Apollo's Outcasts (14 page)

"You're Melissa and Jamey?" A short, thick-set man with a trim goatee, he had a European accent that I'd later learn was Hungarian. "My wife and I are happy to be your guardians." A pause while Melissa and I took this in; we nodded, and he went on. "We know your father well, and your mother used to work in my department. Jamey, you've grown considerably since the last time I saw you."

"Umm..." I didn't quite know what to say to this. "I guess so, sir. Thank you."

Melissa was even more uncomfortable than I was, but for once she kept her mouth shut. From the corner of my eye, I saw Dr. Rice introducing herself to Eddie and Nina while Logan shook hands with Dr. Ernsting.

That left only Hannah. As always, she quietly hung back a little, silently observing as introductions were being made. Then Mr. Porter walked over to her. "Ms. Wilford?" he asked, extending his hand. "Pleased to meet you. My wife and I will be taking care of you while you're here."

"Thank you." Her voice was very quiet as she shook his hand. "I appreciate it."

"It'll be our honor." Mr. Porter's voice became sympathetic. "I was a great admirer of your father. I'm very sorry for your loss." He took her bag from her and gestured toward the nearby walkway. "If you'll follow me, please...there's some people you need to meet."

Hannah nodded again and moved to follow him. Just before she left, though, she glanced my way. Our eyes met for an instant and her face went red with embarrassment, as if she'd been caught telling a lie. Then she went away, leaving me staring at her.

"Did he call her Ms. Wilford?" Melissa was confused. "I thought her last name was Johnson."

I didn't have a chance to reply before Nina piped up. "You mean you didn't know?" she asked. I shook my head, and so did Melissa and Logan. Nina responded with an expansive sigh. "How dumb are you? That's Hannah Wilford...President Wilford's daughter."

"Oh my God," Melissa stammered. "Oh, my God...oh, my God...oh, my God..."

No one paid attention to her. We were watching Hannah and Mr. Porter as they walked away from us. When they disappeared through a door leading to a stairway, I looked at Nina.

"How did you know?" I asked.

"You didn't recognize her?" She gave me a patronizing smile. "I did. As soon as she got out of the car, I figured out who she was. I thought you did, too."

I could have explained to her that the last person I expected to see at Wallops Island was the daughter of the president of the United States, but I turned to Gordie instead. "Did you know?" I asked, and he reluctantly nodded. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't know myself until just before you showed up," he replied. "When the launch director told me that she'd be on the shuttle, he made me promise to keep my mouth shut. That way, if the feds had managed to stop the launch, the rest of you wouldn't have gotten in any trouble."

"We're already in trouble." Logan was glaring at him; I'd seldom seen him so angry. "We're all wanted by the feds. What difference does it make if one of us is the president's daughter?"

"Plenty." Dr. Ernsting had come over to join us. He was in his late twenties, with bushy brown hair and a pencil-thin mustache; we'd later learn that he was a psychologist, and with his German accent he couldn't have been more suitable for the role. "Sorry, Logan, but you have it wrong. The rest of you are just the children of federal fugitives..."

"Just?"

"Exactly, yes. The American officials don't want you as much as your parents. But Hannah is a fugitive herself. If anything, they want her even more than your folks. So, if you'd been caught and they'd found out that you knew who she was, then you could've been charged with aiding and abetting an attempted flight from the law."

I slowly nodded. It was the same reason that Dad had given for not telling Melissa and me where we were going until we reached Wallops Island; deniability was our best defense. And it explained a couple of other things, such as why F-30s had given chase to the
Spirit of New York
and tried to kill us with an ASW when that didn't work, and also why Gordie had observed radio silence during the two and a half days it had taken us to reach the Moon. The people who had arranged our getaway knew that the daughter of the late president was among us, and they'd done everything possible to protect her.

"But..." Melissa was still in shock. "Why didn't she tell us herself?"

Mr. Lagler shrugged. "Maybe she didn't want you treating her any differently than anyone else." He paused. "She just lost her father," he quietly added. "Perhaps she had other things on her mind."

Melissa didn't respond to that. I wondered if she regretted having treated Hannah so rudely. Something Dr. Ernsting said, though, spurred a question of my own. "Has anyone heard from our parents?"

The adults looked at one another, each reluctant to be the one to deliver bad news. "I'm very sorry," Dr. Rice said at last, and there was no missing the Scottish lilt of her voice, "but we've learned that they were among those who were arrested at Wallops Island just after you left."

Logan's mouth fell open, and even Nina appeared to be stunned. "They were caught?" she asked, and her guardian slowly nodded. "What's happened to them?"

"We...don't know," Dr. Rice said. "No official announcement has been made. What little information we have came from a source at Wallops just before the government severed all communications
with the island." Kneeling down, she reached out for Nina. "My poor child. I'm sure your family will be all..."

Nina stepped back from her. Once again, the stoical mask had slipped down over her face, but I could see the fury in her eyes. She didn't want to be comforted by strangers. But Eddie burst into tears again, and his little sister took his hand before Dr. Rice could move toward him.

Something went cold inside of me. Dad had sacrificed his freedom to make sure that Melissa and I escaped, and Jan had done the same for Hannah. Now both of them were in the hands of the authorities. And if my father's fears about President Shapar were true, then Dad and Jan were in grave danger. It was possible that Melissa and I would never see them again.

"I'm going to get them." Logan's voice was a whisper only I heard. At first I thought he meant his parents, but then I looked at him and saw the barely restrained rage in his face. "That whole crew...Shapar and everyone around her. So help me, I'm going to get them."

