Page 1 of The Space Traveller's Lover
PARTI
CHAPTER 1
DREAMS
Who is this man I’m about to reach and then vanishes?
Sometimes, the one thing you desperately want is the one thing that keeps slipping away. Then you try harder, Erin thinks to herself as she closes her eyes.
All she can hear is her fast breathing, but she won’t stop running through the endless corridors, her bare feet stamping hard on the marbled floor. A bright, beckoning light flashes in the distance, and she accelerates even more. Soon she finds herself at the shore of a multicoloured ocean, separating her from a sky-piercing tower. Flickering sunbeams break through the far horizon, reflecting on the thin edges of the glassy structure.
A sudden gust of wind lifts her body and spins it over the ocean, her long waving hair wrapping tightly around her neck. She cries out loud until her hurting throat makes her cough. She kicks and flutters, trying to find her balance, but ends up spinning even faster.
Through her blurred vision, she discerns the dashing silhouette of a golden-uniformed soldier standing in front of the tower. She anxiously extends her arms in a vain attempt to reach him while he speaks to her softly, as if oblivious to her torment.
A rising fog obscures his face, but his enigmatic presence and low soothing voice lure her. She soon forgets about her fears. Just when she thinks he’s within reach, he disappears behind a dark cloud, his voicefading into a whimper. Suddenly, a blunt blow to her back pushes her harshly into the water. She’s sinking fast into the deep black ocean, her body still spinning out of control, faster and faster.
She tries hard to open her eyes, the pressure on her shut eyelids working against her willpower. Still, she keeps trying. At last, the light breaks through her contracting pupils. The impatient figure standing in front of her makes her jump and sit up straight. She buries her head in her hands as she realises she is only in her bedroom. It was a dream, the same kind of dream that keeps haunting her.Who is this man I’m about to reach and then vanishes?
“It’s time to get up, you lazy girl,” shouts the plump woman, her unkempt curly hair bouncing as she pulls the sheets away and noisily opens the curtains.
“Sure,” Erin mumbles. She nearly falls over as she rushes to the bathroom door across the aisle.
Mornings are the least favourite part of Erin’s day, especially when she oversleeps and her adoptive mother, Pat Lobart, has to wake her up.
The woman shakes her head, frowning in disapproval. “Hurry up, or you’ll be late,” Mrs Lobart shouts, continuing to shake her head as she leaves the room.
Erin washes her face and combs her long, sun-streaked hair while thinking about her dream. A swirl of emotions makes her body shiver. She relives the hopelessness and fear. But it’s the alluring image of the unreachable soldier that makes her heart flip. “It’s all in my imagination,” she whispers as she ties her long hair in a ponytail.
She pulls down the blue overalls hanging from the wall and slides them up her body, giving a final glance in the mirror. “That will do for today,” she says to herself.
As she enters the kitchen, Mrs Lobart still has a bad temper. “Erin, you’ll be such a bad example to the others in the tuna farm … arriving late.”
“But I’m on time,” she protests.
“As always, at the last minute,” Mrs Lobart snaps as if she doesn’t want to hear any more excuses.
Erin grabs a piece of bread and takes a sip from her black coffee mug before running out the back door. Blazer, her smooth fox terrier, runsjoyfully towards her, jumping on her chest with his two front paws. She strokes his soft, white and tan coat while sharing the rest of her bread with the overexcited dog. She takes a deep breath, looking towards the winding country road that will take her to the tuna farm. The weather is good today, with no bulging clouds or dense mist covering the otherwise perfectly blue sky. She can even see the flocks of seagulls circling over the steel suspension bridge joining the island to the tuna farm’s control tower.
The wind brings the smell of the salty sea and the shrieking calls of the agitated birds. Erin looks at her watch. She still has a few minutes to spare before her shifts start.Shall I go running or get my horse?She ponders while looking towards the stables.
“Erin.” Mrs Lobart’s stern call makes her jolt. She jumps over the fence and onto the footpath. “Ah, Erin … Happy birthday! Come back early today … will you?” She hears Mrs Lobart’s fading voice as she runs towards the coast.
All the while, she cannot stop thinking about the mysterious man in her dreams, wondering why he keeps turning up ever more frequently, night after night.
CHAPTER 2
THE ISLAND
Everyone knows she’s smart, out-of-the-ordinary smart.
The Lobart family live on the remote island of Tinian, part of Mariana’s archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. Erin’s adoptive parents, Albert and Patricia Lobart, brought her to live on the island when she was eleven years old. The family moved from LA (Los Angeles, California), when Albert took over the running of the tuna farm.
Anyone on the island can tell you that Erin is a one-of-a-kind girl. Her dreamy gaze and her aloof demeanour are as irritating as self-evident. She prefers to stay out swimming alone in the open ocean or horse riding by its shores, watching the night sky, or playing with her pet dog. Still, despite spending most of her time in outdoor activities, occasionally looking at her school notes, she always comes top of her class. Everyone knows she’s smart, out-of-the-ordinary smart. But most of those who admire her are also dismayed at her unruly nature. Behind her delicate, girlish appearance, there’s a strong will and a zest for independence. Erin always finds a way to do the opposite of what others ask. This infuriates Mr Lobart, who is accustomed to being obeyed to the letter by everyone else.
Mr Lobart runs the tuna farm like clockwork. Mrs Lobart proudly claims her family saved the tuna from extinction after the most significant decline of the species in recorded history. Although very small, the island is of great importance to the world’s food supply, as it’s the site of the biggestand most successful tuna breeding farm ever built. The fortified steel control tower, located two kilometres from the island’s rugged west coast, rises as far as it sinks. From its sturdy underwater spine, stacks of tubular channels extend and wrap around the island, forming a long spiral down to the seabed. It’s here where the islanders breed large quantities of giant bluefin tuna for the world’s food supply. And it’s here where most of the world’s tuna population can be found.
By the end of the twenty-first century, the unpredictable weather had a devastating impact on food production. The very survival of humankind depended on carefully managing resources and selflessly helping each other. For some time, the Sun’s periodic cycles had become impossible to predict, with a long period of high activity exceeding the expected eleven-year cycle. An unusually high number of sunspots had appeared and doggedly stayed put, causing frequent eruptions of solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Freak snowstorms, seemingly endless deluges, massive sea surges, raging wildfires, swallowing sandstorms—all could be brewed and unleashed unexpectedly from the rapidly fluctuating supercharged atmosphere.
