And you don't have a clock in
your
head, kiddo.” Affectionately, and said with the tone that would have gone with a hair-ruffle that Genie was
much
too old for, if Richard had been able to manage it.
No,
she answered, following the gray-carpeted corridor toward the bridge. She no longer even noticed how strange it was that it rose in front of and behind her, disappearing in back of the ceiling. Scuff, scuff, scuff went her feet. She amused herself by scuffing in patterns when she walked; short-long, long-short.
But I have you.
She felt the weight of his contemplation, the flow of ideas and the texture of his emotion, because he permitted her to feel them. A little bit wonder, a little bit pride, a little bit fear. “The ease with which you say that is going to worry people, Genie,” he said, quietly. “They won't understand it. They won't understand why having me in your head, why relying on me to know what time it is, doesn't worry you.”
Then they're pretty silly. You never bother me when I want to be left alone, and you're always there when I need you.
Unlike Leah. Unlike Jenny, who had always come and gone with very little rhyme or reason. Unlike Papa, who had always been worried about Genie because she was sick, and now that she wasn't sick, wasn't worried anymore.
Genie's mouth twitched. She didn't miss the cystic fibrosis. Really, truly. Not at all.
Even if she did miss not being invisible sometimes.
“Still,” he said. “You might want to keep it to yourself. Until there are more people like you. People can be mean when they don't understand things.”
Richard,
she answered dryly, as she reached her destination.
I know that. Do you think you're talking to a child?
He didn't answer. She grinned to herself and held her left hand up to the ready room door sensor so that it could read the control chip implanted under her skin. The door chirped softly and slid open. Genie went inside, and Richard “stayed behind.”
He'd be there if she wanted him. But for now, he did her the courtesy of letting her walk away.
Patty didn't look up when she stepped into the pilots' lounge-slash-ready room. As Genie had guessed, the older girl was bent over an interface plate, her fingers twisted through brunette hair, holding it out of her face like a heavy curtain. “Shouldn't you be in bed?”
“I'm always in bed,” Genie said. “I've spent more of my life in bed than anybody needs to. Whatcha working on?”
“Differentials,” Patty answered, and tucked her hair behind her ear. A few strands snagged on a silver earring shaped like a leaping dolphin; she disentangled them with a bitten fingernail, wincing. “You want something to drink?”
Genie shook her head and hunched down on a stool, tapping at another interface panel on the desktop without any haste, with one finger only. She leafed through her homework files and sighed. She was ten months ahead of the curriculum, and still bored. Leah would have offered to show her how the differentials worked; Leah always did most of her homework with Genie, and bragged to Papa that Genie was smart enough to handle it.
Leah had used to, anyway.
Patty looked up from her homework again, caught Genie's eye, and looked away quickly. Patty's mouth twisted; her expression said
creepy kid,
but Genie was too lonely to get up and leave, even if she knew Patty didn't want her there. Genie put her chin down on her fists and sighed, studying a too-easy problem in spatial geometry that floated in front of her nose. Sometimes she liked to pretend she was invisible.
Sometimes she just suspected she really was.
1:15 AM
Sunday September 30, 2063
HMCSS Montreal
Earth orbit
The smaller lounge wasn't as private as the pilots' ready room, but Patty didn't feel like being that close to the bridge right now. Besides, if she was in the ready room, she would just start doing homework, and she didn't feel like doing homework.
And furthermore, she'd told Genie she was going to
your
head, kiddo.” Affectionately, and said with the tone that would have gone with a hair-ruffle that Genie was
much
too old for, if Richard had been able to manage it.
No,
she answered, following the gray-carpeted corridor toward the bridge. She no longer even noticed how strange it was that it rose in front of and behind her, disappearing in back of the ceiling. Scuff, scuff, scuff went her feet. She amused herself by scuffing in patterns when she walked; short-long, long-short.
But I have you.
She felt the weight of his contemplation, the flow of ideas and the texture of his emotion, because he permitted her to feel them. A little bit wonder, a little bit pride, a little bit fear. “The ease with which you say that is going to worry people, Genie,” he said, quietly. “They won't understand it. They won't understand why having me in your head, why relying on me to know what time it is, doesn't worry you.”
Then they're pretty silly. You never bother me when I want to be left alone, and you're always there when I need you.
Unlike Leah. Unlike Jenny, who had always come and gone with very little rhyme or reason. Unlike Papa, who had always been worried about Genie because she was sick, and now that she wasn't sick, wasn't worried anymore.
Genie's mouth twitched. She didn't miss the cystic fibrosis. Really, truly. Not at all.
Even if she did miss not being invisible sometimes.
“Still,” he said. “You might want to keep it to yourself. Until there are more people like you. People can be mean when they don't understand things.”
Richard,
she answered dryly, as she reached her destination.
I know that. Do you think you're talking to a child?
He didn't answer. She grinned to herself and held her left hand up to the ready room door sensor so that it could read the control chip implanted under her skin. The door chirped softly and slid open. Genie went inside, and Richard “stayed behind.”
He'd be there if she wanted him. But for now, he did her the courtesy of letting her walk away.
Patty didn't look up when she stepped into the pilots' lounge-slash-ready room. As Genie had guessed, the older girl was bent over an interface plate, her fingers twisted through brunette hair, holding it out of her face like a heavy curtain. “Shouldn't you be in bed?”
“I'm always in bed,” Genie said. “I've spent more of my life in bed than anybody needs to. Whatcha working on?”
“Differentials,” Patty answered, and tucked her hair behind her ear. A few strands snagged on a silver earring shaped like a leaping dolphin; she disentangled them with a bitten fingernail, wincing. “You want something to drink?”
Genie shook her head and hunched down on a stool, tapping at another interface panel on the desktop without any haste, with one finger only. She leafed through her homework files and sighed. She was ten months ahead of the curriculum, and still bored. Leah would have offered to show her how the differentials worked; Leah always did most of her homework with Genie, and bragged to Papa that Genie was smart enough to handle it.
Leah had used to, anyway.
Patty looked up from her homework again, caught Genie's eye, and looked away quickly. Patty's mouth twisted; her expression said
creepy kid,
but Genie was too lonely to get up and leave, even if she knew Patty didn't want her there. Genie put her chin down on her fists and sighed, studying a too-easy problem in spatial geometry that floated in front of her nose. Sometimes she liked to pretend she was invisible.
Sometimes she just suspected she really was.
1:15 AM
Sunday September 30, 2063
HMCSS Montreal
Earth orbit
The smaller lounge wasn't as private as the pilots' ready room, but Patty didn't feel like being that close to the bridge right now. Besides, if she was in the ready room, she would just start doing homework, and she didn't feel like doing homework.
And furthermore, she'd told Genie she was going to
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