Heart of the Nebula (42 page)

“
Your thumbprint is now
associated with your medical records and ID information,” said the
receptionist, smiling cordially as the scanner beeped. “Welcome
back, Commander McCoy.”

James returned the smile, but Deirdre was
already leading him away toward the ladder.

“
Identification
information?” he muttered.

“
It’s standard procedure.
We use thumb-prints for everything around here.”

Before he could ask anything more, she
bounded onto the ladder and climbed halfway up before turning to
face him.

“
Well? Are you
coming?”

“
What happened to the
elevators?” James asked, looking nervously down the shaft. The
ladder was just far enough away from the lip that he couldn’t climb
on without committing himself completely, and it was a long way
down.

“
We dismantled all but one
of the elevators over seventy years ago. They were too
inefficient—ladders are much faster.”

James swallowed and leaned tentatively
forward, arms outstretched. With both hands tightly gripping the
sides, he brought one foot onto a rung, then the other. Deirdre
laughed, but not unkindly.

“
Do children use these
things too?” asked James, looking up at her as he hung on for dear
life.

“
Parents with children are
authorized to use the last remaining elevator,” Deirdre answered,
“but most just use child slings until the kids are old enough to
climb themselves. You all right?”

“
Yeah. Let’s
go.”

Deirdre climbed quickly up the ladder,
moving as naturally as if she were walking or running. James
struggled to keep up, but soon got used to it. From his vantage
point beneath her, he saw that her skirt was designed to prevent
anyone below from seeing up between her legs. Her shoes, like his,
were barely more than slippers.

As he climbed, he noticed a profound
difference in the air. It smelled fresher, earthier—as if it had
come straight out of a greenhouse. The air in the medical bay
hadn’t exactly been stale, but the sanitizers had masked just about
everything else.

“
What’s that smell?” he
asked.

“
Aquaponics. They’re
located just below the medical bay.”

James looked down and noticed that many of
the people crawling up and down the ladder below him were wearing
aprons and lab coats. Apparently, the guy with the utility belt was
something of an anomaly.

As he watched, someone passed him going down
on the right, giving him a bit of a shock. He gripped the ladder
with sweaty hands as the vertigo made him cringe.

“
What’s the matter?” asked
Deirdre, already almost a level above him.

“
This—this ladder,” he
said, holding on for dear life. “Are you sure we can’t just take
the elevator?”

“
Don’t worry, it’s
perfectly safe. Watch.”

She jumped back and let go, falling past him
with a smile of amusement. He opened his mouth to cry out in shock,
but before he could react, an alarm sounded and several rope nets
constricted like circular apertures in the floors below. Deirdre
landed two stories below him, while the people below shouted at
her.

“
See?” she said, grinning
up at him. “It’s totally safe.”

“
Are you sure?”

“
Sure, I’m sure! The motion
sensors are everywhere, and the nets work every time. If you like
to slide, you have to be careful not to go too fast, otherwise
they’ll catch you.”

“
But—but what if your head
hit the edge of one of those manholes?”

“
They’re made of advanced
impact foam,” she said, pulling herself back up. “The higher the
impulse, the more cushioning they give.” As she eased her weight
onto the ladder, the alarms turned off and the nets retracted.
Without any apparent concern at all, she passed him and continued
on her way.

“
You all right?”

“
Yeah,” James groaned,
forcing himself to climb up another rung. Even though he knew it
was safe, the vertigo still froze him with fear.

“
Just a couple more levels
to go,” she said, coaxing him. “You’re doing fine.”

The next few rungs weren’t so bad. Whenever
anyone passed him, he cringed and his heart beat a little faster,
but at least he didn’t freeze up as he had before.

“
Here we are,” said
Deirdre, stepping out from the ladder onto the level above him.
James climbed up to where she’d stepped off and glanced at her over
his shoulders. She stood on the edge, offering him a
hand.

“
Come on, James. You can do
this.”

He glanced down and gulped. Even if the nets
caught him, this was going to be a long jump.

“
Don’t think too hard about
it,” she said encouragingly. “Just take my hand and step
off.”

He took a deep breath and jumped. For a
hair-raising second, he felt as if he were jumping off the top of a
ten story building. Then, his foot landed on solid ground, and he
stumbled into Deirdre’s arms.

“
Oomph!” he said, almost
knocking her over. She laughed and pulled him on.

“
Whoa! Better work on your
landing there, Commander.”

“
Sorry, I—”

“
Don’t worry about it.
We’ve got another three shafts to go—plenty of time to
practice.”

James frowned. “What?”

“
Oh, sorry. Each ladder
only runs up about ten levels. To get to the higher parts of the
ship, you have to switch ladders two or three times.”

Was this your idea,
Sterling?
James wondered as he followed her
up the next shaft. As the vertigo started to make his head swirl,
he swore he’d have a word or two with his former copilot. Then he
realized that he never would.

“
Here are the sleeping
quarters,” she said as they passed a brightly decorated level. “The
family level is on the bottom, nearest to the medical bay, followed
by single men and then single women. That’s a coed level for
recreation and exercise, though,” she said, pointing out another
one. “They try to intersperse those living areas with the sleeping
quarters, so we don’t have to climb up and down a dozen levels on
our off hours.”

“
Where are we
going?”

“
The childless couples
level. It’s up near the top—don’t ask me why.”

“
Wait,” said James.
“Couples area? You mean like married couples?”

