iii. The Rings of South Island
At one point during the intensive work that went into the creation of the Chaos drives Gerald had looked up the robot in the ARK's files, in case there was any further information that might be useful. He had learned only that the robot had been found with an ancient stone tablet that was supposedly in storage somewhere, and left it at that; an "indecipherable" tablet was not likely to be helpful. Now that he had a chance to breathe he decided to try locating the tablet, and discovered that it was no longer in GUN's possession - it had been sold to...to... He laughed in delight. GUN had sold its "useless" stone tablet to the Spring Grove University museum. He figured he had earned a vacation after his hard-won achievement so he decided to take a trip down south to see old friends and get a look at the tablet. And he'd invite Mary as well; she'd worked just as hard on the Chaos drive as he had, creating some of the actual materials as well as serving as a sounding board for his theories. He had tried to get her name on the Chaos drive paperwork, but since it was his assignment it was officially his invention; Mary had laughed when he tried to apologize to her, saying that as long as HE acknowledged her contribution she didn't care if anyone else knew. But it mattered to him, even if not to her. He had gradually realized that he was working to please HER, and not himself any longer, and that he missed her desperately if she went out of his sight - even as far as the control lab next door. He wasn't entirely certain what he'd do if she didn't want to come south with him, he was due a month's leave...
Fortunately, Mary was delighted to be asked to join him. She was curious about the dokan after hearing his stories about his previous visit and seemed to enjoy his company as much as he enjoyed hers. Gerald had a wonderful time showing Mary around Spring Grove. He introduced her to the foxes Misty and Arance, and finally met their son Tadrik and his chao, Giggle. Gerald did regret was that he was unable to make contact with Todd; the Flying Fox had last been seen heading out across the sea towards Australia.. Rafe Curl however, was delighted to see Gerald again, and his wife Jenny quickly became good friends with Mary.
Rafe was giving Gerald the details on his most recent "expedition" to the Echidnan ruins. "...And then, after all THAT, it turned out that the head researcher was absolutely petrified of heights and wouldn't step out on the ledge, let alone climb down that ladder. To top it all off, he was so jealous of his prerogatives that he refused to let the students and assistants go down without him! So we ended up having to turn around and hack back through the jungle with still more complaints about the bugs, food, and sleeping in tents. Doctor High-and-Mighty seemed to think we should have put a four-lane highway through the jungle with a couple of 4-star hotels along the route!"
Gerald laughed. "And what sort of stories do you tell about your trip with me, I wonder?"
"YOU were no problem. Besides, there's story enough in that crawl through the pyramid. Did you really find a surviving Knuckles on Angel Island? I can't believe you found anyone to actually take you there."
"I'm not sure what I found, to tell the truth. I know I saw an echidna, but whether it truly was one of the Knuckles I couldn't say. Todd thinks I imagined the whole episode. In fact, I'm not sure at this point I could get him to admit that -we were actually there." Gerald had almost said 'that we saw the chaos emeralds vanish', and wasn't sure why he'd switched. He trusted Rafe more than any dokan but Misty, and definitely more than he trusted some of his colleagues, but... something made him veer away from admitting to having the emerald. He chalked it up to guilt and switched topics as the women came into the room.
"I hope you had a successful trip." He smiled at Mary, standing a good two feet taller than her new friend. Mary's golden hair made a striking contrast with Jenny's black-and-white-ticked quills, but their eyes were nearly the same shade of grey. Oddly, at least to Gerald's mind, Jenny's fur was entirely white, only the long quills on her back and head bore the black banding. Today the two were both wearing red shirts and blue shorts; Gerald had asked Mary why they kept dressing alike but gotten no answer beyond a rather coy look.
"Oh, we certainly did," giggled Jenny. "We ran into Bertha, Rafe," she continued as she leaned over the back of the couch to drape her arms around her husband's neck. "Everything's all set for Saturday."
Rafe frowned. "But Gerald and Mary- "
"-are coming with us. Right?" She glanced over at Mary, who had perched herself on the arm of Gerald's chair.
"Right," confirmed Mary. She ducked her head to look at Gerald. "I hope you don't mind, but you said you hadn't had a chance to see the islands, and I thought it sounded like fun. Besides, I'd like to see the rings for myself."
