Chapter 20

When she woke, the room was dark and quiet except for the sound of the filters. Jass wiped the sleep from her eyes and squinted at her computer. 9:12. No wonder I feel rested, she thought, I should have been up hours ago! She released the straps and stretched, feeling the stiffness in her muscles. Another trip to the gym would be in order; it was important to get as much exercise as possible while in dock.

Yawning, she pulled up the morning's dock report; the ship had undergone routine repairs and checks, and everything was nominal. The new cargo would be loaded the following day. Everything was on schedule.

Her computer beeped, and Jass saw the incoming call. “Hey, Kristin.”

“Good morning, captain! Ready for a day of fun?”

“What?” Jass mumbled, trying to pull on her socks.

“Jassmyn Stewart, it's been months since you and I spent any time together that wasn't related to the ship or this run. We've got two more days in dock, with nothing for either of us to do. I want to see Andronivi, and I don't feel like doing it alone like yesterday. So get your butt out of bed and let's go see the town.”

“I just got up. It's going to take me a while to get ready.”

“You've got ten minutes.”

Jass groaned.

“No whining. It's my turn to be the slave driver. Also, I found a place a few minutes away that serves real coffee.”

“Real coffee?”

“And if you're not outside your door in ten minutes, I'm going there myself and not leaving you any.”

“See you in ten.”

Jass ended the call and headed for the shower.

Ten minutes later, the two women were making their way through the tube system to the adjacent building. The tubes were full of other people making their way to the mining buildings and the business centers of the colony. Jass and Kristin made their way carefully, trying not to slow down the traffic around them.

“I think this is the place,” Kristin said, taking a channel that branched off from the main line. The two women let themselves fall slowly through the tube, slowing their progress from time to time by grabbing onto a handhold. When they landed, they found themselves in a small entryway; pushing open the door, Jass inhaled the scent of brewed coffee, and felt her knees weaken. How many months had it been since she'd had a cup that wasn't reconstituted? Too long.

A small line snaked its way toward the front of the shop, and Jass and Kristin took up their places at the back, holding onto the nearby rail to make sure their feet stayed on the ground.

“Given the difficulty of getting you to join me today, I assume you slept pretty hard last night?” Kristin said as they advanced a place in line.

“Yeah, I didn't even dream. They've got an amazing gym here, you should try it. I did something called...I forgot what it's called. But they shut you up in this padded room and you bounce around the walls.” Jass could feel her muscles beginning to loosen up.

“Padded rooms? Are you sure they didn't put you in an asylum instead?”

Jass laughed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence in my ability to remain sane. No some sort of reduced-gravity gymnastics or something. It was a lot of fun, but I could barely stay awake long enough to eat dinner when I got back to my room.”

She paused as they moved to the front of the line. The girl behind the counter smiled. “Good morning, ladies! What can I get you?”

“Medium coffee, black,” Jass replied.

“Same,” said Kristin, pulling out her wallet. “And Jass, this is on me.”

“Oh, you don't--”

“I want to pay, and it's fine, so shut up and get your coffee.” Kristin grinned.

The girl punched in their orders. “And do you have your own cups, or will you be needing to purchase one today?”

Seeing their confusion, she continued. “Most residents and frequent visitors have one of our cups; you can clip them to a belt to carry your coffee safely while you're going across town. If you're going to stay here to drink, you'll be fine with one of the paper cups.”

“We've got the day to spend in town, I think we'll just drink the coffee here,” Jassmyn replied.

When they settled at a table, drinks in hand, Jass sighed and wrapped her fingers around the cup. “That feels so good. No matter how good the heating systems are here, or even in the ship, my hands never feel quite warm.”

“I know what you mean,” Kristin said, taking a sip of her coffee. “Warm hands, coffee that didn't come from a pouch... Life is good.”

“This came from a pouch, unless they pay the crazy rates to import the beans. It just came from a bigger pouch with better prep.”

“Let me enjoy my delusion.”

Jass watched the small crowd that moved through the coffeeshop. Most of them were local, denizens of Andronivi, and they all seemed to know each other. It was easy to pick out the visitors: they moved awkwardly in the low gravity, were unfamiliar with the menu, and didn't greet anyone. They're all like me, she thought, we all prefer being on our ships to being anywhere else. They're home now, more than any planet or asteroid.

“Mars to Jass, are you receiving?”

Jass shook herself out of her reverie. “Sorry, just thinking! What were you saying?”

Kristin set her cup down and looked at her friend. “Never mind, it was nothing. I don't think I've seen you this stressed in a while. You holding up ok?”

“Stressed? I feel pretty ok, actually. It was great to have a day off yesterday, and I'm looking forward to today.”

“Jass, you're distracted, you've lost weight, and you look tired as hell. This has been a tough trip, there's no shame in being stressed. But I don't want to see you make any stupid mistakes just because you're too tired to think clearly.”

Jassmyn sat in silence for a moment before responding. “I always knew this run was risky. It's my chance to prove to the investors that we're a viable delivery company. It was going to be tough no matter what: asteroid runs are a long hard slog without much chance of assistance if something goes wrong. I was prepared for all of that. But this sabotage thing...You can't prepare for that. Wondering which of the people you've trained with for two years is stuffing explosives into control panels. Wondering every moment if today is the day your ship blows apart.”

“I thought these saboteurs hadn't killed anyone, just messed up ships and cargoes.”

“Explosives aren't exactly precise tools. Anything could happen. You're floating down the hall one moment, and breathing vacuum the next.” She sipped her coffee. “But I think the fact that it's one of us that's getting to me. I hand-picked this crew. I've known you and Aaron for years, and trained with the others for two. I can't imagine any of you jeopardizing us for money. But someone is doing it.”

They sat in silence, finishing their coffee. Jass wished she'd kept the conversation light; it wasn't often they had the chance to spend a day without worrying about anything on the ship, and she'd ruined it. With a sigh, she stood up. “I'm sorry, Kristin. I'll try not to think about it today. We all need a day off and I don't want to wreck yours. Let's go have some fun.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Have you ever flung yourself at a wall in low gravity?”

Kristin lay on the floor of the padded room, laughing. “You're right, that was insanely fun. I think I may have to move here just so I can do this every day.”

“Nope, not allowed. I don't make friends easily and I'm not allowing any of them to move off-planet. Captain's orders.”

“You're going to have a mutiny on your hands then,” Kristin said, getting to her feet. Jass handed her a towel and she wiped the sweat from her arms and forehead. “I'm going to hit the showers. What do you want to do after that?”

Jass' computer beeped and she answered the incoming call. “Hey Aaron, what's up?”

“I think I've done all the fun things this place has to offer. I need ideas.”

“Kristin and I were thinking the same thing. I've got an idea. Meet us at the dock in a half-hour.”

Aaron was waiting as Kristin and Jass dropped out of the travel tubes nearest to the dock. “So what's this great idea?”

Jass smiled and pointed to a sign a few meters away. “Surface Tours: $200 for 3 hours.”

“You've got to be kidding. We saw the surface of this rock on the way in. You want me to spend half of my budget on this?” Aaron glanced scornfully back at the sign.

“We didn't see the ground from 200 meters above the surface. We only saw the equatorial regions; this tour takes us down to the south pole. Besides, when was the last time you saw some untouched wilderness?” Jass started toward the booth.

Kristin grinned. “Come on, she has a point. I don't know the last time I got out of a dome and really looked at the surface of anything. It'll be a nice break from a static starfield.

The three paid for their tour and were directed to a small ship that stood nearby. The pilot climbed in as they buckled their harnesses. “Y'all ever taken a surface tour before? No? Ok, here's the basics. Never ever unbuckle your harness, not even when we're on the ground. Wait for me to give the go-ahead. Second, you'll need to wear these headsets. Ship this small doesn't have much in the way of sound dampening, and the engines are noisy. You can talk through these. In case of an emergency, we're generally close enough to Andronivi to sit it out and wait for help. That's about it. Everyone strapped in?”

