Auditorium Two was easy to find--it was the only one with hundreds of teenagers ambling in. Sherry and Kara found seats, then alternately stood and sat as people had to edge past them to get at seats farther in.
When there was nobody left at the doors, one of the suits on the stage stepped up to the podium. "Everybody sit down, please. Sit down, please."
The hum of conversation faded, and every body finished sitting down.
"Thank you." His voice was startlingly loud now that it had no competition. "As you've already heard, we're heading to Velfard colony and will be arriving in approximately eight weeks. Those of you who have read your information packages will know your class, club, and free time schedules. There is a listing of all the clubs available to you, with descriptions. You will also find details on the family living on Velfard colony you have been matched with."
The crowd rustled, flipping through their papers or talking to their neighbours if they hadn't brought their information package.
"Later, everybody. You'll have plenty of time to read it later. Now." He adjusted his tie and cleared his throat. "I don't want to see any of you getting into trouble. The transport crew have been very understanding about having so many kids on board with so few adults to supervise them. Don't think that you can get away with anything just because one of us isn't around, though. The crew will report misbehaviour and have the authority to detain you if you do anything that threatens the safety of the ship, the crew, or the passengers. There is no smoking or drinking anywhere except designated areas, but you're all underage so this shouldn't be an issue, right?" He chuckled a bit, the amplified laugh fading uncomfortably.
A few people laughed, but more at him than at his joke. Kara rolled her eyes. "Lo-ser."
He cleared his throat. "So, ah, don't worry too much about the dire warnings, just behave and you won't get in trouble. If you have any problems with anything, don't hesitate to come see one of us." He waved in the general direction of the people standing behind him. ''These people will be your teachers, counselors, program co-ordinators, and supervisors. Your information package says which classes and/or clubs each person supervises, as well as private contact information in case you have any concerns you don't want to bring up in a public space."
He started to turn away from the podium then checked himself and turned back. "Oh, and the only valid reason for wanting to change roommates is harassment or personal danger, and those will be dealt with as the crimes they are, not as merely room-change requests. That is all. You may go to your rooms now, and meet your roommates if you haven't already, meet your neighbours, finish unpacking, all that good stuff. Dinner will be in three hours in hall four. Dismissed."
Sherry stood up. "They had to get us all in an auditorium just for that. I bet all of it is in the info pack they gave us."
"No doubt" Kara said. "So, wanna find out how crazy our roomies are?"
A few people around them laughed or snickered, and some nodded. "Hey, at least I won't have to share a room with a six-year-old anymore," a dark-haired girl said as they shuffled through the door.
''Worse, you'll have to share with a teenager who'll spread her clothes and magazines all over your bed, because putting that crap on her bed would mean cleaning it up partway before being able to go to bed."
"Ouch." Sherry sent the tiny Asian girl who had spoken a half-smile. "I guess I've been lucky so far then. My worst so-called sibling was a ten-year-old boy. A brat, but at least I didn't have to share a room with him. He found other ways to drive me crazy."
"They always do." Kara edged toward the side of the hall. "I'm gonna amble--elevator and stairs will be nuts."
Sherry, the tiny asian girl, and the dark-haired girl all ambled beside Kara, near the wall.
"I'm Kara by the way. Lifer. Grew up mostly around London. The Canadian one," she added when the dark-haired girl raised her eyebrows.
"I was gonna say, you don't sound like a Brit. I'm Jess, since eight, grew up in Seattle."
"Michi, since five, New York."
"Sherry, since two I'm told, and Calgary."
Kara laughed. "If you can't remember them taking you away from your parents, you're a lifer. I was three, I think."
"Well yeah," Sherry said. "But l just don't like the term. Once we're legally adults we aren't stuck in the system anymore."
"Pedant." Kara stuck her tongue out.
"I prefer the term 'mature'." Sherry looked down her nose at Kara until she couldn't keep a straight face, then giggled. "It's hard to look down at someone taller than you."
"If you look down your nose at someone, how do you keep from going cross-eyed?" Kara lifted her nose, crossed her eyes, and put on an expression like she'd just smelled something unpleasant.
Michi burst out laughing. "I've had classmates who looked just like that every time they looked at somebody not in their little clique."
They walked past the lineup at the elevator and headed down the stairs,
"Lazy bums," Kara whispered when the stairwell door closed behind them. "So, is everybody sleeping on deck one?"
"I think so," Jess said.
Kara pushed open the door to deck one.
"Well, I'm over that way I think," Jess said, pointing to her right.
"Me too," said Michi.
