Free The Sunspacers Trilogy by George Zebrowski

wide, green eyes, I saw that she was probably my age, certainly not as old as she had acted when I had arrived. It had been her confidence, the way she had done her job.
    “Oh—I was your guide when you came in from Earth.” She gave me a knowing, mischievous smile.
    I nodded, feeling silly.
    “Well, nice seeing you … again,” she said after a silence. She brushed her lips lightly with her tongue, slipped past me, and continued up the hill. I stared, noting how beautifully her strong thigh muscles flexed as she climbed.
    She didn’t look back even once.
    I went back to the room and punched up the titles of my course books on the desk screen. Retrieval codes popped up, and I slipped them into memory. I was all set to display texts for study. My credit was clear and all my fees had been paid. Three years later: one shiny new physicist.
    Maybe Morey was right. Concentrate on one thing and get it done, whatever it takes; catch up on life later. But just then it seemed the hardest thing in the universe to do.
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7
    Linda
    It was the Friday night before the first week of classes. I was sampling course books at my desk, still determined to make a go of it, and finding nothing that would call for memory boosters.
    I blanked the screen, sat back, and gazed out the window at the night glow of the Sun rings as I thought about Linda. Most students were at dorm parties, mixing and pairing, roaming the campus, invading the nearby town or hiking in the woods. The drop in gravity toward the poles was a great novelty among hikers; some couldn’t get enough of it.
    But the hurried atmosphere of orientation week had turned me off. I didn’t like lists of things you were supposed to do, so I had kept pretty much to myself, getting up the determination to start school. Morey and I usually had lunch together, but we were apart the rest of the time.
    I was about to close the drapes when Morey came in and sat down on his bed, looking exasperated.
    “They think they’re here to have a good time!”
    “Well, it is the last weekend before classes,” I said, turning my chair to face him. “Besides, what do we care?”
    “Have you seen some of our classmates? They’ve brought their talking pets. They debate the points of their expensive wristphones. They brag about how many of their relatives have artificial hearts and when they’re going to switch to the natural grown ones, or how many grandparents are in cold storage waiting to be cured of incurable diseases!”
    I didn’t much care for bioengineered pets either; they were so pathetic mouthing words they couldn’t understand, just to please their owners. I had to admit that the showiness of my fellow earthies irked me.
    “I thought we’d leave high school crap behind,” Morey added.
    “Well, the local students seem serious.”
    “How can you tell?”
    “The Mercury situation, for one thing. There’s a big demonstration planned.”
    “That?” He looked at me with contempt. “You think that shows seriousness? Politics. It’ll be settled one way or another, but not by us. I don’t have time, and you won’t either.”
    I saw my chance. “See—you do share something with our classmates from Earth. They don’t care either.”
    “Come on! That’s a cheap shot.”
    “People are dying.…”
    “What do you want?” he demanded angrily. “Do you know what’s going to happen? Those who can’t make it in school are going to fool themselves into believing they’re changing things, or they’re going to chase each other in mad affairs. Either way, they won’t get their degrees or develop the push that gets the prizes.”
    “Why get excited, then? Less competition for you.”
    He looked at me as if I’d betrayed him.
    “Calm down,” I said. “Things will settle when classes start.”
    He got up and left the room.
    I let out a deep breath as the door slid shut. Then I looked around the room as if in a trance. Morey made me feel that I would