“Music?” Bain cringed at the skeptical crack of his voice.
“When we approach a Knaught Point and the energy wall hits us, you'll hear it. Like a siren song, so sweet and sad ... The left-over music of Creation, my father always said. You have to listen, Bain, and feel it through your body and soul. It's like a warning system Fi'in put in our hearts and minds. Faster than Ganfer can speak, you'll know what changes to make and when, and you'll never go wrong through the Knaught points.”
“So other people, the ones not Spacers—they can't hear the music?” he asked.
“Can't. Or won't. Maybe both. Maybe it frightens them, so they hide inside their ships where they can't hear it and depend on computers. There are just some things Fi'in meant people to do, hands-on, using their brains.” Lin sat up again and swung her leg out from under the armrest. She slowly floated up and away from the couch. “Check out ships that aren't Free Traders, Bain. You won't find a dome on most. Their pilots would rather watch screens and listen to computer voices. They don't use the brains and instincts Fi'in gave them.”
They spent an hour in the dome. Bain learned the function of each switch on the control panel. When they reached the first Knaught Point, he would sit in the dome with Lin. He could not ask any questions until after they passed through the Knaught Point.
During transfers, Lin and Ganfer worked together in a delicate balance. It was faster and easier for Lin to tell Ganfer what to do sometimes, instead of moving buttons, levers and switches. It was also simpler for Ganfer to tell Lin what happened to the ship, so she didn't need to check the screens. Bain's voice could cover a crucial piece of information or an order, so he had to stay quiet.
Bain felt so many things; he didn't know what he felt. Proud Lin would let him stay in the dome. Terrified he might make a mistake. Excited over this chance to see and feel transition. Overwhelming curiosity.
Bain wondered if he should get some maintenance tape to cover his mouth—just in case.
Chapter Fifteen
“Everything has to work just right, or we could be in big trouble,” Bain said.
He floated by the table where the littles ate their lunch. Shari, Mona and Alice sat with the littles to help them. The older girls were just as fascinated as the littles with Bain's stories about the bridge and Ganfer and working with Lin.
“We get in lots of trouble?” Kisa asked. Her eyes got big and her lower lip started to tremble.
“Captain Lin's smart,” Bain hurried to say. He felt guilty about scaring the littles, especially Kisa. “She knows how to do everything. She says I'll make a great Spacer,” he added, grinning.
“It'll take forever for you to be smart enough to be a Spacer,” Toly shouted from the table where he sat with his friends. The other boys laughed and made faces at Bain.
“At least I don't get sick in free-fall,” Bain said. He reached down and grabbed the edge of the table and pushed off to fly over Toly's table. He stopped against the bunk frames and held on. “You can't be a Spacer if you can't even move around the ship without getting scared.”
A few boys at another table started laughing. Toly's face got red.
“Bain,” Dr. Anyon said.
“Sir?” Bain turned to face the table where the adults sat to eat their lunch.
“I think we've heard enough about the bridge for today.” He pointed at the table with the littles. “Maybe you should finish your lunch.”
“He's crew,” Toly snarled. “He doesn't get to eat with us. We're passengers. We don't have to work.”
“That's enough, Toly,” Master Valgo said.
“Captain Lin wouldn't let you near the bridge,” Bain said. He turned so he hung with his feet toward the ceiling, and looked at Toly upside down. “She knows you'd blow up the ship.” He grinned and stuck his tongue out at Toly.
The bully screamed and pushed off his seat to fly up at Bain. Inches short of the target, his tether snapped tight and jerked him back into his seat.
Toly bounced back up. Bain reached down and grabbed the bully and unhooked his tether. The force of the bounce pushed both boys to the ceiling. They hit it at a sharp angle and flew down toward the exercise wheel. Neither boy paid any attention. They tumbled through the air, hitting and slapping and scratching at each other.
Bain felt good. It took only a few punches to realize Toly wasn't stronger and faster than him when they were in space. Toly couldn't beat up on him here, bouncing around in free-fall. Bain remembered all the times Toly had sat on him and pushed his face into the dirt or stones, or held him under water, or the times Toly's friends held Bain down while Toly ruined his homework or smeared mud all over his clothes or messed up the chores Bain had just finished.
