Connect yellow cable to yellow
slot. The instructions were
very clear. But all these slots were the same color, and the data
ports on the server bore no resemblance to the diagram in the
instructions. Mara laid the tablet on the concrete next to her and
thought.
There were twelve ports with the
right number of pins for the yellow cable. One was already filled
by a line running off to the observatory, plugged in by someone in
days previous. Hopefully they'd known what they were doing. Eight
were all in a row down the side of the server box; those were
probably for linking to the eight other servers in the room. That
left two ports, and no obvious way to choose between them.
She
did not want to have
to ask. She did not want to be the stupid one again, who needed to
ask. She had marked her sixteenth birthday three months ago, she
was almost too old to apprentice, and this might be her last – no,
that wouldn't help now. She shoved the thought away, focused on the
two data ports. But they remained mysterious.
“Idling?” Ermon asked behind
her, and she jumped.
“No
sir!” Oh spirit, not now.
She plugged the cable into the left-hand slot. Can
always fix it later.
“Pick up the pace, newbie. I
want this done before you knock off tonight.” She heard his
footsteps as he headed back to the hab, and relaxed slightly.
Let's see... Red cable to
red port...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The evening meal was almost over
when she got back to the hab. She grabbed a plate of lukewarm mash
and headed for the Orphans' table, at the end of the hab hallway.
“I'm telling you, they won't
catch me,” Dee was saying, her voice low, as Mara sat next to her.
“It's not like they watch us.”
“You're almost seventeen,”
Pol replied from across the table, leaning forward conspiratorially.
“If they do catch you, that's it, you might as well go on
the dole.”
Mara ate a spoonful of mash, the
warm starchy flavor filling the void in her stomach. She looked
around the dining chamber. The Orphans' table was set in the back,
away from the tables of the guildmen. There were new people at the
head table, she noticed, catching sight of the black of a nobles'
tunic. She turned to Dee. “Who are those guys at the head
table?”
Dee ignored her, too focused on
her own project. “I'm going on the dole anyway. Ermon's got it
in for me, no way they'll take me after this.”
“Who are those people at the
head table?” Mara reiterated.
“Dunno,” Pol said
distractedly. “They came in on a crawler this morning.”
“I'm in,” said Yat from
further down the table. Mara winced inwardly. Yat was only
thirteen, and eager to impress, and still felt he had all the time in
the world before he was too old for the guilds.
She took another bite of mash.
Some of the paste dripped off the end of her spoon and caught in her
neckfur, and she wiped at it with the back of her hand.
“Your attention, please!”
someone shouted at the front of the dining hall – the man in the
black tunic. He had jumped on top of one of the tables as a
makeshift stage. All she could see of him from here was that he was
tall, thin, grey-haired and -furred, a flicker of gold around his
neck – a muniprin's circlet?
“Thank you all for the hard
work you've done,” the man said. “Three days ago, I had a
personal audience with the autarch of Elysium. I am pleased to say
that he has graciously given us his blessing to continue.” The
room broke into spontaneous, enthusiastic applause. Mara clapped as
well, despite not knowing what she was applauding, and the rest of
the Orphans' table joined suit. Only the other newcomers at the
head table – two in senior guild uniforms, a second man in a
noble's tunic, and a squat trimind – did not join in.
After the applause died down, the
man continued. “I know I don't need to tell you what this means.
We have all looked up to the sky and wondered – are we the only
survivors? Are there other men still living and sane in the solar
system? Spirit willing, we will know the answers soon. And
perhaps even make some progress towards our ultimate hope,” he
added enigmatically. “If all goes well, we will make our first
observations in a month's time. Now, I'll let you all get back to
your dinners.”
Mara ate another spoonful of
mash. She'd never wondered about what the stars hid. She'd lived
her life underground in Elysium, had never known the stars except
from vids until she'd come to this mountainside just six months ago.
The other Orphans seemed non-plussed as well, but the rest of the
room held enthusiasm to make up for it. The buzz of conversation
followed her as she returned her plate to the kitchen and wondered
down the hab towards the airlock.
She borrowed an air mask and a
parka from the rack by the lock and waited for it to cycle.
Outside, night had fallen, the stars shining down on the observatory
dome and the hab airlock and a row of crawlers parked next to it. A
pressurized tube was under construction between the hab and the dome,
but it was still only half-finished. She walked along the little
plateau holding the observatory until the lights of the hab were
hidden behind a rock outcropping, then turned and looked up.
What was up there?
She knew the tales of lost Earth, as any child did, and as she
probed her memory more names came back – Mercury, burning-hot and
rich with ore, Luna and its factories, Saturn and the outposts
circling around it. But she could put no names to the dots of light
that swarmed the sky, could not pick out any of the worlds where men
had once lived.
She wondered if someone else, on
one of those other worlds, was looking up at her, and wondering...
After perhaps twenty minutes, she
headed back to the hab. She had studying she needed to do, an hour
stolen from the designated sleep time to cram as much as she could of
the Sensologists' instructional files, knowledge hoarded in hope she
might some day be able to use it. But she thought she would see if
she could find a file on astronomy, as well.
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