"Here, take one of these." A folded piece of waxy paper drifted into view. "If you need it, you won't have time to ask."
Sherry turned her eyes a bit and saw uniformed pant legs and boots drifting back down the aisle. She grabbed the bag and closed her eyes again.
"Here, take one of these," the copilot said from somewhere behind her.
"Co-pilot, strap in. Acceleration warning: two minutes."
Sherry heard the co-pilot handing out barf bags on the other side of the cabin, moving forward, checking on all the passengers as she went.
"Acceleration in 30 seconds."
There was a hiss and a click, then just the hum of conversation for a while. Sherry counted to 30 twice.
She was pressed gently into her seat back, then nothing again. There was a dull thud, followed a few seconds later by a slow increase in her weight against the seat.
"We have docked with the transport Spirit of Jupiter. Please remain in your seats until instructed to unbuckle your restraints."
The excited chatter started to increase.
Some great adventure. Even the others who had gotten barf bags were all excited again.
Sherry heard a few clicks and some shuffling, and saw a boy with straight blonde hair and a hooded sweatshirt stand and stretch. A few more clicks followed, and some dirty looks by a few of the people still buckled in as they'd been told.
Geek-boy was looking intently at something out his window.
The door a few rows ahead of Sherry hissed open.
"Didn't I say you were to stay buckled in until I said otherwise?"
A few murmurs rippled past, and those standing, sat.
"Thank you."
A second man, this one wearing a suit instead of a uniform, stepped through the door.
"Any of you not know why you're here?" The man snapped his clipboard closed.
Nobody replied.
"Good. You may unbuckle your restraints, but remain seated. In a few minutes you will be taken to your rooms on Jupiter. You will be assigned four to a room, and there will be no trading permitted, so don't ask. There are two more shuttles coming in the next few hours, then we will leave the system en route to Velfard colony."
"Ah, sir?" Geek-boy raised his hand.
"Yes? Mr. Forth is it?"
"Yes. Isn't Velfard colony the one trying to separate from the UN?"
"There are people on every colony who want to drop their responsibilities. The trip will take approximately eight weeks; 56 days and 16 hours to be precise. During the trip, you will take classes teaching you about the conditions on Velfard colony, continuing your regular education at whatever level you're currently enrolled in--"
A quiet groan seeped from person to person.
"--and you will have the opportunity to join clubs and participate in sports, competitions, and recreational activities. Are there any questions?"
Silence.
"When I call your names, come forward, exit the shuttle, and queue up at the desk just past the exit. You will receive further instructions there."
He ran his pen down the side of of his clipboard and started calling out names.
"Anderson, Kieth."
"Here." A tall, dark-haired boy stood up and squeezed past the official.
"Avery, Jennifer."
"Yeah." A girl with spiky blue hair ambled up the aisle.
"Bensah, Jeff."
Sherry waited for the Ts to be called, then walked past him and out the airlock.
It looked like any other government-built corridor. Bland, neutral, inoffensive, boring. She picked up her information package, the map to her home for the next two months conveniently taped to the outside, then her bags. It looked like whoever handled the transports was a lot more organized than Social Services.
Down the hall, right, two levels down, straight, straight, left, fifth door on the right. Sherry knocked twice, then walked in.
"Oh, hi Sherry!" Kara waved at her from the bottom bunk of the far bed. "Pick any bed, as long as it's this one." She pointed at the bed above her. "They're all taken already."
Sherry dropped her bigger bag in the corner and closed the door. "You're taking that bottom bunk?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Want to trade?"
Kara made a face. "I deserve that, for taking your window seat on the shuttle. The lower bunks are the only ones where you can see out the windows from in bed."
Sherry stepped past the edge of the near bunk and looked down the room. A window, showing the edge of the Moon, and stars beyond.
She swallowed. "You could sit on my bunk to look out the window anytime, if we traded. I'd just really rather the lower bunk."
"Um, ok then." Kara tossed a few things from the lower bunk upward. An old book reader, a fuzzy sweater, a stuffed toy. "The other two girls seem to be out right now, but they've definitely moved in." Kara pointed to the pyjamas and books strewn across the other two beds. "Want to explore the ship? I'll wait for you to get unpacked, I'm pretty much done here."
"Sure, why not." Sherry opened the drawer with her last name on it and stuffed her bag inside, then dropped her smaller bag on her bunk. "I'll unpack later."
Kara laughed. "Ok. I've got my map, let's go see what there is to see."
Sherry grabbed her map as well. There seemed to be a lot available on the ship, according to the map. Classrooms, meeting rooms, gyms, restaurants, cafes, convenience and gift stores, lounges, a doctor's office, and the residential type rooms they were going to stay in were the first things she noticed.
For the most part, they wandered aimlessly--once they got out of residential and into the more interesting part of the ship. They popped into most of the gift stores, made bad jokes about the kind of people that buy that trash, and wished privately they could afford to blow money on a keychain that cost more than lunch. After that, they looked at the menus on the restaurants, and realised that lunch was a lot more expensive when you were a captive audience.
The gym was almost deserted, although there seemed to be a netless game of volleyball going on in one of the courts. There was even a public library, consisting of three download stations with retractable cords for book readers.
"Attention all passengers," the ship's loundspeakers boomed. "The Spirit of Jupiter will be departing for Velfard colony in 30 minutes. While underway, please take advantage of the many facilities available on board."
Sherry tuned out the rest of the recorded message, until the speakers crackled and a live voice came on.
"Would all passengers sponsored by the Ministry of Social Services please gather in auditorium two, on deck seven. Auditorium two, deck seven. Thank you."
Kara rolled her eyes. "That would be us. Now, elevator, elevator..." Kara turned on her heels about two-thirds of the way around, then started walking.