Vera Returns To Marta City (Ch.11c) : Love From A Distance

Vera Returns To Marta City (Ch.11c) : Love From A Distance

Vera was back in Marta City working in ground maintenance and engineering at the MIOST headquarters in the north side of Marta City. Her separation from the only real love she had ever experienced caused her great misery. She had found something that she really wanted, needed, in life, only to have it taken away from her. She communicated with Luvius over the Vidnet every evening to begin with. The second evening of her establishment at HQ she tapped his co-ordinate number into her console at the time she deemed he would be available. This was the time when she would normally have met him in the canteen for the evening meal. Later they would have gone together to his or her accommodation room.

She had spoken to him in a lengthy conversation just the previous night. Vidnet technology stretched easily to the space station, and his image was sharply shown on her vidscreen as he could see her. There were however a few seconds of time delay in between statements. They took it in turn to speak sentences to each other. It was slower than she would have liked. Their conversation soon became disjointed and uninteresting. Because of the delay each had to consider more carefully what they said and the exchange of ideas had to be deliberate. A tendency towards being very serious set in, which was not always the way they had been when together in each other’s arms. The easy conversations of their time together were replaced by long-winded and obvious statements. She longed to reach through the Vidnet screen and touch him, to feel his warmth and be encompassed by his protection.

She got through to him easily and he was there on screen. They spoke the usual platitudes and declared their love again, avoiding the subject of her work, which she had explained in some detail the night before. Then Luvius went on in serious vein. ‘Vera, you know we will not be together for three months at the least, and then only for a swift week or so at the most, and I will be back here in space, and I will be expected to work mostly, as you will. Then it will be four or six months before the next time. I want you to know that you don’t have to wait for me. I mean if you do meet anyone else I want you t o be happy and if you want to have a new partner and someone comes along, I want you to be free to forget me. I could not blame you and I would not feel betrayed.’

In that brave progressive society large numbers of people were mentally ill, far more than had ever been known before. Many of these were borderline cases, escapes from the work regime of society due to the pressures of work, the unhappiness of life, the lack of balance. Modern Marta and Gallanol produced large numbers of these victims, but operating on functioning legal lines no one in sufficient position of authority had noticed or cared very much. Business lost by the slow drain of employees and the cost of keeping them in sickness payments and taxes; but seemed not to have the good sense to desist from the policies which created much of the problem.

Vera missed Luvius and she missed friends even though she hadn’t had many of those apart from Luvius for a long time, except for her new relationship of greater understanding with Mother. She had begun to work again at MIOST in what was proving to be a dull backwater maintenance and quality control job. She found her enthusiasm for work had not returned with her physical estrangement from her lover in space. A quest for social satisfaction had taken hold of her, and work had become an onerous duty which took up all of her days an much of her evenings, and must be put up with.. She began to live after the work ended and she went home. Often she returned to Mother’s flat, more to satisfy her own need for companionship than for Mother’s sake. Mother loved the attention. She flourished in the satisfaction of a mother who has found that her daughter had grown up and become her best friend.

On other occasions she would spend long periods, when possible on Vidnet communications with Luvius, but he was often busy and he was seriously attempting to proceed in his examinations. She grew frustrated when he excused himself from her Vidlink “presence”, although she tried not to show it. ‘Why do you want to finish this level so badly?’ she asked him one evening, in a reversal of the roles they had so often played in the early days of their relationship in space.

‘I am nearly through,’ he said, ‘then I will rest.’

‘But you’re over forty now,’ she said. ‘Is there any point in proceeding?’

‘I merely want to consolidate what I have already passed, so I don’t lose it. If I don’t complete the level they will take my other passes in this level away from me. What can I do? I don’t want to lose them.

‘Luvius, you taught me to appreciate real life, and reject the path of constant pointless learning. You shattered the cage I was in and freed me from myself. I would like to see you free also. It concerns me to see you still under their power.’

‘I know, and I thank you for your concern, but you are not here. I have no girlfriend in my bed any more, and I might as well do something useful with what little time I have. If you were still here, doubtless I would share with you in throwing away some of the results I have gained. Vera sensed anger towards MIOST, which was justified, but a small anger towards herself, for deserting him perhaps or for reminding him of principles she knew he had but which could not follow. Work was important to him after all. It was his future. Study meant future improvement in earnings, greater security and comfort for his old age, which, he was very conscious of, lay in wait for him not so many years distant.

He was lonely, she knew, and so was she. Nonetheless he found himself able to cut off their conversations after a time. She knew that a distant Vidlink was no compensation to him of her physical presence. A platonic friendship, full of communication was not the main reason he had pursued her, but it was all they had now in this long period of separation. There was no way they could actually touch and feel, and experience the naturally pleasures of companionship between male and female. She felt slightly rejected, although he was as friendly and caring as ever. Perhaps she imagined in his behaviour what she felt herself. Perhaps she was not as excited by these verbal and visual exchanges as she would have been by his bodily presence beside her. And so she began to look forward to these distant meetings less than before and instigated them less often, for she too was becoming busier with real life experience.