It looked weird and upsetting, to see his father so tense and fearful. He didn’t know what was going on, or what Daddy and the others were waiting for. Had they already saved the asteroid miners, or were they all just taking a break for some reason? If the asteroid miners were still in danger, why were they all just sitting around?
“Collision in thirty seconds… twenty-nine… twenty-eight…”
That didn’t sound good. It probably meant they hadn’t saved the asteroid miners at all, and that ship was going to crash into that asteroid. What would that be like, to bump into a rock in the middle of space? Would they all be killed, or would some of them be killed and some just hurt?
Another voice came through. “System on-line. Stand by…”
The woman called out suddenly, “Collision averted, collision averted! Atlantic has changed course!”
Now the cheers were much louder, and the people in the holograms were pushing themselves back from their desks and wiping the sweat off their foreheads. Biskarret was glaring at Daddy, but everyone else was looking at him like he was the biggest hero they’d ever seen.
An older man with white hair leaned in. “Sorry to call you at home on your day off, Klingerman, but we didn’t have much choice. You’re the only one who could have pulled this off. The only one.”
The woman who’d been doing the countdown smiled. “You just saved the lives of everyone on the Atlantic and who knows how many of those other ships. You and I have had our differences, but that was some fast thinking. Well done, Paul!”
Jack’s mother took her hand off his mouth at last. He didn’t go running to Daddy, though. He just stood where he was, overwhelmed by the whole situation. His father was too, or at least it looked that way. He waved vaguely at the screens as if it embarrassed him to have everyone praising him. Then he hit a button, and the holoscreens disappeared all at once. He slumped down in his chair and started breathing slowly.
Daddy still wasn’t looking at either Mommy or Jack. He was just staring at the wall like he was sleepwalking. Does he even know we’re still here? Why isn’t he happy? Everyone else was so proud of him!
His mother didn’t say anything at first. She just stood there like she was frozen, and Jack felt like he was frozen too. His chest hurt the way it did when he ran too fast or held his breath too long. If anybody makes a sound, feared Jack, something bad will happen. Daddy will get SO MAD, and something bad will happen... At last, his mother attempted to reach out to his father.
“Paul, that was incredible. You should be very proud of yourself. I know I am.”
Jack jumped in surprise. Why did she have to say something? Didn’t she know they weren’t supposed to talk?
As if by magic Daddy snapped out of it, and his eyes sparked with anger as he turned to look at her. “I don’t get you, Diane. You say you’re proud of me, you know how stressful it is for me to do what I do. But then you come right in here when you see me working, asking your questions like it’s no big deal. Do you have any idea how close that was? How many people could have died?”
She squeezed Jack’s shoulder and told him “Run up to your room, dear. Your father and I need to have a talk.”
Jack wanted to get away, to hide in his room until everyone was happy again, but he also wanted his Mom to pick him up, to hold him close, and make him feel better. She gave him a hug, but it was stiff, and it didn’t feel right, like all her hugs. It was like she didn’t really want to hug him. “Your father and I love you. This is just a hard time right now. Please go up to your room.”
Even though part of him wanted to bolt upstairs as fast as he could, Jack dragged his feet on his way across the room. He was still hoping his mother would turn and scoop him up or his father would stop being mad and just be nice to everyone. Then he heard his father’s voice. It sounded sullen, like his own voice when he got in trouble for something he didn’t do. “And there you go, making me sound like the big, mean, ogre. What’s our son supposed to think? Do you really want him to hate his father?”
His mother answered in her Calm Voice, the one she used when Jack was having a temper tantrum. “I don’t know how to talk to you when you’re in this state. It’s impossible to reason with you.”
The Calm Voice made his father madder than anything else. Jack stopped dragging his feet and sprinted up the stairs, hoping to make it through the door to his bedroom before the shouting and the yelling started up again. His father would be the first, but his mother would be yelling too by the end of it.