The three answered in the affirmative, and the ship began to hum as the engines spooled up. In a few minutes, the ship left the airlock and soared over the barren landscape, rockets flaring. Jass wrenched her attention from the vibrating ship and focused on the craterous ground rolling away below them. At first glance, it appeared to be a uniform gray, harsh in the distant sunlight, but after a while she began to distinguish slight color differences in the dust. Ahead, the tiny horizon seemed to drop off abruptly; she was about to ask the pilot about it when the ship shot over the edge of an enormous crater. In the center of the depression rose a mountain, higher than the terrain outside of the crater.

“Welcome to Rheasilvia Crater,” the pilot called over the headsets. “Been here for a billion years. The hunk of rock that hit took about one percent of the asteroid's mass with it. Must have been a hell of a thing to see.”

“Thanks, Vesta, for creating so many navigation hazards,” Aaron responded, pressing his forehead against the window to get a better view of the crater floor below.

Jass leaned forward as far as her harness would allow and fixed her attention on the strange vista filling the front window. The crater floor was rocky and uneven, pocked with smaller craters filled with dust. The peak in the center rose silently outside as they passed by, and Jass felt small beside it. The only other mountain she'd been this close to had been Olympus Mons, and that had been years ago. Mons had been surrounded by towns and developments; it was one of the major tourist attractions on Mars, and a whole industry had sprung up to cater to every need of visitors. This mountain was different; a sharper peak stood utterly alone in the middle of the crater, pocked with smaller craters.

As the small craft passed the mountain, the pilot fired the rockets that turned the ship back toward the city at the equator. Jass saw a glint at the bottom of a shallow crater; looking closer, she saw wreckage. “Is that a ship down there?”

The pilot glanced out of the window and nodded. “Yeah, there are a few wrecks around here. Mostly private ships, but there are a few mining ships and even a touring ship.” He grinned. “I don't usually tell people about that one before they pay for their tours.”

Aaron laughed, but Jass was silent. She could easily imagine that it was the Curious Machine strewn in twisted pieces on the surface.

“Why are the wrecks left here?” Kristin asked. “Don't you need to clean them up, or get the...the bodies?”

“We send retrieval teams for any human remains, but it's much trouble to get the ships. They're done for, anyway. Maybe when our operation here is bigger, but for now we don't have anywhere to store wreckage.”

Jass interrupted. “You said that people come for the bodies. What happens to them afterward?”

The pilot was silent for a moment before replying. “Depends on a couple of things. If the deceased had a will, and that will stipulated that their remains be disposed of in a certain way, then it's taken care of and expenses taken out of the estate. Most people don't bother: they just ask that their remains be sent out into space. Saves time, money, fuel. Standard procedure if there's no will is to chemically cremate the remains and send them to the next of kin on the next ship headed the right direction. It's not something that happens all that often, anyway. Most people are only here on a one-year rotation before moving on or going back to Mars or Earth for a few years.”

Jass settled back in her seat. She'd thought about death as much as any captain had to. It was something that had to be considered in any venture. But she'd never thought about the aftermath before, the sheer physical fact of dealing with corpses. If the damn saboteur blew up her ship in the middle of the Asteroid Belt or in orbit around a planet, who would get the bodies? Would they even bother, or would they let her corpse float until the orbit decayed and her frozen remains burned up on reentry? She shuddered, and wrapped her arms around herself.

That night, Jass sat in her quarters, paging through her personal information on her computer. Every form was backed up on the Mars federal computer system and was updated regularly. She found the form she was looking for: In Case of Death. She'd seen it before when updating other forms, but never taken the time to fill it out. Without a further thought, she began entering information.

Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

“Captain,” Kara said, “I've received a message from Vesta. They say they're ready to log our entry routes whenever we are.”

Jass nodded. “I'll let Aaron know. Getting into the Andronivi colony isn't too difficult, not compared to a place like Gaspra. It should be a pretty simple approach. When are we set to connect with their traffic control?”

“Two days from now. It'll give us twenty-four hours of contact before we actually need to make our approach.”

“Good, we're running on schedule then. We should have a day or two to relax there. By the time we leave here, we should be back on our original schedule for reaching Ceres. Not too bad, considering the initial delay.” Jass pulled up the most recent routes that Aaron had worked out; it was always tricky to balance economical use of the engines with approach to any gravitational body, but he had a knack for it. The proposed route looked good, and she made a mental note to approve it later.

She looked out of the front window. Vesta hung as a bright spot in the sky, as unmoving as the stars behind it. She'd been able to get a few good pictures of the cratered surface with her camera, but good photography would become more difficult at they moved toward the asteroid.

The next few days were filled with the usual pre-docking responsibilities; checking cargo and science payloads, planning the route for docking, and communicating with the traffic control officer in the Andronivi colony. The weeks in deep space between dockings had left the crew refreshed and well-rested, but anxious to connect with others and leave the ship for a few hours.

When the time for docking neared, everyone was strapped into their harnesses in the main cabin. Vesta loomed large in the front window; the south pole crater gave the whole body a squashed look. As the ship slowed to enter the dwarf planet's orbit, a set of ridges appeared on the far horizon.

“We have you on our screens, Curious Machine,” announced a disembodied voice from the speaker system. “You should be close enough to see us now.”

“Copy that, Andronivi Control,” Jass replied. “I can see the walls of the Snowman Craters now. We're heading around for our final burn, and we'll see you on the next orbit.”

She turned to the navigator. “How's our speed?”

“Well within nominal range. We should burn off most of our speed on this last orbit, and dock in about forty minutes.”

As the asteroid rolled beneath them, Jass watched the Snowman Craters come into view. The string of craters stretched across the northern hemisphere of the planetoid. Two large craters formed the base of the formation, topped by a smaller crater. She'd seen pictures of snowmen on Earth, but didn't see the resemblance.

In the center crater, Jass could see the light of the sun glinting off strange metal spires and a clear dome. The ship moved too quickly to get a detailed view, but she heard the gasps of several crew members who had never seen the city before. The main dome covered a city that looked too tall and narrow to be real, like a fairy castle in a children’s book illustration. The dome nestled in the midst of metal outbuildings that served as hangars and cargo depots. In a few moments, it had disappeared from their field of view, and the ship soared over the night side of the asteroid.

“I'd seen pictures of Andronivi,” said Kristin after a brief silence, “but nothing really conveys it. That was amazing!”

“Wait till we get closer,” Jass said with a smile.

The dark asteroid rolled away under them as they lost altitude, until it began to look as if the belly of the ship would scrape over the top of the next big crater. The sky brightened beyond the arc of the asteroid's horizon, and the sun reappeared in a blaze of light.

“Light side,” Aaron commented, checking the readings on his screen. “Not long now. About ten minutes until we get the city on visuals again.”

Kara pointed to the window. “Look at those grooves! It looks a little like Phobos.”

The scarred surface of the asteroid was covered with a fine dust that gathered in the basins of the craters. After a few minutes, the sunlit exterior walls of the Snowman Craters appeared over the horizon for the second time, and the ship began slowing to make its landing.

“Andronivi Control, this is the Curious Machine, making our final approach. Are we cleared for landing?”

“Curious Machine, this is Control. You are clear, I repeat, clear for landing. We'll have our welcome party there when you arrive.”

“Thanks, Control, we'll be looking for them.”

The ship edged over the rim of the central crater and dropped into the basin. The city lay ahead, looking fragile in the light. The towers of the central city were half a kilometer tall, though no wider than a typical skyscraper on Mars.

Jass concentrated on bringing the ship in for a safe landing. The traffic control officer director her to one of the landing pads close to the dome. She brought the ship in close and fired the thrusters for a for seconds. Landing on Vesta was tricky; blast too hard or too long with the thrusters, and she'd start regaining altitude and have to come around for another attempt. She was determined not to waste that much fuel.

The ship moved forward and downward more and more slowly. The thrusters fired only occasionally, making small adjustments to the ship's course and velocity. When the Curious Machine had almost ceased her forward movement and hung only a few meters off the pad, Jass turned off the thrusters. The ship settled onto the surface of the planetoid with a strange slowness. When she felt the thump that told her that the ship was finally resting on the surface, Jass hailed the traffic control.

