Sherry stared at the bottom of Kara's bunk, trying unsuccessfully to get to sleep. Either Ellen or Cathy was snoring softly from across the room, and Kara shifted occasionally on the bunk above.
Kara had pulled the blind on the window, claiming she couldn't sleep with that much light in the room and arguing with Cathy that "can't sleep" would win over a mere preference of seeing space before falling asleep, and hadn't mentioned Sherry at all.
Ellen had grinned, staring straight at Sherry, from her bunk.
In a strange sort of way, Sherry wished it had been Cathy who knew, and not Ellen. Despite Ellen's comments before dinner, Cathy didn't seem like the type to lecture and Ellen did seem like the type to make nasty comments--to your face, and possibly behind your back.
Sherry rolled over onto her side, and faced the wall. Eight weeks. Eight weeks of trying to avoid windows in a spaceship that tried to give its passengers a "view" whenever it could. How had the screeners ever thought she should go into space?
An annoying beep started, getting louder with every second. Sherry pried her eyes open.
The lights were on, getting brighter in time with the beeps.
"Nnnf. Shutha fuknin OFF." Ellen pulled her blanket over her head.
Sherry tossed back her covers and walked over to the clock. She rubbed her eyes, then tried to find an off switch.
"Ok, ok, we're awake already." Cathy sat up and put her glasses on. "What time is it?"
"Eight in the morning. And I can't see an off switch."
"Who turned the lights on?" Kara mumbled.
Cathy swatted the touchplate to dim the lights, and the beep stopped. She rolled her eyes. "Of course, turning on the lights turns off the alarm. When the light is already on. Makes perfect sense."
Sherry yawned, and started getting dressed, working around Kara for floor space, sink time, and access to their cupboards. Cathy disappeared into the hall, then reappeared ten minutes later.
"Toilet lineup is out the door and down the hall, now," she said. "I may set an alarm ten minutes early to skip all that. It was a lot shorter when I got there."
Sherry's bladder promptly demanded a trip to the bathroom.
"Damn," Kara said. "Wake me up early too, then."
"Likewise." Sherry looked at Ellen's bunk. "Speaking of waking up..."
Cathy glanced at her watch. "Yeah. Breakfast is in half an hour. Should we make her swear at us for waking her up, or for letting her miss breakfast?"
"How about both? Wake her up at the last possible minute before we have to leave for breakfast?"
"Oooh, you're evil, Sherry." Kara grinned. "Come on, that bathroom lineup isn't getting any shorter."
"I'll wait for you guys. This I want to see." Cathy flopped back onto her bed and picked up her book reader.
#
"Sloooow," Kara said. "I'm hungry."
"Yeah, we heard you the first ten times."
They shuffled forward another half step. Sometimes it seemed that her entire life had been spent waiting in line.
"The line is going slower than last night. I wonder what's the holdup." Jess stood on her toes and looked over the people ahead of them.
"Did you see whatsername, the suit from last night?" Michi asked.
Jess stood on her toes again. "Nope, not yet."
"Miz Johnson." Sherry made a sour face. "I have an appointment with her at ten."
"You'll be missing orientation."
"Have you got the schedule memorised or something?" Kara asked.
"Just meals and this morning's."
"How about you take notes for me at orientation, then?"
Cathy nodded. "Sure."
"Good morning, girls."
"Miz Johnson," Sherry said, and Michi and Cathy echoed her.
"I think we've found a solution. Take the first table after you pick up your food. See you at ten, Miss Tenna."
"Deet," Cathy said. "A solution to what?"
"Tell you once we're sitting down," Sherry said, glancing at the people around them. A few people looked away when they saw her looking at them.
The line shuffled another step forward.
"So Cathy, you know a lot about the aliens near Velfard colony?"
"A bit, yeah." Cathy fidgeted with the corner of her info pack.
"A bit more than Ellen." Kara grinned. "She's totally the kind of person who makes fun of people who know things she doesn't." Kara looked down her nose and crossed her eyes again. "Like, you're such a nerd* Cathy, that's *soo* boring. Why do you *read all the time."
They all burst out laughing.
"That's her, that's exactly her," Cathy said.
"So c'mon, tell us about the aliens. All they did in school was show us a picture and say 'These are the aliens discovered by Roger deWitt, captain of the UNS Amsterdam, in 2237 when he led the expedition to colonise the planet. We aren't going to tell you anything interesting about the aliens, the trip, or the trouble the colonists encountered their first year there, just memorise those names and dates.'"
"You got a picture?" Michi said. "I didn't know that was allowed. It might give you something memorable to associate the list of names and dates with, and we can't have that."
Cathy finally stopped laughing long enough to say, "Ok. You asked for it." She dragged her palms down her cheeks and pushed her face into a stern expression. "Stop laughing. Girls, stop laughing, this is a serious subject, not a game." Her cheeks twitched, and they all started laughing into their hands.
"Seriously," Cathy started. They all burst out laughing again.
