Barbary

“When are you getting your dogies?” Heather said to Chhay. It sounded weird to Barbary, to hear in a space station a word from some old cowboy movie.

Chhay laughed, as if the herd of steers was an old joke between him and Heather. “Somehow I just can’t seem to get that request approved,” he said. “They’re afraid the steers will get loose and overrun the station.”

“Considering the birth rate of your average herd of steers,” Roxane said, “no wonder pets aren’t allowed.”

Everybody laughed except Barbary, who had no idea what was so funny. Heather, who was taking a drink of milk, giggled right into her glass. Barbary used the distraction to palm a shrimp with the Murada technique. Her sleight of hand was only passable, but since no one was watching for her to fool them, and since they were all still laughing at the joke, she got away with it. Barbary had read about people no better at stage magic than she was, who had pretended to have special powers, real magic, and everyone believed them.

At the mention of pets, Heather stopped laughing and wiped off the splash of milk. She glanced at Barbary with a far-too-sober expression, calling attention to her just as she slipped the shrimp into her napkin.

Barbary frowned at Heather and pretended to be studying her salad. How were she and Mick ever going to get away with this? Heather had no experience at all at hiding things or lying, that was certain.

Ramchandra glanced at their table’s single vacant chair.

“Where’s Thea?” he asked.

Barbary palmed another shrimp.

Yoshi shrugged. “Don’t know,” he said. He sounded disappointed. “In the observatory, probably. Working on the probe. Alien-watching. How’s your salad, Barbary?”

She crumpled up her napkin in her lap. “Um, I haven’t tasted it yet.” She stuck her fork into it and pushed it around so no one would be able to tell how much was left. She hesitated, then gulped a shrimp.

“Hey,” she said, surprised. “It’s good.”

“Eating one’s first shrimp is an act of great courage,” Roxane said, and everyone laughed. Barbary was ready to get angry, till she realized they were not laughing at her.

As soon as she had finished eating, Heather jumped to her feet and grabbed her tray. “Come on — I’ll show you what to do with your stuff.”

Barbary had to crush her napkin and shove it into her pocket before she could follow Heather. She caught up to her new sister on the other side of the cafeteria. A recess in the wall held racks for dirty dishes.

“You put the scraps over here. We make them into compost. Then —”

“Give me a little warning, will you?” Barbary muttered. “I had a lap full of shrimp.”

“Oh, Barbary, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize — I didn’t see what you were doing.”

“You weren’t supposed to.”

Heather picked up her plate and poked at the leftover curry sauce. “Should I get some chicken for him?”

“No, never mind, don’t take anything.”

“But —”

“You guys want anything? Tea?”

Barbary shut up as Chhay passed behind her. Heather opened her mouth to speak and Barbary glared at her to make her be quiet, but her sister surprised her. Heather scraped her leftovers down a narrow slide, then put her plate on a rack in a glass-fronted machine.

“After you clear off your dishes, you just stick them in here and when everybody’s done we close the door and turn it on and sonic vibrations clean everything off. Tea would be great, Chhay.”

Barbary turned around, trying to maintain her composure.

“Is there any coffee?”

“Sure.” He poured a cup of coffee and put it on his tray, then looked over the selection of teas.

“Heather, how about mint?”

“I think I’ll have coffee, too,” Heather said.

“Okay.”

They returned to the table. Barbary wondered how long they had to stay at the table before they could excuse themselves.

Chhay put a tray full of steaming cups on the table. The steam acted strange in the low gravity. Barbary would have expected it to rise more quickly, but it collected in round clouds over the tray. Barbary discovered she could pull her cup right out from under its steam. But she was too concerned about Mick to wonder much or ask questions about anything else.

Barbary fidgeted. She kept expecting to be able to smell the soggy shrimp in her pocket.

Heather poured cream into her coffee till it was barely even tan, then added sugar. Barbary liked coffee black, but if it tasted as bad as Heather thought, she would probably put stuff in it, too. She took a cautious sip.

Like all the other food aboard the station, the coffee tasted better than any Barbary had ever had before.

“Is Thea coming to the reception?” Roxane asked Yoshi.

“How should I know?” Yoshi said.

“Sorry,” Roxane said. “Didn’t mean to enter forbidden territory.”

“I’ve barely seen her in a week.” Yoshi turned his cup between his fingers. “Twenty hours a day at the telescope doesn’t give her much time for the mundane things of life. Like talking to her lover or meeting a new member of his family.”