2010 Odyssey Two

THE TRIAL Chapter 4: LAGRANGE Chapter 27 Interlude: True Confessions
The human mind has an astonishing capacity to adapt; after a while, even the incredible becomes commonplace. There were times when the crew of Leonov switched off their surroundings, perhaps in an unconscious move to preserve sanity.

Dr Heywood Floyd often thought that, on such occasions, Walter Curnow worked a little too hard at being the life and soul of the party. And though he triggered what Sasha Kovalev later called the 'True Confessions' episode, he certainly had not planned anything of the sort. It arose spontaneously when he voiced the universal dissatisfaction with almost all aspects of zero-gravity plumbing.

'If I could have one wish granted,' he exclaimed during the daily Six O'Clock Soviet, 'it would be to soak in a nice foaming bathtub, scented with essence of pine and with just my nose above the waterline.'

When the murmurs of assent and sighs of frustrated desire had died away, Katerina Rudenko took up the challenge.

'How splendidly decadent, Walter,' she beamed at him with cheerful disapproval. 'It makes you sound like a Roman emperor. If I were back on Earth, I'd like something more active.'

'Such as?'

'Umm... Am I allowed to go back in time as well?'

'If you like.'

'When I was a girl, I used to go for holidays to a collective farm in Georgia. There was a beautiful palomino stallion, bought by the director out of the money he'd made on the local black market. He was an old scoundrel, but I loved him - and he used to let me gallop Alexander all over the countryside. I might have been killed - but that's the memory that brings Earth back to me, more than anything else.'

There was a moment of thoughtful silence; then Curnow asked, 'Any other volunteers?'

Everyone seemed so lost in their own memories that the game might have ended there, had not Maxim Brailovsky started it off again.

'I'd like to be diving - that was just about my favourite hobby, when I had time for one - and I was glad I could keep it up through my cosmonaut training. I've dived off Pacific atolls, the Great Barrier Reef, the Red Sea - coral reefs are the most beautiful places in the world. Yet the experience I remember best was in quite a different place - one of the Japanese kelp forests. It was like an underwater cathedral, with sunlight slanting through those enormous leaves. Mysterious... magical. I've never been back; perhaps it wouldn't be the same the next time. But I'd like to try.'

'Fine,' said Walter, who as usual had appointed himself master of ceremonies. 'Who's next?'

'I'll give you a quick answer,' said Tanya Orlova. 'The Bolshoi - Swan Lake. But Vasili won't agree. He hates ballet.'

'That makes two of us. Anyway, what would you select, Vasili?'

'I was going to say diving, but Max beat me to it. So I'll go in the opposite direction - gliding. Soaring through the clouds on a summer day, in complete silence. Well, not quite complete - the airflow over the wing can get noisy, especially when you're banking. That's the way to enjoy Earth - like a bird.'

'Zenia?'

'Easy. Skiing in the Pamirs. I love snow.'

'And you, Chandra?'

The atmosphere changed noticeably when Walter put the question. After all this time, Chandra was still a stranger - perfectly polite, even courteous, but never revealing himself.

'When I was a boy,' he said slowly, 'my grandfather took me on a pilgrimage to Varanasi - Benares. If you've never been there, I'm afraid you won't understand. To me - to many Indians even nowadays, whatever their religion - it's the centre of the world. One day I plan to go back.'

'And you, Nikolai?'

'Well, we've had the sea and sky. I'd like to combine both. My favourite sport used to be wind-surfing. I'm afraid I'm too old for it now - but I'd like to find out.'

'That only leaves you, Woody. What's your choice?'

Floyd did not even stop to think; his spontaneous answer surprised himself as much as the others.

'I don't mind where on Earth I am - as long as I'm with my little son.'

After that, there was no more to be said. The session was over.