"Ok, not seriously. They live entirely in trees, only they're not really trees, they don't grow the way earth trees do. Anyhow. They're omnivores like us, only they lay eggs. Lots of eggs. And they eat the ones that don't hatch, to clean up after themselves I guess. And it wasn't actually Captain deWitt who discovered them, it was a kid off climbing trees. So this kid finds a kind of walkway in the tree, really high, and starts following it, and it turns out he's right at the edge of the alien town, They're really smart but not super advanced, you see, and their houses and what industry they have is all built up there so stuff can't be too heavy for the trees to hold. So they don't have a lot of metal, because that's heavy and refining it would probably burn the place down anyway, and it needs a lot of water and of course there are no rivers in the tops of the trees. They collect rainwater, you see, to drink."
They were almost at the door to hall four, and Sherry could hear plates and forks clanking away. Whatever the suits had come up with, she hoped it worked.
"So anyhow, this kid gets the snot scared right out of him, cause the aliens are kind of freaky looking, especially when you aren't expecting to see them. And the aliens are scared out of their wits, too, cause from their perspective there's an alien with too many legs and too few eyes and hair in all the wrong places, coming and invading their homes and planning who knows what."
A temporary wall screened off the hall--and the windows--directing the queue to the left and past the food tables. Sherry leaned over the plates to look between the double line of people filling their plates, and saw that the wall extended well past one table and maybe past two. She sighed in relief.
"So there was all kinds of worry and people screaming to come home and other people screaming even more ridiculous things, but at least Captain deWitt had his head on straight and started trying to communicate with them."
Cathy stopped talking to put her cutlery in her mouth while she pushed her food around to make room for an egg.
"Which still isn't easy, they're a lot different than us. But they're good sorts at heart. They're trying very hard, the colonists and the aliens, it's really great what they've accomplished so far, I can't wait to see it all."
Sherry went around the first table and put her plate down. "Sounds wacky. And interesting."
"Yeah, just try not to stare at them, it makes them nervous."
Miz Johnson waved and walked away from the wall across from the table.
"So apart from the orientation, what else is there today?" Sherry pointed her fork at Cathy's info pack.
"Oh yeah, why are you missing that?"
"Cause of last night. I, ah, I'm scared of heights, and this ship is really high." Sherry stared at her plate. "That's why this wall is here."
"Um, oh," Cathy poked at her food.
"Sorry I lied to you last night," Kara said.
"What?"
"The window thing."
"Oh." Cathy shook her head. "No worries. We can keep it closed."
Michi poked Sherry's arm. "Eat."
"Yeah, before Ellen gets here. Boy was she pissed." Kara grinned.
Michi and Jess looked from Kara to Sherry. "Who's Ellen?" Jess asked.
"Our other roomie. She's a real grouch in the morning, wouldn't get up when the alarm went off. So ten minutes before we were supposed to get in line, we stole her blankets and turned the lights as bright as they go, and told her it was ten minutes to breakfast."
"That's not very nice," Michi said.
"No, but she was mean to Cathy yesterday." Kara shrugged and took another bite of her egg.
"Incoming," Sherry said. "One pissed blonde at the doors."
"Oopsy, one disadvantage to sitting right by the entrance. Oh well." Kara put on an innocent face and kept eating.
Ellen glared as she carried her plate of lukewarm food past their table.
"That was good," Kara said, pushing her plate away. "Nice and fresh, too, they must have set up just before we got here."
As soon as Ellen disappeared around the wall, they all started giggling into their hands.
"It's almost ten," Sherry said. "I've gotta go. You'll grab me a copy of anything?"
"Absolutely," Jess said. "See you later."
Sherry pushed her chair back and waved as she walked past the food tables, now being cleared. In the hall, she pulled out Miz Johnson's card again and checked the room number. Down the hall, down the stairs, down more halls. The restaurants and lounges were all filling up, but she didn't look in. If she watched her shoelaces, she wouldn't see the windows. She checked the room numbers out of the corner of her eye as she walked.
The door had a nametag-holder at shoulder height, which held one of Miz Johnson's cards. Sherry stopped and knocked, and the door opened.
"Ah, Miss Tenna. Right on time."
Miz Johnson closed the door behind Sherry, and waved her into a seat. "I trust your breakfast was uneventful?"
Sherry nodded.
"Good. Now, I partly asked you here to talk about your phobia, and partly to keep you out of the orientation. They'll be going through a few lounges and viewing areas whose windows don't close. I've asked the teachers of all your classes to make sure the windows are covered before class starts."
Sherry looked at her hands, knotting on her lap. Her face felt so hot she was sure it was glowing red. "Thanks," she mumbled.
"Do you want to tell me how you handled it when you came to a new school?"
"Doctor's note, to the gym teacher."
"Ok..." Miz Johnson scribbled on a notepad. "Now, can you tell me exactly what triggers the reaction you had last night, what merely makes you uncomfortable, and what doesn't affect you?"