He wasn’t quite fast enough. At the top of the stairs, his father started asking questions loudly one after the other, too fast for anyone to answer. “When I’m in this state? What state is that? Why do you always have to put me down? Are you trying to make me think I’m crazy? WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS REALLY ALL ABOUT?”
Jack bolted for his room, threw the door open, and slammed it behind him. Now his mom was yelling too. “YOU’RE FRIGHTENING OUR SON!”
It would all be yelling from here on out, and Jack was glad to have escaped it. They weren’t yelling at him, but it always made him feel like he was in really bad trouble. Up here in his room, surrounded by all his interesting things, he could shut it out. He could pretend it wasn’t happening, at least for a while.
Jack sat down on the edge of his bed and picked up his model Spitfire. It was the same type of fighter his mother flew for the Federation. She said it was named after another fighter from long ago.
The Spitfire model usually made him feel calm. The thing he loved most about it was that you could open up the different parts and see what it looked like on the inside. You could see all the wires and tubes, you could even see the engine. His mom said they’d done all of it right, that her plane really looked that way. He tried to get himself interested in looking at his Spitfire, but he couldn’t do it. His heart was pounding so hard he could hear it in his ears, and his face felt hot like he’d been sitting in the sun. He put it down with a sigh.
When Daddy was saving all those people on the ships, Jack was so excited and proud he could have jumped up and down. For a few minutes, he had wanted to be like Daddy when he grew up. Now he wasn’t so sure. He knew it was important, but his father had been so mean to that man named Biskarret. And even when he wasn’t being mean he was still yelling. Did everyone always yell at Daddy’s work? Maybe that was why he yelled so much when he came home, because he was just so used to it.
If Daddy’s job was a yelling job, then he didn’t want to be an engineer like Daddy. He wanted to be a doctor instead, like that kind man who had helped him when he hurt his arm. That doctor didn’t yell at all. He smiled and told little jokes, like the one about spacers eating their “rocket chips.”
When he saw that Jack was still scared he didn’t make him leave the room. He knelt down on the floor instead so he wouldn’t look so tall and twisted a medical band into a little doll for him. “This guy is your bodyguard,” he had explained with a grin. “He’ll keep you safe while the nanobots work on your arm. How does that sound?”
He still had the doll, which really didn’t look much like a person. He didn’t care though; it still made him feel safe. He kept it hidden in a special box underneath his bed, so Daddy couldn’t come in and take it away. He did that with toys sometimes, if Jack was in trouble. As long as he still had that little doll, Jack felt like nothing could ever happen to him.
There was a knock at the door, and a moment later his mother opened it. She poked her head in and asked, “Mind if I join you?”
A tear suddenly welled up in Jack’s eye. He wiped it off, and she came over and sat down next to him. “It’s okay, darling. The fight is over. Daddy just went out to get some fresh air.”
That didn’t make a lot of sense, because people didn’t really go out to get fresh air these days. The air outside was sometimes dangerous, so people just went from one building to another. It wouldn’t stay this way forever, but until the poles were done shifting it was safer to just stay inside a lot
of the time. Jack didn’t ask his mother to explain, though. Grown-ups said a lot of things that didn’t really make sense.
He kicked his feet back and forth a little. It distracted him from what he was feeling. “I don’t understand why Daddy gets so mad.”
His mother put an arm around his shoulders, but it felt stiff and tense. “He’s just really stressed out. If the No-vote wins, his department will have to follow a lot of extra rules. They might even lose their funding. Try not to worry about it, though. It’s a grown-up problem, and the grown-ups will solve it. We’ll be alright either way.”
He knew she was talking about the Referendum, the big vote about who would get to be in charge. His parents were Yes people, so they wanted the Fleet to be more in charge than the Council. A lot of the other kids were from No-voter families, and they wanted the Council to be more in charge than the Fleet.
“Why are so many people No-voters?” he asked, confused. From what his parents discussed, it sounded like everyone should vote Yes. No one had ever told him much about the other side.
