The Peacock Cloak

them out, don’t you?” he said. “I know if it was me I wouldn’t be able to keep away.”
    “Not really. Got better things to do.”
    Hempleman laughed.
    “Better things? On a space freighter? You’ll have to tell me your secret, buddy.”
    He turned back to the tardies.
    “What happens when it’s time, you know, to rehydrate them?”
    Jacob shrugged.
    “Not my job. I deliver the box. Someone at the other end sees to the rest.”
    “Sure,” said Doug. “It’s just that they are pretty unique creatures, you know. Their planet is so far away – they must have been travelling for many years before you took them on board – and they’re pretty much unheard of in this sector. If I had on them on my ship, well, I would have wanted to find out as much as…”
    But, realising it was rude to criticise Jacob’s lack of curiosity, he broke off and answered his question himself.
    “You just fill the chamber with moist air, is what I’ve read,” he said matter-of-factly. “Fill it with moist air and they’ll slowly come back to life. Or most of them will. Apparently one per cent or so rehydrate with the others, and show signs of life, but then immediately die. I guess it doesn’t matter how well-adapted they are, you can’t completely dry out a living organism without the risk of doing some damage to it.”
    He looked up and down the rows.
    “Which means there’s a distinct chance that one of these guys is not going to make it.” He frowned, looking round him at the empty transparent shapes. “I wonder if that’s the case, and if so which? It’s weird that you can’t tell.”
    “Not my problem.”
    Hempleman glanced at his fellow space captain with a slightly troubled frown.
    “Uh, I guess not. Wow, will you just look at these little kids here! They’re tiny aren’t they? Imagine how cute they’ll be when they come back to life.”
    The little dried up figures delighted him.
    “They’re so light, so… insubstantial. A breath of wind could blow them away.”
    “Yeah,” Stone said, “and a fist could smash one of them to bits.”
    Hempleman winced but did not respond.
    “Hey! Look at those two right at the end,” he presently exclaimed, “sitting together on one seat. What’s the story there? I don’t suppose you know, do you?”
    “Just got married, apparently, or whatever the heck tardies call it,” grunted Jacob. “Guy who shipped them told me that she was from a different tribe or something. Scared to be alone, or some such.”
    Doug went to the diminutive pair and squatted down in front of them.
    “She’s holding his hand. Imagine that. Holding his hand and looking at him. And him looking at her.”
    With immense care he reached out his big, clumsy space-suited hand and touched their tiny joined fingers.
    “Lucky devils,” he said. “One minute they are getting drowsy in the dehydration chamber – that’s how it feels to them, apparently, like going to sleep – the next they’re waking up again together. Not like me and Helen. Another eighteen months we’ve still got to get through the slow way, day by day by bloody day, until we see each other again. Eighteen months for me, three years for her. No other way to reach her except through months and months of nothingness. The worst part is that for the whole of the next six months I’ll still be travelling away from her.”
    He straightened up, stood looking at the little alien couple for few more seconds, then turned away. With contempt, Jacob noticed tears in the other space captain’s eyes.
    “Well,” said Doug Hempleman, “better get back to the bloody old Exocon I guess. Get ready for the final haul out to Trixie Dixie, that godforsaken hole. I’m done with New Vegas.”
    Back in the malodorous captain’s quarters he shook Jacob’s hand.
    “Nice to have met you, Jake, and all the best with the rest of your journey. Thanks so much for showing me those tardies. The highlight of my voyage they’ve been I can tell you, the highlight of all my voyages in fact.”
    “Well,” said Jacob Stone ungraciously, “they say there’s no accounting for taste.”
    “Oh and by the way,” said Hempleman, “don’t worry about the money for the cards, huh? It was just in fun really, wasn’t it? And I’d have happily paid you twice that much just for a peek at those little tardy guys in there.”
    “Okay buddy,” said Jacob, smirking to himself, as Doug returned over the bridge. “I’ll try my best not to