Now, he could make Toly pay for all the times he was mean to him.
“Stop that right now!” Lin shouted.
Bain realized he had been hearing her shout at him for a long time. He let go of Toly. The boys bounced together in a tangled ball once more to the ceiling and back down. This time when they hit, it hurt. Bain felt bruised all over, and not just because of Toly's punches.
Lin caught hold of the belt of his pants and brought him to a halt. She jerked him down to the floor again, twisting him around so he landed on his feet.
“Chobainian Kern, you are crew, do you understand?” Her voice scared him, so flat and even and hard it sounded like it came from a machine.
Lin's eyes burned with anger, like his father's eyes had blazed when a repair team had put the wrong fuel in the shuttle's tanks. It would have exploded on launch, if his father hadn't discovered the mistake in time.
“Yes, Captain,” Bain whispered. It hurt to look at her angry face, but he was afraid to look away, too.
“Crew doesn't fight with passengers. Not even stupid, mean bullies. Do you understand?” She shook him a little, when he didn't answer right away.
“Yes, Captain.” He swallowed hard. His throat hurt, like it always did just before he cried. Bain didn't want to cry—not in front of Lin or the littles, and especially not in front of Toly Gaber.
“Go up to the bridge and clean your face and change your clothes. You're a mess.” Lin released him with a push that sent him straight for the hatch.
Bain caught the edge of the hatch and paused long enough to look back. All the other children very carefully looked at their lunches. Toly hung in the air, kicking a little, with Anyon holding one arm and Master Valgo holding the other. Lin floated over to join them. She still looked angry. Toly had a bloody nose.
As he floated up the tube to the bridge, Bain checked himself out. He had a bloody nose, too. His eye hurt—maybe he would have a black eye in a few hours. His shirt was torn, and he had a brown smear of food across his knee. Had they hit the lunch table while they were fighting?
Bain did cry, a few tears, while he washed his face and changed his clothes and put his dirty clothes in the cleaning machine.
He hadn't meant to make Lin angry. But it felt so good to hit back at Toly. He had a right to get back at the bully for all the teasing and hurts, didn't he?
But Lin was mad at him. Lin had scolded him in front of the other children. Lin had said he did something a crew member didn't do.
Was Lin going to send him off the bridge? Was she going to tell him he wasn't her crew anymore?
“Scared, aren't you?” Lin said, appearing suddenly in the doorway. She stopped there, hands grabbing the sides of the hatch.
“I'm sorry, Captain.”
“You should be.” She shook her head. Some fire in her eyes faded, but not enough to make Bain feel any better. “Bain, you are a thousand times better than that fat, snot-nose bully. You don't have to prove it with your fists.”
“I know,” he whispered.
“Do you?” Lin floated over to him. She shut the lid of the cleaning machine and turned him around to face his cubicle. With a little push, she sent both of them floating over to sit on the edge of the bunk. “That little fight was your fault, you know.”<
br />
“He was making fun of me! Like always,” Bain hurried to add, when Lin shook her head.
“Then you should just ignore him like always. Bain, you were a much nicer boy when you ignored the nasty ones like Toly, and did what was right. You're getting arrogant, you know that?” She smiled when her words shocked him. “Yes, you're getting arrogant. You're better at handling free-fall, and you're serving on the bridge, and you know so much more than the other children. You brag about it every time you go down into the hold for your lessons. Bragging isn't nice. Bragging can make even your friends dislike you.”
“I don't have any friends down there,” he grumbled.
“You could have friends if you stop bragging.” Lin wrapped an arm around his shoulders and shook him a little.
“I'm sorry,” Bain whispered.
“I hope you are, Bain. You're crew. You have to act like crew. I expect better things from you because I know you're better than all those other children down in the hold. I know you're smarter. And when you act stupid, when you hurt other people, it makes me very disappointed. You're just as cruel and stupid as Toly if you use your advantages to hurt someone else.”
