Falling Free (7 page)

Oh... One of Valeria Virga's heroines might have been at home in such a garment. Silver reached for it, drew her hand back. But—but I can't take it

Why not? You take the book-discs. It wasn't
that
expensive.

Silver, who felt she was beginning to have a fairly clear idea of how money worked from her reading, shook her head. It's not that. It's, well—you know, I don't think Dr. Yei would approve of our meeting like this. Neither would—would a lot of other people. Actually,Silver was fairly sure that disapprove would barely begin to cover the consequences should her secret transactions with Ti be found out.

Prudes, scoffed Ti. You're not going to let them start telling you what to do
now,
are you? But his scorn was tinged with anxiety.

I'm not going to start telling them what I
am
doing either,said Silver pointedly. Are you? God, no, he waved his hands in horrified negation. So, we are in agreement. Unfortunately, that, she pointed regretfully at the blouse, is something I can't hide. I couldn't wear it without someone demanding that I
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explain where I got it.

Oh, he said, in the blunted tone of one struck by incontrovertable fact. Yeah,I—g uess I should have thought of that. Do you suppose you could put it away for a time? I've only been taking my gravity leaves on the Rodeo side because all the shuttle bonus berths at Orient IV get nailed by the seniorg uys. Well, and you can log a lot more hours here I faster, with all the freight hauling. But I'll have my shuttle commander's rating and be back to permanent Jump status in just a few more cycles.

It can't be shared, either,said Silver. You see,th e thing about the books and the vid dramas and lings, besides being small and easy to hide, is thatth ey can be passed all around the group withoutbe ing used up. Nobody gets left out. So I can get, um, a lot of cooperation when I want to, say—get away for a little time by myself? A toss of her head indicated the privacy they were presently enjoying.

Ah,gulped Ti. He paused.I—h adn't realized you were passing the stuff around.

Not share? said Silver. That would be
really
wrong.She stared at him in mild offense, and pushed the blouse back toward him on the surge of the emotion,quickly, before she weakened. She almost explained further,then thought better of it.

Best Ti didn't know about the uproar when one of the book-discs, accidently left in a viewer, had been found by one of the Habitat's downsider staff and turned over to Dr. Yei. The search—barely alerted, they had scrambled successfully to hide the rest of the contraband library, but the fierce intensity of the search had been warning enough to Silver of how serious was her offense in the eyes of her authorities.

There had been two more surpriseinspections since, even though no more discs had been found. She could take a hint.

Mr. Van Atta himself had taken her aside—her!—and urged her to spy out the leak for him among her comrades. She had started to confess, stopped just in time, as his rising rage tightened her throat with fear. I'm going to crucify the little sneak when I get my hands on him,Van Atta had snarled. Maybe Ti would not find Mr. Van Atta and Dr. Yei and all their staffs ranked together so intimidating—but she dared not risk losing her one sure source of downsider delights. Ti at least was willing to barter for what was in effect a bit of Silver's labor, the one invisible commodity not accounted for in any inventory; who knew, another pilot might want things of some kind, far more difficult to smuggle out of the Habitat unnoticed.

A long-awaited movement in the loading area caught her eye. And you thought you were risking trouble for a few books, Silver thought to herself. Wait'll
this
shit gets on the loose. . . .

Thank you anyway, said Silver hastily, and grabbed Ti around the neck for a prolonged thank-you kiss.

He closed his eyes—wonderful reflex, that—and Silver rolled hers toward the view out the control booth window. Tony, Claire, and Andy were just disappearing into the shuttle hatch flex tube.

There, thought Silver, that's it. I've done what I can—the rest is up to you. Good luck, double-luck. And more sharply,
I wish I was going with you.

Oof! Look at the time! Ti broke off their embrace. I've got to get this checklist completed before Captain Durrance gets back. Guess you're right about the shirt, he stuffed it unceremoniously back into his flight bag, what
do
you want me to bring you next time?

Siggyin Airsystems Maintenance asked me if there were any more holovids in the
Ni
n
ja of the Twin
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Stars
series, Silver said promptly. He's up to Number 7, but he's missing 4 and 5.

Ah, said Ti now that was decent entertainment. Did you watch them yourself?

