A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers #2)(54)

They stepped into a ship. Even though the only ship Jane had ever seen was the one she and Owl lived in, she knew this one was no more real than the kids were. The walls, the ceilings, the consoles – they were all big and round and soft-looking, with buttons and knobs that didn’t look very functional. Everything was bright bright colours – green mostly, but also red and blue and yellow. It was noisy in there, too. Lots of beeps and whistles and music sounds. There were two big bubble windows at the front, with lots of not-real stars on the other side. In front of the windows were three consoles, each with reading squiggles at the top. A big squashy chair sat in front of each one. They looked good to sit in.

‘This is our ship,’ Manjiri said. ‘The Big Bug!’

‘The Big Bug’s a special ship,’ Alain said. ‘In the real world, ships are powered by different kinds of fuel. Do you know any kinds of fuel?’

‘Um,’ Jane said. She licked her lips. ‘Algae. Sunlight. Ambi.’ She thought hard, and remembered what Owl had found in the water she brought home. ‘S . . . scrub?’

‘That’s right!’ Manjiri said. ‘Those are all common types of fuel. But we don’t use those here. The Big Bug is a ship powered by imaaaaaagination.’ She spread her fingers out flat and wiggled them through the air.

‘With imagination, you can go anywhere!’ Alain said.

Jane didn’t know what that stuff was, but it sounded pretty useful. She wondered if she could find some for the shuttle.

‘Jane, do you live on a ship, or on a planet?’ Manjiri asked.

Jane rubbed the back of her neck. ‘Both,’ she said.

The kids nodded together. ‘Lots of families go back and forth,’ Manjiri said.

‘If you live on a ship, then you already know that you should never ever fly one without a grown-up,’ Alain said. Pinch nodded twice, crossing his furry arms across his chest. ‘But in an imagination ship, we don’t need grown-ups! We can do everything ourselves!’

Alain and Manjiri each raised one of their hands and slapped their palms together. They ran to the consoles, real excited. Manjiri took the one on the left, and Alain took the one on the right.

The kids pointed to the console between them. ‘This one’s for you, Jane!’ Manjiri said. Pinch jumped on top of the empty chair, doing another silly flip. He sure was a busy little animal.

Jane sat in the chair, which felt just as snuggly as it looked. Pinch hopped down and sat in her lap. She held still for a minute, then slowly, slowly reached out to touch his head. Pinch made an ooooo sound, and with his eyes scrunched tight, rubbed his soft head up into her palm. Jane laughed, but just a little, real quiet. She knew she wouldn’t get in trouble for laughing here, but laughing was bad behaviour, and it made her nervous.

‘Okay,’ Alain said. ‘Let’s find out our mission for today!’

‘Hey, Bumble!’ Manjiri said. ‘Wake up!’

A face appeared on all of their console screens: big, fuzzy, yellow, not at all like a person. Jane understood it was an AI like Owl, even though Owl had a person’s face. This wasn’t a real AI, though. Nothing here was real.

The yellow fuzzy face yawned and smacked its lips. ‘Aw, is it time to get up already?’

Alain laughed. ‘Oh, Bumble! You’re gonna sleep the day away!’

Manjiri pointed at Jane’s screen. ‘Jane, this is Bumble, our AI. Xe’s going to tell us where we’re going today.’ Jane knew that person word, too. It was the one for people who weren’t girls or boys, and also what you said if you didn’t know which they were. It was kind of exciting, hearing somebody besides Owl use words that Jane had learned. It made her feel like she was learning important stuff.

Bumble shook xyr face, and looked a little more awake. ‘Today, you’re off to Theth!’ xe said. A picture of a big striped planet with rings and a whole bunch of moons appeared on the bubble windows. ‘You’ll be meeting with our good friend Heshet, who says he needs our help! Some of Theth’s moons have gone missing!’

Jane frowned. Could moons go missing? That seemed wrong. They were real big.

Bumble put another little picture in front of the one of the planet. It was a person, but— ‘Hey!’ Jane said, pointing. ‘I know that species! They’re, um . . . they’re . . . oh . . .’ She tried to remember. She was a Human species. Aeluons were the silver ones. Hermigeans were the squishy ones. Quelin had lots of legs. This one was none of those. This one was green, and had a flat face, and . . . oh, why couldn’t she find the word?

Alain smiled. ‘Heshet is an Aandrisk,’ he said.

Aandrisk. Right. But there was something different about him than the pictures Owl had showed her of that species. ‘Where’s his, um . . .’ Another word she couldn’t find! She felt all dumb inside. She waved her hand over the top of her head, trying to explain.

‘Do you mean feathers?’ Manjiri asked.

‘Yes!’ Jane said. ‘Yes. Feathers. Where’s his feathers?’

‘Aandrisks don’t get feathers until they start to become grown-ups,’ Manjiri said. ‘Heshet’s a kid like us!’

Jane thought about her smooth head, which would never have feathers, or hair, either. Would she always look like a kid to Aandrisks, even when she got older?