Any lingering hope I might have entertained of seeing more of the microworld vanished when yet another pod grew out of the wall, avid to embrace me. When I stepped into it the fleshy interior hugged me so tightly that I didnt even notice the gradual easing of the pseudogravitational attraction until it spat me out into the ship at which point I would have floated helplessly away if the floor hadnt grabbed the soles of my feet.
Id got to the point where it was nice to see any kind of open space but any elation that might have accompanied the discovery that I was in a real corridor was offset by the terrible sensation of weightlessness. My IT, like Christine
Caines, had edited out my capacity for panic, but it had no provision for me to feel good about the things that might have panicked me.
There was quite a crowd awaiting me, but Mortimer Gray was the only one who seemed to care whether I needed help. Once he had ascertained that I had never been in zero-gee before he took up a position beside me, ready to steady me as I took my first faltering steps into the brightly lit interior of Child of Fortune . I had to focus on my internal organs, which seemed to be taking advantage of their newfound opportunities by rearranging themselves.
Its okay, Gray told me. Your IT will help you adapt if you let it. All you have to remember is to move slowly and deliberately until you get the hang of it, and always to keep one foot on the floor. The floors as smart as the fabric of your suit; together theyll keep you right way up and on track.
I suppose you do this all the time, I said, through teeth that were only slightly gritted.
Hardly ever, he assured me. But Ive lived on the moon, which isnt so very different. It was a long time ago now, and the conscious memorys exceedingly hazy, but the body has a memory of its own. The autonomic reflexes soon come back. Just relax.
I decided to accept my discomfort as evidence of the fact that I wasnt just a mechanical simulation, and that everything I was experiencing was really happening. I told myself that if I really was going to live for a thousand or a hundred thousand years Id probably be spending a great deal of time in zero-gee, given the size of the universe and the ratio of nothingness to substance.
Fortunately, we had a few minutes grace before the party was finalized by Christine Caines arrival. She made ten. Lowenthal and Handsel were there, but not de Comeau or Conwin. Davida was stationed to one side of Adam Zimmerman, Niamh Horne to the other. There was one other humaniform cyborg, whose feet were on the floor, plus a faber cyborg whose four limbs were all arms one of which was lazily extended to the webbing that dressed the vertical walls.
Nobody volunteered to introduce me to Adam Zimmerman, and I didnt feel sufficiently confident of my footing to stride across the eight meters that separated our stations and offer to shake his hand. He must have looked me up and down while I was still confused, but he had looked away by the time I was capable of meeting his gaze. We both watched Christine Caine emerge from her pod.
She was just as awkward as I had been, and Gray was still the only one with social conscience enough to help her. He was even polite enough to murmur excuse me to me as he moved to do it. I would have helped if I could, but I couldnt.
Niamh Horne was obviously the one in charge now that we were on her territory, and everyone looked to her to take the lead which she did with an imperious manner that seemed almost insulting. She swept Adam Zimmerman away with her, and her two cronies moved with effortless ease to form a barrier between the two of them and the rest of us.
We had to move two abreast, and that left Davida looking distinctly spare as Lowenthal and his bodyguard fell in behind the two cyborgs. Gray motioned to me to carry on, obviously figuring that Christine had more need of his support than I did,
so I tried to fall into step with the cryogenicist.
Congratulations, I muttered. You brought it off. He looks as fit as a flea.
It wasnt an expression she recognized or appreciated, but she acknowledged the compliment anyway, adding: This is as new to me as it is to you. Ive never been aboard a Titanian ship before. Not that therell be much actually to see . Its just a minimicroworld, after all.
Hows Zimmerman taking it? I asked, curiously. He cant have expected to be away so long. I diplomatically refrained from asking how pissed off he was at the Foundations board of directors for letting him lie so long.
Hes fine, she assured me. Excited. Interested. Delighted. She didnt sound like someone trying to convince herself, but the list was distinctly clipped. Unlike me, she was used to operating in zero-gee, so whatever discomfort she was feeling couldnt have the same cause as mine. Movement wasnt doing my internal organs any favors; they still seemed to be in dispute with one another as to how to arrange themselves now that they no longer had to fall in line with the dictates of gravity.