“I told you this was a mistake!” Frank snarled.
Jeanne ignored him. “Barbary, are you okay? You took a couple of nasty bumps.”
“Yeah,” Barbary said. The shakiness of her voice surprised her. “I think so.” She opened her eyes. Things had stopped spinning. “That was dumb,” she said. “That was really dumb.” She glanced toward the vice president. Her face burned with embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” she said. She unwrapped the ruined newspaper from her foot and held it out to him. The quiet bodyguard took it from her and suddenly burst into uncontrollable laughter. His laugh was more like a giggle. Barbary felt another wave of embarrassment rise across her face. Shreds of newspaper floated around the vice president like a halo, and Frank snatched at them, still scowling. The vice president opened his hands. The last pieces of paper floated away.
“Well, never mind,” he said to Barbary. “But do try not to do it again.”
“It really is okay,” Jeanne said. “Wait till you hear some of the stuff I did before I was used to it.”
She swooped to their seats. “Easy, now, right this way. Relax, and just a touch...”
Barbary put her feet against the ceiling, held tight to her jacket, and pushed off very, very gently. She moved so slowly she was afraid she would stop before she got across the space between her and Jeanne, but she reached out, being very careful, and Jeanne grasped her fingers.
“Perfect!” The other passengers applauded. Doubly embarrassed, Barbary ducked down in her seat.
Chapter Three
The shuttle neared Outrigger. If Barbary had not read so much about space, she would never have recognized the space transport as a ship. She had grown up in a world of jets and bullet-trains: sleek, slender, streamlined conveyances. Outrigger looked like a cross between a Tinkertoy and a spider web. Struts and towers, antennas and solar panels poked out at every angle.
The transport ship filled the screen with its awkward form, expanding as the shuttle approached. Soon the exterior camera showed only a featureless metal panel. Barbary wished again for windows.
With an almost imperceptible vibration, the shuttle docked against Outrigger. The doors of the shuttle’s cargo bay nestled into the transport.
“Good work!” Jeanne whispered. She glanced at Barbary and smiled. “Sometimes these dockings shake your teeth. Nice to know we’ve had a good pilot.”
“Can’t you find out beforehand?”
“Sure,” Jeanne said. “But that would spoil all the fun.” She sighed. “I used to know all the shuttle pilots, but so many joined while I was away…”
The shuttle bay doors folded open. People from the transport floated into the passenger compartment and began helping the newcomers out of their harnesses.
“It takes half an hour to unload everybody one by one,” Jeanne said. “Are you game to go with me?”
“Sure,” Barbary said.
One of the transport crew propelled himself Jeanne’s way.
“Hi, Dr. Velory,” he said. “I didn’t realize you were coming in on this flight.”
“I thought I’d better,” she said, unfastening her harness and floating beside him. “All things considered.” She unfastened Barbary’s seat belt.
“Yes,” he said. “I expect you’re right.”
“I’ll see that Barbary gets where she’s going,” Jeanne said. She indicated Barbary with a flick of her eyes, not a nod of her head.
“Thanks,” the crew member said in a low voice. “Almost everybody else this trip is a first-timer. Keeping them sorted out is going to be… oh… lots of fun.”
Barbary found herself hovering out of reach of anything, drifting toward the transport. Jeanne barely touched her. She stopped moving.
“For now, I’ll just tow you, okay?” She slid Barbary’s duffel bag from beneath the seat. Barbary snatched it. Jeanne kept her from tumbling away, but glanced at her with a quizzical expression.
Embarrassed to have been so rude, Barbary dropped her gaze. But she had things with her that she did not want anyone to suspect.
“Grab my belt,” Jeanne said.
Barbary slipped her arm through the strap of the duffel bag so she could hang on to Jeanne. She felt awkward and uneasy. But Jeanne pushed off with both feet and sailed straight out of the shuttle.
The shuttle bay doors opened into a large chamber. Supporting struts, handholds, bright-painted lines, and narrow plastic tracks patterned the walls. Everything was a “wall,” for nothing was “up” or “down,” “floor” or “ceiling.”
“I read a lot of novels about space travel,” Barbary said. “In them everybody gets around by sticking themselves to the walls with Velcro.”
“That doesn’t work very well,” Jeanne said. “Hook pollution.” In response to Barbary’s questioning glance, she said, “The little plastic hooks on the Velcro break off and float around and get into things. You can slide along the tracks if you get some skates, or a skating-chair,” Jeanne said over her shoulder. “But this way’s a lot faster.” Jumping, ricocheting, handswimming, she drew Barbary into a maze of corridors and tunnels. In a few minutes Barbary felt completely disoriented. The painted lines joined their course or peeled off from it, disappearing down other corridors. Soon all the colors had changed but one.
“Are you following the blue?”
Jeanne pulled herself along hand over hand. She slowed, glancing at the wall below — beside? — them. “Right,” she said. “It is blue to deck one. After a while you learn your way around, and you forget which colors lead where.”
She accelerated again. She moved in a way almost like crawling, except that she did not use her legs. She kept her body parallel to the surface containing whichever holds she happened to be using at the time. Jeanne grabbed a rung, pulled to propel herself forward, and used her other hand to catch another rung several body-lengths along the corridor.
“Deck one,” Barbary said. “What’s that?”
“The observation bubble,” Jeanne said. “It’s quite a sight.”
Barbary had dreamed about her first view of space. She had had the dream much longer than she had known she would ever get to see it for real. She barely even remembered a time before she would occasionally wake contented from that fantasy. But one thing was more important to her.
“If we hurry,” Jeanne said, “we can watch the shuttle undocking. Then I’ll have to get to work. But the sight’s worth some extra time.”
“Jeanne,” Barbary said hesitantly.
“Yeah?”
“I’d like to see that, but I want to… I need… I’m awfully tired. If I could just go to my room and be alone for awhile…”
“There’s a bathroom near the observation deck, if that’s what you need,” Jeanne said with an understanding grin. “Do you know how to use a zero-gravity toilet?”
“They give you an instruction booklet when you buy your ticket,” Barbary said, a bit embarrassed. “It isn’t that. I want to see what you want to show me. But I have to be by myself for a while.” She could not explain any further.
“Okay,” Jeanne said, sounding puzzled.
o0o
Jeanne hovered in the doorway of Barbary’s room. “You’re sure you’re all right.”
“Yes,” Barbary said. “Thanks.”
Jeanne waited another moment, as if to let Barbary change her mind, as if to give her one more chance to trust her. Barbary remained silent. She could feel the secret pocket. She had to be alone immediately.
“I may not see you during the trip,” Jeanne said. “I’m afraid I’m going to be pretty busy from here on out. But good luck.”
“Thanks,” Barbary said.
Jeanne pulled the door shut.
Afraid she had failed a test, the first one, a very important one, Barbary wondered if Jeanne thought her a coward, or, perhaps worse, uninterested in her new home.