Yes,Silver wrinkled her nose, but I'm not sure—the people in them did such horrible things to one another—they are fiction, you say?

Well, yes.

That's a relief.

Yes, but what would you like for yourself? he | persisted. I'm not risking reprimand to gratify Siggy, whoever he is. Siggy doesn't have your, he sighed in remembered pleasure, dear double-jointed hips.

Silver fanned out the three new book cards in her |lower right hand. More, please, sir.

If it's dreck you want, he captured each of her hands in turn and kissed their palms, it's dreck you shall have.U h,oh, here comes my fearless captain, Ti hastily straightened his shuttle pilot's uniform,turned up the light level, and picked up his report panel as an airsealdoor at the far end of the loading bay swished open. He hates being saddled with junior Jumpers. Tadpoles, he calls us. I think he's uncomfortable because on my Jumpship, I'd outrank him. Still, better not give the old guy something to pick on . ..

Silver made the book cards disappear into her work bag and took up the pose of an idle bystander as Captain Durrance, the shuttle commander, floated into the control booth.

Snap it up, Ti, we've had a change of itinerary, said Captain Durrance. Yes, sir. What's up? We're wanted downside.

Hell,Ti swore mildly. What a pain. I had a hot date lined—er,his eye fell on Silver, was supposed to meet a friend for dinner tonight at the Transfer Station.

Fine, said Captain Durrance, ironically unsympathetic. File a complaint with Employee Relations, your work schedule is interfering with your love life.Maybe they can arrange that you not have a work schedule.

Ti took the hint,and moved hastily out to continue his duties as a Habitat technician arrived to take over the loading bay control booth.

Silver made herself small in a corner, frozen in horror and confusion. At the Transfer Station, Tony and Claire had planned to stow away on a Jump ship for Orient IV,get beyond the reach ofG alacTech, find work when they got there; a horribly risky plan, in Silver's estimation, a measure of their desperation.

Claire had been terrified, but at last persuaded by Tony's plan of carefully thought-out stages. At least, the first stages had been carefully thought-out; they had seemed to get vaguer, farther away from Rodeo and home. They had not planned on a downside detour in any version.

Tony and Claire had surely hidden themselves by now in the shuttle's cargo bay. There was no way for Silver to warn them—should she betray them to save them? The ensuing uproar was guaranteed to be ghastly—her dismay wrapped like a steel band around her chest, constricting breathing, constricting speech.

She watched on the control booth's vid display in miserable paralysis as the shuttle kicked away from
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the Habitat and began to drop toward Rodeo's swirling atmosphere.

The dim cargo bay seemed to groan all around Claire as deceleration strained its structure. Buffeting, accompanied by a hissing whistle, vibrated through the shuttle's metal skin.

What's wrong? gasped Claire. She released an anchoring hand upon the plastic crate behind which they had hidden to double her grasp of Andy and hold him closer. Are we sideswiping something? What's that funny noise?

Tony hurriedly licked ar inger and held it out. No draft to speak of.He swallowed, testing his eustachican tubes. We're not depressurizing.Yet the whistle was rising.

Two mechanical ka-chunks, one after the other, that were nothing at all like the familiar thump and click of a hatch seal seating itself properly, shot terror through Claire. The deceleration went on and on, much too long,confused by a strange new vector of thrust that seemed to emanate from the shuttle's ventral sid e.The side of the cargo bay to which the crates were anchored seemed to push against her. She nervously put her back to it, and cushioned Andy upon her belly.

The baby's eyes were round, his mouth an echoing o of bewilderment. No,
please, don't start crying!

She dared not release the cry locked in her own throat; it would set him off like a siren. Patty cake, patty cake, baker's man,Claire choked. Microwave a cake as fast as you can... She tickled his cheek, flicking her eyes at Tony in mute appeal.

Tony's face was white. Claire—Ithink this shuttle's going downside! I bet those bangs were the airfoils deploying.

Oh, no! Can't be. Silver checked the schedule—

It looks like Silver made a big mistake.

I checked it too. This shuttle was supposed to be picking up a load of stuff at the Transfer Station,
then
going downside.