“Bragging isn't as bad as punching someone.”
“Hurting is the same, whether it's with words or with your fists.” Lin shook him gently and let go.
Bain wished she hadn't—it had been a long time since anyone held him that close. He missed his parents more than ever.
“Do I have to go sleep in the hold again?” he whispered. Bain looked at his clenched fists. He didn't want to see Lin's face and see how angry she was at him.
“You think what you did was bad enough to be kicked out of my crew?” Lin got up and stood in front of him. “Look at me, Bain.” Her face was serious and pale when he finally looked at her, but not angry. “Arrogance is dangerous in space, because it makes you careless. The way you and Toly were bouncing around, you could have broken something. Understand?”
“I do now.”
“Good. Spacers can't afford to be arrogant. Spacers have to take care of people who don't understand ships or free-fall. We have a duty from Fi'in to take care of people who don't know the things we do, or who can't do what we can. We aren't allowed to hurt them or make them feel stupid, understand?”
“I'm sorry.” Bain felt tears start to come to his eyes again, and he blinked fast to get rid of them.
“Yes, I can see you're sorry.” Lin touched his chin, holding his head still while she wiped a few tears from the corners of his eyes with her other hand. “That's why you're still staying on the bridge. You're smart enough to learn, and you know right from wrong. That's just as important as knowing what buttons to push, or how to move in free-fall. Don't forget that, Bain.”
Chapter Sixteen
Bain woke early the morning they reached the first Knaught Point and lay in his cubicle and listened to the sounds of the bridge for a few minutes. Then, he rolled over and reached to unfasten the net so he could get dressed. He paused, thinking he heard Lin call his name. No sounds reached him but the faint humming of the monitor screens and the clicks of the sensors as they recorded and analyzed everything happening inside and outside the ship.
He sat up, managing not to push himself to the ceiling of his cubicle, and pulled on his clean pants. He reached for his shirt. Then Bain heard his name again. Kisa's voice, not Lin's. The little girl was crying.
Bain couldn't remember later how he did it, but he got out of his cubicle and through the hatch and halfway down the tube to the hold in only a second or two. Kisa clung to a support rib in the tube, tears making her face shine in the dim light. Her eyes squeezed shut and her mouth hung open in sobs so hard she choked on them. She shrieked when Bain touched her and flung her arms around him tight enough to strangle him.
Lin found them floating there a few seconds later. Bain still had his shirt in his hand and he used it to dry Kisa's face.
“Hey, it's okay,” he whispered, as Lin joined them. “Did you have a nightmare?”
“Killed—dolly.” Kisa reached inside her nightshirt and brought out the severed head of the rag doll Lin had given her. A bit of stuffing puffed out of the neck and tumbled away, a tiny mote in the dim tube. Kisa saw it and exploded into tears again.
“Lin—” Bain saw the stunned look on Lin's face. That hurt him more than Kisa's tears. He knew exactly what had happened and who did it, and it made a hot, angry, bursting feeling grow inside him.
He pulled the little girl's hands free of his neck and pushed her into Lin's arms. Bain kicked off the nearest support rib and rocketed down into the hold.
He bounced off the hatch frame and straight across the hold to the top of the bunks. Toly Gaber never saw him coming. Bain's momentum pushed both boys hard against the back wall. He grabbed hold of the net so he didn't bounce back out again. Toly let out a yelp, cut off by a gasp as the air was knocked out of him.
Bain wanted to hit him, but he remembered what Lin said about crew not beating up on passengers—even stupid bullies. He twisted around and put his back to Toly's face and jammed his legs against the bunk frame, holding the bully in place. He yanked Toly's bag free of its hooks and started searching through it.
Lin reached the hold as Anyon slid free of his net, alerted by Toly's muffled yelps. She carried Kisa, the little girl still sobbing into the shoulder of her nightshirt. Both adults reached the bunk as Bain found the tiny, thumb-sized craft knife in the bottom of Toly's bag. Attached to the handle of the knife, caught between blade and handle was a single faded blue thread. It matched the material of the ruined doll, which Lin still held in one hand.
