Free The Stars Blue Yonder by Sandra McDonald

here?”
    Alarm spiked through her. “Why wouldn’t they be?”
    â€œHello? Time travelers? Seems to me that if they can show up anytime they want, they could leave anytime as well.”
    The wardroom bell rang. People started toward their chairs at the long, formal table. Jodenny gazed at the bottom of her beer and then at Dyanne’s earnest, eager face.
    â€œIf it were me,” Dyanne said, “I’d go to him.”
    Jodenny replied, “I’m not you.”
    Dinner was excruciating.
    The last thing Myell wanted was to share a meal with Osherman sitting across the table looking so young and vibrant while he himself felt scuffed and worn down, like the bottom of a boot. He’d almost retreated to his cabin, but he wasn’t going to just stand by while this version of Sam Osherman made nice with the kids and tried to wormwhatever information he could get out of them. Besides which, Myell was starving for a good hot meal.
    The food sent up by the galley was tasty enough, and he shoveled into the ravioli and mushrooms and green beans while Twig and Kyle told stories about the future.
    â€œâ€”and so the ship gets thrown all this way across the galaxy and we’re all stranded there, but this was before we were born,” Twig said, summarizing the salient history of the
Kamchatka
.
    Osherman nodded intently. “Because a snake came out of the sky, is that it?”
    â€œNobody really believes that,” Kyle said, speaking for his generation. “It was the Roon.”
    â€œOh, yes, the aliens,” Osherman said, flicking his gaze toward Myell. “Who invaded Earth. Or will invade Earth, just a few years down the road.”
    Myell glared at the kids. He specifically remembered telling them not to talk about that.
    â€œ
Tried
to,” Twig stressed. “When Grandpa here was killed on Burringurrah. But now he’s back.”
    Myell deliberately reached for another dinner roll. Sure, he’d died on Burringurrah, but he still didn’t know how exactly, or even why. He didn’t feel dead. “Why don’t you tell the commander about your schoolwork?”
    Osherman refused to be sidetracked. “How is it you die, exactly, Sergeant?”
    â€œTragic spaceship accident,” Myell said. “Flattened by a birdie.”
    He didn’t mean to sound so flippant—or maybe he did. Because he’d been answering questions all day now, hundreds of them, for Osherman or Delaney or the men from the Data Department, and he was damned tired of it. He regretted being sarcastic and cruel to Jodenny but she’d come to him with more questions, always more questions, and none of them mattered because the answers would evaporate as soon as the ouroboros came to take them away.
    He only hoped the Flying Doctor didn’t show up instead.
    â€œFlattened by a birdie,” Osherman said. “That’s a unique way to go, Sergeant.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter how I die,” he said flatly. “We all do, sooner or later. On this ship or the next ship or on Earth or on the other side of the galaxy, and there’s nothing I can do to change it. What happens will happen. And people will die screaming, and the world will be smoke and ash, and what’s the use, if it’s already written in stone?”
    The three of them stared at him as if he’d lost his mind.
    He pushed away the plate and stood up. His feet carried him toward the hatch before he even knew he wanted to leave the suite. RT Hadley from Security held up a hand and said, “You’re not authorized to go anywhere, Sergeant,” and Myell almost punched him.
    â€œLet me out,” he told Hadley.
    â€œI can’t without authorization, Sarge.”
    â€œOut of my way,” Myell warned. Because as friendly and helpful as Hadley had been, he was the one obstacle Myell could do something about.
    The hatch opened and was blocked by Jodenny, who was