have not seen Kerstin Broberg's name written down. It is spelt K-E-R-S-T-I-N B-R-O-B-E-R-G. We pronounce KE like 'sh' and B-E-R-G like you say the name of the town Bury in Lancashire . However, I don't think she will mind being called Brew Berry because it sounds like a nice drink."
"I don't think that I will ever get used to Scandinavian languages. I nearly upset a Norwegian Spacer a few years ago because I called her 'Line'. She politely corrected me and said her name was pronounced 'Leaner'. She made a joke about it. She said that she wasn't thinner and did not have a habit of resting against walls but she was 'Leaner'."
The commander continued. "Back to Constable Broberg. She is blonde like you would be, Marita, but she will be bald and wear a brunette wig when she is in the Club so that she won't be mistaken for you unless she is acting as your double. She has even had a bit of cosmetic surgery so that visual recognition processors will not be able to tell you apart. She has been given a crash course in your history and can imitate your voice in English quite well. The voice recognition systems that are programmed to respond to your voice will also respond to her voice but will be able to identify her as being different from you."
George said. "She must be keen to take on the job of being Marita's double. She has had to do a lot in the last two months. I would think that she could do with a holiday when she gets here."
The Commander said. "She will have to have a few days rest when she arrives here but it will give her a chance to familiarise herself with the Club and the Spacers who are resident here. She will have to spend some time getting used to London because she must never appear to be surprised or curious when she is travelling around as you usually do Marita."
George said. "Sir, what accommodation will you organise for Constable Broberg, if she is like Marita, she will need a large bed. I don't expect that she will need the comforts that you have provided for Marita, but she will need to sleep comfortably."
"It is a good thing that you reminded me of that George,. I knew there was something I had to do but it had not resolved itself in my mind. It would seem that the way Marita's room has been furnished has been very successful - and not just for Marita - if the rumours I have heard are true. Noww, if there were several rooms like Marita's, that were not allocated to anyone in particular, this Club would quickly become the most popular Spacers Club on Earth. We have the space, and there would be a lot more Spacers around to act as guards for you two, and Undepoldus, so I think that I can persuade the Rear Admiral that the expense would be justified. Now I come to think of it, Sarah might like the experience of sleeping in simulated free fall on Earth as well.
Marita said. "I can confirm the rumours, sir. My room is in constant demand. I have now delegated the bookings to a processor so that I do not have to deal with the requests personally. If you ask your processor for help with zero gee sleeping arrangements, you will be told when the room is free. When a reservation has been made, the lock on the door will be set for the voiceprint and identity of the Spacer who made the reservation at the appropriate time."
"That seems like a good arrangement Marita, the extra rooms will provide the chance for some other Spacers to sleep in free fall instead of just spending the odd hour in energetic activity."
After a pause the Commander's voice changed to a quieter, more serious tone.
"When Miss Broberg arrives, she must be able to take your place, Marita, in any situation, including the bedroom. I know that you and George have a special relationship that is only just short of a partnership at the moment.
You, George, are in an unprecedented position. The Council has debated your case at some length. There has never been a case where the Council has ever been required to intervene in a partnership. It has always been considered to be a matter that can only be discussed by the partners themselves. The partnership rules have provided us with an amicable and practical way of dealing with relationships. The Council has always tried to ensure that partners are never separated from each other for long periods. Lt. Cdr. Tai Yin So went to Singapore to assist in the new spaceport project. She has an amazing knowledge of Pacific languages and speaks Malay and Chinese like a native. She is needed there. You, George, are needed here to care for and study Undepoldus for some time to come."
"We both knew that a separation would be unavoidable but neither of us thought that it would be for longer than a few months. What did the Council do Sir?"
"Rear Admiral Li was sent to Singapore this afternoon (our time) to talk to Lt. Cdr. Tai about the situation. He told her about your relationship with Marita and suggested that she came here to spend a week with you and Marita.
Lt. Cdr. Tai said that she felt it would be upsetting for you, George, if you had to choose herself or Marita when you would also have a second person who was like Marita with you. She mentioned the case of Lts. Waltraud and Paula Becker who were twins and co-partners with Lt. Cdr. Toshiko Akiyoshi. She said that you would soon be in a similar position but with two equal share partners. If she had a twin, she would rather be in a different share partnership to her sister if she and her sister were not co-partners with the same Spacer. Marita and Miss Broberg would not be able to be in different share partnerships because of the special circumstances. She said that it would be best if your partnership with her was suspended for a year and Marita took her place. If she was able to form a new partnership with another Spacer during that time, your partnership with Marita could continue indefinitely. I can quote her exact words: 'Marita deserves someone like George McFigg. He is the ideal person to care for someone who has stayed young while all her friends grew old.'"
There was a break in his voice as the Commander continued.
"I think that Lt. Cdr. Tai is a very kind and considerate Spacer who obviously loves you very much George. Rear Admiral Li said that he thought that the job he had to do would be like bearing the sad news of the death of a son or daughter. Lt. Cdr. Tai took the weight off his shoulders. She made him feel that he was the one who deserved sympathy, not her. She asked him for a share and he felt very honoured."