"We're the other way," Sherry said. "See you guys around?"
Jess waved and wandered down the hall, looking from her map to the door numbers and back down again.
Sherry and Kara dodged the lost wanderers and found their room without any trouble.
The door was open when they got there, and Kara pocketed her key again. They knocked once, and walked in.
"Hello?" A blonde head appeared off the top bunk, and its owner looked at them curiously. "Oh, are you the other two people in here?"
"I'm Kara, this is Sherry," Kara said.
Sherry waved, just as glad she didn't have to do yet another introduction.
"Ellen." The blonde disappeared, then reappeared on the floor after a thump.
"Isn't this great?" A girl with short brown hair and glasses leaned out from the bottom bunk. "I just wish I had been born a hundred years ago. Imagine going off to build a new home on a planet nobody had ever set foot on before?"
"Except the aliens." Kara sat on Sherry bunk.
"They almost never touch the ground, or didn't until we humans came along."
Ellen rolled her eyes. "And this is Cathy, she's a space geek. Thank god you guys came when you did, she was about to explain the aliens economy pre and post contact."
"I was not!"
"Oh, that was tomorrow's topic? My mistake."
Cathy's cheeks turned red and she turned back to her book reader, a muscle just behind her jaw working.
The hallway outside hall four was packed as several hundred people squeezed through the two open doors.
"Michi!" Kara waved. "Michi, over here!"
"How on earth can you see her?" Sherry asked. "She's so short--"
"Between people, not over them. Hi Michi, how are your roomies?"
"Not bad. By which I mean largely friendly and sane, so l can't complain. Yours?"
"I've had worse. I wonder what's for dinner?"
"Whatever it is, it smells--" They saw into the room for the first time, and Sherry's lungs seized.
Open to space. Open down, down, down to the ground far below. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't take her eyes off the huge drop.
A sudden pain on her cheek made her flinch, and when she opened her eyes again, she was back out in the hall, Michi's face six inches from hers.
"Welcome back," Michi said, and let go of Sherry's chin.
''What was that all about?" Kara said. "You totally started hyperventilating, until Michi dragged you out here and slapped you."
"Sorry."
"Don't be," Michi said. "What is it?"
Kara looked from Sherry to Michi and back again. "You were quick, Michi."
"One of my foster sisters had epilepsy. Ready to stand, Sherry?"
"I don't have epilepsy."
"I know. Epilepsy looks different." Michi offered Sherry her hand and helped her up.
Sherry brushed her pants off. "Who saw?"
One of the suits from the auditorium left the hall and closed the door behind her. All three girls stopped talking and turned to look at her.
"Such faces, you three! You're not in trouble or anything. I heard there was a problem?"
Sherry hesitated, then nodded. The suit was probably some sort of counselor. "A phobia. Heights." She was sure her face was beet red, and looked at her shoes.
"Oh, so that's--" Kara started. Michi elbowed her into silence.
"Can you go into the hall now?"
"Probably not. The windows. It's so far down... if l stay away from windows I'm in just another building. I'm ok in tall buildings away from windows." Sherry jammed her mouth shut and studied her shoelaces. She hadn't babbled that much in years.
Michi and the suit both nodded.
"Ok," the suit said. "Can you go into that conference room and cover all the windows?" She tossed a keycard to Kara and turned back to Sherry. "You'll eat in there tonight, we'll figure something more permanent out later,"
Kara came back out of the conference room. "All clear," she said as she handed back the keycard.
"Thanks. Now get yourself something to eat."
"Any preferences, dislikes, allergies?" Michi asked. "I'll get whatever you want."
"Whatever. I'm not picky."
The suit led Sherry into the conference room as Kara and Michi went back into hall four in search of food.
"Now, miss..."
"Tenna."
"Miss Tenna, I want to see you tomorrow morning. This phobia was in your record, I hope? I need to know what will trigger the reaction, so we can avoid it in the future."
"Yes, and telling me I'm not going to fall doesn't work."
"I know. Phobias don't go away just by wishing them away. Here." She wrote something on a card, then handed it over.
Mira Johnson, a jumble of letters, an address on the transport. Handwritten, tomorrow's date and a time, 10 AM.
Kara backed into the room, carrying two plates piled high with food. Michi followed, A plate in one hand, a pitcher of water in the other, and three cups trapped between her arm and her ribs.
"I'll leave you three to your meal then. If one of you could just bring all your stuff back into hall four when you're done, that would be great."
As soon as the door closed behind Ms. Johnson, Kara grinned and leaned forward. "Private party!"