Free Barbary by Vonda N. McIntyre Page B

shrimp.
    “Hey,” she said, surprised. “It’s good.”
    “Eating one’s first shrimp is an act of great courage,”
Roxane said, and everyone laughed. Barbary was ready to get angry, till she
realized they were not laughing at her.
    As soon as she had finished eating, Heather jumped to her
feet and grabbed her tray. “Come on — I’ll show you what to do with your
stuff.”
    Barbary had to crush her napkin and shove it into her pocket
before she could follow Heather. She caught up to her new sister on the other
side of the cafeteria. A recess in the wall held racks for dirty dishes.
    “You put the scraps over here. We make them into compost.
Then —”
    “Give me a little warning, will you?” Barbary muttered. “I
had a lap full of shrimp.”
    “Oh, Barbary, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize — I didn’t see
what you were doing.”
    “You weren’t supposed to.”
    Heather picked up her plate and poked at the leftover curry
sauce. “Should I get some chicken for him?”
    “No, never mind, don’t take anything.”
    “But —”
    “You guys want anything? Tea?”
    Barbary shut up as Chhay passed behind her. Heather opened
her mouth to speak and Barbary glared at her to make her be quiet, but her
sister surprised her. Heather scraped her leftovers down a narrow slide, then
put her plate on a rack in a glass-fronted machine.
    “After you clear off your dishes, you just stick them in
here and when everybody’s done we close the door and turn it on and sonic
vibrations clean everything off. Tea would be great, Chhay.”
    Barbary turned around, trying to maintain her composure.
    “Is there any coffee?”
    “Sure.” He poured a cup of coffee and put it on his tray, then
looked over the selection of teas.
    “Heather, how about mint?”
    “I think I’ll have coffee, too,” Heather said.
    “Okay.”
    They returned to the table. Barbary wondered how long they
had to stay at the table before they could excuse themselves.
    Chhay put a tray full of steaming cups on the table. The
steam acted strange in the low gravity. Barbary would have expected it to rise
more quickly, but it collected in round clouds over the tray. Barbary
discovered she could pull her cup right out from under its steam. But she was
too concerned about Mick to wonder much or ask questions about anything else.
    Barbary fidgeted. She kept expecting to be able to smell the
soggy shrimp in her pocket.
    Heather poured cream into her coffee till it was barely even
tan, then added sugar. Barbary liked coffee black, but if it tasted as bad as
Heather thought, she would probably put stuff in it, too. She took a cautious
sip.
    Like all the other food aboard the station, the coffee
tasted better than any Barbary had ever had before.
    “Is Thea coming to the reception?” Roxane asked Yoshi.
    “How should I know?” Yoshi said.
    “Sorry,” Roxane said. “Didn’t mean to enter forbidden
territory.”
    “I’ve barely seen her in a week.” Yoshi turned his cup
between his fingers. “Twenty hours a day at the telescope doesn’t give her much
time for the mundane things of life. Like talking to her lover or meeting a new
member of his family.”
    He stared into his cup. His friends fell silent, then
changed the subject. Heather’s cheerfulness faded. Feeling uncomfortable,
Barbary pretended not to notice. She had meant to ask Heather who Thea was, but
she had forgotten. She was glad when, a few minutes later, Chhay stood up.
    “We better hurry, or we’ll be late.”
    All the others got up and put their dishes into the dishwasher.
    “Okay,” Chhay said. “Whose turn is it to wash them?”
    “Not me,” said Roxane. “I did it last time.”
    “This is stupid,” Yoshi said. He slammed the dishwasher
door, slapped the “on” button, and strode from the cafeteria. The dishwasher
hummed and emitted a high-pitched whine that rose beyond the limits of human
hearing.
    Heather followed her father.
    “Guess it was his turn,” Roxane said