The Dark Beyond the Stars : A Novel by Frank M. Robinson Page A

nodded at me, her expression reserved and distant.
    Crow said, to nobody in particular, “I’ll secure the hatchway,” and started to dog down the actual metal hatch. I was astonished. Shadow screens had always been enough for privacy; nobody ever violated them. The dogged-down hatch was an added precaution but I had no idea why or against whom. Ophelia was working with Noah at the small food dispenser. She looked up and said, “We’ll be ready in a moment, Sparrow.” Her voice was neutral and told me nothing. Everybody had fallen silent when I drifted in and I realized dinner had been a pretext—this was a meeting of interested parties and the subject of interest was me.
    The meal was a bland protein mush with no spices or forming. I had choked down about half of it when Noah said, “You should ignore Thrush, Sparrow. He’s no respecter of authority.”
    I felt bewildered; I hadn’t been thinking about Thrush at all. But I said, “He should be—the Captain’s a great man.”
    Ophelia looked up from her tray. “ Tybaltthinks so.” She obviously thought I was parroting him. There was another long pause with only the click of utensils against the trays to break the quiet.
    “Michael Kusaka was a good choice for captain,” Noah said, and for some reason that struck me as far different from saying he was a good captain. No one added anything and I took their silence as a challenge.
    “When I saw the Captain, he told me the purpose of the Astron, why we’re here and what we’re supposed to do.” I felt some of the enthusiasm returning and smiled in remembrance. “He said I was as important to the ship as he was. It’s not true but I thank him for saying it.”
    Noah nodded in apparent agreement. “All of us are important to the ship,” he said, which also wasn’t quite what I meant.
    Ophelia fought to hold her tongue, lost the battle and burst out: “At Launch, Kusaka might have been a good choice for captain. He isn’t now.”
    I stared at her in shock. I didn’t know what to say. Everybody else concentrated on their trays; that all of them agreed with Ophelia was obvious.
    “If the Captain died,” Noah said, not looking up, “who would you be… honored… to serve under, as a replacement?”
    It was a strange question but the answer was easy.
    “ Tybalt.”
    “I thought you might say that,” Noah murmured.
    “He has the same feel for the ship as the Captain,” I blurted. “Probably more than anybody else, he knows why we’re out here. He even gave his foot for the mission on Galileo III!”
    “Amputated on the spot, wasn’t it?” Ophelia’s sarcasm was thick.
    I looked at her, startled. “What?”
    “ Tybalthad his foot amputated on the spot on Galileo III. Isn’t that what he told you?”
    I glanced over at Corin , who hastily looked away. He had told her about my conversations with Tybalt , I thought angrily. The Captain wasn’t the only one who had informers.
    “Yes,” I said, indignant at the betrayal. “He was very brave to—”
    “Galileo III,” Ophelia interrupted coldly, “is a planet with virtually no atmosphere. It would have been instant death if we had opened his suit. They took off his foot in the Lander while he was still out of his mind and babbling from exhaustion.” She sneered. “It’s easy to see aliens if you’re out of your mind.”
    I looked at the others for support, but none of them met my eyes. I had once considered them friends; now it seemed they had all become my enemies.
    “I was there,” Corin affirmed nervously. “When Ophelia and I found Tybalt , he was delirious. There was no possibility of doing anything for him until we got him back to the Lander.”
    They hadn’t believed Tybalt’s tale about the aliens. And I didn’t want to believe them. If I did, I suspected I would have to believe the next thing they told me and the next thing after that. Eventually, I would find myself believing everything they told me and I desperately