Part 3 (1/2)

”Won't I end up gallumphing around like some jock in a tutu?”

She mouthed my words silently, as though translating them, then shook her head. ”If I understand you right, the answer's no, you won't. Not unless you ... gallumphed around as a man on purpose before.”

”Of course I didn't. I just walked.”

”So do that now.”

A little light went on in my head. I tried again, and this time I didn't swish near as much, if you can swish at all in army fatigues. The wiggle was still there, but much diminished. I beamed at her, quite pleased with myself. Susie clapped her hands.

”Wonderful! Now you don't look like ... well, never mind what you don't look like. We'll have a lesson in girl humor another time. I'm starved! Let's get some breakfast.” My own stomach was growling, too, so it sounded like a great idea. She grabbed my hand and led me to the wall where the door was. I should have felt self-conscious about it, but the truth was that I would have enjoyed holding her hand as either a man or a girl. Just for different reasons. At least, I hoped for different reasons. I was still too new at this to really understand my own feelings. I did know that I liked it.

The door appeared as before, but a little higher and a little wider. I held my breath a bit as we went through, but it didn't close in on me this time, either. Hand in hand, we entered the wide, rough-hewn corridor.

It was much different from last night. Instead of being dark, dank and deserted, it was full of life and light. People, all clad in a uniform style of dress, moved up and down the corridor, which was nearly as bright as day. And they were noisy. Mixtures of laughter, formal, and normal conversation added much to the atmosphere. If it weren't for the craggy, solid rock making up the floor and walls, I'd have never guessed we were in a cave. I said as much to Susie, then repeated it in a louder voice. She nodded and spoke back in as loud a voice.

”We're a pretty loud bunch when we have the chance. That's why we spend the extra energy on the ghost walls for our Cue's recovery rooms and ghost doors for private quarters. Ghost walls are planed energy fields that simulate ma.s.s. It cuts out everything. The doors can even allow openings large enough to fit exactly to whatever's in its plane, down to a millimeter. It's a pretty weird feeling, going through. And it can be phased to keep out light and sound. C'mon, the mess is down this way.” She pulled me to the right, the direction I hadn't explored.

It seemed longer than it had last night. I would have guessed it to be only fifty feet, but was closer to 100 feet. Check that. Closer to thirty meters. I'd been easy with either the English or metric systems, but apparently only metric had survived. That was one plus in this society, anyway. I'd best fall into the habit of using metric exclusively.

It was the same as before. Brightly lit, heavily used, and cut from solid stone. It was also very clean, though I did spot a couple of stains YES, MRS. FLETCHER? THE CARPET'S STAINED JUST DOWN THE HALL FROM YOUR DOOR? DID YOU NOTICE WHAT KIND OF STAIN? BLOOD? ARE YOU SURE? MY SENSORS DIDN'T DETECT ANYTHING THAT WOULD ACCOUNT FOR BLOOD. IT MAY BE JELLY FROM THE BREAKFAST DELIVERY ... NO, I'M SURE MY SENSORS ARE IN WORKING ORDER, MRS. FLETCHER. YES, I RAN FULL DIAGNOSTICS ON MYSELF LAST NIGHT, AS ALWAYS, MRS. FLETCHER. NO, I'M NOT ARGUING WITH YOU, MRS. FLETCHER. I'LL PUT A CLEANING 'BOT ON IT IMMEDIATELY, MRS. FLETCHER, AND REPORT TO YOU WITHIN THE HOUR ... VERY WELL, THEN, WITHIN THE HALF HOUR.

that looked almost like blood. As we approached, though, I realized I was mistaken. It did make me notice, however, that it was in front of a section of rock on the right hand side that was completely smooth and flat. I glanced back and noticed another section like it, where my room was. Here would be another recovery room. I looked at the stain once more. Nope. Definitely not blood. Not even a stain, just darker stone. I didn't have to be a genius to figure out why I'd made the mistake. Right now, my senses were whirling from everything I was seeing and hearing. But the whirling this time felt almost like a euphoria.

We continued to the end of the hall, pa.s.sing a third blank surface on the right, and came to a huge opening on the left. Like the hanger on the other end of the hall, this one also had a lower floor and higher ceiling. Bright sunlight poured down from the ceiling; it must be open to the sky above, though I couldn't see yet. Unlike the hanger, it was completely man-made, judging from the flat floor and fairly rectangular shape. It was accessible via a large ramp, cut from the native rock. Susie led me down this ramp, and we were inside the mess.

Roughly forty meters by sixty meters, it served as a mess and storehouse. The ramp was about fifteen meters long and ended about halfway into the room. Its gentle slope indicated that pretty heavy objects were brought through here-even though they'd apparently eliminated the weight problem with antigravity, there was still the ma.s.s to contend with, and a slope for controlled descent was required. The wall on the ramp's right side was gla.s.s smooth and looked somewhat like my room's wall. A ghost wall, Susie had called it. I reached out a hand to see if it would go through, but it felt solid. A small tingle went up my arm and I quickly withdrew my hand, more surprised than shocked. I looked at Susie, but she was too busy suppressing a grin to speak.

