Helena Vincent smiled at herself in the mirror, contorting her mouth into a grimace of a grin to check the evenness of her lipstick. She caught her own eye in the reflection, and her smile faded. She was such an ugly bitch, she thought to herself. No amount of paint would make her eyes larger or her lips thinner. Her hair was impervious to straightening and curling alike, and her pale coffee skin was so fragile it formed ugly brown scars at the slightest scratch. Why couldn't Mummy and Daddy have picked decent partners of their own race? she thought, irritably turning away from the mirror. It was bad enough that both Ben Vincent and Kate Andrews were ugly as sin; they didn't need to marry each other and produce a half-caste ugly mug like Helena to make things worse.

Helena sat on her bed on the floor and sighed. She hated everything about her life; her parents, her brothers, her so-called friends who would interrupt their conversations when she approached, and then whisper frantically to each other as soon as her back was turned. She hated working in Command Centre. She hated the confined, enclosed space of wintertime Dover, though she had hated the 2001-like rabbit warren of Alpha even more. She hated her narrow face and brown-speckled skin, and the "little piggy eyes" and flat-chested, big-hipped figure she had inherited from Mummy. She even hated being named for that fashion model of a doctor up on Alpha, whose beauty mocked the ugliness of her teenage namesake. She tried to get her friends to call her He-Lay-na to mark the difference, but the attempt had so far failed. Helena hated everything.

She could remember a time when life hadn't been so hard. Helena had been, if not pretty, at least reasonably cute as a child. She had had friends at school. She remembered spending a lot of time with Sharhi Kumar and Sebabatso Iwu back in the days before her family had moved to Loki, and she had become firm friends with Astrid Buchanan at Dover. Helena remembered a tearful reunion with Sharhi when the Vincents had moved back to Alpha for the Cycle II Summer in year 13. She remembered exchanging a promise with Astrid that they would stay 'bestest' friends forever. But then the family made one last, definitive move to Dover in year 15, and Helena's life had begun to change.

Perhaps it was simply due to the onset of puberty. Helena's acceptable looks had disappeared, hidden under an uneven complexion and a pall of pimples. She had no friends as a teenager. Astrid had stayed on Alpha for an extra year while she did some training in the Medical Centre and her brother Friedhelm passed his pilot's license. When the Buchanans returned to Dover in year 16, Astrid and Helena found that they had grown apart. Or at least, Helena found that Astrid had changed. She was no longer interested in dolls and chit-chat; Astrid's obsession from the age of thirteen was boys, boys, boys. She had dated Helena's brother Duncan for a while, but then went out with John Collins and then Benito Nuñez. Astrid's popularity with the boys left Helena feeling cast out and useless. She had gradually stopped seeing Astrid outside work, and had made no new friends since.

Helena was now seventeen, but she felt as lonely and unhappy as ever. The long winter confinement inside the Dover base didn't help. Her parents had thought to cheer her up by sending her to Alpha to work in Main Mission for a while, but Helena had found the people up there as difficult to relate to as the Doverians. She had seen Seba and Sharhi again, but like Astrid, the young girls had moved on with their lives and had little affection to give Helena. So Helena had come back to Dover.

There was only one small glimmer of light in her bleak existence. Karim Habibi. Sitting on her bed in her best dress, Helena allowed herself a little laugh at the thought of Karim Habibi being the only glimmer of light in anyone's existence. Some glimmer.

And yet, he was undoubtedly the best thing that had happened to her in a long time. She had always known him, of course; like the Vincents, the Habibis were among the first inhabitants of Dover. But six months earlier, when she came back to the settlement, Helena had been assigned to work more closely with Karim. She had let him do most of the work on their project -- a feasibility study on the potential storage capacity of dugout grain silos... fascinating. Not. -- but she had sincerely enjoyed spending time with him. He was soft-spoken and shy and like her, he was afflicted with unfortunate looks. She had done all she could to encourage him, and was finally rewarded when he asked her out.

Karim was not a "great catch", but at least he was a boyfriend. Helena could hold her head high among the likes of Astrid Buchanan or Mary Osgood, or even Sylvia Worcester, who was so proud of being married and already a mother. Helena might be an ugly duckling, but she wasn't going to die an old maid.

She started when she heard a knock on her door. "Yeees?" she asked slowly.

"It's me, baby," said her mother's voice. The door opened and Kate looked in. "Karim will be here soon. Are you ready? Let me see how you look."

