Zoe's Tale (Old Man's War, #4)(12)

The only reason I was getting some time with Savitri at all was that through a clever combination of whining and guilt I had convinced her to take her lunch break with me. Even then she had brought her PDA and spent half of lunch going over manifests. She was even excited about that. I told her I thought she might be ill.

"I'm sorry you're bored," Savitri said, back in the present. "You might want to hint to your parents."

"Trust me, I did," I said. "Dad actually stepped up, too. He said he's going to take me down to Phoenix. Do some last-minute shopping and other things." The other things were the main reason for us to go, but I didn't want to bring them up to Savitri; I was moody enough as it was.

"You haven't come across any other colonists your own age yet?" Savitri asked.

I shrugged. "I've seen some of them."

"But you haven't spoken to any of them," Savitri said.

"Not really," I said.

"Because you're shy," Savitri said.

"Now your sarcasm comes back," I said.

"I'm sympathetic to your boredom," Savitri said. "But less so if you're just marinating in it." She looked around at the observation desk, which had a few other people in it, sitting or reading or staring out at the ships docked at the station. "What about her?" she said, pointing to a girl who looked about my age, who was looking out the deck window.

I glanced over. "What about her?" I said.

"She looks about as bored as you," Savitri said.

"Appearances can be deceiving," I said.

"Let's check," Savitri said, and before I could stop her called to the other girl. "Hey," Savitri said.

"Yes?" the girl said.

"My friend here thinks she's the most bored teenage girl on the entire station," Savitri said, pointing at me. I had nowhere to cringe. "I was wondering if you had anything to say about that."

"Well," the girl said, after a minute. "I don't want to brag, but the quality of my boredom is outstanding."

"Oh, I like her," Savitri said to me, and then waved the girl over. "This is Zoe," she said, introducing me.

"I can talk," I said to Savitri.

"Gretchen," she said, extending her hand to me.

"Hello," I said, taking it.

"I'm interested in your boredom and would like to hear more," Gretchen said.

Okay, I thought. I like her too.

Savitri smiled. "Well, since you two seem to be equally matched, I have to go," she said. "There are containers of soil conditioners that need my attention." She gave me a peck, waved to Gretchen, and left.

"Soil conditioners?" Gretchen said to me, after she had gone.

"It's a long story," I said.

"I've got nothing but time," Gretchen said.

"Savitri is the assistant to my parents, who are heading up a new colony," I said, and pointed to the Magellan. "That's the ship we're going on. One of Savitri's jobs is to make sure that everything that's on the manifest list actually gets put on the ship. I guess she's up to soil conditioners."

"Your parents are John Perry and Jane Sagan," Gretchen said.

I stared at her for a minute. "Yeah," I said. "How do you know?"

"Because my dad talks about them a lot," she said, and motioned toward the Magellan. "This colony your parents are leading? It was his idea. He was Erie's representative on the CU legislature, and for years he argued that people from established colonies should be able to colonize, not just people from Earth. Finally the Department of Colonization agreed with him - and then it gave the leadership of the colony to your parents instead of him. They told my dad it was a political compromise."

"What did your dad think about that?" I asked.

"Well, I just met you," Gretchen said. "I don't know what sort of language you can handle."

"Oh. Well, that's not good," I said.

"I don't think he hates your parents," Gretchen said, quickly. "It's not like that. He just assumed that after everything he did, he'd get to lead the colony. 'Disappointment' doesn't even begin to cover it. Although I wouldn't say he likes your parents, either. He got a file on them when they were appointed and then spent the day muttering to himself as he read it."

"I'm sorry he's disappointed," I said. In my head I was wondering if I needed to write Gretchen off as a possible friend; one of those stupid "our houses are at war" scenarios. The first person my age I meet, going to Roanoke, and we were already in different camps.

But then she said, "Yeah, well. At a certain point he got a little stupid about it. He was comparing himself to Moses, like, Oh, I've led my people to the promised land but I can't enter myself" - and here she made little hand movements to accentuate the point - "and that's when I decided he was overreacting. Because we're going, you know. And he's on your parents' advisory council. So I told him to suck it up."

I blinked. "You actually used those words?" I said.

"Well, no," Gretchen said. "What I actually said was I wondered if I kicked a puppy if it would whine more than he did." She shrugged. "What can I say. Sometimes he needs to get over himself."