Edward and the rest of them walked up the ramp into the interior of Saeed’s ship.
“What is this ship called, Saeed?” Saskia called out.
“It hasn’t got a name.”
“It needs a name,” said Najam, one of the two new members of its crew. “How about the
Edward looked around at familiar surroundings. The
“It’s a robot!”
“It’s a venumb!”
“Close the ramp!”
“Too late, it’s already coming on board!”
Something big was moving up the corridor behind them: something like a cross between a snake and a Lite train made of lead-colored metal, stamping along on heavy legs. Edward and the rest flattened themselves against the corridor walls of the ship as the thing pounded past. Edward saw the rough-hewn metal sides of the animal sliding by just before him, he smelled mud and cold, felt the floor pounding beneath the great feet that propelled the beast forward.
And then it was past them. The shaking died away. The rainbow patterns in the carpet swirled as the ship cleaned itself.
“Where has it gone?” someone asked.
“Into the large hold,” said someone else.
“What was it?”
Judy guessed first. “It’s part of the big share-out,” she said. “It’s these people’s stake in the planet, and it’s going to follow them around until they damn well use it.”
Time passed. The passengers were taken to the
“I’ve been thinking,” said Edward.
Saskia glanced across at him. “Yes?”
“About Judy.”
Judy and Constantine were chatting together in the other corner of the
“What about her?” asked Saskia. She seemed so much more relaxed now. She was being taken seriously, Edward realized. The new passengers they had helped on board respected her.
“What about Judy?” she repeated. They looked across to see her smiling as she tapped away at her console.
“Oh,” Edward said, regaining the thread of his thoughts. “Well, we did a trade to have her brought here. We thought that we’d get a really good price, because Earth was so dangerous. Instead, we got nothing. But really, we got a good price after all. Look what we did: we set everyone free.”
“What if they don’t want to be free?”
The
“Whose ship is it now?” asked Edward, gazing up at the neat swell of the