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All there was, all I remembered, was a blur.
2
Gathering for drinks in the parlors, playing dress up with all the fine clothes I found in the closets (some of it modern, some of it period dress for special themed events), idling in the lounges.
3
Now and then, a new face mingled in the crowd.
0
Other faces washed out, fading into the backdrop of carpets and fake glass chandeliers and the muted hum of the engines.
0
So when my shuttle malfunctioned and the airlocks didn't keep the air in, I heard nothing.
2
One of these evenings, we were gathered in the South Ballroom for post-dinner drinks, lounging on couches and watching other members of our populace move in circles on the dance floor.
1
'South'
3
There weren't.)
3
Sarah's circle had picked up another newcomer, Adrienne, a short blond girl who we all agreed was barely old enough to attend a traditional university back on Earth, let alone work on the ship in whose wreck Jefferson had found her.
2
My first thought: I was going crazy.
2
Maybe it was her curiosity, asking a question I should have asked long before, that turned the conversation serious; maybe there was just something special about that evening.
1
Twenty-four hours of silence (vacuum, remember); was I hallucinating noises now?
3
Maybe we had all tired of the frivolity of our life, hitting some threshold or some breaking point.
0
Regardless, when Adrienne asked what the ship's purpose was, we all gave it a measure of thought.
3
We dredged up half-fledged theories and inchoate explanations, tossing these out the same way we pitched ideas about the art films.
3
“I believe we'll see the end of the universe,”
2
“I believe we'll see the end of the universe,” said Tiffany.
2
Captain's cohort, she had a glass of orange-brown liquid in one hand; it might have been orange juice and some kind of berry liquor.
3
She swirled it speculatively.
2
I watched Adrienne.
3
“Impossible,”
2
“Impossible,” said Zheng, sitting in the chair to her left.
3
“We can't live that long.”
2
“Maybe the universe will end sooner than you think,”
2
Yeah, the captain was there, with the rest of us.
1
He didn't drink, but he made a point of mingling with all the various cliques.
3
“Maybe we'll travel at the speed of light and we won't age,”
1
“Maybe we'll travel at the speed of light and we won't age,” said Sarah, setting her wine glass on the little round end table by her couch.
1
“Maybe we're already traveling at the speed of light.”
1
“Relatively says it all.”
0
Zheng scoffed.
2
“Also impossible.
2
“Also impossible. Even if we were traveling at ninety-nine percent of the speed of light—that's assuming you ignore science and pretend that such a thing is possible, because it isn't—we'd still age. We'd just appear to age slower than people not traveling as fast as us.”
2
We'd just appear to age slower than people not traveling as fast as us.”
3
“And?”
0
said Sarah.
3
“Aging is relative, anyway.
1
“Aging is relative, anyway. Besides, I wouldn't mind being around forever. Give our ancestors purpose. Keep their dreams alive.”
3
Besides, I wouldn't mind being around forever.
1
Keep their dreams alive.”
1
“New hypothesis,”
1
“No one's immortal.
2
“No one's immortal. In fact, the opposite: We're all going to die.”
2
In fact, the opposite: We're all going to die.”
2
“Bleak,”
2
“Bleak,” commented Zheng.
3
“But I like it.”
1
Ray took a drink from his glass of ice water, and shook his head.
0
“We're all going to die, so what better thing to do than enjoy the time we have?”
2
Kishori gestured to the bar, the carpets, the paintings.
0
“All the luxuries money can buy.”
0
“All the luxuries money can buy,”
1
“All the luxuries money can buy,” she echoed.
0
And accompanying the bell, I saw a light.
0
“Paid for how?”
3
“Smuggling,”
3
Matter-of-fact.
0
Jefferson snorted, amused.
1
“Think about it,”
3
“Think about it,” Kishori continued, “where else would we get the money to buy all this?”
0
“where else would we get the money to buy all this?”
0
“Renegade smugglers.
0
“Renegade smugglers. So what's our cargo, eh, captain?”
2
So what's our cargo, eh, captain?”
0
Zheng joked, leaning back in his chair with his glass of wine.
1
Jefferson shook his head and stood up.
3
“I'll leave you to your speculation,”
3
“I'll leave you to your speculation,” he said.
3
Now, there were two things here that made ridiculously small amounts of sense.
2
A chorus of good nights followed him out the door.
0
After the captain left, Zheng leaned in.
0
He set his glass down on an end table, steepled his fingers together.
0
“We're revolting,”
2
“We're revolting,” he told us.
3
“And I don't mean that you disgust me.
2
“And I don't mean that you disgust me. No, we're the start of a rebellion. Did you hear what the captain said earlier? He means, we're going to change the future. The universe as we know it won't be the same.”
3
No, we're the start of a rebellion.
3
The universe as we know it won't be the same.”
2
“That's dumb,”
2
“Wouldn't we know it if we were part of a rebellion?
0
Zheng shook his head.
1
“The captain selected us for a reason. He has inside intelligence—how else would he know where to find us? He knows about us.”
0
He has inside intelligence—how else would he know where to find us?
0
He knows about us.”
2
“That's still dumb,”
2
“That's still dumb,” said Sarah.
2
“Inside intelligence?
3
“Inside intelligence? Don't you remember, there's not exactly one big galactic government from which to steal information.”
1
Don't you remember, there's not exactly one big galactic government from which to steal information.”
2
First, the whole in-a-vacuum why's-there-a-bell thing.
0
Jefferson didn't share how he found people.
2
He didn't share how he knew exactly where the wrecks were, or why he saved some people but not others.
2
But then again, no one asked.
1
He had been at this savior business longer than any of us.
0
I wondered if Adrienne would ask about that.
2
“We're going to mean something,”
3
“We're going to mean something,” Zheng was saying.
3
Second, I was floating in the dark remnants of my broken ship, and any conceivable light sources were not within view; starlight is a distinctly different color and significantly less bright.
2
“What we do, rebelling against the oppression of the many governments that oppose us, we're going to leave a legacy.”
3
He sounded certain.
3