Engineman Read Online Free PDF Page A

interest in what he was watching. Over at the spaceport, the interface had activated. Through the screen could be seen the busy 'port of some distant colony world.
    She felt his hand on the back of her neck, warm and strong. He had a stock of these gentle, affectionate gestures which he used in lieu of conversation. Sometimes he went for days without speaking.
    "You took my dust," she said at last.
    He made a sound in his throat which might have been an admission of his guilt, squeezed her neck as if that might make things better.
    "I wouldn't care. If you'd asked, Eddie... You know that? If you'd asked, "Ella, I need creds to get the flier fixed." I'd've given you the damned dust."
    He said, in his soft, slow Californian accent, "I needed the flier. I've got a job lined up at Orly. I'll pay you back next week, okay, Princess?"
    She supposed she should have been glad he'd condescended to speak to her, but she was troubled that he'd found work at Orly. She hitched herself up onto the hood and looked at him.
    He was watching the interface with that far-away look in his eyes, as if remembering the time when the stars had been his, and recognising the fact that now they were denied him forever. Ella was aware that he'd been slipping into a depression over the past week, and she feared that it might culminate in another protracted bout of drinking, of her having to scour the streets of Paris for him, comatose in some gutter.
    "Eddie," she whispered. "Have you been to the Church recently? You know, they have good counsellors there. They'd be able to help you."
    Eddie grunted something non-committal.
    She sighed. It worried her, the fact that he no longer attended the services or counselling sessions, even when she tried to drag him along. At one point, concerned by his indifference, she had accused him of no longer believing. Eddie had replied, simply and calmly, that he did believe - but that he did not need faith as she needed it because he had fluxed, had achieved the numinous union with the nada -continuum, and did not need the dogma of the Church to uphold his belief. Unlike Ella, who as a civilian had never experienced the flux, and therefore required blind faith to sustain her belief.
    The vast majority of Disciples on Earth were Enginemen and Enginewomen. Ella was one of only a dozen non-spacers in France who'd undergone conversion. She was that rarity, a believer who'd never actually experienced the flux, and thus her faith was questioned and probed all the more rigorously by the devout. She had never opened up and divulged to anyone - not even to Eddie - the circumstances of her conversion during her teens on the colony world of the Reach.
    She laid her head on Eddie's shoulder, felt the occipital console beneath the material of his silversuit. Over at the 'port, the screen had deactivated, returned to its cobalt blue phase. She shivered.
    Eddie put an arm around her and squeezed. What you thinking, Princess? his hug said.
    "This place, Eddie... The nearest store is an hour away. The apartment's damp, smelly. The gangs... Eddie - have you seen the street gangs around here?"
    Another squeeze. Don't fear the gangs .
    "Let's just get the hell out of here, Eddie."
    This provoked a more definite response. He actually turned his head and looked at her.
    "Move out to ...," she went on, "buy a place by the river."
    "That'd cost, Princess."
    With the fee she'd received from selling a couple of sculptures last year, she had enough for a down-payment on a small unit by the Seine. She didn't tell Eddie this, because in her heart she knew that there was no way he'd agree to leaving Orly. And if he knew she had credits, he'd want them.
    "If I sell the picture I have out now..."
    "You want to be back in with your artisan friends-"
    "I want to leave this place!"
    "Or do you want a little house by the river as another statement?"
    She pulled away and stared at him. "What?"
    "Like your motorbike, your hair-"
    "What hair?"
    "Exactly, my