The area to the left, bathed in warm sunlight, was the mess. The center area was wide open, with tables and chairs in a semi-structured order. Against the wall on my left-the wall shared by the corridor, for we had now stepped off the ramp and turned to our left-was a kitchen with a cafeteria style line. On the far wall were two openings. The one in the middle seemed to be a laundry of sorts. The other one, on the far right and in the corner, was a hallway from which men and a few women were moving in and out. The wall on my right held a single large entrance that stretched from ceiling to floor, unlike the other openings. It was at least ten meters wide and was closed off with a flat ghost wall that was somewhat recessed from the normal stone face of the mess. The sunlight, for some reason, did not reflect whatsoever off the surface of the ghost wall. I looked up at the sky to see if there was a protruding ledge casting a shadow on it, and gasped with awe.

There was no sky. Instead of open air and a brilliant sun, I saw a high ceiling of solid stone. And instead of lighting was a s.h.i.+mmer, constantly emanating from the entire surface. As I watched, I could feel the sunny warmth pouring down on my upturned face. The s.h.i.+mmer seemed almost sky blue, and I even caught a whiff of fresh, mountain air. I was stunned.

”Why, that's incredible!”

Susie looked up and laughed. ”This is the part of my job I love the most! Showing off our little advancements to Cues. Yes, that's an environmental stunt we pull to keep up morale. Sometimes we're cooped up in here for weeks at a time, and this becomes our playground. Here and the rec area. I'll tell you how we do it when you're more caught up with the times.”

”I'd love to know. Offhand, I'd have to guess that it involves a prismatic s.h.i.+fting of ambient sunlight, recombined through a spectral and holographic filter. You're probably using of static grid of thermal energy for the display, though I can't begin to imagine the power source you'd use to achieve that magnitude of output.”

It was her turn to stare at me while I tried to suppress a smile. She didn't say, but I'd lay odds I'd hit pretty close. Score one for NATech training and applied use of the gray matter, fourteen years old or not. I pulled at her hand and started walking to the long line in front of the cafeteria counter. ”Come on. I thought you were hungry.” Still staring at me, she let me drag her to where the trays were. I almost felt like letting out a giggle, but was maybe still a little embarra.s.sed at the thought.

It looked like it would be ten or fifteen minutes until we'd get up to the counter. I got in line behind a guy about twenty or so. He seemed as big as a house, but when I looked at him carefully, he was only average build. I picked up a tray and the noise made him turn. He smiled at me and I smiled back, a little self-conscious. He stepped aside and waved us both in front of him.

”Hey, dogs! Make way for a couple of ladies!” Everyone turned and moved over, women included, letting us up to the very front of the line. Now I was very embarra.s.sed. I tried not to show it, but my face was burning, a condition I was becoming very familiar with. I held the empty tray flat against my chest. My hips felt like they were swinging out a half-meter with each step, with each step becoming more and more tentative until I just plain stopped. I stared down at the floor. That hole Susie had talked about earlier sounded very appealing right now.

Susie put her mouth next to my ear. ”Calm down. Just breathe a bit. There. Now don't hold on to that tray so tight, it'll shatter. Look, no one's watching us.” I looked up. For a line of people who had just given us the front, I'd never seen so much disinterest. They all seemed to be talking to each other while paying us absolutely no mind. Even the guy who had shouted was yakking to someone else, going into great detail about-from what I overheard-absolutely nothing. Susie nudged me in the back, and we walked to the front counter. I set the tray on the long counter to serve myself.

I looked up, way up, into the eyes of the cook, or attendant. He was a breathing mountain. His girth, both chest and belly, was astounding. He probably affected the local tides. He smiled at me. These people really got into smiling.

”Well, good morning, ladies! We've got some bacon, eggs, waffles, pancakes. You name it, we got it! Juice, milk and what not at the end. Oh!” He reached under the serving table and pulled out a small bottle. ”For you, Corporal. The latest s.h.i.+pment came in about an hour ago, and with it five bottles of your poison. Go ahead and ruin your mouth and my reputation.”

”Thanks, Hill. But don't rattle me until you try it. Makes even your swill edible.”

I stared. It was a bottle of pepper sauce, a popular brand from my time. ”That's Tabasco sauce!” I blurted.

Hill grinned at me. ”That it is, ma'am. You're welcome to try it, though it will pain me to see such a soft flower of...” he broke off, and in the corner of my eye I saw Susie's head shake ever so slightly. ”That it is,” he continued. ”Oh! Rumor is there'll be afternoon drills, so that means a skipped lunch and late dinner. So now's the time to eat. Well, dig in!”