Helena obediently stood up and twirled to show off her dress. It was the same dress she always wore to important events, a pink A-line based on a pattern so simple even her mother could sew the dress once she got her hands on the base's sewing-machine. Helena had worn it to so many dates with Karim that she thought the poor boy would start to think it was her only garment. Not that he'd be far off.

"Oh, you look gorgeous," said her mother. "I think your hair is really pretty like that."

Using a lot of oil and more patience than she knew she had, Helena had tamed her black hair into a semblance of a French pleat. She smiled, pleased that her mother had noticed.

"I hope Karim will like it," she said.

"Karim will love it. I'm sure he thinks you look good in anything, just as I do."

Helena caught sight of herself in the mirror and stopped smiling. "But I don't look good, Mummy," she said, annoyed at her mother's lie. "I'm... ugly."

Her mother came in and closed the door, shaking her head. She sat Helena down on the bed and settled beside her.

"Oh, baby. You're not ugly. You know you're not."

"I'm hardly Layla Habibi," said Helena disconsolately.

"And she's hardly the Dover beauty queen!" laughed her mother. "Okay, so she's cute, but you don't want to be a slag like that. The only reason anyone goes out with her is that she's pretty and easy. You don't want the kind of guy who goes out with a girl for those reasons. You might think you're ugly, but that doesn't stop Karim from loving you, does it? I'll bet he doesn't think you're ugly."

"Well..."

"Of course he doesn't! He wouldn't have gone out with you for the past four months if he thought that." Kate took her daughter's hand. "No one thinks you're ugly, darling. It's just in your mind. You know Daddy said it was a kind of disease some girls had on Earth, 'Imagined Ugliness Syndrome'. But you can't let that spoil your life."

Helena nodded, more to end the conversation than anything else. Her mother had noticed Helena's low self-esteem some years ago, and always went out of her way to tell Helena how beautiful she was. But although Helena appreciated her mother's efforts, she knew they were having no effect on her opinion of herself. Her father had told her about Imagined Ugliness Syndrome and tried to convince her that it was just a psychological problem she could perhaps overcome on her own. He had seemed unsure about the latter part; Helena knew that mental illness was an area the Alphan doctors were not comfortable with. She had visited Dr Mathias while she was on Alpha, but he had done little to make her feel any prettier. The problem had appeared for no discernible reason; maybe it would just go away.

In any case, her mother was right; she couldn't let it spoil her life.

"What are you and Karim going to do tonight?" asked Kate.

"Probably wander around the corridors as usual," said Helena. "Or go down to the gym to hang out with everyone else."

"'Hang out'? You sound like a Yank," chuckled her mother. "Tell me, what do you do with Karim when you're walking the corridors?"

Helena shrugged. "Talk. We usually talk about work or about who is dating who."

"I bet I know which one of you talks about what."

This made Helena laugh. "Yeah. He goes on about statistics and crop yields and stuff, and then I'll say 'Oh by the way, did you know so-and-so got engaged to such-and-such'? But I don't know, we don't seem to get bored."

Kate nodded. "That's very important. Marry a man you don't love if you have to, but never marry a man who bores you."

"Daddy doesn't bore you?"

"No. It's quite remarkable. He can waffle on about medical matters I know nothing about and I honestly couldn't care less about, but I never get bored. My mind begins to wander after a while, but I don't get bored." She paused, looking thoughtfully at the floor with a smile. "He's a wonderful man. It's funny, you know. We were only going out when we reached Loki and everyone started talking about having babies. I mean, there was nothing serious between us. He'd had a girlfriend back on Earth, a girl called Louisa whom he was going to marry. Well, he says now that he doesn't think it would ever have made it to marriage, but who knows... Anyway, we thought 'well, we're already shacked up, we might as well have children'. And then along came you lot, and we realised it was serious after all."

Helena didn't know what to say; she was a bit embarrassed by her mother's revelation. Besides, she thought they were talking about her and Karim, not her parents.

"Do you really like Karim?" asked Kate suddenly, turning to look at her daughter.

"Well... Yes." Helena lowered her eyes. "He's really nice. We get on well, and he doesn't bore me. He's very serious, too, not like Blake, for instance. Karim is very driven, very... committed."

Her mother didn't look convinced. "Hmm. Personally, I think he's just a tad flaky."

"Flaky?"