"Rings?" Gerald turned from Mary towards Rafe with a puzzled frown. "You had mentioned something about rings in passing earlier and I'd meant to ask you..."
"Ah. Yes. Well the funny thing is, they really appeared about the time you left; they were only on South Island at first, and mostly still are, but they seem to be spreading to the other islands...
"To start from the beginning, we don't know what they are exactly. They look like golden rings about the diameter of a spread hand, or sometimes a bit larger, and they just...hang there in the air. No one knows where they come from, but if you touch one you can carry it away and it loses the hanging ability. If you leave them alone for a while, they just vanish, but the ones that are removed tend to reappear after a while. They don't seem to do anything, or affect anything - they just appear and hang there unless someone carries them away." Rafe paused, seemed about to say something else, then visibly changed his mind. He sighed and concluded, "Jen and I had talked about taking a cruise out to see the islands and also to see the rings for ourselves. You don't actually have to come if you don't want to-"
"But of course I want to," interrupted Gerald. He glanced up at Mary, "I assume you want to go, since it sounds like you already arranged it...but who's Bertha?"
It seemed a harmless enough question but for some reason sent Mary into a fit of giggles. It was Jenny, grinning at Mary (which only made her laugh harder) who replied blandly, "Bertha's a friend of mine, Bertha Baerinaur. She's a special materials expert, like Mary, and wanted to go see the rings, but the university won't let her go without a "staff" which they claim to have no budget for. So Rafe and I had volunteered to go with her. And Mary volunteered you and herself to go as well, which means we get to go at the research rates and get better cabins. I don't understand the politics at all, but it's nice to be able to use them to our advantage for once." Mary, with her giggles now under control, nodded and the discussion shifted to a comparison of university politics (human and dokan) versus governmental politics (again human and dokan, as Jenny worked at the university part time and Rafe guided parties both for the university and the government).
Saturday morning Gerald hauled a cart with his luggage and Mary's up the gangway onto a cruise ship and turning a corner collided with a wall of fur. After disentangling himself from the cart - which had run up on his heels - and making profuse apologies he was introduced, by Mary who had entirely to solemn an expression, to Bertha Baerinaur. Who was, in fact, a bear. A giant, especially among the dokan, panda bear. Her black ears easily overtopped Gerald's five-ten height, which made her a rarity among the dokan who were typically less than 4 feet tall. She was most gracious in accepting Gerald's apology. Then she flustered him completely by telling him how much she admired his work with the Chaos drives and how pleased she was to actually meet such a genius inventor.
Mary excused the two of them to settle in and unpack and hauled Gerald into the main room of their suite. "I thought I'd better rescue you before you set your moustache on fire; I've never seen you turn so red. " Which made him blush even more - and that was before she kissed him. Then she scooped up her bags from the cart and disappeared into one of the bedrooms, leaving Gerald to wonder if his moustache really would catch fire, his face felt so hot. He quickly claimed his own bags and ducked into another room. Unfortunately it turned out to be the bathroom.
After locating his own bedroom and regaining some sort of composure - she kissed me! She actually kissed me! - at least outwardly, he returned to the sitting room to find Mary, Bertha, and the hedgehogs seated and waiting for him. He snagged an overstuffed chair and they started making plans for their arrival on the islands. They would arrive at South Island at noon or so on the second day. Once plans were made, they dispersed to enjoy the cruise.
South Island, the first stop on the itinerary, had the most dramatic appearance of the rings. Truly, everywhere one looked there were lines of these golden rings. They seemed to be made of some strange material that was neither metal, glass, nor plastic; and they were possessed of a minor anti-gravity effect, most hovering a few inches to a few feet above the ground. As they continued their exploring the island, Gerald did see some areas where the rings hovered above the tree tops, or even freely in midair, but most were near the ground. As Rafe had noted, they could be easily picked up and carried, but if you dropped them they no longer hovered but bounced and vanished. One could lay them on a surface, but after a short time unattended they would, again, disappear. As long as they maintained contact with a living person, they seemed to remain. Mary asked permission to take some for study, which was willingly granted; there were plenty more where those came from, after all. The problem was retaining them long enough to get them home. After a bit of experimentation she met Gerald for their evening stroll wearing a set of rings as bracelets around each wrist.