“Control, this is the Curious Machine. We'd like you to get a visual on us and confirm a solid landing.”

“Copy that, Curious Machine. We do have you on the ground, and we're bring out the concourse right now. Hang tight a few minutes, and we'll have you off that ship. Welcome to Vesta.”

Jass turned off the speaker. “Alright, you can release your harnesses now. We're here.” She released her own harness and grabbed the back of her chair as she got her feet under her. Walking on Vesta required some skill; it was more like a combination of long-distance jumping and flying. Each step propelled her upwards for about a meter and it took several seconds to fall back to the ground for the next step. A glance around the cabin confirmed that the others were having a similar difficulty.

“I wish we had some of those magnetic boots from Cybele right about now,” Merriam grumbled. “This is like moving underwater.”

“You won't want magboots here,” Jass said. “The Andronivi colony is set up to make use of the low gravity rather than work around it. Magboots would slow you down.”

The crew made their way down the main corridor to the airlock. By the time they arrived, the concourse from Andronivi had been connected, and it was a simple thing to open the airlock and make their way into the flexible tunnel. As Jass stepped into the concourse, a thin young man stepped forward.

“Welcome to Andronivi Colony. Follow me, we'll get inside the buildings. It's easier to talk there.” He turned and walked back toward the colony, the crew of the Curious Machine following. Once they were inside the nearest outbuilding, he closed the door to the concourse and sealed it. “There we go. I always feel better once I'm out of that tunnel. I know it's completely safe, but you never know when something might go wrong.” He reached out to shake the hands of the crew members nearest to him. “I'm Ianto Greene. I work with traffic control and shipping. I'll be your contact while you're here in the colony. I figure you're ready to rest up a bit after that trip. I'll show you to your rooms.”

After making their way through the building, the group found themselves in the main dome. Everywhere Jass looked, she saw clear tubes running from one end of the colony to another. Each tube connected with dozens of others, branching off in all directions. People floated inside the tubes, moving almost as if they were swimming. Ianto led the group to a large round door in one wall of the building. “We're going to take the tubes to your quarters. They're the fastest way to move in the colony.”

He opened the door, and climbed inside a vertical tube. Jass leaned in and saw that the walls of the tube were covered in padded handgrips. Ianto made his way upward by leaping off the floor, grabbing a handgrip, and pulling himself upward hand over hand. She felt a breeze against her face, and realized that the floor of the tube was a grating through which a constant gust of air moved upward.

“Come on,” called Ianto, still moving up, “it's not as hard as it looks. Just climb, you don't need to exert much effort.”

Jass climbed into the tube and jumped for the first set of handholds. It wasn't very hard to build upward momentum, and before long, she was moving upward more quickly than she would have fallen if she had let go of the handholds. She looked behind her for a moment to see that the rest of the crew was following, some faster than others.

Ianto took the first horizontal tube that connected with the vertical tube; when Jass made her way into the space, she understood why the travelers she'd seen had looked like they were swimming. It was a simple matter to fall into a rhythm moving this way: right hand, left hand, lightly kick with a foot to keep from touching the floor of the tube, right hand, left hand, kick. It had looked like it would take a lot of effort, but she discovered that it took very little force to keep herself suspended in the middle of the tube and moving forward. The sensation of swimming was very strong. She looked down through the clear bottom of the tube and felt a thrill as she realized that she was several stories above the ground floor of the colony.

After a series of tubes, Ianto pulled himself through a door in a nondescript wall. When Jass stepped into the room, she was struck by how warm it was, and hadn't realized how cold the rest of the city was. She flexed her hands; the motion of pulling herself hand over hand along the tubes had made her fingers begin to cramp. The rest of the crew arrived within a few minutes, and Ianto addressed them as a group.

“You're scheduled to be staying with us for three days while the cargo is arranged and the science payloads are checked and exchanged. Your room assignments have been uploaded to your computers, along with the keypad codes for the rooms. Your ship is due for maintenance, which has been arranged for by your investors, so our crew will be checking your ship for any damages to the hull or other areas that could cause you problems on your voyage. We're aware of the threats to ships like yours, so Captain Stewart, we'll need you to check over the ship before we clear you for launch. In the meantime, you are free to move about the city. You'll find maps of the city have been uploaded to your computers, with information about where to eat, entertainment options, or exercise options. If you need anything, please get in touch with me. Welcome to the colony, and enjoy your stay!”

After Ianto left, Jass pulled up their room assignments. “Ok, guys, they have a little more room than Cybele, so we each have separate rooms. We're all down this hall here, so we're still pretty close together. You're all grown adults, so I'll leave you to your own business here, but so help me, if I hear of anyone causing trouble or embarrassing us in any way while we're here, I will see to it that you bunk in the cargo bay when we get back on the ship again. Be back on the ship five hours prior to launch to make sure that everything in your area is in order. Other than that, have a good time and relax a little. You've all earned it.”

Jass closed the door of her room behind her and closed her eyes. She could feel the weight of worry lift off of her shoulders; for a few days, the ship was someone else's concern. The burden would return, she knew, but for now she felt lighter than a feather, for reasons that had nothing to do with the minimal gravity of the asteroid.

She was tempted to try to sleep, but knew that unless she got a full day of activity, she'd be unable to rest soundly. She pulled up information about the exercise facilities on the colony; there were many more options than there had been on her last visit. She changed into clothes more suited for strenuous activity and headed back out the door.

“Welcome to the Vesta Gym!” A young man behind a desk waved her over. “This is your first time here, right?”

“Yeah, but how did you know?”

The man shrugged. “We've only been open for a year and I've worked here that whole time. I haven't seen you before, so I figure you're part of the crew of a ship making a stopover.”

“Can't fault that reasoning.”

“So, were you looking for anything special today? You know that Andronivi prides itself on working with the gravity we have and not trying to play by the old planetary gravity rules. Most of our rooms are pretty unique.”

Jass paged through the information on her computer. “I'm looking for something pretty active right now; I need to be tired enough to get a full night of sleep later.”

“I know just the thing. Follow me.” Her guide turned and made his way down the hallway to a vertical tube in the ceiling. “Up this way.” After climbing a few stories into the air, he ducked into a short tube that lead directly into an empty room. The room was about five meters square, Jass thought as she entered and looked around, and the walls seemed to have some sort of padding.

“This is a room for what we call 'space-restricted gymnastics.' I'll demonstrate.” He crouched and launched himself across the room, turning a somersault as he went. His feet hit the far wall, and Jass could see the panel bend under the impact before throwing him off in a new direction. He bounced around the room, slamming into the walls with feet, elbows, and arms until he stopped in front of Jass.

“Get the idea? It takes some practice, but all the walls are padded so it's pretty tough to hurt yourself. Just throw yourself at a wall a couple of times, you'll get the hang of it.”

As he left, closing the door behind him, Jass eyed the room and tried an experimental bounce. When she settled back to the floor, she bent her knees and pushed off for the opposite wall. She soon discovered that it wasn't getting from one wall to another that presented the main difficulty, but remembering to hit the wall ready to head in a new direction; she was used to catching herself on walls, not bouncing off them. But the attendant had been right, it was a simple thing to learn. She pushed off again, and sailed toward the ceiling. With a simple flip, she positioned her feet to meet the panel. She felt her feet make contact and indent the panel. Just as the material began to rebound, she pushed again and headed for the far wall. Another contact, another bounce. Jass bounced until she lost balance or killed her momentum with a bad landing, then began again. By the time her session was over, she had ricocheted off twelve panels before erring.

Still hot from the gymnastics, Jass decided to go for a swim before finding food. The first sight of the pool took her breath away. As she moved from the equipping room and pulled the scuba mask over her face, she found herself in a large square room with a clear globe in the center of the room, almost filling it. The globe was filled with water, and swimmers darted through it, sending waves of water soaring so high that the tops of the waves separated and became individual spheres of water, floating near the top of the globe until they rejoined the main body of water again. Several clear chambers ran from the water globe to the floor, and Jass watched a swimmer enter one and press a button. In a moment, the water had been pumped from the chamber; the swimmer opened a door in the compartment and climbed out.

