“You be careful you don’t miss any of those. If one of those goes whizzing around here under v, you don’t want to know what it’d do to a body’s head.”
“I know, ker Chihin. I’m sorry.”
“It was my foot,” Chihin muttered, which was fairer than most ever were to him. He went back after more clips, and searched all around the edges of the cabin, and around the cushions and down in them, no matter how remote the chance.
No more of them. He came back and dumped what he had.
“Boy,—what got into you, wanting to come out here?”
“Captain said I could help …”
“I mean here. I mean going to space.”
Thatquestion. It always came up. “I wanted to.”
“I know that. But what’s a nice kid want to come out here and run over tc’a and get arrested for?”
KerChihin didn’t think he belonged here. He was used to that. And you couldn’t argue with it. He shut up and kept his head down, already knowing the captain was going to throw him off the ship, so there was no use in arguing.
“Kid?”
“I wanted to go to space, that’s all.”
“Think you couldn’t have found yourself a spot on Anuurn? Don’t think there’s some niche you could have carved out? You’re a good-looking kid. You’d have gotten somebody’s attention.”
“I guess. Maybe. I don’t know.” He’d been through this too many times, with every ship he applied to, with the one that had taken him, with every member of the Sun’s crew, in one form or another. Sometimes he’d given answers to make them happy. He’d caught himself lying and sworn off it. But he didn’t want to argue with Chihin either. The day had already gone wrong enough.
“So what d’ you think?” Chihin asked. “Is space what you expected?”
“I don’t know.” Same stupid answer. He found a piece of debris and brought it back, thinking, and he said it: his back was to the wall and he couldn’t lose any more than he had. “But I don’t want to go back. And I’m getting better.”
“At what? Parking?” Chihin said, straight to the sore spot. He kept his head down and picked up the container of debris. “You know where to take that?”
“To ‘cycling. I guess it’s out by the lifts.”
“You guess right.” Which let him go, so he went out down the corridors and sorted the trash into the right chutes, plastics and metal bits apart, then wiped the bucket down and took it back to the only place he knew to take it.
“Goes in the maintenance locker/’ Chihin said. “That’s-“
“Lower Main 2. Next the lift. I spotted it.’‘
Chihin frowned at him and flattened her ears. He didn’t know whether Chihin was annoyed at him or not. “Sharp eyes we have.”
“Shall I put it up, ker Chihin?”
“Get,’‘ she said. He got, back to the area he had just been in. The lift was working. One of the crew coming down, he thought. He opened the locker, stowed the bucket, and was just latching the door when the lift door opened. He looked up, to say hello to whatever of the crew it was.
It wasn’t.
He saw the stsho in the same moment it saw him. He stared in shock; it let out a warbling shriek and ducked back into the lift.
He ducked back down the corridor. Fast. And around to where its cabin was.
“Chihin!” he stammered. And when Chihin looked at him: “I think it saw me. The stsho. It was in the lift.”
Chihin blasphemed in a major way and told him to go to his quarters. So he went there, and shut the door and sat down on the cushion.
He hadn’t thought things could get worse, or imagined that he could find another way to foul things up.
Oh, gods, he hadn’t thought so.
“Perfectly safe,” Hilfy said in her best stshoshi Trade. “I do assure your honor, this is a person who came aboard with references from gtst excellency gtstself …”
“… who lied!” Tlisi-tlas-tin said from the speaker.
Hilfy leaned against the panel, kept her voice calm. “Your honor, occupying the lift is against all safety regulations designed for your comfort and well-being …” She was down to quoting the primer lessons in the Trade. “Kindly bring the lift car back to lower decks and open the door.”