They had made a long hyperspace journey together, he and Sheila, Marcan thought as he looked at the woman who was still fast asleep on the bed beside him. Their first meeting all those years ago when she had only just entered the service in his assault fighter squadron had been just like many other such meetings with other new pilots. But this particular pilot had proved to be much more than those other soldiers. First, they had become friends and then, just before his resignation from the military, he had found out that she meant much more to him. After he had almost lost her on that crash aboard the military modified Wolf Mk II, he had known that she would always have a place in his heart. Unfortunately, she had not shared his opinion about the Federal Military and had not wanted to resign at the time he did so and so they had been separated.

However, even when they had been far apart, Marcan remembered, he had always thought of her, wondering where she might be and what she would think of something that he found funny. Then, during their last meeting on the Tiessar mission, he had started to wonder whether they were meant to be together, after all. Even though at the time Sheila had said that she was not ready to leave the service, there had been a bond between the two of them that could not be broken any longer. It was clear from the way neither of them wanted to explore other relationships or feel someone else beside themselves than the other.

Smiling, Marcan looked at the woman he now knew that he was in love with. A lock of her short blond hair rested on her cheek as she breathed heavily, her eyes wandering here and there under her eyelids. Her thin lips were slightly apart and he could partly see her delicate teeth. Her soft, if muscular, shoulder had escaped from the confines of her blanket.

Still smiling, he looked at the rest of her figure, covered by the blanket, but still worthy of the effort. Lying on her back, her small but firm breasts pressed against the blanket and Marcan imagined that he could see the spots where her nipples pressed against the fabric. A bit lower, Sheila's flat, firm stomach and still lower, her hips and thighs. He recognised the signs of arousal in his own body as he looked at the beautiful woman.

He shook his head to drive away the images that tried to force themselves through. He was not supposed to be ogling her and reminiscing about what they had done in the previous evening. He was supposed to worry about their meeting with the governor and what Sheila would be saying to her about her decision. And even then, she could decide just to keep the details of the bubble ark colony secret from the military. It did not have to mean that she would be willing to spend the rest of her life with him.

And that was the thing that had Marcan worried most of all. He was afraid that she would leave him again and that it would take ages before they met again on some other mission that the military happened to want to put on his duty roster. And that might not even happen since they were destined to notice how inefficient Marcan Rayger was on the missions he was given. If that happened, he might never see the woman he loved again.

He had no idea what had happened to him during the interrogation that the Sentinels had made him go through, but somehow his feelings and thoughts seemed to be clearer now than they had before the incident. At least as much as Sheila was concerned. Perhaps it was the fear and anxiety for her that had triggered it, but he no longer denied his feelings towards the woman. He was sure, now, that she and he were meant to be together

Suddenly, Sheila twitched in her sleep and her deep breathing broke. She squeezed her eyes for a couple of times before she seemed to realise that she was awake. Slowly, she opened them. Marcan was happy to notice that she did not flinch away from him when she realised that he was looking at her.

"Good morning, Sheila," he said softly and kissed her still drowsy face.

She yawned and stretched her body, probably not even realising how much Marcan enjoyed the sight of her cat-like figure moving under the thin blanket. "What are you doing?" she asked, blinking her eyes and trying to focus them on him.

"Just looking," he said with his face straight.

She frowned. "Looking?"

"You're so beautiful, Sheila," he said.

An embarrassed but happy smile broke on Sheila's face as she glanced at him. "What's made you so amorous this morning, Marc?"

He smiled and tried to look deep into her eyes, but she was still blinking away the remnants of sleep. "I love you, Sheila," he said.

"Oh, you do, do you?" she asked, smiling wickedly and reaching over for one of the pillows. Then she saw the look in his eyes and stopped. He held her gaze and saw her surprise. "You really mean it, don't you?" she asked at last.

Marcan hesitated. He had not realised that she might not have known his feelings, even though he had never said the words in such a serious manner before. He had never before been so certain about his feelings. But the hesitation lasted only a fragment of a second. "I mean it," he said and lifted his right hand to push away a stray lock of her hair from her face. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

Sheila looked at him for a long time, studying his eyes and face, before she said, "I would have never believed that you could say it and really mean it. I always thought that you loved the space and your freedom the most."

Marcan shrugged slightly, "Perhaps I used to, but not anymore. Whatever you decide today, I will follow you if you want me to."

She looked at him for a moment longer, the expressions on her face unreadable. Then she took a hold of his hand and drew it up to her lips and kissed his fingers. "I think you just made my decision clear, my love," she said.

At ten hundred hours they walked hand-in-hand into one of the open air restaurants to meet with the governor. The morning was rather quiet as far as the restaurant was concerned and the only occupied table on the terrace was Angela Melvoin's. She sat there with an elderly man, whom Marcan immediately recognised.

