Callisto 2.0, Susan English [i love reading .TXT] 📗

>I pushed myself along the wall. Interspersed among the geometric figures was a menagerie of birds, animals, and flowers, all highly stylized and exquisitely wrought.

“This is spectacular,” I said in a half-whisper.

“It was designed by one of the crew, Elena. Have you met her yet?”

“No. Is she the resident artist?”

“I suppose she is. Her official position is astronomer, specializing in extrasolar planets. But she’s got a good eye for color and design, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, her work is amazing.”

“Come on, we don’t want to be late!”

We entered the observation deck, and I followed Hadley to the far end of the room, just behind a partition, where around thirty chairs were attached to the floor, many already occupied. Friendly faces turned toward us as we settled onto two chairs at the 70

end of a row. Naomi hadn’t arrived yet, but I saw Quinn and Zoe at the other end of the row, and Diana and Izumi were sitting close together, deep in conversation.

Mei Xing settled into the seat next to Hadley’s. “Hi Hadley, hi Calli,” she said. I had met Mei Xing briefly when Diana had given me the tour my first day on the station, and had seen her in the dining room, but hadn’t had a chance to talk to her yet. Mei Xing was small-boned, like a delicate bird. She had an effusive and disarming smile, and bright, friendly eyes.

Diana stood up, and everyone focused their attention on her. “Hi everyone. I hope you’ve had a fruitful couple of weeks.” She scanned the room, looking at each woman in turn. “First order of business, let’s welcome the newest member of our team, Calli.”

She held out her hand, palm up, toward where I was sitting. All eyes turned to me. I felt the heat in my face as I stood and gave a quick wave. Diana smiled at me, and with a gentle motion of her hand indicated I could sit back down. “Calli, as you all know,” she continued, and I was relieved when everyone turned their attention back to the front of the room, “is a physicist, and she’s working closely with Hadley on the warp field.”

Several women nodded. “But today, Fae will tell us about the work so far in food production, another step toward our goal of total self-sufficiency for the station.”

I had seen Fae a few times in the dining room, but we hadn’t spoken yet. When I first laid eyes on her, she had reminded me of a wolf. Sitting in the observation deck, looking at Fae standing in front of us, I was reminded of a camping trip with Olivia, the first summer we were together. Late one night, we had woken to a rustling sound outside our tent. I slowly unzipped the front flap of the tent so we could peek out.

Standing a mere two meters from the dying embers of our campfire had been a young timber wolf, barely older than a pup, glowing silver in the moonlight. Our eyes met, hers gleaming with curiosity and intelligence. Then she dropped her chest to the ground, haunches in the air, and wagged her tail once, a clear invitation. I caught my breath, and Olivia squeezed my arm. There was a howl in the distance, and with a little yelp, the wolf streaked across the meadow and disappeared into the woods. Fae, I realized, had the same blue-grey eyes, lean body, and air of impishness, but her most striking feature was her hair—silver white like the wolf’s fur.

“We’re making headway with the food ball manufacturing,” Fae was saying, “and Zoe’s working on cultivating the algae strain for the outer cover. She’ll probably have an update for the next meeting, right Zoe?”

“We’ll see.” Zoe shrugged her shoulders. “There’ve been a few setbacks.”

“No rush!” said Fae. “Mei Xing and I are struggling with the amalgamation process—

we haven’t found a way to get the food to stick together, so the balls don’t spontaneously explode.”

A few women sniggered.

“Why would they explode?” asked Hadley, brow furrowed.

“It’s the yeast,” said Mei Xing, turning to Hadley. “Its behavior is unpredictable in micro-g.” She sighed.

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“Why use it?” asked Marta.

“Because of the vitamins,” said Gamon. “They’re using a highly specialized strain of yeast, which provides a wealth of nutrition. I’m afraid the yeast is a required ingredient.”

“We’ll get it all figured out soon enough,” said Fae. “One step at a time. As of today, we have perfected the preserving process, using a technique—”

As Fae continued talking, my mind began to wander again. It wasn’t that I was uninterested—food was always a fascinating topic—but my thoughts turned to the warp-field equations. Soon I was following each equation to its logical conclusion. Then someone was tapping me lightly on the shoulder. Startled, I looked up to see Hadley’s smiling face.

“Warp bubble?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

All around us women were standing up, moving toward the door, talking and laughing.

“I was totally gone,” I said sheepishly.

