Excerpt: Black Luck

Starfish had taken Helen to the only posh restaurant that he knew for their first date. He wasn’t sure of whether or not to refer to it as such, as he didn’t yet know exactly what they held between the two of them, but for ease, he called it a date. He had hired one of the fleet’s small personal craft to take her to the Paradise Crater, situated within a biosphere upon the moon. The bubble was filled with an oasis of tropical plants; birds and scintillating butterflies drifted around above the tables in the artificial environment. She had seemed breath-taken by the misplaced scenes around her as they dined, and he had had the urge when he saw her smile to learn what other things interested her and made her happy, so he could ensure she was never without them.

As had been the case in the conservatory, he found it hard to talk to her initially, but he soon found that it was easy to do so once he had thought up some topics. Of course, he learnt much about her, and he relayed to her a brief history of himself. They went on, amid the whistling of the songbirds in the branches, to explore the topics of literature and the expansion of the human race, Starfish elated that she found the same things as stimulating and interesting as he did. He had been worried that a politician, by assumption being hard and analytical, would reject a philosophical and dreaming pilot.

They had entered into a debate on which of two authors had written the better book, when she suddenly leaned across the table, over their cups of after-dinner coffee, and kissed him.