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before. If I had to die for anybody, it would be for him.
    And then I started to shiver uncontrollably, no longer able to deny what I had known from the start. If he wanted me to die, I would die all right. He was The Captain, and as such he held the power of life and death over everybody on board.
    He was also the man from my nightmares, the man in black who could see into the depths of my soul.
Chapter 6
    Ididn’t sleep well the rest of that time period, and gratefully floated free of the hammock when the wake-up light came on. The division mess wasn’t hard to find: I followed my nose to a cluttered storage compartment down the same passageway where Crow and I had our living cubicles. Clustered around a few metal crates in the middle were Ophelia, Crow, Loon, Thrush, and a dozen others, including a pleasant-faced older woman. All of them were sipping collapsicups of hot coffee. Members of other exploration teams were clinging to the compartment’s racks and stanchions—Hawk and Eagle, two wide-eyed fifteen-year-olds who were as new to the division as I was; Swift, beautiful but nervous and almost as shy as Pipit; Heron, sly and pimply-faced, who apparently had found a hero in Thrush; and a thin, flat-muscled girl named Snipe, with close-cropped brown hair and that air of superiority with which so many young girls antagonize immature boys. Ophelia was present, as were some of the other team leaders. The one nobody could ignore was Portia, fat and sharp-tongued, whose saving grace was that she was as hard on herself as she was on others. Her lover and second in command was an untidy little man named Quince who seldom had anything to say except in support of whatever she said.
    I almost didn’t notice Tybalt , but then nobody noticed Tybalt at first. He was a weathered, gray-bearded man, minus a left foot. I was later told he had lost it in a landslide on Galileo III twenty years before. He was chief of the planning division and my immediate superior when I wasn’t on call for Ophelia. He had a reputation as an easy man to work for—if you knew your job. The last one, Banquo , was heavy-eyed and yawning. Muscular but larded with fat, he was a member of Security as well as an assistant team leader. He took both much too seriously and made a point of sitting by himself. It was Banquo who had woken me up and taken me to the Captain a few hours before. I said “Good morning” to nobody in particular. Most of them murmured something in reply and all of them studied me, trying to figure out what I was like now. In turn, I studied them and wondered what I had been like before.
    Thrush roosted in a corner, apparently his favorite spot for watching the others and taking mental notes. His hair was still matted from sleep, his face occasionally distorted by a yawn. He noticed me when I slipped in but his eyes were fixed on Pipit, who was busily pushing various pouches of leaves and powders into the food dispenser.
    Crow glanced at me once, his expression hostile. I wanted badly to tell him about my visit with the Captain, but I couldn’t talk to him if he weren’t talking to me. Loon was right; I had been a fool. Ophelia caught my eye and nodded to the woman next to her.“ Huldah, partnership Noah.” She sounded curt and looked as hostile as Crow, though I couldn’t think of any way I had antagonized her. Huldahwas a plump little woman, eager to smile at anybody and anything. A working matron, I supposed, some minor duties in Hydroponics and a life that revolved around her partner. I nodded out of a vague sense of politeness.
    “You should talk to Huldah sometime,” Ophelia said pointedly, dropping her voice. “She knows all about the families on board.”
    I dipped my head, embarrassed. Huldah smiled the same empty smile that she had before. Thrush smothered another yawn, then said loudly so everybody would hear, “Did the Captain tell you all about the Astron , Sparrow?”
    I didn’t know how he knew but I didn’t