Naomi joined us as we made our way through the corridors.

“I’d say this was a typical staff meeting, wouldn’t you, Naomi?” asked Hadley.

“Yep.”

“Usually, the way the meeting is structured,” continued Hadley, looking over at me,

“is the first half is dedicated to research or some technical aspect of the ship, which is facilitated by Diana, or, if Diana isn’t on Shambhala, then Marta takes over.”

“Okay.”

“For the second half, Izumi facilitates, and that’s when we have announcements or discussions about the station or any issues with crew members, or complaints, or whatever.”

“I suppose it’s inevitable there are conflicts, with everyone living in such close proximity,” I said.

“You’d be surprised at how seldom that happens,” said Naomi.

Again, the thought popped into my mind: Is this real? No one got along that well, it wasn’t possible. Or was it? “Seems like this place runs like a well-oiled machine.”

“Yeah,” said Hadley, “it’s very organized.”

We passed through the hub and entered the lavender corridor leading to the labs.

“There’s something I don’t get,” I said. “How come I wasn’t given a set of rules or instructions when I first arrived on the station? If nothing else, at least information about the staff meeting. Kind of a big oversight for such a coordinated organization.”

“Oh, that’s by design,” said Naomi.

“No way! But why?” I asked, mystified.

Naomi laughed. “I had the same reaction. Then Izumi explained it’s part of a master plan.”

We had reached the labs, and we stopped in front of the physics lab door.

I looked at Naomi and arched an eyebrow. “Master plan? Sounds diabolical.”

“More like the opposite! How did you know, say, about the staff meeting?”

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“Hadley told me.” I flicked my eyes to her, and she smiled.

“And other things about the station?”

“I guess so far someone was always around to explain things to me.”

“Exactly,” said Naomi. “Izumi believes it builds community. She could give all of us a complete set of guidelines on living on Shambhala, but then we would be less dependent on each other, especially at the start when it’s crucial to form bonds right away. That’s how she explained it, anyway. Also, if there’s ever a need to know something and nobody’s around, Annie always helps.”

“Although I think it also depends on the personality,” said Hadley. “I can’t imagine Marta, for example, not immediately demanding to know every detail. But she’s been with the Foundation since the very beginning, so she knows how everything works.”

She put a hand on the door of our lab. “Sometimes I get the feeling we’re one big science experiment, and Shambhala is a petri dish.”

“If that’s true, I’d say the experiment is a huge success,” I said.

“Yup,” said Hadley as she pulled open the door. I gave Naomi a little wave and followed Hadley inside. As the door slid shut, she said, “Now let’s do some work before the social!”

“The what?” I stared at her with an expression of incomprehension.

Hadley smacked her forehead with her palm. “You don’t know about the social, either! I remember now you missed the last one, the day you arrived on Shambhala. I figured it was because you were tired.”

“Last Friday, you mean?” That was my first day, the day I had learned of the existence of Izumi. I had spent the entire evening with Naomi in her lab. I felt a sudden twinge of guilt. Naomi hadn’t said anything about the social, and I hadn’t been very stimulating company.

“Uh-huh. You’ll make it to this one, I hope.”

“For sure,” I agreed. “What time?”

“At eight, after dinner.”

“And where is it?”

“On the observation deck. You’ll love it. It’s a perfect way to unwind and relax.”

◆◆◆

I spent the next several hours working in the lab. Hadley invited me to go have dinner with her, but I wanted to continue my calculations, and instead ate energy bars from the dispenser. At seven-thirty, I shut off my computer and went to my quarters to brush my teeth and put on a clean jumpsuit, dropping the used one in the laundry chute in my tiny bathroom, and at eight p.m. exactly I opened the door to the observation deck for my first station social.

In my eagerness to arrive on time, I was, in fact, early. Gamon and Fae were the only other women in the room, sitting at a table near the window. I made my way over to 73

them and smiled at Gamon. “Our paths did cross after all.”

Fae was looking at her with curiosity. “Inside joke,” said Gamon.

I had assumed Fae was much older than me because of her startlingly white hair. But, after examining her face more closely, with her smooth skin and light complexion, I estimated her age to be around thirty-five.

“Always glad to see a new face,” said Fae, turning to me. She had a slight drawl typical of the East Coast of North America, most likely one of the Carolinas.

“It’s great to be here,” I said.

“Calli, do you like beer?” asked Gamon.

“Sure.” I gave a little