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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 |
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