Barbary

“Heather —” Barbary said, exasperated. She stopped for a second to make herself calm down. “I know you want to show me everything, and I want to see it. But Mick’s my responsibility. I have to take care of him and be sure he’s all right. Otherwise I just should have let him loose back on earth where he’d have half a chance without me.”

Heather walked along in silence for quite a way. Barbary felt certain that her new sister was angry at her. She did not know Heather well enough to know how she would react when she got mad.

“Yeah,” Heather said, to Barbary’s surprise. “Yeah, you’re right. I understand. I hadn’t really thought about it enough, but I see what you mean. You have to protect him. And I’m going to help you.”

Chapter Eight

Closer to completion, Thea’s contraption sat on the living room floor. Thea had fallen asleep on the couch. The door to Heather’s room remained tight shut. Barbary slid it open.

“Lights,” Heather said.

“Hey, Mick,” Barbary whispered.

He made the squeaky-purring sound he always made when he woke. From the storage shelf of the upper bunk he yawned and blinked at her. He rose, stretched, and suddenly jumped for the door. Barbary caught him. He turned in her hands and attacked her fingers, partly in fun, but partly in earnest.

“He’s bored,” Barbary said. “He’s really bored. He hardly ever bites.” She tussled with him, letting him fight with her hand even when he got excited and stuck his claws into her. But he would never get enough exercise pouncing on her hand. “He used to spend just about all night outside, even though it was dangerous. What am I going to do, Heather?”

“He needs a place where he can run around, huh?”

“Yeah. But a really private place.”

Heather sat on top of her desk and leaned her chin on her hand.

“I know where to go,” she said. “Only we have to get him there. Can you try to hide him in your jacket?”

“Sometimes he’ll lie still for a little while. Not long, though. Can we go a way that not very many people use? Just in case?”

“We’ll have to,” Heather said, and jumped up before Barbary could ask what she meant by that. “Where’d you put your jacket?”

o0o

Mick crouched in the secret pocket, but Barbary knew he would want to get out soon. She followed Heather along one of the corridors that curved around the inner surface of the station’s wheel.

“Heather,” Barbary said, “am I just imagining it, or does walking feel different depending on which direction you’re going?”

“It really is different. Because of the spin.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Okay. You’ve got weight here because of the spin, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“So if you walk plus-spin — that’s the same direction the station’s spinning — you’re going even faster than the station. Since your weight is proportional to your speed, you feel heavier. And it makes you feel kind of like you’re walking uphill. That’s why when you see people jogging in the one-g level, they usually run plus-spin. They get their exercise faster.”

“I guess I understand.”

“Then if you go the opposite way, minus-spin” — Heather turned and ran a few steps in the opposite direction — “you subtract your speed from the station’s speed. That makes you feel lighter. And you think maybe you’re going downhill.”

“It’s weird,” Barbary said.

“No, it isn’t!” Heather said. “Oh… I guess it is. But you’ll get used to it. You can feel it even more if you run. Go ahead, try it.”

Mickey squirmed, trying to escape.

“I will later,” Barbary said. “But if I run now, Mick will have a fit. How much farther do we have to go?” She put her hand on the outside of the secret pocket and tried to pet Mick to calm him down and hold him still at the same time.

“To the bottom of the elevator.”

Inside the elevator, Heather opened a panel, pushed a button marked -3, and slid the panel shut. None of the usual numbers lit up, but they descended. Barbary leaned against the wall where the outlines were painted, hoping she would soon get used to the tilt when the elevator moved.

Barbary opened her jacket. Mick stuck his head out of the pocket. He looked ready to jump any second.

“Stay there, Mick!” she said.

“Hardly anybody ever uses this elevator,” Heather said. “He’s safe now.”

“Maybe I could let him out?”

“Probably it’d be all right, but we’ll be where we’re going in a minute.”

The elevator slowed and stopped.

“Oh, no!” Heather said.

Barbary flung her jacket closed, hugging it to her with her hand still inside. Mickey pressed his head against her fingers.

Jeanne Velory and Ambassador Begay got into the elevator.

“Hello, Barbary. Hello, Heather,” Jeanne said.

“Hi.” Mick’s cold nose and prickly whiskers tickled her as he nudged around looking for a way out. “Uh —!”

“Hi,” Heather said, detecting the note of desperation. “I’m showing Barbary around. We already went on a raft ride to the observation platform.”

“We haven’t had a chance to see the observation platform from up close yet,” Jeanne said. “You’ve got a good guide, Barbary.”

“I know,” Barbary said.

“But aren’t you hot in your jacket?”