Free Earthfall (Homecoming) by Orson Scott Card Page B

growing up without computers as you did, but Issib and I found quite a few—”
    “You won’t be able to play those very much, though,” interrupted Luet. “We wouldn’t want you to get too used to them, because we won’t have computers like that on Earth.”
    Playing tag in low gravity—that alone probably would have won most of them over. Oykib found himself getting angry that they would pretend to be giving a choice when all they told about were mostly the good things and none of the worst.
    He might have said something then, but Chveya spoke up first. “I think it all depends on what Dazya decides.”
    Dza, always full of herself as the most important child because she was firstborn, visibly preened. Oykib was disgusted, mostly because he had never seen Chveya kiss up to Dza like this before—he had always thought she was the most sensible of the girls.
    “Chveya, you children have to make up your own minds about this.”
    “You don’t understand,” said Chveya. “Whatever Dazya decides, I’m going to do the opposite.”
    Dazya stuck out her tongue at Chveya. “That’s just what I’d expect from you,” she said. “You’re always so immature.”
    “Veya,” said Luet, “I’m embarrassed that you would say something so hurtful. And would you really change your whole future, just to spite Dazya?”
    Chveya blushed and said nothing.
    At last Oykib reached the point where he could not maintain silence. “I know what you should do,” he said. “Put Dazya back to sleep for three days. Then when she gets up, Dza and Chveya would be exactly the same age.”
    Chveya rolled her eyes as if to say, That wouldn’t solve anything. But Dazya went crazy. “My birthday would always be first no matter what!” she shouted. “I’m the first child and nobody else is! So I’m going to stay awake and still be the oldest when we get there! Nobody else is ever going to boss me around.”
    Oykib saw with satisfaction that Dazya had shown Nafai and Luet exactly why Chveya didn’t want to stay awake if Dazya did.
    “Actually,” said Luet, “nobody has the right to boss other people around just because she’s oldest or smartest or anything else.”
    Several of the younger children laughed. “Dazya bosses everybody,” said Shyada, who, as Dazya’s next younger sister, bore the brunt of Dazya’s whims.
    “I do not,” said Dazya. “I don’t boss Oykib or Protchnu.”
    “No, you only boss people who are weaker than you, you big bully!” said Shyada.
    “Be quiet, all of you,” said Nafai. “What you’ve just seen here is one of the problems with keeping you awake for school during the voyage. The ship isn’t very large inside. You’re going to be cooped up together for years. We let a lot of things slide back on Harmony, figuring that you’d work things out as the years went by. But during the voyage, we won’t tolerate older children bossing the younger children around.”
    “Why not?” said Dazya. “Grown-ups boss children around all the time.”
    “Dza,” said Luet quietly, “I believe you’re intelligent enough to grasp the idea that the three days between you and Veya are not as significant as the fifteen years between you and me.”
    Chveya followed up this idea at once. “If I stay awake, Mother, then when we reach Earth I’ll be three years older than you were when I was born.”
    “Yes, but she was married ,” said Rokya, Zdorab’s and Shedemei’s boy. Then, suddenly, he seemed to realize what he had just said, because he blushed and clamped his mouth shut.
    “I don’t think marriage is something you need to worry about now,” said Luet.
    “Why not?” said Chveya. “ You worry about it. Rokya is the only boy here who isn’t an uncle or a double first cousin of mine.”
    “That won’t be a problem,” said Luet. “Shedemei said that there will be no genetic problems, so if it should happen that as you get older, you fall in love with a cousin or an uncle—”
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