An Elevator To ...

She stared as the elevator door closed in front of her, hiding the man and the other passengers in it from view. Impatiently, she wiped a tear off her cheek. This was no time for foolish sentimentality. There was unfinished work, and it was up to her to finish a substantial part of it. She turned and strode purposefully to the hotel's business room -- a long, air-conditioned space with rows of stark work-stations, a dozen of which were occupied by young men and women wearing the same shade of blue that she had on. Those who caught sight of her waved discreetly, or nodded, or acknowledged her presence in some way, others remained absorbed in whatever they were doing.

As she slipped on to an unoccupied chair facing a screen, a young man detached himself form his keyboard and came over to her. "All good?" he whispered. She nodded.

"He has gone," she replied quietly.

He smiled. "That does not answer my question. I asked, all good?"

She stretched out, all six feet of her, letting her lean frame balance on the small chair. Her short black hair waved about her ears as her head tilted backward -- and she guffawed, breaking the silence of the room.

"You're too perceptive for your own good," she told him.

"I have a good memory. I remember what we say each time we talk. Last time, you mentioned a new birth."

She laughed again - slightly hysterically this time, and everyone in the room stopped working to openly stare at her. "And you thought a new birth meant that he made me pregnant?" she asked. "You think, with all this," she gestured to the men and women in blue ... "with all this at my command, I'd be interested in something as mundane as the birth of a baby?"

He didn't respond, but tilted his head and lifted an eyebrow.

"Heck, no," she went on. "it's not a baby I'm talking of but a new nation. A new nation, my dear. And where, you might ask? Oh, not here, not here. Somewhere far away from the earth."

There was silence again, and then a soft female voice at the farthest end of the room spoke up. "Yes, I did wonder."

She straightened and turned to the young lady. "What did you wonder, dear?"

"These figures you gave me, to calculate and double check. They sounded random at first, but as I kept working with them ..."

She clapped her hands happily. "That's why I hired all of you. Perceptive, that's the first requirement ... go on, dear, finish that sentence."

The young woman was standing now, her long brown braids swishing. "I thought these were just numbers, but they started sounding familiar. It's Jupiter, isn't it? Number of moons, length of the orbit, density of the ground, distance from the sun ... and all that other data ... basically, you wanted to calculate how much food and of what sort an individual would need to survive on Jupiter ..."

The young man spoke again. "Ah, that's why I saw you wipe away a tear."

"Wipe away a tear?"

"You cried as you watched him leave, I know. If he goes to Jupiter and you have to stay here, you might never ..."

" ... might never know what he's like in bed, considering he didn't want us to get too close if he was going to have to move so far."

"This might have been your last meeting?"

"Yes. He was taking the elevator to the top terrace, where a special helicopter is going to pick him up ... " Her words came slowly now. "I wonder if I'll meet him again. Ever."

They had never seen their leader show any hint of emotion, never seen her vulnerable. Each thought, as they gazed at her, how human she looked now, how real. It did seem odd, though, this self-controlled, suave woman crying over a mere man ...

One of the computers gave an urgent beep, and five blue-clad figures converged on it immediately. Having let go for once, she didn't immediately get into control-mode, but let them ponder over the screen and do some frantic punching on the keyboard and some printing out of pages of figures.

Then, to her utter astonishment, she found herself being pulled to her feet and marched off.

"I demand to know where we're going," she hissed from the corner of her mouth, as they crossed the crowded lobby. It was her own people surrounding her, holding her, and - damn it - she had trained them well, so that they looked like an ordinary bunch of colleagues on coffee break. There were five of them, three gals, two guys.

Nobody answered, but she heard a giggle and a couple of snorts of laughter. She was marched down the hotel steps, to a waiting car ... the 'chauffeur' was another one of her folks ... and taken to ...

"The clinic?"

Height, weight, blood pressure, blood tests, and then into a private room for a complete check up.

When she was dressed again, they were allowed in, and the doctor and nurses slipped out and closed the door behind them.

"We'll tell you," he said it before she could ask. "We'll tell you. He had kept this secret from you, because it wasn't finalized yet.'

"What wasn't finalized?"

"If we're going to make our home on a new planet, we have to be able to reproduce there."

"What?"

"You are going to be the first couple to try. You're going to join him. You're going to know what he's like in bed after all ..."