"Well, you know I work with him too. And I've noticed he tends to agree with everything that's said to him. He doesn't strike me as someone with much backbone."

Helena was outraged; Kate couldn't talk about her boyfriend like that. "Maybe he just agrees with what you say because you're his boss. He argued very persuasively against those silos Mr Sauique wanted, and didn't Mr Verdeschi agree to get them redesigned in the end? I don't call that flaky."

Kate shrugged. "I suppose not. He must have some qualities I don't see, because Tony thinks the world of him." She paused, and then asked, "Are you... serious about him?"

"Karim's a good man. I think he'd make a good husband," said Helena confidently.

"I didn't ask if you were going to marry him," said her mother, shaking her head. "I just wanted to know if you were in love. You're much too young to be thinking about marriage anyway."

"I don't think so," protested Helena. "Sylvia and Friedhelm are happy together, especially now they have Thi Hoa."

Helena had instantly fallen in love with Dover's first third-generation baby. She was determined that, whatever else the future might hold for her, she was going to have lots of children. Obviously, she'd want to have a husband as well, to avoid the complications of being a single mother.

"Besides," she continued, "I thought we were all supposed to be thinking about marrying and having children, so that the population will increase."

"I'm not interested in the population," said Kate, "I'm only interested in whether my daughter is going to be happy. I've never seen any good come out of a young marriage; and believe me, I saw plenty back in Lewisham. You shouldn't jump in and marry the very first guy who asks you out."

"But if he's nice and we like each other, why not? I mean, he hasn't asked me, so this whole conversation is perhaps a bit premature. But this isn't some teenage crush. I do think that, rationally, Karim would make someone a good husband. So if he asks me, I'll think it over logically, and I might decide to marry him. I'll be old enough in three months' time anyway."

Her mother clucked her tongue. "You sound like a Castellano with all that logical reasoning... but... oh, baby, I really wish we weren't living here. Back on Earth, you'd be just finishing your A-levels and looking for a place at university, not wondering if you should settle down."

Helena wondered if that was an admission of defeat. There was no time to find out, since they were interrupted by a knock on the front door. "I'll get it," called out Chris. There was the sound of the main door opening and then some voices.

"That must be Mister Nice," said her mother with a chuckle. She stood up with Helena and kissed her on the cheek. "I know there's a lot of pressure on your generation to pick up where we left off. But don't marry Karim if he isn't the One."

Helena spent that evening looking at Karim and wondering if he was the One. He was ugly, there was no doubt about that. But she was used to his face, and the pockmarks and pimples didn't bother her. She remembered what she had told her mother; he was definitely nice, and serious, and committed. She very much doubted that she would ever meet anyone better. Certainly not anyone who would be interested in her.

Karim had been playing pool with Astrid, and she had just beaten him, potting the black when there were still six of his balls on the table. Karim wasn't very good at pool. He handed the cue to Astrid's boyfriend Benito and came back to sit on the treadmill with Helena.

"Are you okay?" he asked after a pause.

"Okay?"

"You... I don't know. You seem very quiet this evening."

"I'm fine."

"Oh, right."

He smoothed a crease on her skirt. Helena wondered if that was a sign of affection or just an excuse to brush his hand on her bare thigh. It didn't feel unpleasant and Helena let Karim put his arm around her. She was comfortable, leaning on his shoulder.

She looked around at their contemporaries in the gym. The future of the human race, Dover-style. Lots of pale faces, a few slanting eyes, the occasional brown complexion, lots of dark hair. The girls wore trousers or short skirts that revealed bare legs which weren't always shaved. The boys had trousers and tunics made from the same pattern as the standard uniforms, but in a different colour. Some had beards, just because they could.

Most of the people Helena knew had paired up. Some permanently, like Sylvia and Friedhelm. Others drifted from partner to partner, perhaps shopping around for the One, or maybe just enjoying life while they could. There had been a time when observing the ballet of pairings had pained Helena, making her feel even more lonely and outcast. But now that she herself was paired, she could watch her fellow Doverians with quietude. All thanks to Karim.

"What does he think he's doing?" growled Karim suddenly.

Alarmed by his tone, Helena sat up again and followed his gaze. She felt a pang of irritation as she saw Blake Collins groping Layla Habibi in the corner near the old stereo system. Not that she cared what happened to that 'slag' as her mother called her, but she just knew that Karim's Mediterranean blood would tolerate no slight to his sisters' honour. Sure enough, Karim had soon left Helena and gone over to the couple.

