We start our walk slowly going aft on the starboard side, down the short length of the superstructure and then alongside the rows and ranks of cargo containers.

There is plenty of space to walk along side by side and there are very few other passengers about. Looking out to sea, it’s impossible to see the far shore of the bay, but looking to the north you can see the coastline as it slowly turns east. There’s the hint of the first hills of the dividing range in the distance.

As we continue to walk around the stern, the first hint of activity on deck becomes apparent. The crew are drawing in the huge mooring cables and we are seemingly ready to depart.

“Are you ready for this new adventure?” Sarah asks me as we stop at the stern rail. “It all seems so big. Almost as if it isn’t meant for us.”

“Yeah. I still can’t quite believe I’m going to Eastleigh. There’s no turning back now, though. Our next stop, in Last Bay, is almost a week away.”

“Did you ever wonder why we have our settlements so far apart from each other, Aidan?”

“I don’t think I ever thought about it really, but you do have a point. I think it’s just because there are so few of us her yet, relatively speaking.”

“Yes, but even Last Bay and New Peel are seemingly so remote from Sevrin City. On Earth we would have spread out slowly along the coasts and inland. We wouldn’t have decided to establish and build a random town 1,500 kilometres away.”

“I wonder,” I asked as we began to move away from the dock and the two of us started to walk back along the port side. “Probably a lot of it has to do with the location of resources. Land’s End and Last Bay are both primarily mining settlements. Greymouth is such a rich patch of farmland that it also makes a lot of sense.”

“I suppose. I can understand Eastleigh and Westport as well to some degree. We need to have access to the Far Ocean and they do provide that.” Sarah seems very contemplative and a little detached. She’s probably just missing Liz already.

“I think, as the years go on, we’ll slowly start to fill in the gaps. They’ll have to build more and more ships like this.”

“Yes, I suppose so. I’m liking the ship so far, but I expected there to be more passengers. If the Morning Star can carry 500, where are the missing 300 that I don’t think we have on board.”

“I was thinking the same thing, Sarah. I suppose that we are just a fairly static society. Once we have our jobs sorted out, we mostly stay in the same place all our lives. Even my dad only travelled to Westport because my mother was going there on a work assignment.”

“You don’t talk much about your mother, do you?”

“No. I was only five when she died. I do remember her. Well, mostly little vignettes of my times with her – both the good and the bad. It’s not always easy to talk about her when Dad’s around. He still misses her terribly.”

“Dying young just seems so unusual now, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. Medicine has come so far in the last half a millennium or so. We can cure almost all illnesses and our implants give early diagnosis for many of them. Mum was just unlucky, I guess. Her particular cancer was not on the detection list and by the time it was diagnosed, it was too late to do anything to cure it.”

“Sorry, Aidan, I didn’t mean to go down this track.”

“It’s fine. I don’t mind talking about her. It was hard at the start, but Dad has been wonderful. Actually, I’m pleased that he can finally have a break from me!”

“You may be the lucky one, Aidan. My mum has been freaking out all week. She almost didn’t want me to take the job. I had to almost fight to stop her coming down to the docks with me.”

We’ve completed our circuit of the deck and the ship is now well underway, cutting cleanly through the water as it heads south and east. We make our way down to C-deck and the main self-service cafeteria that will be our eating place for the next few weeks.

We grab trays and make our selections, both opting for a fairly light lunch and a soft drink. I’ve always had a soft-spot for a carbonated drink, right from being a small child. I’ve managed to wean myself off them to some degree, but I’ve never been one to drink tea, and, of course, haven’t had the chance to get addicted to coffee.

“How was Liz when you left,” I ask once we have found a table in the mostly empty room. “Is she coping with it okay?”

“Mostly. We both know it’s going to be pretty hard at first, but we also know that it isn’t going to be forever and we can keep in touch so much easier with our Nexima implants.”

“I’m pretty sure that you two will be fine. You always seem like a solid couple.”

“Yeah, we’ve been together for more than two years now. We’ll be fine, but I’ll miss her to start with.”

“I’m lucky to be single I guess.”

“Maybe. I heard you stopped seeing Maria just before the end of school.”

“Yeah. It was mutual and there wasn’t any drama. I think I might be looking for something different, if I’m even looking for anything.”

“I get it, I think. I will miss Liz a lot for the first few days. An excuse to have Nexima sex, I suppose.”

“Sarah!”

“Well, what’s the point of having an instantaneous confidential communications link with your partner if you can’t enjoy it?”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“No, I’m both practical and realistic. Between you and me, there might be Nexima toys involved.”

“Somehow, I’m not surprised. I’ve heard of them, and normal sex toys, of course. I’ve just never felt the need to try anything like that.”

“Well, Aidan, you’re a bit of a slow starter, aren’t you.”

“I suppose so.”

“If you’re happy taking care of your own needs without anything to help, then that’s fine. Liz and I have had one or two toys to liven things up almost from the start.”

“How did we end up talking about sex toys?”

“Well, we were talking about being lonely, I guess it does follow on from that logically if you’re not being too prudish.”

“Actually, I thought it would quickly get embarrassing, but somehow it just doesn’t seem to bother me at all. I guess sex is universal, or pretty much so. I’ve never felt the need to talk about it, but it really doesn’t bother me.”

“Is that one of the advances that our society has made? A little more tolerant and a lot more open?”

“I’m still not convinced on the openness, but the tolerance is certainly true. Dad asked me about Maria and I didn’t even need to think about telling him that I might prefer guys rather than girls. It’s just a non-event these days.”

“Well, you are a descendant of one of the first children with two male parents. Your dad will be only too aware of that fact as the planetary historian. That’s still a unique history.”

“I never thought about that. Nick and Peter are remembered for a number of things, but the fact that Michael was conceived right at the beginning of that revolution isn’t always remembered as well.”

“Well, at the time, Earth was still a mixed bag when it came to LGBTQ+ tolerance and acceptance. It took a very long time for the more religious countries to become more accepting. Apparently, they are much more relaxed about it these days, even in what were once the most bigoted of countries.”

“I think that I was always a little scared, Sara.”

“What, about being gay?”

“Not exactly. More about putting myself into what is always going to be a minority. Being gay isn’t the primary human condition. I know that the research tells us that it has been a real and pretty constant thing ever since we descended from our primate ancestors – and probably from long before that – but it has always been an evolutionary dead-end.”

“Yes, I do see the point.”

“We’ve managed to remove that evolutionary limitation with science, but it doesn’t look like being gay is related to genetics. It’s just how some of us are.”

“Wow, you’re quite the philosopher.”

“I know. Dad said the same thing a couple of days ago, when I was droning on about a totally different subject. My point is that once you admit your sexuality to yourself, you place yourself in a pool of similarly oriented people and, for us that pool is the smaller one.”

“I never really thought about it, Aidan.” Sarah does seem to be a bit reflective for a few moments. “I think I was just lucky to find that Liz felt the same almost as soon as I admitted my feelings to myself.”

“Apparently, I did think about it,” I tell Sarah with a wry smile. “I’ve probably thought about it for far too long. The possible options at school were, shall we say, limited.”

“Peter Quayle?”

“Exactly. He even asked me for a date once. He just seems so… What’s the best word, egotistical?”

“Big headed? Narcissistic? Spoilt? Overly flamboyant?”

“See, I was trying to be kind, but all those are probably nearer to the mark.”