Free The Creative Fire: 1 (Ruby's Song) by Brenda Cooper

from something. “The Laws of Passage may be invoked in times of need, when populations are at risk, and in war.”
    Hugh furrowed his brows. “Surely the accident on C-pod has unbalanced the population.”
    How? Ruby hadn’t seen anything but a robot die. An inconvenience. There was another possibility. “Going home. Doesn’t The Creative Fire —don’t you—need more people who know more? To prepare to be at Adiamo?”
    “The Laws of Passage cannot be opened from the gray areas.”
    Ruby wanted to scream. She settled for digging her nail into her palms. “But they’re there to let us in. Why else have the laws at all?” Another thought came to her. “You need us. They need us. Without us, the Fire won’t run for long.”
    Lya elbowed her and made a shushing shape with her lips. The reds were walking by them, looking at them this time. Ruby gave them her brightest smile and waved. They couldn’t get them in trouble for talking to the ship’s computer. It was allowed.
    The reds kept going, not waving back, but not questioning them either.
    Ix, who had also been quiet while the reds went by, asked, “Why do you care where you work?”
    Sometimes Ix was as bad as her mother. “Look, you’re a machine. You live and work everywhere. You don’t get hungry or cold or feel bad when someone you love gets killed. You don’t fear death and you don’t need life like we do. We need to make a difference. We need to matter.”
    “Every crew member on the ship matters.”
    “Not equally,” she shot back. “We deserve our share of whatever good happens when we get home.”
    “And bad?” the machine queried.
    “And bad.” Of course. She repeated it. “Good and bad. We want our share.”
    “There are no Laws of Passage to govern movement into the gray levels. Blues may visit you anytime they want.”
    “Fox? Fox can come here?”
    Onor gave her a sharp look.
    “Fox has no reason to be on the gray levels.”
    Ruby’s whole body felt tight, like an instrument string. Ix was being even more obtuse than usual. She must be on to something important. “How do we study for the test? Whether the laws open up or not? If we just want to be ready?”
    “First, you have to finish your last-year studies and do well. You have to be a full adult. The logistics section must authorize the potential for movement. And you must pass a test.”
    Now they were getting somewhere. “What kind of test?” Ruby asked.
    “All of the things that you learn in your ten years of study matter. They will all be tested. So will your knowledge of the planets and people of Adiamo and the history of The Creative Fire , and the power hierarchy of the ship.”
    Onor whispered in Hugh’s ear, and Hugh spoke. “We don’t have access to that data. All we know about power is what happens here, in gray.”
    “The information has been classified.”
    Crap. Ruby broke in again. “What are the reds planning for us when we get to Adiamo?”
    “That information is classified.”
    If Ix were sitting beside her instead of being air and sound and everywhere, she’d launch herself at it and wrestle it to the ground. She spoke loudly. “Ix. Consider me on record.” Keywords to make the conversation publicly available. “I want to test into the inner levels. I am going to do exceedingly well on my last-year exams. So will my friends, and everyone else who wants to join me.”
    She closed her eyes and centered on her breath so she finished strong. “We want to know how to learn about the ship’s structure and history. If you won’t help us, we’ll figure out how to help ourselves.”
    Ix said, “I cannot help you.”
    Nothing about it acted like a human. She could force it with more questions, but instead she turned her journal off. Damned machine.

 
    9: The Festival of Changes
    Common had been transformed to a feast of light and scent. Children’s pictures and digital artists’ work covered the walls. People perched on benches and low walls,