“
Uh, yeah,” she said,
glancing sheepishly down at him. “Carlson wanted to put us in a
couples unit, so that I could be available to help you with the
transition. That is, if you’re okay with it…”

James wondered what it would have been like
if Sara were here. After spending so many nights in her arms,
sharing a room with a stranger seemed almost wrong. Then again,
Deirdre was one of the most guileless people he’d ever met. Her
bright and eager cheerfulness helped ease the dark loneliness that
threatened to engulf him over Sara’s loss. Having her around
wouldn’t totally dispel that loneliness, he knew, but it might make
the next few weeks a little easier.

He got better at climbing on the next shaft,
but by the time they approached the top, his arms were starting to
ache. He paused for a while at the top to catch his breath.

“
Are you doing all right?”
Deirdre asked him. “We can slow down if you’re getting
tired.”

“
No, I’m fine.” He stepped
off, this time only taking her hand.

“
You’re getting the hang of
it,” she said, grinning. “Just two more levels, and we’re
there.”

A few heads turned as they finally reached
their level and climbed out. After resting for a minute, Dierdre
led him down the radial to the main hall. Rows of identical doors
ringed the outside edge, but a colorful painted mural of green,
fruit-bearing vines and blue skies covered the wall. Arabesque
designs in the floor tiles complemented the artwork, giving the
place a warm, lived-in feel.

“
Nice,” he said. “I like
what you’ve done with the place.”

Deirdre’s laughter rang honest and clear,
not unlike Lars’s. “I’m glad you approve,” she said, giving him a
playful look. For a moment, James wondered if she was flirting with
him, but figured that was probably just her personality.

“
Here,” she said, opening a
door with a mountain waterfall painted next to it. He followed her
into a cozy room much like the one he’d shared with Sara. A wide
bunk sat embedded in the wall on the right, with a retractable
table on the opposite side. The computer terminal in the corner was
gone, though, and the walls were painted in warm tones to give it a
cozy feel.

“
You must be dying for a
shower,” she said, pressing her thumb against a small black pad to
make a compartment open in the wall. “We don’t have much time
before the swing-shifters wake up, but if you hurry you can
probably wash up before the rush.”

“
Swing-shifters?”

“
Sorry, the people who
sleep on swing shift. We’re on a three shift system on this
ship—made the switch when I was about five years old. Before that,
it was just a mainday/alterday schedule.”

James frowned. “Three shifts? How large is
the current population?”

“
About three thousand or
so.”

His jaw dropped. “Three thousand?
That’s—that’s more than three times the maximum capacity!”

Deirdre grinned and held up her hands. “What
can I say? We’ve been a little busy while you were gone.”

That explains why I never
feel like I’m alone in this place,
James
thought to himself. He glanced at the bunk—even his bed was not his
own.

“
We’re lucky this unit is
empty during this shift,” Deirdre continued, sorting through the
open compartment. “The alter-shifters are nice, though—I met them
just an hour ago. The husband’s an engineer, so we probably won’t
see him much. Here, press your thumb on this pad.”

James obeyed, and she keyed something on a
nearby access panel. Another compartment opened, this one empty
except for a few familiar datachips, some neatly folded sets of
clothes, and an envelope much like the one he carried in his
pocket.

“
This is your personal
storage compartment,” she said. “To open it, pull on the handle
while pressing your thumb against the pad. You’re the only one who
has access to it, so don’t worry about anyone stealing
anything.”

“
Thanks.” He opened his
pocket and pulled out Sara’s contingency letter, placing it
carefully next to the one in the compartment. He imagined Sara
punching him after he read it to her, then laughing as they held
each other, glad to be alive after over a hundred years of frozen
sleep.

His heart clenched, and a lump rose in his
throat. That was the way he’d expected it to happen—he never
thought it would turn out like this.

“
Here,” said Deirdre, “let
me show you to the showers.”

James took up a set of clean clothes and
followed her back into the colorful hallway. About a hundred yards
down, she led him through an open doorway on the inner side and
into a long, narrow room with blue and white bathroom tiles lining
the floor, walls, and ceiling. A long bench lined one side, while
the other was divided into almost a dozen stalls, each with a
cylindrical shower unit and a pair of swinging doors made of some
kind of light, basket-like material. One of the shower units was
running, but other than that the place was empty.

“
Are you, ah, supposed to
be in here?” James asked. The way she’d followed him in, it was
almost as if she expected to help him undress.

“
Oh, sorry,” she said.
“Bathroom facilities are co-ed—that’s probably something you’re not
used to.”

“
Co-ed bathrooms? On a
level for married couples?”

She shrugged. “It is what it is. On the
couples levels, typically the men keep to one side while the woman
keep to the other. Besides, all the shower units are
compartmentalized, so it’s not like you’re going to see
anything.”

“
Don’t you people have any
concept of privacy?” he asked, more than a little
exasperated.

“
Sorry. I’m sure you’ll get
used to it.”

“
I guess I’ll have to,” he
muttered.

“
Oh, one more thing,” said
Deirdre. “Did you see that datapad near the front? When it’s rush
time during the shift change, the stalls fill up pretty quickly, so
you have to wait in line. Just press your thumb against the
datapad, and you’ll be added to the queue.”

She pointed to a screen on the wall that
displayed numbered rows and three empty columns marked NAME,
ARRIVAL TIME, and UNIT ASSIGNMENT.

“
Anyhow,” she continued,
“bathrooms are on the other side, if you need to use them. You
remember where the room is, right?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Great! I’ll see you in a
minute, then.”

James waited until she was gone before
stepping gingerly into one of the stalls. The swinging doors only
went from his knees to his upper chest, and the stall was low
enough that he could easily see over into the other ones. He looked
at the long row of benches and wondered what this place was like
when it was full—it would be hard not to accidentally see
something.