Helena heard Karim make some comment about Mary Osgood, Blake's girlfriend. Blake looked suitably chastised and wandered off, trying to look as if nothing had happened. Karim and Layla had a brief argument, after which she stormed out of the gym.

"So, is Layla's honour safe?" said Helena acridly.

Karim smiled sheepishly as he sat down beside her. "Sorry about that. Layla has no idea what honour means. I should leave well alone and let her make her own mistakes, but she's my little sister. I don't want her to get hurt."

"No, of course you don't."

"Anyway, where were we? Ah yes."

He put his arm around her again. This brought her face close to his. She wondered if he intended to kiss her, but then remembered he had never yet kissed her when other people were present. Only in emergency-lit corridors or in front of her door.

As expected, Karim didn't kiss her this time either. Instead, he relaxed his hold on her and looked at her hair.

"I don't think I said anything about you hair. It looks really nice like that."

The compliment slid off Helena's ego as easily as her mother's had. Even though her rational mind knew that he was being sincere, and even knew that her hairstyle was attractive, Helena was unable to truly believe that anything about her appearance was nice. Her irrational thought was that Karim had to be lying. Maybe he never kissed her in public because he was ashamed of her.

On the other hand, she didn't need to wait until he made the first move. This wasn't Earth. She leaned forward to kiss him. If he recoiled in horror, then clearly, he thought she was ugly, and he was ashamed of her.

He did push her away, his expression surprised and a little shocked. Helena felt her eyes fill with tears.

"You don't really like me, do you?" she whispered, not wanting to attract anyone else's attention to her humiliation.

Helena hastily got up and left the room. As she opened the door, she heard one of the boys laughingly say, "Boy, you're sure popular with the girls tonight, Karim!" Upset that the incident had been noticed, Helena walked into the corridor and began to cry. Karim was right behind her.

"Hey, shush, Helena," he said as he embraced her. He was one of the rare people who pronounced her name He-LAY-na, the way she wanted. "Don't cry. Please stop, Helena. Don't cry."

She continued to cry, perversely pleased to hear the concern in his voice. That would teach him to lead her on like this! But after a while, she had run out of tears and didn't have any acting skills to keep them up. Karim's arms did feel comfortable around her, and his concern for her made her feel good. He couldn't make her feel beautiful, but at least he made her feel good.

"What was all that about?" he asked when she had calmed down.

He guided her to a utility corridor where they could talk privately. Helena hiccuped, her breath still uneven from the sobbing. She had meant to question him about refusing her kiss, but something completely different happened when she opened her mouth.

"You... You have no idea what my life is like," she blurted out. "I'm so ugly... no one loves me!"

"That's not true!" he protested passionately. "Your parents love you. And what about your brothers?"

"They don't count," said Helena ruefully. She turned away from him.

"What about me?" asked Karim, leaning over so that he was in her field of vision. "Do you think I'd be going out with you if I didn't like you?"

Helena observed him thoughtfully for a moment. "Why don't you ever kiss me in public, then?"

Karim scratched the spots on his cheek awkwardly. It made one bleed and he huffed irritably when he saw the blood on his hand. He patted the area with his sleeve, and then smiled at Helena.

"Well, I think people find me revolting enough as it is." He seemed to realise that might be taken the wrong way. "I mean... Well, you see... the thing is... it's not something I feel we need to do in public. I mean, it's private. It's just between you and me."

"People don't think we're really going out."

"Oh." Karim probably wasn't interested in what people thought. "We're definitely going out. I mean, we've been going out for three months now. I think people will know that we're together. We always eat together at lunch, go to the gym together in the evenings, wander around the corridors at night. All that romantic stuff."

"Why are you going out with me, Karim?"

Helena was half afraid to hear the truth. Perhaps he was just going out with her because nobody else had said yes.

"Why am I going out with you?" he repeated, as if it were a stupid question. "Because I like you. We were getting on really well when we did that silo report and, well, you seemed to like me." He paused and then put his arm around her again. "I promise I'll kiss you in public if that's what you want. And I don't think you're ugly."

He kissed her, pushing his tongue much too far in her mouth, as usual. But at least it meant that he felt some physical attraction for her. It was all very well him "liking" her; she wanted him to be a boyfriend, not just a friend. Not the sort of boyfriend she would sleep with, but the sort of boyfriend who wanted to sleep with her if she'd let him.

