Surface

I'd never planned to spend a lot of time on the surface of Dragon's Egg. I certainly hadn't planned to live on the surface. But that's where I am now. Not my original plan, but what kept me on Hale's Moon is what keeps me on Dragon's Egg. My girls are here, so I am here. Only now, I'm on the ground, rather than enjoying the view from three hundred kilometers up.

Contrary to what seemed to be popular belief, I didn't actually own the platform. Never mind it had the Kawanishi name on it. Never mind I was part of the Kawanishi clan. Never mind it was deployed to Hale's Moon at my request. The platform had been owned by Kawanishi Heavy Industries Limited of Ariel, with very favorable terms for the Hale's Moon colony it orbited. Unfortunately, with Hale's gone, the agreement went with it. We redeployed it to Dragon's Egg at my request, but, sadly, I couldn't make a good business case for keeping it there. There just wasn't enough traffic to justify keeping the modular platform in place. Not with a copious lack of trans-shipment opportunities and with the Blue Sun owned Dragon's Egg Station there.

The "request" from Ariel wasn't so much a request as a declaration that KHI "was going to move the platform to a more accessible and lucrative position in the Kalidasa system, and, if I didn't intend to relocate with it, would I be so kind as to remove my personal effects from the station so they could disengage the modules and move it on out." So that, in effect, was that. The orbital platform that had housed my base of operations was being moved.

Functionally, it was an inconvenience but not a major problem. I still had IAV Saule Silencieuse at my disposal. While the ELINT Corvette wasn't my ideal home base, it was both mobile and very, very, well equipped for its job. I could establish a secure uplink to the ship and have access to all the capabilities I'd need, and could operate from my office there when needed. Though that left surface accommodations.

Taking Simon up on his offer of a room at his farm solved that issue, at the cost of raising multiple eyebrows. With 'Brina gone as long as she was, and even after coming back remaining largely out of sight with work, people weren't completely surprised that I appeared to be spending time with other people. I'd had slept alone every night after all, but some companionship in bed didn't mean I loved my wife any less. Or missed her any less. The bigger surprise was that Simon was male.

Thing was, there wasn't actually anything between us. Simon's admonishment that I was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen aside, my decision to take the upstairs room in his farmhouse was purely practical. The structure was sound, and easily reinforced behind the bricks. And there was ample room outside to park Wave Equation. Also, Simon's background as an Alliace officer was appropriate. And, not surprisingly, deeper than it seemed on paper.

So let the eyebrows raise. That I loved my wife wasn't in doubt with the one person who actually mattered in the equation. Our work schedules were still a point of stress, but we'd made it this far. She would understand my ulterior motives for settling on the surface.

Just so long as I understood them.