John Scalzi: Zoe`s Tale

"Maybe they're still celebrating," Magdy said.

Gretchen smacked him upside the head. "You really are childish, Magdy," she said. Magdy rubbed the side of his head and shut up. This evening was not going anything like he had planned. Gretchen turned to me. "What do you think we should do?"

"I don't know," I said. "They were talking about keeping the crew from talking. It means some of them might know what's going on. It won't take long to get to the colonists."

"It's already gotten to the colonists," Enzo said. "We're colonists."

"We might want to tell someone," Gretchen said. "I think your parents and my dad need to know, at least."

I glanced down at her PDA. "I think they might know already," I said.

"We should make sure," she said. So we left the observation lounge and went looking for our parents.

We didn't find them; they were in a council meeting. I did find Hickory and Dickory, or rather, they found me.

"I think I should go," Enzo said, after they'd stared at him, unblinking, for a minute. It wasn't meant as intimidation; they don't blink at all. I gave him a peck on the cheek. He and Magdy left.

"I'm going to listen around," Gretchen said. "See what people are saying."

"All right," I said. "Me too." I held up my PDA. "Let me know what you hear." She left.

I turned to Hickory and Dickory. "You two," I said. "You were in your room earlier."

"We came looking for you," Hickory said. It was the talker of the two. Dickory could talk, but it was always a surprise when it happened.

"Why?" I said. "I was perfectly safe before. I've been perfectly safe since we left Phoenix Station. The Magellan is entirely threat-free. The only thing you've been good for this entire trip is scaring the crap out of Enzo. Why are you looking for me now?"

"Things have changed," Hickory said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, but then my PDA vibrated. It was Gretchen.

"That was fast," I said.

"I just ran into Mika," she said. "You won't believe what she said a crew member just told her brother."

The adult colonists may have been either clueless or tight-lipped, but the Roanoke teenage rumor mill was in full swing. In the next hour, this is what we "learned":

That during the skip to Roanoke, the Magellan had wandered too close to a star and had been thrown out of the galaxy.

That there was a mutiny and the first officer had relieved Captain Zane of command because of incompetence.

That Captain Zane shot his own traitorous first officer right there on the bridge and said he'd shoot anyone who tried to help him.

That the computer systems had failed just before the skip, and we didn't know where we were.

That aliens had attacked the ship and were floating out there, deciding whether to finish us off.

That Roanoke was poisonous to human life and if we landed there we'd die.

That there was a core breach in the engine room, whatever that meant, and that the Magellan was this close to blowing up.

That ecoterrorists had hacked into the Magellan's computer systems and sent us off in another direction so that we couldn't ruin another planet.

No, wait, it was wildcat colonists-turned-pirates who hacked in, and they were planning to steal our colony supplies because their own were running low.

No, wait, it was mutinous crew members who were going to steal our supplies and leave us stranded on the planet.

No, wait, it wasn't thieving crew, wildcat pirates or ecoterrorists, it was just some idiot programmer who messed up the code, and now we don't know where we are.

No, wait, nothing's wrong, this is just the standard operating procedure. There's not a thing wrong, now stop bothering the crew and let us work, damn it.

I want to be clear about something: We knew most of this was crap and nonsense. But what was underneath all the crap and nonsense was just as important: Confusion and unease had spread through the crew of the Magellan, and from them, to us. It moved fast. It told any number of lies—not to lie but to try to make sense of something. Something that happened. Something that shouldn't have happened.

Through all of this, nothing from Mom or Dad, or Gretchen's dad, or any of the colony council, all the members of which had suddenly found themselves called into a meeting.

The common room, previously deserted after the new world celebrations, began to fill up again. This time people weren't celebrating. They looked confused, and concerned and tense, and some of them were beginning to look angry.

"This isn't going to turn out well," Gretchen said to me when we reunited.

"How are you doing?" I said.

She shrugged. "Something's happening, that's for sure. Everyone's on edge. It's putting me on edge."

"Don't go crazy on me," I said. "Then there won't be anyone to hold me back when I lose it."

"Oh, well, for your sake then," Gretchen said, and rolled her eyes dramatically. "Well. At least now I'm not having to fight off Magdy."

"I like how you can see the bright side of any situation," I said.

"Thanks," she said. "How are you?"

"Honestly?" I asked. She nodded. "Scared as hell."

"Thank God," she said. "It's not only me." She held up her thumb and finger and marked the tiny space between them. "For the last half hour I've been this close to peeing myself."

I took a step back. Gretchen laughed.

The ship's intercom kicked on. "This is Captain Zane," a man's voice said. "This is a general message for passengers and crew. All crew will assemble in their respective department conference rooms in ten minutes, 2330 ship time. All passengers will assemble in the passenger common area in ten minutes, 2330 ship time. Passengers, this is a mandatory assembly. You will be addressed by your colony leaders." The intercom went dead.

"Come on," I said to Gretchen, and pointed to the platform where, earlier in the evening, she and I counted down the seconds until we were at our new world. "We should get a good place."

"It's going to get crowded in here," she said.

I pointed to Hickory and Dickory. "They'll be with us. You know how everyone gives them all the space they want." Gretchen looked up at the two of them, and I realized that she wasn't terribly fond of them either.

Minutes later the council came streaming in from one of the common area side doors and made their way to the platform. Gretchen and I stood in the front, Hickory and Dickory behind us, and at least five feet on every side. Alien bodyguards create their own buffer zone.

A whisper in my ear. "Hey," Enzo said.

I looked over to him and smiled. "I wondered if you were going to be here," I said.

"It's an all-colonist meeting," he said.

"Not here, in general," I said. "Here."

"Oh," Enzo said. "I took a chance that your bodyguards wouldn't stab me."

"I'm glad you did," I said. I took his hand.

On the platform, John Perry, the colony leader, my dad, came forward and picked up the microphone that still lay there from earlier in the evening. His eyes met mine as he reached down to pick it up.

Here's the thing to know about my dad. He's smart, he's good at what he does, and almost all the time, his eyes look like he's about to start laughing. He finds most things funny. He makes most things funny.

When he looked at me as he picked up the microphone, his eyes were dark, and heavy, and as serious as I had ever seen them. When I saw them I was reminded, no matter how young he looked, how old he really was. For as much as he could make light of things, he was a man who had seen trouble more than once in his life.

And he was seeing it again. Now, with us. For all of us.

Everyone else would know it as soon as he opened his mouth to tell them, but right then was when I knew—when I saw the truth of our situation.