Barbary

Barbary grabbed the panel and jerked it aside, bending it at the corner. Metal screeched on metal. She reached into the hole, but Heather grabbed her arm.

“Don’t! I don’t know what you’d touch, but probably electric wire and maybe the elevator cables, too. You might get electrocuted, or lose a finger, or something.”

Barbary heard the faint vibration as the elevator slid toward them.

“But Mick’s in there!” she cried. “I’ve got to get him out!”

“Wouldn’t he meow or something? I don’t hear anything.”

“Where else could he be? What if he’s hurt? If I could get electrocuted or squashed, so could he!”

“Try calling him.”

Barbary bent close to the opening. “Hey, Mick! Kitty, kitty, kitty!”

She heard only the approach of the elevator.

“Can’t we stop it?”

“No.”

“But what if Mick’s underneath it?”

The elevator’s vibration slowed and stopped. Barbary cringed, expecting to hear a yowl of pain, imagining Mick crouched terrified under the falling cage. But she heard nothing but the soft slide of doors opening. She started to shiver.

“We’ve got to do something!”

Heather climbed to her feet, staring at the hole.

“Does he have a good sense of smell?”

“Not very. But some. Oh! If we get some food and put it here, he might smell it.”

“Right.” Heather hurried around the corner and caught the doors just before they closed. “Come on.”

“I don’t want to leave him here.”

“It’s the only choice,” Heather said.

Barbary felt like crying. “What if it doesn’t work?”

“Then,” Heather said, “we’ll have to get some help. We’ll have to admit we came down here. And…”

“I’ll have to admit Mick’s in the station,” Barbary said.

Chapter Nine

On the way up, the elevator remained as deserted as Heather had said it ought to be on the way down. When Heather and Barbary got out at the half-g level, Heather just stood there for a couple of minutes. Barbary waited, anxious about Mick, but equally worried about Heather.

“I’m okay, honest,” Heather said. “Let’s go.” She headed toward the apartment, trying to cheer Barbary up until Barbary wanted to scream.

I never should have let Mick get out of sight, she thought.

“We could go get him some shrimp,” Heather said. “He liked that pretty well, didn’t he?”

“Yeah,” Barbary said. “But it doesn’t smell very strong. I think I better use the stuff I brought with me. It smells awful. But Mick likes it.”

“Okay.”

They entered the apartment. Thea had awakened from her nap. She sat on the floor working on her contraption and Yoshi sat on the couch reading a book. Yoshi glanced up, but Thea continued to tinker with a delicate bit of machinery.

“Hi, kids,” Yoshi said.

“Hi,” Heather said. “I’m still showing Barbary around we just came back to get something we forgot.”

She headed for her room.

“What have you seen so far?”

Barbary started to tell Yoshi about the raft trip, but changed her mind. What if Heather had persuaded the other adults to let her take the raft out by herself, but had never told her father? The raft might be nearly as much a secret as the shield level. She needed to talk to Heather about exactly what was safe to tell adults around here, and what wasn’t.

“Oh, we’ve been all over. We talked to Jeanne Velory, and Ambassador Begay,” she said, hoping to distract him from details.

“Did you see the gardens?”

“The gardens?” Barbary tried to remember what Heather had told her about the gardens.

“Your shoes are dirty,” he said. “It’s elementary, my dear Watson.”

Barbary felt confused. Yoshi laughed.

“You read too many Sherlock Holmes books,” Heather said.

“I know, but I couldn’t resist. It seemed a safe bet, though — the gardens are the only place on the ship where you can get dirt on your shoes.”

Thea glanced up as if she were about to say something, then drew her eyebrows together and bent over her gizmo again.

“I took Barbary on a raft trip — we did an errand for Yukiko,” Heather said. “We’re going right back out again.”

“Not till after you’ve rested for a while.”

“But, Yoshi —!”

“No arguments,” he said. “I know you’re excited about showing Barbary around. But there’s plenty of time. You don’t need to neglect your health. You can’t neglect your lessons much longer, either.”

Heather glared at him, then turned and stomped off into her bedroom. She and Yoshi must have had this argument before; Heather must know she could not win it.

“It’s hard,” Yoshi said, “to strike a balance between restricting her and letting her run herself ragged.”

“I understand,” Barbary said. “I don’t want her to do anything that will make her sick. Honest.”

“I’m glad. She can do anything she wants — I don’t ever want her to start being afraid she can’t. She just can’t do it all at once. None of us can, but sometimes it’s hard to convince Heather of that.”

“I’ll just go and tell her not to be mad or anything, then come right out and — and go for a walk, okay?”

“That’s fine.”

Barbary followed Heather into their room. Heather sat cross-legged on her bunk with her chin on her fists. Tears ran down her cheeks, but she had stopped crying.

“Just once you’d think —!”