ominously. â. . . Which is okay for Noel and Carl to hear,â she added.
âOkay, kids!â said the Goldfish brightly. âSee ya later!â
It bobbed away to the doors.
âSo?â Carl asked.
âWell, my dad was never that thrilled about this trip,â I began.
âSay, kids!â squawked the Goldfish, coming back. âIt looks like Th saaa âs heading this way again. Shall I tell them you need some private human girl time?â
âUm . . . no, thatâs okay!â I called.
âOh,â said the Goldfish, sagging a bit in the air, and hovered away.
I winced.
âWhat is going on?â said Th saaa , coming to join us at the no-longer-humiliated table.
âIâm kind of . . . not allowed to be here,â I said. And I explained what had happened.
âOhhhh, mais câest mal,â moaned Th saaa, going black and amber and tossing their tentacles. âWhat if you have caused a diplomatic incident?â
âNo one will be in any trouble except me,â I said.
âBut what will the Council of Lonthaa-Ra-Mo raaa say when they find out?â
âWell, donât tell them,â I said. âOr the Goldfish,â I added, lowering my voice.
âYou ran away to space?â asked Carl. âThatâs awesome.â
âIt isnât! Her dad will be worried, and heâs already sick!â Noel exclaimed.
âNo, that is pretty cool,â said Josephine decidedly.
I grinned. âIâve missed you,â I said.
Something passed across her face that made me uneasy, and I opened my mouth to ask if everything was okay. But before I could, she said, âIâve missed you too.â
âWe are about to reenter normal space for a while,â said the Helen of Troy . âThe science team has some tests they need to run. Passengers may want to watch the windows.â
We couldnât exactly feel the Helen of Troy slowing down, but there was a faint quiver and a buzz that fizzed uncomfortably in our bones, and the strange light faded, and the stars reappeared. But that wasnât all.
âOh,â we all said, and dashed to the starboard window.
Jupiter filled the sky. It seemed close enough to touch, marbled with red and brown, feathered with curls of turquoise. The red spot large enough to swallow worlds.
Trommlerâs voice spoke over the speakers: âWant to see something else cool?â
There was another deep whirring noise, one I recognized this timeâthe sound of an artificial gravity system being turned off.
âEeeee!â squeaked Th saaa as we all floated up into the air. And then we were gliding and somersaulting from wall to wall, the way I do in dreams. The pool balls, through some clever use of magnetism, stayed put, until we scooped them off the tabletop and started throwing them around and inventing Space Pool, which, I can tell you, is much better than normal pool. Though it doesnât have many rules beyond âSee if you can hit a floating pool ball with another pool ball, then float around and laugh.â
Dad, of course, does like pool, I remembered, and had another nasty pang of guilt. But no one who is floating in the air with an enormous planet hanging outside while colored balls and friendly tentacles float around them can be expected to think about that sort of thing for very long.
4
I woke early the next morning (although âearlyâ and âmorningâ become confusing concepts when youâre in space) and lay watching the thready glow of the universe through my window before getting up and showering in every available variety of perfumed water from rose to tea tree.
Feeling extremely clean and smelling confusing, I wondered how far from Earth we were.
âUm . . . Helen?â I asked, wondering if I was again talking stupidly to walls. âAre you there?â
âYes, Miss Dare. Good morning,â said the ship. âDo you need any
Hundreds of Years to Reform a Rake