Jass entered the empty compartment, and saw a waterproof keypad. The touch of a button closed the door. “Please activate your breather,” said a voice over a speaker. Jass turned her gear on as water began pouring into the compartment. When it was full, a panel in the ceiling slid back; she pushed off from the bottom of the entry chamber and darted into the main pool.

For a few moments, she fought a sense of vertigo; in the pools back home, she had always been able to feel which direction was up very clearly, but the low gravity made it difficult here. After a minute, she oriented herself and began to move through the water with more confidence. The other swimmers in the pool appeared to be more accustomed to the water; several were having fun launching themselves out of the water with a kick and turning a somersault before they re-entered the water. She didn't feel brave enough to try something so dramatic, but enjoyed floating on her back on the surface of the water.

When she left the pool, Jass felt energized and stepped into the full-body dryer that lead from the pool area to the gym. Water droplets hung from her suit and body, detatching themselves and forming an aureole of vapor around her. She pressed the button to start the dryer. Warm air blew around her, whisking away the water droplets and drying her hair. She slipped into the clothes she'd brought into the chamber with her, and opened the door to the showers.

She stepped out of the showers, tying her newly-dried hair back in its usual braid. The exercise and shower had awakened her, and she felt ready to explore the rest of the colony. Her rumbling stomach made her aware of the fact that she hadn't eaten anything since the previous night. A quick consultation of the map on her computer pulled up several restaurants in the surrounding area. Jass instructed the computer to map her route, and begun pulling herself through the system of tubes that connected the colony. In twenty minutes, she felt her toes brush the ground and ducked out of the tube.

She was in a sort of plaza, the largest open space she'd yet seen in Andronivi. With the horizontal space so limited, and gravity so low, the city was mostly composed of vertical spaces, with little room to move side-to-side. The plaza was forty meters on each side, and lined with businesses and entrances to the tube system. The main paths across the space were marked with handrails to make crossing it easier. In the center of the square stood a pedestal, and it took Jass a few minutes to see what was on it. A small spacecraft was set into the top of the pedestal; it appeared to have long solar panels extending from each side like wings, but the panels had been folded and locked near the body of the craft to save space. The craft was six meters wide, consisting of a box, a dish, and the solar panels. Jass made her way over to the pedestal, and read the inscription on the plaque at the base of the monument.

“Dawn. 2007-2016. The first craft to explore Vesta and send back pictures of the Snowman Craters. It orbited Vesta and Ceres, and went beyond its original mission parameters by nearly fourteen months. This monument was erected to honor the vision of those who worked on the mission and to inspire the dreamers of the future.”

She made her way to the other side of the plaza and entered a small restaurant with a blinking neon sign depicting a pair of chopsticks and a steaming bowl.

The restaurant was dim, but as her eyes adjusted, Jass could see several tables and a row of stools in the main room; each seat had a small harness to make sure diners could eat in comfort. A young man in the kitchen called out a greeting and, wiping his hands on a towel, made his way to the counter. From the sound his shoes made on the floor, Jass knew he was wearing some form of magnetized boots.

“Hello! What can I get for you today?”

“According to my computer, you're the only place for several million klicks that serves a decent phó.”

The young man grinned. “You heard right! What kind would you like?”

“Chicken and vegetable, please.”

“We have to add the sauces before we serve it: what would you like and how much?”

Jass thought for a minute. “Moderate amount of hoisin, and enough sriracha to turn the broth orange.”

“You got it!”

He disappeared into the kitchen and Jass made her way to a small table and strapped herself into the seat. She looked around: the place would only hold perhaps forty people at once, and showed signs of constant use. A glance at her computer confirmed that she was an hour late for the lunch rush, which would explain the current emptiness of the building. The table had small insets of magnetic material, and she ran a finger idly around one of the circles.

The young man returned, walking with measured footsteps along the metal floor. He produced two clear glass dishes, each with a metal circle set into the bottom to anchor them to the table. One was a simple glass bowl, filled with steaming strips of chicken meat and vegetables. The other was a clear globe, with a small aperture in one side near the top. It was filled with a hot reddish broth. The waiter handed Jass a hard plastic straw, and pointed to the hole in the globe, which was sealed with a small piece of clear plastic film. “Phó is a little tricky with the gravity here, but you'll get the hang of it. Just push the straw through the plastic there to get a sip of the broth. The meat and vegetables are here, and they've already been seasoned with the basil and lime.”

With a smile, he returned to the kitchen; Jass picked up the straw and pushed it through the plastic, taking a small sip of the broth. The intense heat of the added sriracha burned her throat, but the flavor was excellent. The meat and vegetables were tender, and it didn't take her long to finish the meal. By the end of it, she found that her forehead had a thin film of sweat from the spiciness of the broth. She laughed, and wiped it clear with her sleeve. The waiter approached to take her dishes. “How did you enjoy the meal?”

“I think it's one of the best I've had since leaving Mars. Better than a lot I've had on Mars, come to think of it.” She left a generous tip and made her way back out to the plaza.

She spent the rest of the afternoon getting a feel for Andronivi Colony by traveling through the transport tubes that ran over the city before returning to her room. She read through the latest news from Earth, Mars, and the various ships traveling through the Belt. There were no new reports of sabotage, but several fights had broken out when crew members of several ships had accused their coworkers of being saboteurs. Several private companies had begun to hire security forces for their runs, which was driving up the shipping rates. “Not a pretty picture,” Jass grumbled, turning from the news reports. “Enough of that for now.”

When evening came, she ordered a meal to be delivered to her room. She barely tasted the sandwich, and only stayed awake with effort. The hum of the air filtration system was hypnotizing, and she found herself dozing off while chewing the final bite of her meal. She managed to make it to the bathroom to brush her teeth before collapsing into the bed and strapping herself in for the night.

Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

Her quarters were quiet, and Jass considered slipping into her hammock for a little extra sleep, but decided that her mind wouldn't stop churning long enough to let her rest. Best to calm the mind, the rest would follow.

She locked the door and began her yoga routine, trying to clear her mind of everything but focusing on her breathing. She pictured herself floating among the stars, inhaling calm and exhaling light. When she'd first tried the exercise, she'd thought it was corny, but there was no question that it worked.

At the end of the routine, with her breathing measured and mind calm, Jass knew how she would spend the day.

“But what do you want it for?” Merriam asked, unstrapping a box from a shelf in the back of the science lab.

“Well, you know, there are only so many things you can really do with a high-resolution camera, Mr. Stone. I do believe I will be taking pictures with it.” Jass opened the box and inspected the contents. The camera was a compact black model made for carrying aboard ships with minimal cargo space. It was a standard equipment item for all ships, for documenting damage, notable moments, or other official business, but there was no reason that she couldn't use it for other purposes.

“Is there a tripod for it?”

Merriam handed her a small metal contraption, a telescoping tripod that was folded into a block of metal arms and latches. “This isn't the best tripod, but it should do. The ends of the legs are magnetic, so they'll stick to the floor. Just don't point them at the computers.”

Jass signed the equipment check-out form and strapped the camera box and tripod to her back with a soft elastic strap. In a few minutes, she was in the main cabin, floating in front of the main window. Dani was strapped into her console for once, and gave her a strange look. “What are you doing?”

“If I don't find a way to keep myself busy, I'm gonna be crazy long before we dock with Vesta. The rest of you can do whatever you want, but i'm going to do some photography.” She set up the tripod, smiling as the magnets secured themselves to the cabin floor with a clang. It took a few minutes to get the camera secured to the tripod, but soon she was scanning the motionless star field, looking for a target. She pointed the lens at what she thought was Orion and adjusted the exposure time on the camera. She took a test image, and frowned. Too bright. Another adjustment of the camera. Another image. Better.

