Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #14 May 2015 | Page 15

many things: Pearl was a nickname given to her by
Liam since none of them knew her real name. The always friendly, but sometimes a tad eccentric, girl had
in the past left her quarters to go to live full-time in a
hut in the station garden. She loved music, sometimes
too loud, waking up the whole base during the night.
She also liked computers, but would not spend more
than ten minutes on a problem, just calling someone to
help her, and saying: “After all, why are there men?”
Two years ago, when her contract was over, she did
not want to leave the base. When they decided to send
her back to Earth she was nowhere to be found until
eventually they had given up.
When Liam left, Pearl finally appeared for dinner. She
said simply, “Welcome,” with an educated smile and
sat in silence eating in the middle of other men’s talk.
“You are quiet today.” Xiang told her.
“I’m probably wondering how much nonsense you
told him about me already…” She said frowning, but
then laughed. “I’m joking.” She added smiling. She
looked directly at Mark and said: “Would you like to
visit the garden?”
“Yes.”
Bruno glanced at her, pressing his lips flat only for
an instant, but enough so that Mark noticed that there
was jealousy there.
After she finished her food, she rose. “Let’s go.”
When they had gone some distance she whispered.
“Before they make me wash the dishes.”

2) The Garden
The garden had vegetables and fruit for all tastes. It
had ample space and a domed roof where you could
gaze at the stars and perceive the feeble sunlight that
came in from the faraway sun. For Mark, with her
shoulder-length brown straight hair and tanned skin,
Pearl looked like a South American native living misplaced in a space station garden instead of a jungle. In
any case, she showed the plants with enthusiasm.

“Before, space stations were not like this. There was
no space, plants, water … People lived in crowded
bases, sleeping on piles of bags lifted by the lack of
gravity. But then they saw that it would be impossible
to keep humans this way for years. Humans need life
quality even if we’re crazy enough to leave Earth. But
now tell me about you, since you probably picked up a
lot of strange things about me already.”
“I will tell you all about myself and you will see that
I’m nothing but a normal boring guy.” Mark promised.
“But can you answer me a couple of questions? I’m
curious about what is happening on this base.”
“All right.” Pearl said wearily.
She doesn’t look forward to answering questions.
“Why did you leave an empty space on this corner of
the garden ?”
“Oh, that,” she seemed to relax a little, “one day I
want to make a small lake there and raise coloured Koi
carps so that we have animals to bring more life to this
garden.”
“I see. But this will be difficult to