Pictures and posters covered the wall. Barbary had always plastered the walls of her room — whenever she had stayed in one place long enough — with star posters, astronomical artwork, and magazine pictures from the Ares mission. Here lakes, forests, meadows, and a long mural of mountains covered the walls. In one corner, though, a sequence of small photos traced the development of a comet. Barbary wanted to look at those more closely.
The kitchen area contained little more than one would need for making coffee or heating soup. No room there for leftovers to steal for Mick. On the other hand, if people ate cafeteria-style, she might have an even easier time getting his food.
She could worry about that later. Right now she needed to make sure he was all right.
“Can I see my room?” she asked.
Heather glided past a basket-weave couch. “I’ll show it to you!”
Barbary followed, dragging her duffel bag. It was not very heavy in this gravity, but she was awfully tired.
Heather opened a door. Barbary followed her inside.
Heather jumped more than her own height into the air, spinning, and landed neatly on a bunk. “Isn’t it great?” she said. “We redid it when we knew you were coming. I’ve been sleeping on the top bunk, but if you like it better we can switch.”
Barbary sat down abruptly on a spindly-legged chair. Two matching desks stood nearby. The top of one was bare; the other held tapes and a plush animal.
“I thought...” she said, “I thought I was going to get my own room.
Heather sat still, trying to conceal her disappointment.
“But it’ll be fun to share the room,” Heather said. “Like your mom and my mom and Yoshi and the others rented a house together in college.”
“Is that what you expect me to do? Copy my mother?” Barbary said angrily.
“No, that isn’t what I meant at all,” Heather said, embarrassed. “But it really would be fun. We haven’t finished fixing it up yet. I was waiting to see how you wanted it to look.”
Barbary hooked her heels on the edge of the chair, hugged her knees to her chest, and gazed at her shoes. The weight of the secret pocket pressed against her side.
“I bet you’ll like it if you give it a chance,” Heather said.
“I need a lot of privacy. I have stuff of my own that I need to do by myself.”
After a moment, Heather jumped from the upper bunk. Her feet made a surprisingly loud and solid thud when she landed.
“You can have all the privacy you want, then!” She stamped out and slammed the door behind her,”
Barbary stared at the closed door.
She’ll never be my friend, either, she thought.
But her worry over Mickey crowded out her unhappiness at having had to drive Heather away. She slipped out of her jacket. Mick had not moved. Barbary opened the secret pocket, reached inside, and touched the cat’s soft fur. She hesitated, letting her hand rest on his side, feeling for his heartbeat, for a breath, even for a twitch. She pulled him out of the pocket. He lay limp in her hands.
“Mick, it’s okay, wake up, please?” She pressed her ear to his side. At first she heard nothing. She sat up and stroked his smooth tabby side, feeling the texture of his stripes, willing him to move. She bent down again and held her breath to listen.
His paw twitched, and he growled in his sleep.
She sat up, laughing with relief. “You dumb cat,” she said. “I’m sitting here afraid you’re dead, and you’re just dreaming.”
Someone knocked on the door. With a quick, seared glance around, Barbary scooped up her jacket and Mickey, dragged open the deep bottom drawer of the desk with the empty top, the one she supposed must be hers, and slid Mick into it.
“Barbary?” Yoshi said. “Can I come in?”
Barbary pushed the drawer shut. It squeaked. She flinched, hoping the noise was inaudible outside. She opened the door and tried to join Yoshi in the living room. But her foster father guided her back into the room. He sat on the bunk and patted the blanket beside him. “Please sit down, Barbary.”
Staring at the floor, Barbary obeyed. So her almost sister had told on her the first chance she got.
“Heather looked upset when she came out,” Yoshi said. “Did you two have a fight?”
Maybe this bawling out won’t be as bad as I thought, Barbary said to herself. Maybe I can get it over with before Mick decides he has to get out of that drawer.
“Not a fight, exactly.”
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
“It wasn’t her fault. I just thought I’d have a room all my own. I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings.”
“I think you must have, though. Rather badly, the way she looked.” He folded one leg under him. He was barefoot. “There are quite a few people on the station. We don’t have a lot of living area. As much space as we can, we use for research. And right now, with the extra people, it’s very crowded. After they go home, I think we can find a room for you. That’s the best I can offer just now. Can you be patient for a while?”
Barbary guessed that the only alternative to patience was going back to earth.
“Yeah,” she said. She heard a faint scratching from the desk. “Sure.” She would have said almost anything to get Yoshi to leave. “I’m really sorry. I’ll tell Heather.”
“Good.” Yoshi got to his feet. “We’re very glad to have you with us. But the environment’s different. It’s difficult. It takes extra effort to get along, sometimes.”
“I understand,” Barbary said. “I’ll do better from now on.”
“Okay.” Yoshi went to the door, opened it, and glanced back with a grin. “I’ll let Heather know you want to talk to her.” He closed the door.
“Oh, shit,” Barbary whispered.
She stopped herself from shouting, but not because she cared right now whether anyone thought she was civilized. She was afraid Yoshi would hear her and wonder what she was still so upset about.
But she did not know what to do. Even if she wanted to drug Mickey again — which she did not — she had no more pills. Besides, she could not keep him drugged all the time. She had concentrated so hard on how to smuggle him off earth that she had never thought about what she would do if she succeeded. Now she had to face that problem.
She heard a louder, more insistent scratching from her desk.
The bedroom door opened and Heather came in.
“Hi,” she said, watchful restraint in her voice. “Yoshi says you want to talk to me.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. The room’s really nice. It’ll be fun to share it. I wouldn’t have said what I did, only I’m awfully tired. I need to take a nap before I fall over —”
“Mrrow,” the desk said, through Barbary’s rush of words.
“What was that?” Heather said.
“Nothing. What do you mean? I didn’t hear anything.”
Mick yowled and scratched frantically. If he did not get his way soon, he would howl so loudly that no one in the apartment could possibly miss it.
Heather looked curiously at the desk. “What have you got in there?” she said.
Mickey growled. Barbary yanked the drawer open to keep him from screeching. He poked his head out, blinked, and sprang out of his hiding place.
“What’s that?” Heather said. “Is that a rabbit? How did you get him up here? What’s his name?”
Mickey took a couple of cautious steps, gathered his powerful hind legs under him, and leaped to the top bunk. He walked across it, his paws making small padding noises on the puffy comforter.
“A rabbit! Don’t you know anything? He’s a cat!” Barbary swung around suddenly and grabbed Heather’s shoulders, pushing her hard against the wall. Heather caught her breath in astonishment.