Jass flipped through the folder of images she'd taken over the past few weeks. It had taken time to get used to the camera settings, but she had persisted, and her pictures had improved. She pulled up her favorite, a picture of the nebula in Orion, a glowing purple butterfly shape. The nebula had been difficult to capture, due to the long exposure time needed, but she was happy with the final result.

“That's amazing,” Kara said, passing behind her. “Is that one of yours?”

Jass nodded. “Orion nebula. It's my favorite one to photograph; I love the colors. It's not professional quality, of course, not even particularly good for an amateur, but it's better than any other picture I've taken, so I'm happy.”

The weeks had passed slowly, and Jass had started a list of ideas for ways to make future trips more interesting for those who weren't occupied with experiments or other tasks. Having millions of digital books and movies didn't make up for the inability to walk out one's own door and experience something directly.

“By the way,” Kara continued, buckling herself into her seat, “you might want to take a look at what's going on in the corridor. I'm not sure if you'll want to stop it or join in, but you do need to see it.”

Intrigued, Jass pushed herself away from her chair and made her way to the door. She burst out laughing at the sight that awaited.

Denjiro and Aaron had positioned themselves at either end of the main corridor, and had fashioned rough paddles out of used food pouches. A rubber ball ricocheted off one of the walls and headed for Aaron. He pushed off from the opposite wall and swatted at the ball, sending it tumbling back toward Denjiro. He turned just in time to throw up a hand to keep from crashing into the wall. Denjiro did a mid-air somersault and swatted at the ball but missed. Jass bent and snatched the ball up before it hit her ankle. Den groaned as Aaron cheered, “Ha! I'm up, four to three!”

“What the hell are you two doing?” Jass demanded.

“I think we're calling it reduced-gravity acrobatic ping-pong by now,” Denjiro said, straightening up. “It started out as just ping-pong, but we kept thinking of modifications to increase the accuracy of the name.” He glanced at a large scuff mark that had been left on the wall by the ball. “I guess we should stop...”

“Don't you dare,” Jass said, passing by him to move down the corridor. “You're going to restart the game and I'm going to get you an audience.”

The whole crew was gathered in the corridor to watch the re-match. Denjiro and Aaron had been instructed to wear several layers of clothing to use as padding, and Jass had dropped the temperature in the corridor to compensate. She wore a warm jacket and kept her hands tucked in the pockets. Kara and Kristin each had a small blanket to keep warm, and Martina wore a pair of knitted gloves covered in bright stripes. Merriam hunched over in his coat, keeping his hands thrust deep in the pockets for warmth. He had started to grumble about the chill, but a look from Jass silenced him.

The opponents had chosen their ends of the corridor, and a piece of tape on the wall marked the “net.”

“Let the games begin,” shouted Jass, tossing the rubber ball into the corridor and sending it bouncing off the walls.

Aaron lunged forward and gave the ball a swipe with his paddle; as it went careening toward Denjiro, he slammed into the wall and rebounded. Denjiro waited for the ball to approach before swatting it back down the hallway. The exchange continued for a few minutes until a hit from Aaron near the line of the net sent the ball soaring past Denjiro's reach and into the wall behind him. “One-nothing!” The crew cheered and laughed.

“That was just not fair,” Aaron said, rubbing his shoulder where he had banged into the corridor harder than intended. Denjiro was somersaulting down the corridor to celebrate his victory. “His paddle was totally over the net on that last hit.”

“Oh, be a good sport,” Kristin laughed, handing him a drink pouch. “Everyone had fun, and so did you.”

“And you've invented a new sport,” Jass added, “though maybe not a particularly smart new sport, given the bruises you're going to have tomorrow morning.”

The crew dispersed and returned to their tasks; Jass made her way back up to the cabin. There were still lots of boring reports to read, but she could face the tedium now.

Chapter 17

Her dreams had been strange: she'd found herself soaring over the plains of Mars, not in a ship, but just flying. As she reached Valles Marineris, she had felt that something was terribly wrong, but couldn't find the source of her terror. At the midpoint of the canyon, she heard an explosion, and looked behind to see that her body was in flames and spewing black smoke. When she had screamed, the scene changed to a star field, with a burning ship blotting out half of the sky. The flaming pieces of the ship fell through the blackness to the planet's surface, screaming in a high speeds to explode as they impacted. She had reached out, trying to catch the pieces of the ship, but they fell through her fingers and escaped. She struggled to reach further, but there was nothing to brace herself against in the emptiness of space, and more fireballs rained down on the planet. Finally, everything faded to a smoky blackness.

She awoke with difficulty the next morning, struggling towards consciousness with effort. For a few minutes, she let herself relax into the hammock, enjoying its warmth and security. “Maybe I could just lie here for a day,” she muttered, eyes still closed, “and everyone else could cover for me, and I could just sleep...and then my ship could blow up and take us all with it because I wasn't on guard.”

With a sigh, Jass opened her eyes and worked her way out of the hammock. “I swear, if I ever catch the person setting those bombs, it's going to be a quick trip through the airlock. No-one should be denied a good night's sleep because they're too worried about blowing up in the middle of the night.” She shook her head to clear it.

The med lab was empty when she arrived, but instead of strapping herself into the treadmill as usual, she pulled herself over to a resistance machine. The machine was little more than a metal frame with heavy springs. It was similar to the weight machines used in gyms, but instead of weights, relied on springs to provide the resistance that would keep the spacers' muscles toned and active. She pulled the machine's straps tight around her body, made sure her feet were secure in the braces, and began to work the arms of the machine, pulling them in toward each other in front of her, and releasing them at a measured pace. After ten minutes, she could feel the muscles in her shoulders begin to burn, but pushed herself on for another five minutes. She let the arms of the machine come to rest and rubbed her shoulders. “Out of practice, Jass. Gotta get back in shape.” She made sure to use all the parts of the machine in turn, working out as many muscle groups as she could. When her entire body ached, she loosened the straps that held her in and let herself float up and out of the seat.

After a quick shower, she pulled her hair back into her usual braid and made her way up the corridor. As she came into view of the crew quarters, she saw Merriam bracing himself outside the door of Martina's quarters; the two were talking in intense whispers and he was gripping her wrist. Jass couldn't hear what they were saying, and as soon as they saw her, both fell silent.

“Merriam, what are you doing?” Jass grabbed a handhold on the wall and pulled herself to a stop. Merriam let go of Martina's wrist, and turned around.

“I needed to ask her some questions about some measurements she took for me earlier today. It's quicker to talk than to send messages back and forth. What, now I have to ask permission to talk to my fellow crew members? That seems like a rather draconian policy.”

Jass ignored his barb, and turned to Martina. The younger woman had pulled her arm down by her side and was trying to massage her wrist without attracting notice. “Was he bothering you? You don't have to put up with anything just because you're doing a few jobs for him.”

Martian opened her mouth to speak, then changed her mind and shook her head. “No, he wasn't bothering me. Just checking some readings.” She smiled and tried to give a convincing laugh. “My handwriting's so bad even I can't read it half the time.”

Jass wanted to order Merriam to stay away from her anyway, but without proof she could be setting herself up for a lawsuit for creating a hostile workplace. The situation was bad enough with the damage small shipping companies were suffering, she didn't want to give any potential client any additional reasons for picking another company to ship their cargo.

“Ok, just...remember to treat others with respect, ok? I know things can get pretty casual out here, and the close quarters don't help, but it's important to treat each other professionally.”

Merriam gave her an odd look, but nodded. “Naturally, captain. Martina, I think we've got the issues ironed out, so just remember to write more clearly next time so we don't have to have another interpretation session, ok?” He kicked off from the wall and moved quickly down the corridor towards the science lab.

Jass turned back to talk to Martina, but she had retreated inside her quarters and closed the door.

The incident stuck in Jass' mind as she read the morning reports at her console an hour later. She was more sure than ever that Merriam and Martina were sleeping together, and nothing about the relationship looked healthy. But if Martina insisted that everything was fine, she had no business poking her nose in.

Jass sighed, and put the issue out of mind. The latest news from Mars and Earth had been loaded onto her console, but nothing caught her attention. She heard a sound behind her, and turned around to see Kristin entering the cabin.

