Barbary

What difference does it make? Barbary thought. She’s too important. She’d never have time to be friends anyway.

Outrigger suddenly vibrated. Einstein appeared to move slightly as the transport’s orientation changed. The steering rockets guided them. Barbary grew almost sure she could feel another motion, that of Mickey waking up. The sedative should have kept him asleep much longer. Barbary wondered if he could have developed a resistance to the sleeping drug… A moment later she felt just as sure that he lay too still, that he had stopped breathing. Maybe this time the sedative had been too much for him.

She prevented herself from reaching inside the secret pocket.

The clang, transmitted through the skin of the transport as it docked against Einstein, scared her for a moment. She caught her breath.

They had reached the research station.

She was home.

Maybe she would get to stay here. But she had thought she had found home, other times, and she had always been sent away.

Without Jeanne to vouch for her, Barbary had to wait to be unstrapped and taken into the station. At the very last, when everybody else had disembarked, a crew member freed her and towed her out of the lounge. Barbary felt embarrassed that he assumed she was completely incompetent in zero g.

Inside the research station, the crewmember maneuvered Barbary over and through the chaos of the waiting room. People floated free, dangled from handholds, or let crew members strap them into the skating-chairs that moved along the narrow tracks in the walls. The crew member deposited her at a web strap.

“You’re being met?”

Barbary nodded.

“Okay. Stay here till they find you.”

After the crew member left, Barbary realized she did not even know for sure if anyone knew she was on this flight. She should have tried to call them from Outrigger, but she had been so concerned about keeping out of sight and keeping Mick hidden that she never thought to try. It was too late now.

She hooked one arm through the web strap and held on to her duffel bag with the same hand, then took the chance of reaching into the secret pocket. Her fingers brushed Mickey’s soft fur. He was lying very, very still.

“Let me carry that, okay?”

Barbary felt a tug on her duffel bag. She snatched it back and jerked her hand away from Mick.

“I’ll carry it myself!” She flopped around like a hooked fish and finally came to rest facing the person who had spoken to her.

She did not recognize her at first. Barbary knew that Heather was her own age, but the little girl hovering before her was much smaller, very thin, and looked only eight or nine. She had hardly any color to her skin, though her hair and eyes were black. Who else could she be but Heather?

“Jeez,” she said, “what’s the matter?”

Barbary was too embarrassed to admit she had reacted as she would have back on earth. Nobody would try to steal anything out here. For one thing — where would they go?

“You surprised me,” Barbary said. “I just I like to carry my own stuff, okay?”

“Sure. You are Barbary, aren’t you? Dumb question, you have to be. I’m Heather. We’re practically sisters.” Heather sounded far less fragile than she looked.

Maybe people who are born on space stations are just naturally littler, Barbary thought.

“Hi,” she said. She had meant to begin well here. She hoped she had not already started to make a mess of everything.

“Aren’t you hot in that jacket? You don’t need it here on Atlantis.” Heather wore shorts and a tank top.

“Atlantis?” Barbary tried to divert the conversation so Heather would not get suspicious about her jacket. And, besides — Atlantis?

Heather grinned. “That isn’t the official name, I know, but that’s what we all call it. Atlantis was a mythical continent. Its people were supposed to have a high-tech civilization when all the other human beings were still wrapping themselves up in animal skins.”

“Yeah,” Barbary said, “but Atlantis sank.”

“That’s a good point,” Heather said. “I hadn’t thought of that. I guess nobody else did, either. Do you know how to sly yet?”

“Huh?”

“Sly. That’s ‘swim’ and ‘fly’ — it’s how you get around in zero g.”

“A little, I guess,” Barbary said. “But I can’t do it very well.”

“Okay, I’ll tow you. It’s a lot faster than getting you a chair, and they’re pretty silly anyway. People only use them who are too chicken to try slying.” Heather took Barbary’s hand. “Come on, let’s go find Yoshi. He’s looking for you, too.”