Barbary

“You better go upstairs,” Barbary said. “You’ve been down here kind of a long time, I’ll stay and find Mick —”

“I’m okay, Barbary,” Heather said. “I’m supposed to spend some time at one g, and usually I don’t get around to it, so it’s good that I’m here.”

“But if Mick decides to hide out for a couple of hours—”

“We might have to go home for a while and come back and get him later.”

Barbary said nothing. She did not want to leave Mick here. Probably it was much safer than being out on the street at night back on earth. But still she did not want to leave him here.

Barbary and Heather tramped on across the small hills and valleys, following Mick’s faint pawprints. He had scampered back and forth, sprinting one way, then the other, stopping, hurtling off in another direction. Barbary wished she had seen him, because he was fun to watch when he played like that.

They followed his tracks for a long way. The elevator had long ago vanished above the horizon, so everything looked exactly the same in every direction.

“I know we can’t get lost,” she said. “But it sure is strange down here.”

“Yeah,” Heather said. Her voice was very soft. Barbary could not tell in this light if her sister looked pale, but she was definitely sweating.

“Maybe you’d better rest,” Barbary said.

“No, I’m okay, honest.”

Suddenly her knees collapsed and she sat down hard in the dirt.

“Heather!”

“Well, I will be,” Heather said, sounding disgusted. “In a minute.”

“Come on, I’m going to get you back to the elevator.”

Heather fended off her help. “I just want to sit here for a while.”

“You’ve got to get out of this gravity — I bet I can carry you piggyback.”

“What’s piggyback?” Heather asked skeptically.

“You sort of sit on my back and I put my hands under your knees.”

It was easier to show her than tell her, so she did. Heather felt light and frail when Barbary picked her up. “Now just wrap your arms around my neck. Only try not to strangle me.”

Heather hugged herself against Barbary’s back. As she reached around to hold on, her hand brushed Barbary’s bare throat.

“Jeez, your hands are cold!” Barbary said. “Do you want to wear my jacket?”

“Uh-uh,” Heather said. “My hands are always cold. Honest. I’ll be okay.”

But her voice was so feathery and weak that Barbary felt afraid. She turned back to retrace her footsteps, for she was no longer certain in which direction the elevator lay.

“Wait, Barbary, there’s a different elevator the same way we were going. It’s nearer than the other one. And maybe we’ll find Mick.”

“Okay.”

Barbary trotted over the hillocks, following Heather’s directions, now and then crossing Mick’s track. Soon the base of a second elevator platform sank from the horizon as they neared it. Mick’s pawprints led right to it, but she could not see Mick.

Barbary climbed the steps and let Heather down.

“How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Heather said. “That was kind of fun.”

Barbary grinned. Heather did look better now. She hoped it was not just because the light was brighter.

“You get the elevator,” Barbary said. “I’ll see if maybe Mick is on the other side.”

She ran down the stairs two at a time. Mick’s trail circled the platform, led onto the first step. She found a faint dusty pawprint. She climbed the stairs, calling him. But he was not at the top of the platform behind the elevator, or on either side.

“Heather,” she called, “did Mick come around that way?”

“No, I haven’t seen him. But the elevator’s here. I can’t keep it very long, somebody might get suspicious.”

“I can’t find him,” Barbary said.

“I’ll let it go for now.”

“Go on up. I’ll come in a while.” Before Heather could reply, Barbary returned to the lowest step and followed it all around the square base. But the only pawprints were those she had already found. No prints led away from the platform. She turned, hoping to see Mick behind her, sneaking up like a character in some slapstick comedy. Barbary did not feel much like laughing. Besides, he was not there.

The only place Mick could have hidden was on the elevator. Somehow it must have arrived before Barbary and Heather, then it opened, then he got in, and now he was loose in the ship for anybody to discover. Barbary ran up the steps, panting. She reached the closed elevator door. Heather was nowhere to be seen. She must have gone home. Barbary pushed the elevator panel, pressing her hand against its lighted surface as if her intensity could make it return faster.

Maybe somehow she had missed seeing him. She ran to the corner of the elevator housing and looked beyond its edge. She saw nothing. She ran past the elevator doors and glanced down that side of the platform. Heather stared at the wall.

“Heather, what’s wrong? You were supposed to go back up!”

“You better come here,” Heather said.

Barbary joined her.

An access panel lay askew, hanging by one fastener from the wall of the elevator housing. The hole it was supposed to close was only partly covered. The panel left open a triangular space more than big enough for a small cat to crawl into.