“I think we've entered the most dangerous part of the trip,” Jass commented, “the part where we get bored.”

Kristin laughed and made her way up to the captain's console. Her hair floated out in a short halo around her head; Jass always thought that zero g made her friend look like a retro-glam rock star.

“That's the nature of the business,” Kristin commented. “We have a full library, you know. You could pull up just about any book you wanted on your computer.”

“I can't seem to sit still long enough to read. I always feel like there's something more productive I'm meant to be doing.”

“Cleaning the ship?”

“From what dust? The air filters catch most of it, and anything that did make it through got picked up on an earlier sweep.”

Kristin floated in front of the window, looking out. “It's too late, then. You're doomed to death by boredom. I'll make sure the memorial service is appropriately sappy. I might even sing 'O Danny Boy.'”

Jass grimaced. “You're given me back my will to live. There's got to be a way to get through the day that isn't going to make me crazy at the end of it.”

“Take up painting.”

“You're not helping.”

“Ok, then, want to help an old friend try to figure out how she should solve a problem when she gets home?”

“I'm afraid even to ask.”

“Believe it or not, I'm serious this time,” Kristin said, turning away from the window. Something in the tone of her voice made Jass look up from the console.

“What kind of problem is it?”

Kristin ran a hand through her short brown hair, making it stand on end even more than it did before. “it's going to be a long story.”

“I've got nothing but time.” Jass closed the reports and turned her full attention to her friend.

“I've been thinking a lot about the time I spent in Bradbury Dome right after school. You telling me the story about you and Vijay got me to thinking and remembering a lot of stuff I'd forgotten. Tried to forget, anyway. And then you seemed so hurt when you realized that Aaron hadn't told you about the problems he'd had since school, whatever those are. I don't really have anyone else to talk this over with.”

She pulled herself over to her own console and strapped herself in tightly so that she wouldn't move around the cabin.

“We kinda fell out of contact for those months. We were both so busy, there wasn't time for much more than the occasional email and message. I was enjoying my freedom from school, and you were working so many hours in the hangar, and then you were gone for those months on your first run...” She stopped and gave a short laugh. “I'm sorry, i'm babbling. I haven't told anyone this whole story before, so I'm having trouble finding the right words. When I first arrived in Bradbury Dome, it was so big and new, it's a whole different world than Spirit City. I was a little overwhelmed. One of the guys from my office offered to help show me around. He didn't work in my department, he was in advertising or sales or something like that. Which should have been a warning, come to think of it.”

Jass began to get an idea of what Kristin's story might be, and wasn't sure she wanted to hear it. But her friend needed to speak, and she held her fear in.

“We went out a couple of nights a week, always to a new place. Sometimes it was a new Indian place, once it was Noveau Martian. We went to movies, plays, art openings, everything he could think of. I felt so uncultured and unprepared for life in a city like that. I was so grateful to have someone who knew how to find his way around. After a month or so, we started dating. It wasn't too serious at first, but it got heavier all the time. About four months into my time there, I was spending every evening either out on the town with him or eating dinner at his apartment. I didn't go anywhere without him, because he knew all the best places to go, the most fun things to do...why would I want to spend time with anyone else?”

She paused, and swallowed hard. “Geez, I don't normally get emotional, but this is harder than I thought.” She took a deep breath, and said with some effort, “Five months into the relationship, my birth control failed and I found out I was pregnant.”

Jass tried not to respond, but her face must have revealed her surprise. Kristin noticed, and a corner of her mouth turned up. “See, I thought you probably didn't know about that. I'm not exactly the mothering type, you know. And I hated the thought of having a kid, but...I don't know, I just couldn't go through with an abortion. I didn't know any women in the city who might have gone with me, and I hadn't told Drew yet. By the time I did tell him, I'd already decided to have the baby. I told him that I had some news for him, and he invited me over to his place for dinner instead of going out. The dinner was lovely; he'd learned to make some dishes that he learned from a chef in town and had just about perfected the roasted chicken over penne with marsala sauce. I kept holding off on telling him the news, but after dinner, he insisted that I spill the beans.”

She shifted in her seat, trying to find a more comfortable positions for the straps that held her in her seat.

“So we settled onto the couch, and I explained that I was going to have a baby. I told him that I planned to give it up for adoption, but that I wanted him to know about it so that we could find a good pair of adoptive parents together.”

“Let me guess,” Jass said as her friend fell silent again, “he wasn't overly thrilled.”

“You could put it that way. He ranted for a few minutes about how I could dare to let this happen, then told me he'd give me money to go to the clinic and have an abortion. I'd already made up my mind, and refused; even if I had wanted the abortion, I wouldn't have wanted to do it under those terms. I told him so. Two minutes later, I was standing by myself in the middle of the street, listening to the door lock behind me.” She held up a hand to forestall Jass' outburst. “No, don't say it. It was terrible, but I don't want to dwell on it too much. Actually, it was probably for the best: I hadn't seen that side of Andrew before, and I could have been much more enmeshed in the relationship than I was. The break was quick, and I never saw him again.”

“Did...?” Jass started to ask a question, then stopped.

“Yes, I had the baby. I hated every minute of the nine months before she was born. I'd always heard about how wonderful pregnancy was, but it wasn't. It was like I could feel her sucking the life out of me.”

“Wasn't there anyone you could call for help?”

“Who? My mother and I haven't spoken in years, my sister immigrated to Earth, and I hadn't made any friends of my own in Bradbury Dome. There were a few women I worked with, but...” She shrugged. “Workplace friendships. You know.”

“You could have called me! I would have flown over in a heartbeat, they have plenty of jobs in Bradbury Dome...”

“You were enjoying your first real spacer job and getting ready for your first deep space run. Even if I had called, you wouldn't have been able to come, not without damaging your own career.”

Jass unbuckled her straps and made her way over to her friend. “So you were alone when you had the baby?”

Kristin nodded. “It was pretty quick. I went in to the hospital when labor started, had the baby, and she was given to the adoptive parents right away. I never even held her. She'd be ten next summer. I don't even know if she knows she's adopted. I've never written a letter, or tried to get in touch. She deserves to be as secure in her home as she can, and her mother and father love her very much. When I saw their faces light up as they took her in their arms, I knew that I'd made the right choice. But sometimes...sometimes I'd like to do more for her. Make sure she can go to whatever school she wants, make whatever kind of life she wants. Her parents are good people, but they didn't have much more money than I did. I brought her into the world, the least I can do is make sure she has a good start in it.”

The two women sat in silence for a long time, looking across the empty cabin and out through the window. The room was quiet, though the usual beeps and alerts echoed through from time to time, and Jass thought she could feel the ventilation system thrumming in the walls.

“So what I want to know is,” Kristin said, breaking the silence, “do I try to contact her parents now after all these years? Ask them what I can do? Or do I just go the way I've gone for the last decade, leaving her alone?”

Jass let go of the edge of the console and let herself float free again. “Hell, Kristin, I don't know. If even you aren't sure, I haven't got a clue. My one real relationship went up in flames, this is out of my scope.”

“it's ok,” kristin said, loosening the straps that held her into her seat. “I think I just needed to talk it out a little. It feels good not to have to hide that whole story anymore. Not that I'll go spreading it all over Mars, you know,” she added. Her familiar smile was back and she stretched into the middle of the cabin. “Sometimes keeping things to yourself makes the decision seems harder than it is. I think I made the right choice. And it's my watch now, so you should go find something else to do. This friend is all out of problems that need solving.”

Jass laughed and turned to leave the room. As she closed the door behind her, she saw Kristin move toward the window, and wondered how much time her friend had spent alone over the years.

Chapter 16

“I was a little sad to miss the city,” Kristin said, fitting a pouch of food to the hot water nozzle and filling it. “But from your stories, I think maybe I'm glad I didn't go. Doesn't sound like my kind of place.”

“I don't think it's really trying to lure in spacers,” Aaron commented. “I mean, they'll let us in and happily take our money. But we're not the main audience. I think they're looking for rich folks who want a little novelty without any real hardship or change in their normal routine.”