Karim released her and smiled sheepishly. "Can I ask why you're going out with me?"

"Because you're nice." She really thought that. Looking into his eyes -- he was the same height as her -- she realised that he really was the nicest person she knew. "And because I love you."

"That makes two of us," he said, before adding, predictably, "I love me too." They laughed and then he said his "I love you" and everything was just perfect.

A few weeks later, Karim was again escorting Helena home. This time, they had spent the evening with Karim's family; their evening with Helena's family had been the week before. Despite Karim's fears, this evening hadn't gone too badly, all things considered. Layla's empty plate had rather spoiled the first half of the meal, until Mamma finally decided that her wayward daughter wasn't coming to meet Karim's girlfriend. Father had spent the evening observing Helena closely, especially when her eyes teared up with the spiciness of Mamma's tajine. But all in all, it had gone well.

"Does your mother always cook such spicy food?" asked Helena as they walked down a corridor. The base had just been reopened after the winter, but it was still too cold to go outside with any joy.

"Yes. Well, no, not always, but that's one of Father's favourite dishes. I think she thinks he needs humouring with everything that's going on."

"Because of Layla?"

"Yes, mainly because of Layla. Mamma thinks feeding Father into a good mood will encourage him to patch things up with her."

"Why would he want to do that?" exclaimed Helena. "She behaved abominably. Seducing Mary Osgood's boyfriend, and then getting pregnant, and all this while Mary's father is lying dying in the Medical Centre!"

"Layla wasn't to know that Mr Osgood was going to have an accident," said Karim, automatically trying to defend his sister. "And she didn't get pregnant on purpose either. All she had was a fling with Blake. He's the one who was cheating on his girlfriend. But... it's not a happy business by any account. Father had a fit when Layla told him she was pregnant."

Karim remembered pulling his livid father away from Layla before he could hit her again. Father's violence was excessive, but understandable. Karim, too, had been outraged by Layla's behaviour. She had run out of the apartment and had been staying with the Van't Hoofts ever since.

"Has she decided what she wants to do?"

"Well, she's going to have the baby -- given the current social climate, I don't see how she could not. And I gather Blake wants to marry her."

"Just because she's pregnant?" said Helena, shaking her head censoriously. "That's not the right reason to marry anyone. A marriage should be based on more than the consequences of a fling."

Karim nodded approvingly. "I think so too. What would your criteria for success be, then?"

"Mutual understanding, a true friendship; something that won't fade the way passion does."

"A little passion wouldn't hurt, though, would it?"

Helena shrugged her shoulders. "It's not something you can build a long-term relationship on. The important thing isn't to pick someone to marry just because you want to jump their bones. You need to find someone who will be a good partner for you for the rest of your life, and who will also be a good parent for your children."

This did sound logical. Karim wondered if Helena would be a good partner for the rest of his life, and if she'd be a good mother. He had seen her enthusiastically admiring Thi Hoa Buchanan, so he assumed she liked children and wanted some of her own. As to her being a good partner; by her criteria they were ideally suited to each other. There was no passion between them, but Karim did feel genuine affection for the young woman, and she had professed to love him too. Their respective families seemed pleased with their relationship. Maybe it was only logical to take the next step and marry.

As they walked along the corridor, Karim stopped Helena with a hand on her arm. This wasn't a very romantic location, but it would be appropriate to the manner of their courtship for his proposal to take place in a corridor.

"Helena... what do you think about getting married? I mean to me, obviously. We could get married."

Helena's plain face lit up like a sunrise. Her small eyes were shining and Karim could be pretty certain of her answer before she even spoke.

"Oh, Karim, I would love to!"

Walking home later that evening, Karim wondered if he was making the right decision, or if he was being rushed into doing something just to please Helena. Helena's parents had seemed neither surprised nor particularly pleased when the couple announced their decision. The Vincents had probably been expecting this and already become resigned to the idea that their daughter was going to marry Karim. He knew it had been unusual for Europeans like Ben and Kate to marry before their mid-twenties, but they seemed willing to accept that Alpha, by necessity, followed different rules.

And those rules dictated that people should marry young and reproduce rapidly. The pressure was there, subtle but undeniable; without a large third generation, the colony would die out. As it was, and despite large families like the Vincents and the Habibis, the first generation had barely replaced themselves. The second generation had to do better. And the best way to do that was to start young.

