Pearl Ch. 01

"You still want me give up a harem? What about when you're not in the mood?"

She gave me the same look that Pearl used to give me when I was being dense. "You can tweak my libido to whatever you want. The only time I won't be 'in the mood' is when you're not."

She paused again and her expression turned wistful, "I don't know what love is, but I will hold no part of myself back from you. I will give you my complete respect, loyalty and devotion."

She took a deep breath, let it out in a rush, "Do you think you might ... could fall a little in love with me ... when you make me look like ... well you know who you want me to look like, don't you?"

She stood there, her breathing now shallow, so vulnerable. This wasn't the confident scientist, who took Universities wooing her as naturally as breathing. No this was the girl who'd been rejected in her first blush of womanhood. I could see that her heart could be crushed as easily as the most delicate orchid.

Her lips didn't tremble, there weren't tears in her eyes, but they were nearby. Through those liquid eyes, I saw into her soul and it touched me ... but I'm sixty-seven, I will not act like some mushy teen.

Still, I felt my face soften and while I'd tried for gruff, I'm afraid I sounded more choked as I said, "Love doesn't work that way. I'll accept that you think your scores are perfect for me, but if I'm going to give up everything for you, I need to know you. We need a few weeks for courting..."

"But won't you have to change me first...?" there was a tiny but emotionally charged hesitation, "I've been told I'm not very pretty..."

In those few words I saw her huge dike of denial tremble. All the pain, all the nasty comments were being held back by her loving father's few words about pearls. Before I understood what I was doing, I was dismantling my own thick, high walls, walls built since Pearl's death in order to shore up hers "As you said, we can change your looks later, if you really want to, but those are so unimportant..."

Before I could finish, a brilliant smile made my words true. The danger was gone, the troubled waters stilled and I saw what I'd only seen in Pearl: unconditional commitment. If my bladder hadn't been renewed, she would have scared the piss out of me. In forlorn desperation, I changed the subject.

"Can you really break through the interdiction barrier?" She gave me a look I knew too well. It was the one Pearl gave me when she was saying "I'm going to let you get away with changing the subject, but we're not done yet." I tried to ignore it and plodded on, "Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? Can you think what would happen if it fell into the hands of something like Earth First?"

She gave me a blank look, "Earth First? Isn't that one of those old environmental groups? Why would they want one? Besides, anyone could build one. The AI was quite plain about how it was done. All I had to do was build a diverter to..."

"How many people know about that little device?"

"No one, I actually built this myself. I didn't think I'd need it but I worried that my timing forecast might be off so I did."

I admit, I was a tiny bit skeptical; so, after checking with AI about a safe location, she opened a door exactly like the one I'd heard about being done at a state fair, and we left.

Once we got to her car, she gave me a different card, and her reader. I sat in the passenger seat and studied it. She was right, a perfect match. She gave me Pearl's look that said, "You remember that conversation we interrupted? We're going to finish it now."

I cleared my throat, "Teresa, having a harem never really appealed to me. I'm a one woman sort of man, but I hate not to use our slots to evacuate..."

She interrupted me, "I never meant that we shouldn't take people with us, I don't think the Eugenics concept works well with humans, but there are all sorts of people who would make our colony more pleasant. The CAP test doesn't score artistic talent very highly, and while I'm not a big fan of most 'modern art' I do think we need to have all the arts to have a decent society. Perhaps you could use your nineteen slots..."

I smiled, I knew I'd found my perfect pearl, and nothing was too high a price ... I just didn't want to let her know it yet. It was going to be hard enough trying to keep up with her, but oh what interesting times it will be!