The evening stroll. It had started the first night on the ship, when Gerald invited her to walk the deck, which turned out to be a rather popular idea, therfore rather less private than he had hoped. (Then again, he discovered he was nervous enough surrounded by other people; it may have been just as well they weren't alone). They braved the crowds again the second night and Gerald was at least more relaxed although he kept feeling his ears getting warm when Mary glanced over at him. The cruise had a two night layover at South Island, and during the day he'd found a nice stretch of beach that lay away from the popular casinos and night spots. So, while Rafe and Jenny went off toward the bright lights with Bertha in tow, Gerald headed out in the opposite direction with Mary following.
He frowned, " What are you doing back there?" Nerving himself, he took her hand and pulled her gently forward to walk next to him. It was really quite ridiculous; he spent all day in the lab talking to her, sometimes leaning almost shoulder to shoulder over a piece of equipment, but somehow, now, he was almost terrified to speak to her. "Ummm...it's a nice night," he ventured, when the silence seemed to long. He could have melted into the ground at the inanity of the comment.
Mary very carefully kept a straight face. "It is a beautiful night, isn't it? Listen!" She stopped and tugged his hand so he halted beside her. Some sort of creature was making an oddly attractive chirring sound. After a few moments she started walking again. She looked over at him and smiled, although it was probably too dark for him to see it. "I wanted to thank you," she started, "for agreeing to come along on this cruise. I know I should have asked, but-"
"No, I wanted to come if you did," Gerald protested, interrupting her.
"-but I did so want to come and look at these rings. I know you probably had..." she paused, revising what she wanted to say, 'other things in mind' might come across as too suggestive. "Um, had wanted to get on researching that tablet. So I really should have asked, but Bertha really needed to know right then if we were going to get to come here.
"And you were also very good about letting me haul you around the ruins and hills after the rings today." The moon was rising, starting to cast a glimmer of light that mainly glinted of his spectacles. She stopped again, bending down to pull of her shoes to walk barefoot now that they'd reached the beach. "So, thank you for that also." As he stood up holding his own shoes, she took his free hand in hers, and kissed him. He actually kissed her back, then ducking his head started quickly down the beach, but without letting go of her hand. Mary followed, laughing inwardly and gradually pulling him down to a more relaxed pace.
Gerald felt like his face had to be glowing, but glancing over at Mary only revealed her silhouette against the light of the rising moon. He took a deep breath, ...and couldn't think of a thing to say. He looked out at the ocean where the moon was picking out the foam caps of the waves, and focused a few minutes on the sound of the water. An old sound, older than humanity or dokans, and going to be around long after both groups were gone... And somehow, the realization that he and his were ephemeral compared to the world around them gave him the courage to speak. "Mary, I..." he took another breath, but this time found words to say, "I wanted to tell you - for a while now - that...I think you're the most amazing person I've ever met. When Dr. Green introduced us, I could see, of course, that you were beautiful; but then you were kinder than you had to be in showing me around, and you've been so helpful with my work, probably to the detriment of your own, and even though they wouldn't give you the acknowledgement you deserved," he had to stop and draw breath.
"And I'm very grateful to you for all of that. And I'm always amazed at how much you do know about mechanicals and materials - if anyone's going to figure out these rings it'll be you- but also... I..." He looked down at the sand, now palely rippled with light from the half moon. Mary was looking at him, but with her face still in shadow he couldn't read her expression. She didn't say anything, but squeezed his hand gently. Gerald inhaled and tried again. "I 've really enjoyed being with you - not just working with you, although you're the best research partner I've ever had - but just being around you makes everything...brighter. And I'm not saying this very well, but I really...like you a lot." He stopped and turned to face her fully as he finished, part of him cheering at having said it, and part cringing in fear of her reaction.
Mary stopped next to him. "I really like you too, Gerald" she said softly and stepped in to kiss him again. They continued their stroll with his arm across her shoulders and hers around his waist.