“I think I'll try to avoid taking shipments from there in the future,” Jass said, before draining a juice pouch. “The difficulty of approach, combined with the gravity...I'm not sure it's worth the price. If I do run future routes through here, I'm not leaving the ship. Ever.”

“Well, we've got a good long space between here and Vesta. Even with the shortest route I could plan, it's about ten weeks.” Aaron tucked an empty pouch into a waste compartment. “Lots of clear space between us and there, so you have plenty of time to get sick of zero g again.”

“You have to admit, it is a little frustrating trying to learn how to walk all over again every few weeks,” Kristin pointed out. “Much simpler just to go between Mars normal and zero g.”

“Much simpler,” Jass agreed, “but that involves only ever going from Mars to the black and back again. There are new colonies cropping up all the time, new places to go and see. And they're not all crazy. Cybele was fun. And Vesta was great the last time I was there. It's got that crazy asteroid gravity and the city is unlike anywhere else I've ever been.”

“I heard that they're trying to get a colony to Europa in the next decade,” said Denjiro, soaring into the room. “It'll be a research thing at first, naturally; most colonies have started that way. But they'll need to bring people in to start making it self-sufficient.”

“Self-sufficient?” Jass laughed. “On that block of ice? There's not even any dirt there! Just kilometers and kilometers of ice, with an ocean underneath.”

“Well, I wasn't asked to be on the planning committee, I don't know how they're going to do it.” Denjiro rummaged through a drawer until he found a food pouch to his liking. “I just heard they're planning it. Hey, Jass, isn't it your shift up in the main cabin?”

Jass checked the time. “Damn, it is. I'll see ya'll around.” She deposited her food pouch in the waste container and pulled herself through the doorway. The corridor was empty, and she made her way up to the cabin. When she arrived, Kara was unbuckling the belt that held her in her seat. “Oh good, you're here. I'm starving!”

“A couple of the others are in the galley,” Jass said, checking her console for any messages of important. “Looked like they were going to be there for a while, if you want to go catch up with them.”

“Sounds good to me.” The slender woman was gone in a moment, and Jass settled in to read the latest set of reports from Mars and Earth that had been uploaded into the system. While messages of importance and major news items were beamed their way daily, they had to wait until docking at a station or colony to get the full news briefing. Unrest on the Luna colony, Jass saw, no surprise there. A strike in the spaceworkers union on Earth. Also typical. A smaller story caught her eye, and she pulled up the full item. The story started with more accounts of sabotage, but continued with the account of a saboteur who had been brought back unharmed. Upon questioning before his trial, he had claimed that Federated Shipping had sent an agent to recruit him, using the threat of blackmail and a bribe of substantial proportions. He had no proof to back up his story, but the story had been enough to start an initial probe into Federated Shipping. The news item ended with a quote from the accused company: “We are as shocked by these accusations as everyone else, and we extend our sympathies to all of the companies who have lost ships and personnel in this time of crisis. We hope that those responsible are brought to justice swiftly.”

Jass hid the news story again, and relaxed in her seat. What if Federated Shipping was telling the truth, and they weren't behind the wave of damages? Who else could it be? She hesitated a moment, then checked her own personal messages. There was nothing urgent, just the usual messages from home. She paged through a few messages from her mother; it was nothing out of the ordinary, just wishes for her safety interspersed with news of her sisters and their children. Jass was grateful that her mother had seldom bothered her about getting married or having children. She'd been disappointed when the relationship with Vijay crumbled, but had staunchly defended her daughter's right to live single against other family members who had not been so kind. Jass pulled up a new screen and composed a brief message to her mother, updating her on the state of the ship and asking her to greet the rest of the family. She stored the message in the queue that would be sent in the next batch, and turned away from the screen.

With one quick motion, she unbuckled herself from the seat and stretched into the air. She glanced around the cabin to insure that no-one else was watching, then made her way to the door and closed it. She pulled herself back to her console and turned on the speakers. In another moment, music filled the cabin. It was a simple melody, sad and sweet, and she felt it in her bones. She floated to the front window and hovered there, face close to the cold glass, looking out into the stars.

It's hard to pick out constellations here, she thought, scanning the star field. The stars were so bright and numerous when they didn't have to fight their way through a planet's reflected light and atmosphere. She found a cluster of stars that she thought might be the Pleiades, but couldn't be sure. Her computer could have identified a score of constellations in an instant, but it wasn't the same as picking them out with her own eyes.

The music echoed in the cabin, and Jass found herself wishing to be back on Mars instead of heading for another asteroid colony. She wanted to see the butterscotch sky again, with the sun moving overhead like a polished coin. “Must be a pretty crappy spacer if I'm this homesick for life planetside,” she said to her reflection in the window.

“I don't know about that.”

Jass turned around with such force that she had to put a hand against the wall to keep from bouncing off it. Dani had entered the room so quietly that she hadn't heard her come in. The programmer closed the door behind her. “Sorry, but it's my shift in a few minutes, so I thought I'd go ahead and come in.” She floated to her usual spot near the ceiling of the room and pulled out her computer. “And I meant what I said. I don't know that missing Mars makes you a bad spacer. Everybody misses stuff. We can't have everything we want all at once, so we take what we can get at the moment and miss the rest.”

Jass shrugged and took a final glance out of the window before returning to her seat. “Maybe. But it seems like I just don't know what I want. When I'm at home, I want to be out here, and when I'm out here all I can think about is getting back to Mars.”

“It's part of being human,” Dani insisted, not looking up from her computer. “It's part of that not-so-fun side, along with things like self-doubt and regrets. Everyone has them, no one wants them.”

“Don't get me started on regrets, I've had enough of those this week.” Jass looked at her console and began organizing the watch schedule for the next week.

The treadmill bounced under Jass' feet as she ran, and she wondered for a moment if she should check the supports. Shipboard treadmills tended to undergo a lot of wear and tear on deep space voyages, and it wasn't unusual for one to lose an important screw or come loose from its anchors. No spacer wanted to the one strapped into the machine when that happened. Jass made a mental note to check the machine when she was done and pushed forward.

The ship was three days out from Gaspra, and no further signs of sabotage had been found. At least, not yet. Jass was frustrated that she had not been able to narrow down the list of possible culprits, but it was impossible. Until the first bomb was found, she would have trusted this crew with her life. Now when she actually had to trust them with her own life and the lives of the entire crew, she found that she couldn't.

She pushed the thought aside and concentrated on running. The physical effort of running required focus and helped her collect her thoughts. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Just the basics, just the elements of moving forward. Left. Right. Left.

When her legs began to burn with the exertion, she finally slowed to a walk then brought the machine to a halt. Grabbing a towel, she wiped her face and neck down. The world seemed simpler than it had earlier; there was nothing more to be done than to keep her crew alive and get them all home safe. That was it. She didn't know how she'd do it, but the actual task was very simple.

After a shower, she headed up to the galley for a quick meal. Jass wasn't sure what she would do after that; the schedules had been made and sent to the crew, all messages and reports had been read, and the preparations for docking with Vesta wouldn't need to be started for weeks.

In a way, the sailors of centuries ago had had things simpler, Jass mused as she ate a meal bar. On board a sailing ship, the vessel itself required constant upkeep, so there was always something to do. The Curious Machine needed maintenance, too, but most of it was done in dock, and very little by the crew itself. It had been created to carry a crew safely for months through the harshest environment in the galaxy with few or no repairs. The cargo needed to be checked at certain intervals and there was always the science payload to worry about, but after a certain point, everything had been done and she was left with a daily life aboard the ship. There were no restaurants, stores, or new friends to break up the routines.

Jass pulled out her computer and began to look through the ship's library of films. Most of them held little interest for her; filmmaking on Earth consisted mostly of continuations of story franchises created decades ago, documentaries on subjects she had no interest in, and comedies that failed to elicit a single laugh. Most ships had access to the same films, since the film companies had sold them at a very low rate, hoping to recoup the money in bulk sales when they convinced investors that the movie package would be an essential on every deep space ship. Jass exited the library, and pulled up a directory from another part of the computer. She had uploaded another film library, one she had paid for with her own money. It wasn't strictly legal to upload her own film library into the ship's system, but every captain she knew did the same thing, and no-one ever questioned it.