You and me both
, I silently added, although I didn't say so aloud.

"Yes, well..." Mr. Lagler cleared his throat with a discomfited cough. "You've come a long way. Perhaps you should get some rest and a good meal." He lay a hand upon my shoulder. "Come with me. I'll take you to my home."

The other grownups murmured in agreement, then they turned to collect their charges; Logan went away with Dr. Ernsting, and Nina reluctantly allowed Dr. Rice to herd Eddie and her toward the nearby stairs. Melissa didn't look very happy about following Mr. Lagler, but neither she nor I had much choice in matter. I didn't know if Apollo had an orphanage, but if there was one, I didn't want to wind up there.

"I'll be in touch," Gordie said to me just before we left him. "Maybe we can get in another flying lesson."

"Yeah. That would be great." I wasn't very enthusiastic about the offer; I was too wrung out from everything I'd just learned. Gordie
forced a smile, then turned to walk off. Nicole favored me with a smile of her own that was a little more comforting, then she headed toward the customs entrance.

Mr. Lagler's apartment was located on the third tier of the crater wall. I'd later find out that Apollo's senior administrators rated the living quarters with the most space and the best views, so the Laglers' apartment was on the same level as Mr. Porter's, while Dr. Rice and Dr. Ernsting lived on the ground floor level near Apollo General. The sunlight within the crater was already beginning to dim by the time we climbed the stairs to get there; apparently the reflector mirrors were turning to provide Apollo with its artificial night. There were only a few elevators in Apollo, and most of them were used to connect the solarium with the sublevels beneath the crater, so we took stairs to get to his place. It felt odd to walk up stairs after a lifetime of using a mobil, but I managed to get the hang of it.

I didn't know what to expect from Mr. Lagler's apartment, so I was bound to be surprised in any case. His home was nowhere near the size of the house I'd left behind in Maryland: three rooms and a bath, with Mr. and Ms. Lagler in the master bedroom and Melissa and I sharing a slightly smaller second bedroom. Mr. Lagler informed us that, since their son was at college in Hungary, Melissa and I could use his room for the time being. It had only one bed, but a futon had been borrowed from a neighbor; I volunteered to use it and let my sister have the bed. MeeMee was hardly overjoyed by the prospect of sharing a room with her little brother and a bathroom with two strangers, but she had enough sense to keep her objections to herself.

The apartment was carved out of solid rock, with bamboo wall panels to cozy up the rooms a little. Indeed, it seemed as if everything was made out of bamboo: the beds, chairs, and tables, the cabinets and countertops of the small kitchenette in a dining nook of the living
room, the doors, even the frames of the ceiling light fixtures. Bamboo was easily cultivated in the ag domes, while wood was expensive to import from Earth; no one cut down the trees in the crater park, since they were an important source of oxygen.

The highlight was a narrow window in the dining nook that faced the crater's outer wall. Looking through it, one could see the lunar landscape spread out below, with Earth high above the landing fields. But Mr. Lagler was particularly proud of his holo TV. Built into the ceiling, it had cost him nearly three months' salary to have it shipped up from Earth, but it was worth every lune if it let him watch European soccer games.

Ms. Lagler was a plump and pleasant lady who could have been anyone's favorite aunt. She fawned all over Melissa and me as soon as we came through the door, and already had a pot of lamb ragout simmering on the stove. Like most loonies, their diet was mainly vegetarian, but on special occasions the Laglers would spring for fresh meat from the colony's livestock pens. I wasn't crazy about lamb, but I was too polite to object. Besides, after three days of sucking on food pouches, I could have eaten horsemeat. Melissa wasn't picky, either; sitting across the dining table from her, I was almost embarrassed by the way she shoveled the food into her mouth.

Mr. and Mrs. Lagler didn't say much until after dinner, but once Melissa and I helped Mrs. Lagler clear the table, Mr. Lagler escorted us to the twin bamboo couches arranged in front of the holo. He and his wife didn't have many rules, he told us, but they expected us to obey the few they did. We were to help them keep the apartment neat and pick up after ourselves. We would abide by Apollo's water conservation laws, which meant no more than three showers a week for no longer than five minutes apiece; Melissa was horrified by that, until Mrs. Lagler explained to her that water was a finite resource which was constantly recycled. We would attend morning classes at Apollo High, and in the afternoons we were expected to do our time in Colony Service.

"What's that?" I asked. Nicole had mentioned it to me, but hadn't explained what it was.

"All residents above the age of twelve are expected to contribute at least twenty hours per week to community work," Mr. Lagler said. "No exceptions, not even visitors who expect to be here more than four weeks."

"We might not be here that long," Melissa said, confident that she'd found an exemption for herself.

Mr. Lagler gave her a forgiving smile. "Perhaps...but I wouldn't count on it. Besides, you'll find yourself getting bored if you don't do something once school is out, because that's what everyone else your age will be doing."

Melissa responded by folding her arms together and putting on her best MeeMee pout. "So what do we do in Colony Service?" I asked.

"Depends on what you volunteer for. You can do custodial duties like sweeping the walkways and emptying the recycling chutes. There's a lot of work in the farms and livestock pens, and the solarium maintenance crew is always looking for new people. If you'd prefer to work outside, you can get trained for dome inspection and repair." He paused. "You're both at least sixteen, aren't you?" he asked, and nodded when Melissa and I said we were. "Then you can join the Rangers...but that takes a major commitment, and the training can be pretty dangerous."