When the door whooshed open and someone glided through the porthole, I went back to what Phuntsok had been saying about orientation. From where I was lying across the alcove, scrolling through my audiocomp, I could be on the ceiling, just as well as I could be on the floor or the wall. The room was shaped quite comfortably like a sphere, and I was in the perfect position to turn my head a little bit to the side and see Sonam floating through.
"Hello," I said dully to my compeer drifting through the doorway.
"Hello, Uttara," Sonam replied, mirroring my tone of voice.
"Palsang left a while ago," I say, turning back to the audiocomp, which now has a hyperreal image of the V-TN223 starship model rotating slowly on its screen--clunky with gray solamite plates covering the whole thing. "I thought that you wanted him earlier. Phuntsok took him out to scrub the biofeeders off of the ship."
"I did want him," Sonam answers. "But I'm here now, so what are you doing?"
"Reading," I say. "Doing research for the next elevation."
I scroll through again, swiping my finger carelessly against the screen. Starships fly past me on the screen. I push my finger to the display and stop it at the model I'm in, the V-QR928. It's basically a mammoth rotating sphere, with rings swivelling around it almost like the rings of ice and gas around colossal planets we sail past. I zoom out until it's a dot in a sea of dark and stars.
Sonam floats over to the alcove and settles down beside me. He's only two years my senior, with curly dark hair and freckles and a nose that turns up slightly at the tip. The other prioresses think he's very handsome. I probably would too, if I hadn't known him since we were little and hated him for the same amount of time. He's hated me longer, so we're even.
I glance at him when he's not looking, and then look away. His gaze burns into my neck.
"What?" he says.
"I didn't say anything," I say with a shrug. I zoom into the image of our starship with a two finger swipe and pretend to be interested in the two small asteroids soaring by its gently curving surface.
"Anyway," he says. "The abbess wants you to be present at refection tonight. You haven't been going and she wanted to know why."
"Tell her I'm busy," I say. "I have other things to do. The elevation is in a few weeks. I can always have the sentinels bring me something."
"So that's what you've been doing?" he says, and I look and see him narrowing his eyes with poorly masked disgust--it practically radiates from his entire being. "You've been holed up in your bunk this whole time studying?"
"Hello," I said dully to my compeer drifting through the doorway.
"Hello, Uttara," Sonam replied, mirroring my tone of voice.
"Palsang left a while ago," I say, turning back to the audiocomp, which now has a hyperreal image of the V-TN223 starship model rotating slowly on its screen--clunky with gray solamite plates covering the whole thing. "I thought that you wanted him earlier. Phuntsok took him out to scrub the biofeeders off of the ship."
"I did want him," Sonam answers. "But I'm here now, so what are you doing?"
"Reading," I say. "Doing research for the next elevation."
I scroll through again, swiping my finger carelessly against the screen. Starships fly past me on the screen. I push my finger to the display and stop it at the model I'm in, the V-QR928. It's basically a mammoth rotating sphere, with rings swivelling around it almost like the rings of ice and gas around colossal planets we sail past. I zoom out until it's a dot in a sea of dark and stars.
Sonam floats over to the alcove and settles down beside me. He's only two years my senior, with curly dark hair and freckles and a nose that turns up slightly at the tip. The other prioresses think he's very handsome. I probably would too, if I hadn't known him since we were little and hated him for the same amount of time. He's hated me longer, so we're even.
I glance at him when he's not looking, and then look away. His gaze burns into my neck.
"What?" he says.
"I didn't say anything," I say with a shrug. I zoom into the image of our starship with a two finger swipe and pretend to be interested in the two small asteroids soaring by its gently curving surface.
"Anyway," he says. "The abbess wants you to be present at refection tonight. You haven't been going and she wanted to know why."
"Tell her I'm busy," I say. "I have other things to do. The elevation is in a few weeks. I can always have the sentinels bring me something."
"So that's what you've been doing?" he says, and I look and see him narrowing his eyes with poorly masked disgust--it practically radiates from his entire being. "You've been holed up in your bunk this whole time studying?"