So Karim knew he had to get married and have children. Why not do it with Helena? He did like her. She was plain, but also very reasonable and practical, without any of the girlishness that annoyed him in some of her contemporaries. They had discussed children, and she wanted lots, which sounded good to him. She could cook basic meals and mend clothes -- two talents his mother had always insisted he should look for in a wife. And for some inexplicable reason, she liked him. Logically, Helena was his ideal bride.

Besides, he doubted he would ever find anyone more suitable.

Tony peered into the jumble in the fridge and finally found the plastic container they kept the fruit juice in. Since the Alphans had no commercial products, all the food processed by the Catering section was stored in nondescript Tupperwares. Still, now that winter was over, the Doverians could look forward to some fresh fruit and vegetables again, instead of frozen goods from Alpha's overworked Hydroponics section. Though Tony reminded himself that the miniature Hydroponics lab at Dover hadn't done so badly over the winter.

Having poured two mugs of juice, he tossed the container back into the fridge and then went into the living area to sit down with Maya.

"Here we go, the last of the thawed frozen orange juice," he said proudly, handing her a mug. "Anyway, what did you make of all that?"

Maya shrugged. "What can I say? It was a wedding. I liked the music though."

"Arab music?" said Tony dubiously. "All that yodelling and violins does nothing for me. I'll admit some of the numbers are quite danceable though, especially the stuff that was actually made in France. Like that song Basma sang, the one they always play in the RJGK."

"'Salma Ya Salama' by Dalida," said Maya knowledgeably. She seemed about to say something else, but a yelp from Toto's bedroom interrupted her.

Tony and Maya exchanged a puzzled glance. Tony doubted it was anything serious, since Toto was given to shouting when he was playing alone in his room. Still, he decided to go and check on their son, if only to tell him to keep the noise down.

Toto was standing in the middle of his bed, wrapped in a sheet and holding a plastic stick. He had a foil cap on his head, a fair approximation of a Roman helmet. Tony tried very hard not to laugh when he saw his son in this garb.

"Toto, can you keep it down, please?" He managed to keep a reasonably straight face.

The little boy stared at him with his enormous black eyes and nodded mutely. Tony closed the door and listened; sure enough, he could hear Toto resuming his game, making whooshing noises as he added sound effects to his imaginary battle. Tony reflected sadly that it was a pity Toto had no one to play with. Still, he seemed to be enjoying himself.

Tony went back to Maya and explained what he had seen. The couple had a laugh about Toto's imaginary games, but agreed that the child's active imagination was a good sign. He was currently fascinated with the Asterix comics, and was learning a lot about the ancient world at the same time.

"Anyway," said Maya when they had finished discussing Salvatore, "what were you saying, about the wedding?"

"Actually, I was asking you what you thought of it."

"I told you. I don't have an opinion on Karim and Helena's wedding. In any case, I assumed you were only asking me so that you could tell me your opinion."

Tony shook his head, annoyed at the way Maya's logic always seemed to see straight through him.

"All right. I think Karim and Helena are making a mistake."

Maya smiled indulgently. "Tony, you haven't approved of any of the marriages we've had in the second generation so far. The truth is that you think they're all too young to be getting married at all. I think it's a bit more complicated. Some of these marriages will probably work: I don't see Sylvia and Friedhelm splitting up, for instance. Others probably won't: I doubt Blake and Layla have much of a future together. As to the rest... we'll have to wait and see."

"You think Karim and Helena are a 'wait and see' situation?"

"Well, judging by the divorce rates you had back on Earth, I'd say most human marriages are a wait and see situation. But we can't second-guess people's choices. Who is to judge what person is another person's dream lover? This society has decreed that anyone over eighteen is old enough to take control of their lives, and it isn't anyone's business how many mistakes someone makes."

"Yeah. It's what I always say: you can legislate until you're blue in the face, but you can't stop people from making mistakes."

"Good quote."

"Yes, I think so too. I think I'll have it put on my gravestone."

Thinking about gravestones, Tony's mind automatically drifted onto the recent death of his friend Pat Osgood. He dismissed that thought, and his mind cruelly drifted onto the subject of Becky's improvised striptease. Life had become a lot more complicated since the base was reopened.

"Are you worried about Karim?" asked Maya, perhaps misinterpreting his silence.

"Yes..." Tony paused and thought about today's marriage. "I can't help feeling the poor fellow has married a bona fide loon."