by the arms as they floated and spoke in tense voices, waiting out their time and watching out for the yellow balls of urine that floated amongst them.
Judy spent most of her time floating near the clear plastic walls of the bubble, trying to get a glimpse of the structure of the Free Enterprise beyond. It was difficult to make out what they were looking at. The ship did not look like a ship at all, more a series of floating points to which objects where tethered.
—I think I can see something, said Jesse.
“What?” Judy asked eagerly. “Hey! Watch out!”
A young man came tumbling towards Judy, face twisted with fury.
“Murderer!” he yelled, raising his voice so that the other passengers could hear him. “She’s a murderer! She said that she would keep us safe, and instead she started killing us one by one. She said she was Social Care—uuugh.”
Judy had elbowed him in the solar plexus as he came near. He doubled over in pain. She leaned close to his ear.
“These people are frightened enough already,” she hissed. “Say anything else and I’ll kill you, too.”
She pushed him away.
“Doesn’t he realize what I was doing?” Judy muttered, watching the young man tumbling away.
“Didn’t he realize why I killed them?”
—Do you know why you did it?
“Oh, yes. And I know it was the right thing. That doesn’t mean it was easy.”
—Damn, Jesse swore. —We’re floating away from the wall.
“We’ll find someone to give us a push back,” she said.
—If they even come near us. Look at how they are watching you. They heard what he said.
“Never mind them,” Judy said brusquely. “What did you see out there?”
—Senses. Scanners. The Free Enterprise is watching us.
Judy folded her arms. Weightlessness made her feel nauseated. Concentrating on other things helped her to forget it.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” she said, thoughtfully. “The Free Enterprise may not have seen humans for one hundred and fifty years. It certainly doesn’t understand our needs. Look at this place: no gravity, no toilet facilities—”
—You don’t understand. The Free Enterprise is watching all of us, but you and me in particular, Judy. It’s using something like laser-ranging devices to scan the passengers. Their beams are out of the visual spectrum, but they make the plastic of the envelope glow as they shine through. You can see pale circular patches, and they are mostly triangulated on us.
“Why?”
—I don’t know.
“What does Jesse think now?” Saskia asked suddenly. “What does he think about us?”
“He’s not here anymore,” Judy said tightly. “He’s gone. The Free Enterprise did something to him.”
“What?”