She scanned the collection. Film-making on Mars was still in its childhood; for years, the colonists had relied on Earth to continue creating the culture that they consumed. But over the years, as the quality of the culture produced continued to fall, many Mars citizens had begun to clamor for entertainment made on their own homeworld.

Forty years ago, a film student named Milo Sorenson had sold most of his belongings aside from his film equipment, and made a movie that was later hailed as the beginning of the Marswave movement. Until that time, movies were rarely created for the Mars audience, since the vast majority of moviegoers lived within Earth orbit. Mars colonists were often depicted as backwater ruffians, comedic sidekicks, or crazed villains proclaiming the bankruptcy of Earth culture.

Milo Sorenson's films had been different. Eschewing traditional cost-cutting studio filming with computer-added effects, he filmed in the open expanses of Mars, setting his actors against sweeping backdrops of red dusted rocks, kilometers of canyon, and the looming shape of Olympus Mons. The characters, derided as “boring” by Earth-based critics, were the sort of people familiar to every Mars dweller: fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, students, shop owners, cooks, the sort of people that one could find anywhere. One critic reviewed an early Sorenson film by stating, “Without the travel-brochure landscapes, one wouldn't even know the story took place on another planet.”

Sorenson's first films had been low-budget affairs, made with donations from his local fans and whatever the previous film's ticket sales had brought in. But soon Sorenson's films had many fans in his hometown, Opportunity Dome, and word began to spread. Bootlegged copies of the movies were uploaded to the planet-wide network, and the files began to migrate through the Earth networks. Aficionados of independent film-making began to declare themselves fans of Sorenson's work. As sales of his films began to bring in more money, Sorenson had invested in better equipment but still refused to use any sort of computer-generated effects, though he never said a word against any film-maker who did use them. “If you're looking at Mars through a computer,” he had once said, “you're not seeing my Mars anymore.” Other young film-makers began to make their own movies inspired by his work, and the Marswave film movement had been born.

Twenty-two years into his film-making career, Sorenson had unexpectedly found himself to be the height of fashion among Earth moviegoers and critics. Marswave films garnered sweeps of the highest awards at film festivals, and each new Sorenson film was greeted with wide acclamation.

At one film premier, a representative of an Earth-based film company ambushed Sorenson on the red carpet as he was giving an interview to a smiling reporter. The man explained that his company would like to hire Sorenson to direct a series of movies for them, and offered him an astronomical sum. When asked what the series would be about, the man replied that the studio wanted Sorenson to direct remakes of some of their most popular titles, but set the movies on Mars instead of Earth. Sorenson had emphatically refused the offer, and had retreated swiftly. For eight years, no one in the public heard anything of Sorenson; no new movies were announced, no interviews given, and no public appearances.

Then, with no warning, announcements for a new Sorenson film began to appear. It was billed as the final word in the Marswave movement, the culmination of Sorenson's career, and a film that would change the world of movies forever. Audiences poured into theaters on two worlds to see the film on opening night. No-one was sure what to expect, but everyone had a guess: they were all wrong.

The film, titled “Exodus,” followed the travels of a single man across the face of Mars. There was no dialogue, and very little music. Most of the sound came from Mars itself: the faint whisper of dust blown by the wind, the crumbling of gully edges into valleys, and the sound of the actor's boots scraping across the planet.

After the movie ended, over three hours later, Sorenseon appeared on screen and thanked those who had supported his work over the years, and announced his retirement. The audience was shocked, and many wrote to him to beg him to return to film-making, but he was adamant.

Jass had loved his movies ever since she was a girl, and Exodus was her favorite. She often played it when she was at home, letting the sounds of Mars fill her apartment.

She pulled up the film on her computer, instructing the screen in the main cabin to prepare the file for viewing. A second message invited the rest of the crew to join her in watching the movie.

By the time she reached the main cabin, Denjiro and Kara were already there, along with Martina, who had been on watch. As the film began, Dani, Aaron, and Kristin slipped into the room. Jass looked around the room as it was flooded with the ochre light of home, and felt the homesickness began to seep away.

“I don't think I'd ever seen that one all the way through,” Denjiro commented after the movie was over. “I saw parts of it in college, but never sat and just watched it.”

“If it's not an inappropriate question,” Kristin asked, “do you consider Mars or Earth your home? It seems like people who don't grow up on Mars have a hard time thinking of it as home.”

“It's a great question. I'm still trying to answer that for myself. There are a lot of things about Mars I don't think I'll ever get used to. Living in a dome, for instance, or not having oceans. I miss the oceans. But on the other hand, Mars is a great place to be. The gravity doesn't take that long to get used to, and the landscapes are amazing. There's something about seeing the way the land lies with no plants to hide its shape...It's very compelling.”

“Those are reasons, not answers,” said Jass. “Finding a home isn't about weighing pros and cons. It's something else, a moment when you look at where you are and realize that you belong there.”

Denjiro shrugged, and stretched his legs. “In that case, I don't know. I haven't felt that yet. Maybe I'm still looking for home.”

“Aren't we all,” commented Kara with a wry smile.

“Not all of us,” Kristin said. “I knew Spirit City was my home ever since I was a kid. I've worked all of the world, but nothing's quite like being there.”

“What's so special about Spirit City?” Martina asked, frowning. “It's just a town. Bradbury Dome's a lot bigger.”

“Bigger doesn't mean better in every case, but that wasn't what I meant. Spirit City is just where I always belonged, where it was ok for me to be me.” Kristin talked while scanning her console for messages. “I worked in Bradbury for a while, and it was a great town, but it was never home. I always felt out of place. It was good to come home when that job was done.”

“But you probably spend more time in space than you do in town,” Martina protested, “or at least, as much time. I just don't see how it can really be your home.”

“It's not an easy thing to explain if you haven't experienced it,” Jass said. “But that doesn't mean it isn't true.”

“I think you don't always have a choice about where 'home' is,” Dani added. Jass was surprised, since the programmer rarely talking in larger groups of people. “Have you ever read any of the stories of the first colonists on Mars? Several of them talk about how they always felt like Mars was their home, even before they arrived on the planet. That was before there was anywhere on Mars that they could live, much less stores and movie theaters and things like that. I mean, Clara Morgan's first words to the colonists when they stepped onto the surface were 'Welcome home.'”

“It's weird to think about that,” Denjiro said. “It makes me wonder how many people living on Earth felt like Mars was home and never got a chance to go, just because they were born too early.”

“Maybe there are people on Mars right now who feel like Europa is home,” laughed Kristin. “And in a few hundred years, there will be people on that ball of ice having this exact same conversation and being glad they were born at the right time.”

“Just the thought of being near that ball of ice makes me feel cold,” Jass said. She checked the time. “I think I'm going to catch up on replying to some of my messages.” She made her way over to her console and pulled up her messages.

The group slowly dispersed until only Dani, Aaron, and Jass remained in the main cabin. Dani had reclaimed her place floating near the ceiling of the cabin, and Aaron was strapped into his seat, going over a set of routes.

“I think you all missed something when you were talking about 'home' a few minutes ago,” he said, looking up as she turned around.

“Oh really? Please enlighten me, then.”

“No-one mentioned people. Sometimes home is other people. Think about when you were a kid; when you'd go running home after school or something, or after sleeping over at a friend's house. Or if your family moved when you were young—you might miss the house you used to live in for a while, but eventually the new one becomes home, because the people you love live there.”

Jass thought for a few moments. “I can see that. I'm not sure it holds true for everyone, though. I love my family, but home isn't with them anymore.”

“Not everyone is you, Jass. Most people have someone who is home for them. Or they're searching for someone to be their home.”

“Do you have someone like that?”

“That is a highly personal question, and I am going to exercise my right not to answer it, if you don't mind.”

Jass shrugged. “Suit yourself.”