His mother took a deep breath. “It’s complicated, Jack. The Council wants departments like the one Daddy works for to be more accountable. They say we can’t be trusted to do what’s best on our own. Military families like ours just don’t agree. We think the Fleet has a long history of selfless service and we don’t need any civilian babysitters. I guess that’s over your head, isn’t it darling?”
“I understood most of it,” he replied, which was true. Jack understood a lot of things the grown-ups would never have guessed, although sometimes it all got overwhelming and people treated him like he was not very smart at all.
Mommy tousled his hair and cooed, “Of course you did. Now let’s go get your teeth brushed. It’s time for bed.”
He knew she didn’t believe him, but that wasn’t the most important thing. The most important thing to Jack was that the shouting had stopped.
Chapter Two
In the VR Room at recess, Jack sat by himself on a ledge beneath one of the windows. He wanted to climb around on the rope ladders outside, but the teacher wouldn't allow it because the radiation levels were too high. The playground had deflection panels, but some days they just weren’t enough. All around the room the other children were wearing VR headsets and playing together.
Based on what the others were yelling, Jack guessed it was a dodgeball game about asteroid miners. That was kind of funny, given what his father had done the night before. He didn’t join in, though. Jack liked VR, but he didn’t enjoy team sports at all. He always got the rules to different games mixed up with each other and the kids would laugh at him.
At least it’s a little bit quieter up here, he assured himself. That was really the only reason he climbed up on the ledge so often. There wasn’t much else he could do when he didn’t want to play with the other kids. Students were not allowed to be in the corridors at recess, and he had already gotten in trouble for going down to the basement once. The Loon Network was locked down while school was in session, so students could only access the school network and what the teachers called “appropriate materials.” That sounded a lot like extra schoolwork to Jack.
He slid back a bit further on the windowsill and hunched his shoulders, trying to make himself as small as he could. He didn’t want anyone to notice him. He just wanted to ignore all the shouting and drift off into his private world.
Not today, though. Mahmoud Tito was a larger boy, the biggest in Jack’s class, and one of the meanest. When he got hit by an asteroid in the VR game, he took off his headset and scowled in disgust. Then he noticed Jack on the windowsill. He smirked at the sight and started toward Jack with a determined look.
Not today, Mahmoud, Jack ruminated. Just go away…
But Mahmoud kept coming. A few months before, Mahmoud and two of the other boys had grabbed his feet and tried to pull him off the ledge. Jack didn’t want that to happen again, so he clambered down from the ledge to face the bigger boy.
“Hey, Nappy!” Mahmoud called out, using a British word for a diaper as an unfriendly nickname. “I heard something about you today. Do you want to know what I heard?”
“No, not really.”
Mahmoud imitated him in a baby voice. “No, not really! Come on, Nappy. Toughen up. You can’t be a baby diaper forever. I heard your parents are Feds!”
Jack was confused. What could possibly be bad about being a Fed? His mother flew Spitfires and his father had just saved some asteroid miners. “My parents help people.”
Mahmoud scoffed. “Your parents help people! Come on! Your parents are Feds! That means they want to tell everyone what to do all the time!”
Jack couldn’t understand why Mahmoud was so mad at him. “That isn’t true. My dad helps people all the time. So does my mom.”
Mahmoud’s face turned red. “Are you calling my dad a liar?”
He shoved Jack in the chest, and Jack stumbled backward a little. Mrs. Lane-Roc came running over. Mahmoud turned and gave her a guilty look.
“Mahmoud Tito, you stop that this instant! Hitting other people is not okay!”
Mahmoud pouted. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Lane-Roc. I know it’s wrong, but Jack always thinks he’s better than everyone. Just because his mom and dad work for the Federation!”
Their teacher’s face was stern. “That’s no excuse for pushing or any other kind of hitting. Now you go play, or you can come with me and talk to the Socialization Counselor.”
Mahmoud did as he was told and Mrs. Lane-Roc turned to Jack. “Are you okay?”