I couldn't believe how hungry I was. And the smell of the food doubled it. I helped myself to generous portions of eggs, bacon, fruit, rolls, juice and milk. Susie took much less than I did, settling for eggs, a single roll and a gla.s.s of juice. We walked over to a table that was impossibly clean and abandoned. Impossible because there must have been at least a hundred people in there, with seating for not quite that. I was a little surprised they didn't eat in s.h.i.+fts to make best use of the facility. I sat down on one bench, with Susie on the other side so we could talk. She sprinkled some pepper sauce on her eggs, my mouth watering at the sight. I loved pepper sauce. But from what the cook had said, it was difficult to get, so I refrained from asking. She bowed her head and gave thanks, as I did. While we ate, I looked around curiously.

My first impression was how big everyone was, even the women. And the men were gigantic. Each and every one of them looked ready to play on the offensive front line of the Green Bay Packers. But when I took the time to really look at them, they seemed much less so. I knew what it was: They weren't all that big; I was all that small. Susie was apparently the most pet.i.te of the women, and she was bigger than me. So unless there was another 'Cue around here, I was the runt of the litter. By a wide margin. It was an interesting feeling.

It was also an interesting feeling being the center of attention. For although absolutely no one was looking at us, I somehow knew that they wanted to. But even the ones who were just coming in from the far hallway and the corridor seemed to not see us. Instead, they gave us our privacy as best they could, and carried on their own conversations and eating their own breakfasts.

Which was more than I could. I looked down at all my uneaten food. I'd barely touched it, but I was stuffed. I put down my fork suddenly. Susie, who had been looking at me looking around, grinned.

”What? You're full already?” she said with mock surprise.

”I think I'm going to be sick.”

”I'm not surprised. You ate enough for two people your size.”

”Are you kidding? I barely touched this stuff.”

She leaned forward. ”No, no. Listen closely: 'You ate enough for two people your size.' Understand?”

I understood. I had the eyes of a hungry thirty-one-year-old pig and the stomach of a hungry fourteen-year-old waif. If I didn't watch myself, I'd look like several fourteen-year-olds, all rolled into one gooey glob. I moaned and pushed the plate away. I heard a lull in some of the conversation at the table next to us, and stole a quick glance. They were all carefully inspecting the storage area's ghost wall for any flaws. I suppose they had seen this kind of thing before. Even Susie was smiling. Of course, she was always smiling. But I think it was at me rather than with me this time. I tried to smile back.

”All right. All right. I understand. Looks like I'm not the first Cue to make this mistake.”

”Nor the last,” she agreed, giggling.

”I suppose the cook set me up, too.”

”Uh-huh. Truly a gift much greater than his labors at cooking.” She had abandoned giggles for open laughter.

”Hey, Lendler! I heard that!” A voice shouted from the kitchen behind me.

”And I suppose it is kinda funny. Pretty mean way to welcome someone into your century, though,” I said, smile on my face and no hostility in my voice.

”Call it an initiation. Or payment. These people went through a lot to get you here, and they want to see what you're made of.”

”Oh, yeah?” I smirked. ”Then maybe I should show them.”

s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up every bit of courage I possessed, I rose and climbed up on the table and took a deep breath. All eyes turned to me, and the hall became quiet. Way in the back, standing on the ramp, was Dr. Barrett. It was the first time I'd seen him since I'd fainted last night. He was watching me very closely.

I was about to bow, but decided to try something really terrifying. Instead of bowing, I slowly curtsied to the crowd, my whole body trembling with fear and my heart racing like a trip hammer. It was my first curtsy, and a lousy one it was, too. Poor balance, probably poor form, and done in pants instead of a skirt. But they loved it. As one, they shouted ”Hooray!” and the sound was almost a physical blow. It struck me that everyone here undoubtedly knew more about me than I did, and to a person were also aware of their unintentional error. I felt my emotions flood to the surface, and with those emotions came tears. These people deserved a show.

Picking up an apple from my still full plate, I consumed it for all to see. Shouts and applause reverberated through the hall. I finished the apple with the crowd roaring its approval. I then turned to the kitchen, where the cook Hill was laughing and applauding, and heaved the core at him. It was a very pathetic throw, landing less than half way and far to the right, but the message was clear. Everyone yelled and whistled, including Hill. I then curtsied to him, and he bowed back, his bow as ugly as my curtsy, but every bit as sincere. I then turned back to the crowd and curtsied a final time, trying to put all my thanks and gratefulness into that simple, awkward and foreign motion. Staying in my curtsy while everyone stood and pounded the tables, I looked down at Susie, who was also yelling and clapping, tears rolling down her cheeks. I spoke just loud enough for her to hear, which in that din was still pretty loud.