“Well.” Lin looked from the knife to the doll, then to Bain, then to Toly—still jammed against the wall behind the boy. “It seems we have evidence this time.”
“I didn't do nothing!” Toly squealed. Bain's attack had twisted him around, wrapping net and blankets tight around him. He could hardly wiggle.
“Ganfer, scan night security tapes, monitor oh-five,” Lin said. She gestured, and Bain moved over. He held onto the frame and watched Toly thrash free.
“Toly Gaber took the doll and cut her head off between oh-three-fifteen and oh-three-eighteen,” the ship-brain replied a scant second later.
“Killed my dolly,” Kisa whispered. She lifted her head from Lin's shoulder and frowned at Toly. “You bad boy.”
“Yes, he is,” Anyon agreed.
“Captain Fieran gave that doll to Kisa,” Bain said. He grinned when terror made Toly go almost white.
“You know,” Lin said, her words slow, her eyes fastened on Toly, “it would require a test we can't do on Sunsinger, but I think that knife cut Bain's net straps.”
“Didn't do it,” Toly mumbled. He didn't meet anyone's eyes as he spoke.
“Liar.” Bain clenched his fist. He would have hit the bully, but Lin stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
“We have no proof right now, Bain.” Lin turned as Mistress Valgo floated up to join them. By this time, everyone was awake, silent, listening to every word. “We do have proof that he destroyed Kisa's doll. Can you fix her?” She gave Kisa and the doll to the woman.
“Of course I can.” Mistress Valgo cuddled Kisa close and wiped away a few more of the little girl's tears. “You have to help me, sweetheart.”
“I can help?” Kisa's face brightened.
“You have to say lots of prayers while I sew her head back on, and that'll make everything all right.” She smiled and nodded to Lin, Anyon and Bain, and pushed off to float back down to her bunk.
“You might try saying some prayers for a change, too, Toly,” Anyon said. He reached out and helped the fat boy finish getting untangled.
Bain muffled a chuckle at that remark. He had heard Toly grumbling with his friends about ‘only babies need to pray,’ claiming he was smart enough and strong enough; he didn't need help from anyone. Not even Fi'in. Toly usually pretended to be sick on worship day, and he never closed his eyes during prayers
before meals.
“What do you think would be a fit punishment?” Lin said, speaking to Bain and Anyon, keeping her eyes on the bully.
“I'd make him fix the cut straps on Bain's old net and make him sleep in it,” Anyon began. His lips twitched a little, like he fought not to smile.
“I didn't do it!” Toly said. He glared at Bain. The adults ignored him.
Lin nodded and ran her fingers through her sleep-tangled hair to straighten it. “Toly, you will clean the sanitary cabinet every morning and evening until we land. You will sleep in Bain's old space. You will talk to no one. No one is allowed to talk to you. I have a medical sensor you will wear around your neck, and it will record every move you make, every word you say.”
She turned to look down the row of bunks. Practically every open space had a head looking out, watching. Lin tugged on her nightshirt, and Bain thought she looked a little embarrassed. She nodded and turned back to Toly.
“Do you understand what I said?” She waited, frowning, until the bully finally nodded. “Did everyone hear what I said? No one is allowed to talk to Toly Gaber or play with him or help him study. He will be watched, so I will know when he disobeys and when you disobey my orders. I don't like bullies on my ship, and I don't like the nasty tricks that have been played here.”
“How long will he have to be alone and silent?” Anyon asked.
“Until he confesses and apologizes.” Lin studied the bully a moment. The silence was so deep, Toly finally raised his eyes to meet Lin's. “I have to believe you're genuinely sorry, Toly. So don't try lying to me, understand?” she added, her voice dropping to a whisper.
The anger faded from the bully's face. He went pale, and his eyes widened as he nodded.
Chapter Seventeen
Bain sat in the hold, telling a story to the littles. It was late afternoon, almost time for supper. He smelled the vegetable stew cooking, and his stomach growled in response. Kisa sat next to him, cradling her mended doll. She giggled and poked him in his ribs.
Sunsinger Page 9
