Do You Dream of Terra-Two?

The sight of her in his sanctuary sent a jolt through him. She couldn’t see him. He could tell because she was walking differently, leaning down to touch the grass, which stood on end at her fingertips. She took off her shoes and took a few tentative steps. It was early afternoon, but for some reason she was still wearing her pyjamas. Jesse spent a lot of time trying to imagine what Juno wore to bed. How could he not, with only a wall separating their bedrooms, and the girls breathing right next door? He’d seen Poppy in the corridors in her lace camisoles and mini-shorts, and Astrid in her floaty nightdresses, but Juno never walked around in anything other than her navy uniform, the cuffs of her overalls rolled up around her ankles.

It seemed just like her, he supposed, to shrug off the fantasies of men and sleep in an oversized T-shirt and shorts. Jesse could see her bare legs, the golden brown skin, her shins dotted with stubby black hairs. Even her high-arching feet were a thrill.

Jesse kept watching as she took a clumsy step out on the grass, flung an arm up and did a playful pirouette, her laughter ringing through the air as she twirled gracelessly. It was wonderful to see this personal exuberance. He considered revealing himself but thought better of it. How could he face seeing her expression harden, as he knew it would? Her arms fall by her sides, all traces of her careless abandon vanishing in a second?

He slid back a little behind the spire and took a deep breath.

Why was he reacting this way? For five years they had schooled together. She’d hung around with a small group of serious friends who shh-ed students like him in the library.

Juno looked up suddenly and stiffened. She turned her gaze in his direction. To avoid risking the shame of being caught half-crouched behind the leaves, Jesse stepped out and revealed himself.

‘He-y.’ His voice cracked; he had been silent too long. ‘Hey.’

‘What are you doing up here?’ she asked. Jesse swung his empty bucket in answer.

‘Oh right.’ Juno nodded. ‘Of course, you’re Cai’s pupil.’

‘Servant, more like,’ Jesse muttered. But then he felt a flash of annoyance that he’d had to explain himself to her, as if he was the trespasser.

‘What are you doing?’ he asked.

Juno looked at her feet, a little embarrassed,

‘Oh, I just felt like seeing grass. I was taking a nap before dinner and I had a bad dream about— I mean, it’s just what I do sometimes. Come up here when I feel homesick. When I want something familiar.’

‘You’re not really supposed to stand on the grass,’ Jesse said, and then regretted it as soon as she jumped off the soil and onto the tiled ground. He sounded like Cai.

Impulsively, he kicked off his own shoes and leapt onto the grass. Juno watched him in silent confusion.

‘Actually… it’s fine,’ he said, but she didn’t move.

He could feel the weight of her gaze as she examined him, and suddenly he wished he was a little better dressed. The arms of his overalls were tied around his waist, revealing an unwashed Bob Marley T-shirt.

‘You’re up here all the time,’ Juno observed.

‘Yeah.’ Jesse smiled and looked around, at the reservoir just opposite and the lilypads bobbing on the surface, at the English ivy beginning to grow into curved arbours.

‘It’s kind of magical, you know,’ Juno said. ‘You guys are doing a good job.’

Jesse smiled, ducking his head modestly.

Sleep softened her somehow. Her eyes were still far away, not so unnervingly penetrating. A few strands of curly hair were coming loose from the fat braids in which she tied them.

‘It’s pretty lucky that your specialization is the same as Ara’s,’ Juno said.

‘Not lucky, it’s the reason I was picked from the backup crew to take her place.’

‘I mean—’ Juno blushed. ‘I know that. What would you do if you could do anything?’

Pilot the ship, Jesse thought, instantly. Imagining himself in the second-in-command seat next to Sheppard, Harry’s bronze wings pinned to the lapel of his own flight suit. But he banished the thought.

‘I don’t know, but I like it here,’ he said. ‘What about you?’

‘I wanted to be a scientist, actually. Before I was selected for the Beta.’

‘Really?’