*****
The observation deck was starting to fill with people. Keelic’s family used their mag-guides to float down to the first rows of plush seats. The area was full of people Keelic did not recognize, which was odd, because he knew nearly everyone from his wanderings, at least by sight. Tensile-web spheres floated around the room covered with varicolored foods, many with labels touting their Ermolian origin. He munched rapidly, sampling everything to satisfy a tremendous hunger. Slowing down, he peered at the people near him. They barely touched the food, but held drinks in automatic receptacles as they talked and laughed. Bright clothing showed skin in strange places as the fabric floated around them. Much of what they wore was nanoform enhanced, producing effects on the fabric or in the air around them. They had to be people from the forward quarters. He felt pride that he and his parents were here among such important people. After a few minutes, he was bored.
Using his mag-guide, he moved around the room, hating the slowness of movement, but not daring to push off anything and risk parental wrath. A single piece of curved carbon-glass formed the forward wall and ceiling. He floated to its apex. Exterior armor reflected dull gray on the other side of the glass. His eyes wandered over the people below, picking out aliens, and some kids he knew. Then he found a pair of pale-blue eyes beneath blonde eyebrows staring at him. She smiled shyly and turned away.
"Deceleration will commence in thirty minutes," said the Ship-Ann. "Please begin finding your seats."
She had smiled at him! Watching the girl, he pushed off from the ceiling toward his chair.
Something leapt into his vision, and wetness and goo crashed over his head. He shoved away from the food sphere in a cloud of shock, horror, and debris. Laughter erupted, and everyone turned to see. He dared not look at either the girl or his parents. He keyed his mag-guide for the exit and floated for the door, face burning. The laughing continued, but now some shushes sounded, and he heard his parents call. He reached the door after avoiding some hands offering help, and shoved with all his might down the hall, heedless of anyone else.
In his room, he shut off the light and locked the door. Miserable, he floated in darkness. The door opened.
His mother’s voice said, "Lights."
The door shut, then she was beside him, gathering him up, using her mag-guide to maneuver them to the edge of the bed. She turned on the tensile-web, and touched off the lights. His mother said nothing for what seemed a long time. She stroked a comforting hand down his back, and started to pat his head, but her fingers stuck.
"Lights. Let’s get you cleaned up, okay?"
She took his clothes, which were not very messed, and he went into the shower. Putting on the breather, he touched the water temp to really hot. He came out fifteen minutes later feeling cleansed. His mother was waiting with clean clothes. He put them on.
"Ready?" she asked.
He shook his head without looking at her.
"You know that pretty little blonde girl? Well, she saw what happened, and never laughed. Her father started laughing, and she told him to be quiet. Actually, to ‘shut down.’ She got into trouble for that."
He looked up, questioning.
She nodded that it was true.
They took pull-me’s back to the observation deck. Everyone was seated, and the exterior shielding had withdrawn, revealing the light-absorbing blackness of the translight barrier. No one noticed his entrance. Almost. A pair of blue eyes he couldn’t look at followed him. As he turned to sit, he glanced her way and was met by an intent gaze, and a small smile.
"Deceleration in thirty seconds," said the Ship-Ann.
Keelic felt a change in the tone of the ship. The space beyond the glass filled with dazzling white tracery that reached ahead to infinity. Keelic felt himself pushed forward as though he were on a slow swing. The tracery split and grew, coloring in waves of rainbow hues that rippled away to forever. With each successive wave, he felt himself fall toward the distant apex of light as if the web were pulling him in. Something far ahead flashed like a fired torpedo. It grew into a shimmering ring of light through which streaming stars showed. The ring expanded, and with a blast of light the ship flashed through the hole. Bright clouds of stars surrounded them. Never before had he seen so many. He sat forward. So this was the inner frontier. The starscape shifted as the ship changed course, then back again in another direction, and he knew they were navigating the minefields that protected a planet from superluminal attacks. One bright star grew larger until it resolved itself into a planet. Something closer came into view, and he strained forward in his chair.
Massive compared to the transport, it was a black machine with blacker torpedo ports, and flashing particle-beam directional crystals. A defense satellite, all engine and weapons. It passed out of view, and he looked to the planet. It was brilliant green and blue, with pastel-blue swirling clouds. Squinting his eyes, he could pick out the grid of catcher-net satellites, rows of black specks against the planet’s color. He could hear his father talking and, curious about his new home, Keelic tuned him in.
"—and only one city."
Mother nodded with a tolerant smile. She had heard it all before.
Father continued. "Only thirty-thousand inhabitants. Can you believe it? Pesfor 3 had over twenty billion. A completely intact biosphere. Except for the farms, of course. But the rest is unexplored. Well, it has been mapped, but not explored. No one has seen it on the ground. There’s a lifetime of work here. I cannot wait to see an Ermolian flier!" He paused as the planet grew large in the window, and put an arm around Mother.
She said, "It’s more beautiful than I thought it would be."
Ignoring her comment and continuing his train of thought, Father said, "The Exobiology Society thinks the fliers could be an H3 intelligence. Remember the recordings of them feeding on the Patamic bulbs? And the Patamic trees. How adaptive such a dominating ecotype must be. Look at all that green! Thousands of varieties in there, but all Patamic forest. There, see the White Desert? Completely devoid of the trees. Seed bulbs don’t even drop there, and no one has any idea why." He started drawing in the air with his hands. "The bulb fills with helium as the stalk grows, lifting it into the air. The great mystery, of course, is the trinary biocode..."
Keelic tuned him out as the docking station loomed. He looked into the big windows in the bright white side of the station and saw tiny people watching the ship come in. He waved and was rewarded by a few returning the gesture. Only two other docked ships were visible, a common merchant design, and a fast-looking yacht.
They disembarked in a stream of people that thinned out as they stepped onto various floways and were carried through a series of customs scanners. Everything inside the station was slick and spotless as only new equipment could be, and the few people he saw were station workers. Keelic wondered if this was normal. It was nothing like the crowds of Pesfor 3. They were routed to a hangar, and boarded a shuttle bound for Ermol City.