The Crowd

Month 11, Day 30

1610 Hours

Bugalu

 

Bugalu turned the corner to approach Mac’s room, stopped at the sight of a dozen men crowding the corridor. “What’s going on?” he asked Peron of engineering.

The collected men turned to face him. “Oh, space,” one man muttered, and wandered off.

“Why are you here?” Peron asked.

“I’m having supper with Mac.”

“I knew it,” someone else muttered, and a couple others left.

“What’s going on?” Bugalu repeated.

The remaining men started grumbling, and Peron sighed. “Okay, so she’s busy tonight. What about tomorrow? Do you have a date with her then, too?”

“I don’t date Mac,” he responded irritably.

“Good,” Peron smiled. “Then you won’t mind if we keep trying.”

“Trying what?”

“To date her,” Peron explained. “If you don’t date her, you won’t mind if we do.”

“Date her?” Bugalu repeated in surprise,. “Not at all. As long as she’s willing. But right now, she’s waiting for me.”

Mac’s living room door opened. “About time!” She sent a look of exasperation at the other men gathered outside her door. “Get in here, Bugs.” He walked in, as the others milled about. As he entered, Mac told them, “For all the rest of you, the answer is no. Not tonight, not tomorrow, not this week.”

“But Mac!” several objected.

“No!” she responded. “So go away!” She turned and pulled Bugalu into the room with her, allowing the door to close behind him.

She crossed the room and threw herself down on her new blue sofa. “How’s it going, Bugsy? Back up to a different date every night?”

What’s that mean? “Nearly. But I’ll always have time for you, Mac.”

“No doubt, no doubt,” she answered. “Question is, will I have time for you?”

“What?”

“I didn’t mean it the way it sounded,” she sighed. “I’m just tired of... everything.”

“Tired? Are you not sleeping well? Again?”

“Hmm, that isn’t what I was talking about,” she answered.

The doorbell rang, and a male voice came over the intercom. “Mac? Ah, my name is Petre Kloppman, I’m from Astronomy. I’ve selected a variety of star fields I’d like to show you in the observatory. Any evening that you’re free—”

“Computer, lock the door and break the intercom connection to the hall,” Mac instructed. Silence fell as Kloppman’s words came to a sudden halt. “I don’t know how much more of that I can take,” she muttered.

Now he knew what was going on. “All those guys in the hall want a date?”

“Probably,” she admitted.

“And that’s got you upset,” he surmised, sitting down in a chair. Those guys are lucky she hasn’t broken any bones. Looks like she hasn’t even decked any of them, and that shows amazing restraint on her part.

“I’m trying not to be... overwhelmed,” she answered. “But it’s—” She couldn’t think of a way to describe it, and wound up shuddering. And that says it all.

He frowned. “How long has this been going on?”

“Well, I had that date with Bear, and that went okay. Then Clines needed help pronouncing Yukosk vowels, and people seem to think that was a date. Then, I reluctantly went out with Ryan, but it didn’t work. Lasted maybe 5 minutes before I shoved him away and walked off. Probably didn’t help any that I had just gotten out of a session with Dr Fong. Anyway, they just keep asking.”

“Everybody?”

Her eyes closed as a look of quiet pain passed over her face. “No, not everybody, I guess.”

“That’s why you snapped at me this morning on the bridge,” he stated. “You thought I was just another guy asking for a date.”

“Yeah. I’ve stopped listening. I just automatically say no.”

“Well, we need to get things under control. You don’t have to go out every night, Mac.”

She shuddered again. “Wasn’t planning on it. I’ve tried dating, Bugsy, but my attempt with Ryan was too much. I’m not even sure I could go out with Bear again.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t get me wrong. Bear was a perfect gentleman. The most intimate we got was I held his hand. Just so people would know it was a date, and would leave us alone. But since then, Pa won’t let up! I’m even nervous having you in my living room!”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“The only time Pa fades away to let me be myself instead of a nervous wreck is on Monday evenings.”

“When you and Ivy work on the Yukosk machine.”

“Right. Me and Ivy, Abdulla and Smit.”

“It doesn’t make you nervous to be around Smythe?” I would have thought Pa would be in full force with Smythe around.

“Nervous, yes. Always afraid I’ll say something stupid. I’m finally getting over that in those sessions. But pa is a tiny whisper, easily ignored, because he doesn’t apply to... the situation.”

“Well, why is pa so active all the time?”

Mac thought about that for a long moment. “Maybe because I can’t get through 2 days without having Pa’s dictates brought to the forefront of my mind.”

“Because someone asks for a date?”

“Oh, no. Well, they do, but that’s... Pa’s already in full force before they get a chance.”

“Then he must be ever present, like when you got to the Academy.”

“Yeah.”

Bugs mulled over what she’d revealed. “I thought Dr Fong was helping you unpack your luggage, as you say.”

“He does. He brings up a dictate, we examine it in minute detail, and then he moves on to the next one. We only get through one dictate during a session, and I’m left with that dictate firmly in mind, only to have another dictate added to it at our next session two days later. It’s a wonder I haven’t completely blown up yet, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep from doing that.”

“Wait. I’m not sure I understand. You examine the dictate in minute detail. So you must be able to see that pa’s dictates aren’t realistic, or feasible.”

“I try, but there it is, just like it was all my life before the Academy; not to be questioned, just to be followed.”

“So, you aren’t getting any guidance from Dr Fong on how to disable the dictates? Disarm them, ignore them, anything like that?”

Red curls bounced as she shook her head. “I’ve even asked him how I deal with these dictates so I can be a normal person, and he just says, ‘We’ll get to that,’ and then we never do. Our time is over, and the next time I see him, he’s ready to move to another dictate. It’s all been very frustrating!”

“No wonder you’re wound up so tight. That isn’t the way I thought this would work. If I couldn’t think of anything else to say when a dictate came up, at least I told you it was a stupid way to think of things.”

She leaned back and closed her eyes. “How I long to hear you tell me these things are stupid!”

“I think I can oblige. Come on, let’s go have supper, er, breakfast, in the privacy dining room. You can tell me all the dictates you’ve gone through with Dr Fong, and I’ll tell why they’re stupid. Afterwards, we’ll find Dr MacGregor and have a talk with him.”

A brilliant smile flashed on her face. “I knew you’d be able to help me. I just haven’t been able to think!”

Walking out, they stopped short at sight of all the men still waiting in the hallway. As Bugsy pondered what to say to them, he felt Mac’s hand take hold of his, and she leaned against him slightly. Well, they’ll all be thinking it anyway, with her behaving like that, so why not? “Gentlemen, you might as well leave, Mac already has a date for tonight. And as she said earlier this evening, she’s not available anytime this week. If you’re going to try again after that, don’t gang up on her all at once. Come on, Mac.”

He pulled her to the lift, and they got on. He realized the hand he held was shaking. “I hate to think about next week,” she muttered.

“One thing at a time,” he returned.