"Governor Melvoin, Emic," he greeted and looked into his old teacher's eyes. The three years had not changed the former imperial spy in the least but as Marcan was more familiar with Emic's face as it had been when he had been leading the assault fighter squadron, he noticed again the lined face and other features that differentiated him from the younger man that he had once been.

Troy stood up and took his hand, "Marcan, it is good to see you again. I'm sorry to hear what I put you through by mistake. I did not mean them to hurt you."

Marcan sat down at the governors wordless bidding, drawing his chair close to Sheila's, and said, "I'm quite alright now, thank you. Aside from a few sore muscles, I have no remaining memorandums of the whole event."

Emic did not seem convinced, "If that incident has affected your decision about joining us in any way, I will not forgive myself. Believe me, I will make sure that those guys will compensate all of this to you in some way."

"Well, I wouldn't mind that, of course," Marcan said with a smile. He realised that on the previous evening, he might still have been angry at all the people at the table now, but after the morning's discussion with Sheila, he could not have cared less.

After they had ordered their small snacks, Marcan and Sheila settling on fruit salads, but Emic ordering a whole sunberry pie, Angela said, "What about your decision? Will you do what we ask you to, or will we have to find some other solution?"

Again, if Marcan's mood had been different, he might have been annoyed by the hidden threat in the governor's words, but now he just looked at Sheila and smiled, waiting for her to answer the question.

Sheila looked at the older woman and smiled. "We decided to support you. I will resign from the FMI and start hauling cargo with Marcan in his new company. Perhaps we will someday join with you here, but for now we'd prefer to have some time of our own," she said.

The governor looked at her and frowned slightly. Then she looked at Marcan and noticed the way he still held Sheila's hand. She did not say anything about it, but a small smile appeared on her lips. "That will be quite alright. We need someone to haul our cargo, anyway, and you two would be a wonderful choice."

Marcan did not want to break the mood by pointing out that he knew very well why Ms Melvoin considered them so wonderful choices. The Sentinels had already guaranteed his loyalty and it was probably clear to the governor that Sheila was not going to betray them either, given her relationship with him.

The grim thought disappeared from his mind when their fruit salads were brought and he got to delve into the mysteries of the unrecognisable and colourful pieces of fruits.

Later, under the artificial late afternoon lighting in the garden cylinder of the bubble ark, Marcan and Sheila walked hand-in-hand along a path that led through a young forest. The central axis, about three kilometres above their heads shone brightly and was the main means by which the garden got its lighting. And three more kilometres behind the axis, there was a small lake that seemed to hang upside down in the air. Despite all that Marcan knew about centrifugal force, he half expected all that water to suddenly drop down on their heads, as well as the people who strolled by that lake.

He smiled at the thought and turned his attention to Sheila. She was strolling beside him with an uncharacteristically happy expression on her face. "What are you smiling at?" he asked her.

She turned towards him and pressed herself against him. "I'm just so happy that we are together like this, Marc," she said softly.

He smiled and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her even closer to him. He buried his face into her short hair and smelled at her fragrance. The question that he had in his mind made him hesitate, but he decided to ask it anyway. "Sheila, what made you change your mind about us?"

She turned her head to look at him and gave a small kiss to his chin. "You said that you loved me," she said.

Marcan frowned, "I'm sure that I've said it before. This couldn't have been the first time."

She looked at him in the eye as she said, "Yes, you have, but you didn't really mean it. This time, I knew that you meant what you said. I knew that you really meant to spend the rest of your life with me. I wasn't so sure before."

Marcan grimaced, unable to keep the slight hurt from showing in his eyes. "So, that's why you refused to talk about our future all those times? You thought that I would leave you."

Sheila shook her head, "No, I thought it wouldn't work. But when I saw you this morning, I finally realised that you meant what you said and that everything would be alright."

He smiled and pressed his lips against hers. He knew that he would never really understand women, or even one of them, but he was ready to accept it. What mattered to him most was that he now had Sheila all for himself and soon the military would no longer have a role to play in their relationship. If the military did not leave them alone, they would always have the option of hiding at the bubble ark ships.

He hugged Sheila and looked around once more. The artificially lit garden with small forests, lakes and rivers, as well as fields of various kinds of crops and simply beautiful parks to walk in, surrounded them and wrapped over them. It was a secure small world in itself, more so if one counted the city and shipyard districts that occupied the rest of the room in the bubble, under the garden. It was a small world, but big enough to house both him and Sheila and thousands of others for as long as it would take for them to get away from the oppression of the so-called civilisation, if they chose to do so. He wondered at the beautiful green and blue scene and ran his fingers gently across Sheila's back.