Tears sprang into Jack’s eyes. He wanted to hug his teacher. She had helped him. She had seen that something was wrong, and she had helped him! “Yeah, I’m alright. Thank you, Mrs. Lane-Roc.”
She frowned slightly. “Of course.” Then she leaned in closer and spoke to him in a quiet voice. “I understand that you’re just trying to mind your own business, but please try to understand that talking about how important your parents are can hurt other people’s feelings, okay?”
Jack blinked like someone had thrown a ball at his face. What was she talking about? He hadn’t mentioned anything about his mom and dad being so important. He hadn’t talked about them at all until Mahmoud had brought it up.
“I’m… I’m never mean to anyone, Mrs. Lane-Roc.”
She sighed. “I’m sure you don’t mean to be. But please try to remember. Until the Referendum’s over, people are going to be tense with each other. Anyone connected with the Federation has to be extra careful. You never know what might set someone off. Do you understand, Jack? People are scared, and scared people get mad. You mustn’t provoke them.”
Jack still didn’t get what she was saying. Why was Mrs. Lane-Roc blaming him for what happened? Why was she mad at him when he hadn’t done anything wrong? He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but nothing came out. His teacher gave up and turned around. “Okay, class, it’s time to go back. We need to do our social studies!”
There was a chorus of groans, but Jack felt a little bit better when he heard her say that. In social studies, they learned about other cultures. These days, almost everyone on T3 was mostly the same, but there used to be different cultures all over the planet with different languages and religions and everything. When Jack was older, he’d get the chance to learn about some of the colony worlds in outer space. People out there were different from people on T3: they had their own ways of doing things and their own societies. Maybe he didn’t want to be a doctor after all. If he became an arch-anthropologist instead, he could study all those different cultures…
“Come on Jack, enough daydreaming,” scolded Mrs. Lane-Roc. “Let’s get to class.”
“Probably thinking about how big and important his daddy is,” Mahmoud half-whispered. The other kids laughed, and one of them whispered, “Fed-lover!”
Jack wanted to cry, but he held it in with sheer willpower.
“Come on, children,” ordered Mrs. Lane-Roc. They filed sl
owly back to class, and Jack sat down in his usual spot. Everyone else went back to ignoring him, which was definitely how Jack preferred it.
Mrs. Lane-Roc stood up in front of the class. “Today we’ll be learning about the Arabic culture, one of the many important societies of human history. Unlike some of the other cultures we’ve studied, many of today’s Arabic people still speak their own language. That’s especially unusual because Arabic is one of the hardest languages to learn.”
One of the hardest languages to learn? That sounded interesting. The idea that there were still people on T3 who spoke a different language, people who had their own way of living… it was like a mystery, and almost as exciting as studying the culture of a different planet.
Mrs. Lane-Roc was looking around as if she couldn’t find something. After a minute, she gave up. “I was going to show you all something, but I seem to have left it in the teacher’s lounge. I’ll be right back, children. Please read through your modules on the Arabic culture until I return.”
She left the room, but of course, hardly any of the children started reading their modules. Most of them slipped VR headsets back on and started playing games. Retro games were especially popular with them.
Jack opened the language app on his personal device and set it to Arabic. He mouthed the phrases to himself in silence. “Min faDlik... please. Shukran... thank you. SabaaH alkhayr... good morning.”
He knew that other kids didn’t really do this sort of thing, but he was different from the other kids. As Jack scrolled through the learning modules and glanced at the different lessons, anyone seeing the happy, curious look on his face would have assumed he was playing a VR game or reading a comic. The teacher was right, he realized. This looks hard!
The writing was different than what he was used to, and words seemed to change a lot depending on where they were in the sentence and what they were doing. How could anyone learn all this? Could he learn it?
His mother had met a person from another planet once, a Fleet officer who spoke seven languages, including Arabic. When she told Jack about it, she sounded impressed. She hardly ever seemed dazzled by anything. If he could teach himself how to speak Arabic, she’d be impressed with him too. Jack smiled at the idea of it. Just imagine it, mom beaming at him and telling his dad how smart he was…
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