The Commander then noticed the tears running down Marita's cheeks. George's eyes were moist too. George tried to think of something appropriate to say but was lost for words.
The Commander then said. "I will leave you two lovebirds together while I register your partnership and order some beds."
A robowaiter arrived and took away their cold uneaten meals as another robowaiter asked. "Would you like the same orders repeated? I am advised that champagne has been ordered for you."
Marita said. "Yes, please" in a rather croaky voice.
The robowaiter left before she could apologise for wasting the original courses.
"My sweet George, what can I say? Yin So must be one in a million. I know why she wanted to be your partner and I can understand now why you have always remained so loyal to her. You have never even hinted that anyone else could ever be your partner even when we were as close together as we could be."
"Yin So and I seemed to be made for each other when we met. We always had things to talk about because our training and experiences were so different. She was always interested when I talked about the investigations under the ice on frozen moons like Europa, searching for bacteria, the trouble people had taken in collecting debris from comets and anything to do with SETI. Then she would tell wonderful stories about her construction work or try to teach me Chinese and Malay. She loves her work and wanted me to stay with her in Singapore. Then Undepoldus was found. Who would have refused the job of studying the first live ET animal here on Earth? She knew that I would have to accept the job of studying him. As she put it: 'We were Spacers, friends, lovers and partners - in that order.' We went to Mars together because she had been offered the chance to work on Marsdome Three. That suited me because it was easier to study asteroids and Jupiter's moons from there. We spent our breaks on Marswheel Two. Then we were both due for a spell of Earthtime and we went to Singapore together. It didn't seem like work, more like a continuous honeymoon. Yin So always had to go to a specific place to do her work while I was a relatively free agent for a lot of the time. I could study the microfauna on Marsbase Three as easily as the larger fauna in Malaya. We were together for a short while in Cologne where I studied cows but she had to go back to Singapore, When Undepoldus arrived I had to be here, in London. It was the first time that my work took me to away from Yin So. When I heard about Undepoldus, I thought that he would not survive long on Earth and I would be able to rejoin Yin So within a few weeks or months. He is still with us and I met you. Then things became more complicated."
Marita said. "If things were not so complicated, I would love to meet her. She was right in what she said. We were Spacers first, friends next, then lovers and now partners. We can only be partners because we are Spacers, friends and lovers. We cannot predict what the future will bring when we decide on a course of action. We can only do what we think would be best for us in the near future and what we hope would be good in the longer term. We cannot go back if we make a wrong decision. We have to make the best of life as it is now. I can look forward to being your partner for a year right now. It is a situation that I am delighted to be in even though I know that soon there will be another who will look like me with you."
"I have been trying to imagine what it would be like to have two of you around. I'm sure that I would not have much difficulty deciding which was you and which was Kerstin."
"I shouldn't be so confident George, if I were you. The queen and the Swedish government would not have taken so much trouble to get Kerstin here if she and I did not look like twins."
"Could she lift me up with one arm like you can Marita?"
"If she is as tall as I am and weighs the same as me, and she is fit, I think that she might be able to do just that."
"I'll bet that she can't juggle with shot putt balls like you used to do."
If she can't now, I will teach her. Too many people know how strong I used to be. I'm not as fit as I was. Spending nearly twenty years asleep does take the edge off one you know."
"There is one place that she will not be able to hide the fact that she is not you Marita."
"But then only you will know the difference George. If fact I think it would be better if she is different to me in bed - as long as she is just as good. It would be terribly boring for you if she was just the same as me in that respect. You would want more share partners to have more variety and I am sure that Kerstin would not want that anymore than I would."
"That reminds me. Because you have taken over from Yin So, I will not be able to choose my own share partners anymore. You and Kerstin will have to choose for me."
"I don't know how much Kerstin knows about Spacer ways. I guess that it will be hard for her to lose all her Earth-bound prejudices. We must find a way to take her with us to Lagrange 5 for a few days. It would be good for her to see how Spacers live in their normal environment."
"I don't think that it would be a good idea to leave Undepoldus on his own any longer than is absolutely necessary. I felt very guilty leaving him on his own tonight."
"You shouldn't George. You had to leave him where he was for his own safety. If you could carry him around, someone else could have carried him away from you. If he was bigger, you would not be able to carry him, so you would have to leave him behind."
"You are right as ever Marita. He is doubling in weight every ten days now. Today he reached one and one third kilos."
"It has been a long day George and I think that it is time that I got to know my new partner a little better - while there is no competition. It isn't fair you know, to have a sole partnership that lasts only a few nights. I don't think that we should waste any more time - do you?
"Not at all Marita, It has been a strange and interesting day. I will miss Undepoldus though."
The news that George and Marita were now partners had evidently passed down the grapevine because there was a welcoming group of Spacers in the corridor outside Marita's door.
As George and Marita approached the group the began singing new words to the well-known birthday tune.
George had taken part in a similar welcome to new partners in the past so he knew what to expect. The welcoming group were expecting to take part in the ritual of the start of a new partnership. Marita was unprepared for the way the crowd of well-wishers followed her and George through the door.
