Rip nodded slowly, thinking of the two little potted rilla-mints he’d brought over. They bloomed so nicely, and their scent did a lot to improve the antiseptic but boring ship air.
"You did," Jasper said with a triumphant grin that was not the least
malicious. "Bet you brought some of those little plants that make the silver flowers. They smell like Terra in the summer, kind of. Or they remind me of my one visit to Terra." His bleached face looked wistful for a moment.
That aroma makes a place home, Rip thought, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. None of them ever referred to the Starvenger as a future home, or themselves as its officers. They couldn’t; Rip sensed strongly that the other three felt the same. Their own ship, and officer status. No, until it came, best not to jinx it by too much chatter.
He waved a salute and pulled himself after Dane into the tube, followed closely by Tooe. Even though she had made the same short journey when they boarded the shuttle to come out to the Starvenger, Tooe looked around just as intently, her crest fluttering, echoing her mercurial emotions. She appeared most fascinated by the silvery, moist-looking walls of the tube, the molecules of which both maintained its shape and healed any punctures by tenaciously "remembering" the stress programmed into them by the lock extruder. Obviously this technology was expensive—and had not been deployed up in the Spin Axis area where she lived.
Dane slapped the lock control, visibly wincing in anticipation. Rip’s ears popped slightly as the tube behind them pulled away from the Starvenger's lock and sealed instantly in a mouthlike pucker. As the lock sealed behind them, the extruder reversed its function and began to eat the tube. Rip shuddered: none of the crew could get used to the weird Kanddoyd lock technology.
"Sucks it all up," announced Tooe. "Why it not suck us up,too?"
"Doesn’t like the way we taste," said Dane solemnly.
Tooe’s crest flattened in doubt, her slit pupils narrowing. "No tongue in lock, and yours is twisted."
Rip grinned at the expression on Dane’s face. "She’s got you there!" he said.
The hatch in front of them cycled open as the tube shortened behind them and Tooe shot through it, flipping over to bounce off the ceiling and accelerating down through the short cabin toward the control section. Rip and Dane followed more sedately.
"If we intend to be this far out of human space often, we’re going to see a lot of habitats," commented Dane, his gaze following the little blue biped.
"Nice to have crew that know them?" During their two days’ stint aboard Starvenger the big cargo master apprentice hadn’t discussed Tooe with Rip, and Rip hadn’t pushed him on it, despite his curiosity. Maybe now he was ready to talk.
But Dane merely nodded and pulled himself into the nav-pod—he’d piloted on the way out.
Rip concentrated on his piloting, listening with only half an ear to Tooe’s incessant questions and Dane’s patient answers. She was picking up the subtleties of Tradespeak now, as shown by her response to Dane’s joke.
They didn’t talk about anything important on the shuttle; they all knew that anyone who wished to could record conversations. Rip reflected that it would take him ten minutes to check for bugs, but why bother? He and Dane didn’t know anything new. Stotz had said nothing, and Jasper had only discussed Tooe and plants when they arrived at the Starvenger. This closed-mouth attitude was just as the captain had ordered.
Tooe fell silent as the little shuttle pitched down and the habitat loomed huge before them. They were coming in on an angle from the axis; the length of the huge cylinder dwindled in perspective, rendered into an abstract conic section by the harsh, knife-edged shadows of vacuum. The almost greenish light from the system primary glinted off the dull metallic maze of the huge end cap, a confusion of antennae, sensors, vents, radiators for a variety of energies, and much more that was unidentifiable. At the center loomed the vast mouth of the habitat docking bay, the still center of the visible rotation of the habitat.
Rip triggered the attitude thrusters and felt the tug in his inner ear as the shuttle spun up to match the habitat. The vast construct’s rotation appeared to slow and stop. As they approached the bay, the half-phase gray-swirl bulk of the planet it orbited slipped from sight, like moonset.
Looking at Tooe watching the phenomenon with unblinking concentration, Rip realized she had never seen a moonset. Or a sunrise.
They glided inward, joining the incessant ballet of small service vessels and space-suited figures under the terse direction of Dock Control. Tooe’s questions started up again as she pointed excitedly at a big Shver freighter newly berthed not far from the Queen, but Rip hardly glanced at it, his eyes drawn by his own ship, the Solar Queen. Rip studied her length, glowing silvery-gold in the diffuse illumination from the many lights scattered throughout the bay. She wasn’t nearly as large as some of the other ships docked along either side, nor as fancy, but she was home. Home. The word brought vividly to mind the Queen's crowded galley, the narrow hatchways, his tiny cabin, fixed snugly just the way he liked, and not the spacious home he’d spent his childhood in, with its pleasing view of the lakeside. He frowned, realized he couldn’t remember what color his room had been.
A vivid memory intruded then, the tears gathering in his mother’s dark eyes. "I’ll never see you again, son."
And his own voice, cheery, careless, "Sure you will, Mom!" He could hardly wait to wave good-bye to his family and blast off on his first journey. "The time’ll go fast, you’ll see."
Well, it had gone fast—for Rip. Had it for his mother, stuck back on Terra, looking at the skies? Though Rip would not change his life for anything, suddenly he was glad his brother and sister had chosen dirthugger careers.
The shuttle clanked and boomed as the fingers of the Queen's auxiliary lock seized it. Again it was Tooe’s eager fingers that tabbed the controls to verify proper mating and, when the light glowed green, keyed the inner hatch open.
They were soon on board the Queen. Mura greeted them, pointed with his chin to the control deck.
Captain Jellico was busy with Steen Wilcox, but when Rip, Dane, and Tooe appeared in the door, he stopped and faced them. "Anything to report?"
"Not a thing," Rip said. "Quiet two days." Next to him, Dane nodded—and a moment later, Tooe nodded in exactly the same fashion.
Rip saw the captain’s lips quirk slightly. But all he said was, "There’s
little to report here, other than Kamil is now confined to the ship. Supposedly he was caught up near the forbidden areas of the Spin Axis—though he maintains he was chased there."
Rip shook his head, mentally promising himself a visit to Ali, to find out what had happened.
Jellico continued, "You two have six hours of leave time, then check back for your orders."
Rip started to turn away, saw Dane hesitate as though he were about to speak. But then he shook his head as though he’d made a decision, and backed out into the hatchway.
"Going down to Ali’s cabin," Rip said. "Want to find out what’s up."
"I’ll check in with you later," Dane replied, which surprised Rip a little. "I have an errand to do first." At his elbow, Tooe’s yellow eyes blinked.
Rip felt a cautionary remark forming, and he bit it back. "Later, then," was all he said.
12
Dane frowned as he and Tooe passed through the dock into the main concourse. Had the captain read his mind? Why had he told them that business about Ali?