Divergence

Saskia ran to him, flung her arms around him, and squeezed him tightly.

“Are you okay, Saskia?” said Edward uncertainly, gazing sideways at her, tilted uncomfortably by the force of her hug.

“Yes,” Saskia breathed. “Yes, I’m okay Edward.”

Maurice walked in and Saskia rather sheepishly disengaged herself from Edward.

“Hey, Saskia,” he said.

“Hey, Maurice.”

She reached out and brushed her hand across his arm. Judy did not give any indication of having noticed this. She was peering at her console.

“The autodoc says it can save her,” she announced.

Saskia rubbed her eyes.

“Did you see what happened out there?” Maurice said. “Do you realize what we just saw?”

“Not now.” Judy shook her head at him.

Saskia walked from the room, pale and shaking. Maurice made to go after her.

“Leave her,” Judy whispered. “She needs some time to think.”

Judy wasn’t surprised to find Saskia in Miss Rose’s room. The young woman looked up from where she lay on the bed, her face puffy from crying.

“Did you know she was living like this?” Saskia waved a hand weakly. Judy didn’t want to look around the room. The walls and floor may have been rebuilt, shiny and new, but whatever it was in the Eva Rye ’s soul that had clung to life and had caused it to be reborn had restored the personal effects of the crew just as they had left them. Their consciences had not been wiped clean by the rebuilding of the ship. Miss Rose’s room retained the rotting food that lay on plates on the floor and every available surface. The air was thick with the smell of stale urine. The bedclothes were dirty, yellow stains rippling out across the once white sheets like patterns on the surface of a pond.

Only the little pictures hanging on the wall showed any sign of order. Hung in neat patterns, they had been straightened and dusted. Hundreds of scenes from a life back when Miss Rose had been young and elegant and beautiful. And proud.

“I didn’t realize,” Judy said. “I should have, but I was just too distracted…”

“You’re not to blame,” Saskia said, wiping a hand across her face. “You’ve only just arrived here. But I lived on this ship for five weeks and never once did I come here to speak to her. I was captain of this ship. I should have taken care of my crew. I should have guessed. I should have come in here.”

Judy said nothing. This was a time for listening.

“Look at this place,” said Saskia, waving a hand around the room. “She lived in all this filth for weeks, and not once did any of us stop by to find out how she was. We laughed at her. She irritated us, the made old woman. The Stranger was right: the systems on this ship are all wrong. We don’t even take care of each other.”

A look of determination crossed her face.

“Well, that was then. I’ve been thinking, Judy. I’ve taken a look at myself. Really taken a look, not just paid lip service to some emotional adjustment course I’ve plucked off the datasphere. And I don’t like what I see.”

Saskia got up from the bed.

“Where are you going?”

“To the living area. To find Edward. The Stranger was right.”

Judy followed Saskia from the room. The thin woman was striding off down the corridor beyond determinedly.

“The Stranger was right about what?” Judy called.