Read Online The Dark Beyond the Stars : A Novel by Frank M. Robinson - Free Book Online Page B

try to hide my enthusiasm. “He said he wanted to go in with us at Aquinas II.”
    “I’m impressed,” Thrush mocked. “He hasn’t been off ship in a thousand years.”
    Tybaltcame alive then. He glanced at Thrush with contempt, then back to me. “Pay no attention, Sparrow—if the Captain says he’s going to go in, he’ll go in.” He sipped his coffee, studying me as intently as Thrush had. What did they hope to see? I wondered.
    Thrush shrugged. “He’s an oldman, he won’t remember what he said.”
    I suddenly felt ashamed. The Captain had befriended me but I had yet to defend him.I slitted my eyes and glared.
    “Say it to his face, Thrush.”
    The compartment fell silent. Thrush had disliked me before, but from now on he would be an active enemy. I didn’t think it would be any great loss.
    Heron looked at me and smirked. “Two thousand years old—he must creak when he walks.”
    Tybaltturned on him.
    “You have to be as old as the Captain to have vision, Heron. You wouldn’t understand that.”
    Whatever Thrush’s faults, he didn’t strike me as a coward. I wasn’t that sure about Heron. Thrush grinned and scratched his chest.
    “A vision, at any rate.”
    Ophelia said sharply, “Shut up, Thrush.” He shrugged and went back to watching Pipit. Through it all, Banquo held his tongue, leaving the reprimands to Tybalt and Ophelia. That surprised me—I would have thought Banquo was the Captain’s man if anybody was.
    The buzz of talk started up again while Pipit distributed the breakfast trays. I was as interested in the people in the compartment as I was in the food. It was easy to figure out the chain of command, which followed generational lines. There was the Captain and then probably a few right-hand men. After that came the heads of departments, like Noah and Abel, and finally theSeniors , team leaders like Ophelia and Tybalt .
    Most of the talk over breakfast was of Aquinas II, with the younger team members bragging about what they would do once we landed. Ophelia, Crow, and a few others said nothing at all, making a point of not even looking at one another though it was plain they all agreed on something. Breakfast was textured protein flavored with Pipit’s secret store of spices and served in edible casings to keep it together; I had no idea what it was supposed to be but it tasted very good. Halfway through the meal, there were squeals in the passageway and three youngsters burst through the shadow screen. The smallest had misjudged his speed and I grabbed his legs to keep him from colliding with the bulkhead. We spun through the air, the contents of my tray spattering over the others in the compartment. While I tried to stop, the boy clung tightly to my arm and stared gravely into my face. He was a chubby three-year-old with brown hair and overly solemn eyes. I recognized him:K2 , one of the children Pipit had been tutoring.
    Hawk and Eagle scrambled around the compartment with spare equipment rags to clean up the mess. The others in the compartment were annoyed, while Thrush watched with a sour smile on his face, amused by the flurry of activity.
    We settled back around the crates. Huldah absently brushedK2 ’s hair and asked him if he knew all his begats .
    He looked away, suddenly shy. I interrupted, saying, “I don’t know mine.”
    There was an abrupt hush. Huldah cleared her throat and began in a sing-song: “Sparrow was begat by Nerissa who was begat by Abigail who was begat by Hake who was begat by Fox…”
    I held up my hand after the first dozen. “You know them all?”
    Another vacant smile.“They’re in the computer—you can look them up.”
    Nobody was listening to us now, the begats having bored all of them.
    “You know my family history?” I asked anxiously.
    Huldah’ssmile vanished and she bent closer, her eyes filled with speculation. In that brief moment she became a different person, though nobody else seemed to notice the change.
    “People telling you