Then you
both
made a big mistake. Tony's voice was harsh and shaking, anger masking fear.

Oh, help, don't yell at me—ifI don't stay calm, neither will Andy—thisw asn't my idea. . . .

Tony rolled over on his stomach and levered his body away from the thrusting surface of the—the
floor
, downsiders called the direction from which the vector of gravitational force came—and crept to the nearest window, pulling himself alongside it. The light that poured through it was taking on a strange diffuse quality, diminishing. It's all white—Claire, I think we must be entering a cloud!

Claire had watched clouds from orbit abovefo rlhours, as they slowly billowed in the convection of Rodeo's atmosphere.They had always seemed massive as moons. She longed to go look.

Andy was clutching her blue T-shirt. She rolled over, as Tony had, palms to the surface, and pushed up.

Andy, turning his head toward his father, reached out with his upper hands and tried to shove off from
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Claire with his lowers. The floor leaped up and smacked him.

For a moment he was too stunned to howl. Then his little mouth went from round to square and poured out the vibrating scream of true pain. The sound knifed through every nerve in Claire's body.

Tony too jerked at the noise, and scrambled down from the window and back toward them. Why did you drop him? What do you think you're doing? Oh,make him be quiet, quick!

Claire rolled onto her back again, pulling Andy onto the elastic softness of her abdomen, and patted and kissed him frantically. The timbre of his screams began to change from the frightening high-pitched cry of pain to the less piercing bellows of indignation, but the volume was just as loud.

They'll hear him all the way up in the pilot's compartment! Tony hissed in anguish.
Do
something!

I'm
trying
, Claire hissed back. Her hands shook. She tried to push Andy's head toward her breast, standard comfort, but he turned his head away and screamed louder. Fortunately, the sound of the atmosphere rushing over the shuttle's skin had risen to a deafening thunder. By the time the noise peaked and faded, Andy's cries had become whimpering hiccups. He rubbed his face, slimy with tears and mucous, mournfully against Claire's T-shirt. His weight on Claire's stomach and diaphragm half stopped her breath, but she dared not lay him down.

Another set of clunks reverberated through the shuttle. The engines' vibrations changed their pitch, and Claire was plucked this way and that by changing acceleration vectors, none as strong as the one emanating from the floor. She spared two hands from comforting Andy to brace herself against the plastic crates. Tony lay beside them, biting his lips in helpless anxiety. We must be coming down to land on the surface.

Claire nodded. At one of the shuttleports. There'll be people there—downsiders—maybe we can tell them we got trapped aboard this shuttle by accident. Maybe, she added hopefully, they'll send us right back up home.

Tony's right upper hand clenched. No! We can't give up now! We'd never get another chance!

But what else can we do?

We'll sneak offthis ship and hide, until we can 1 get on another one, one that's going to the Transfer Station. His voice turned earnest with urgent pleading as a puff of dismay escaped Claire's parted lips,j We did it once, we can do it again.

She shook her head doubtfully. Further argument I was interrupted by a startling series of thumps that I shook the whole ship and then blended into a lowcontinuous rumble. The light falling through the window shifted its beam around the cargo bay as theshuttle landed, taxied, and turned. Then it winked out, the cargo bay dimmed, and the engines whined to an equally startling silence.

Claire cautiously unbraced herself. Of all the acceleration vectors, only one remained. Isolated, it became overwhelming.

Gravity.Silent, implacable, it pressed against herback—she struggled with a nasty illusion that it might suddenly cease, and the thrust it imparted slam herinto the ceiling above, smashing Andy between.In an accompanying optical illusion, the whole cargobay seemed to be chugging in a slow circle aroundher. She closed her eyes in self-defense.

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Tony's hand tightened warningly on her left lowerwrist. She looked up and froze as the outsidec argo bay door at the forward end of the compartment slid open.

A pair of downsiders wearing company maintenance coveralls entered. The access door in the center of the shuttle's fuselage dilated, and Ti the shuttle co-pilot stuck his head through.

Hi, guys. What's the big rush-rush?

We're supposed to have this bird turned around and reloaded in an hour, that's what,replied the maintenance man. Youhave just time to pee and eat lunch.