This time, no security officer stood around waiting for them. Trina led the way with Katie trailing after. Though Trina wanted to wave her contract at every crewmember who passed, and did wave it when they smiled, Katie kept hers tight to her body. They headed into an explosion, and Trina worried they wouldn’t make it back to their room.
As they entered the commons, receiving smiles from the security officers, Aaron ran up to meet them.
“What’s going on? Not another plague, is it?” He spoke to Katie as though Trina wasn’t even there.
Katie shook her head without answering.
Trina bit her tongue to prevent the words from blurting out of her mouth, her grin of moments before forgotten.
“Can you tell me? I’ve been worried all morning.” Aaron took Katie’s face between his hands and they shared an intense look.
Trina felt uncomfortable watching it.
She pushed between them, knowing somehow she had to get Katie away. “We’re still working on something, Aaron. Katie can tell you all about it when we’re done.”
“Katie?” He ignored Trina, waiting for her sister’s answer.
“We’ll come back up in a little while, Aaron. It’s not a plague.” Where Trina’s voice had been sharp, Katie’s sounded soft.
Trina felt Aaron’s stare boring into her as they walked away. When they turned to enter the lift, he still stood where they’d left him. He raised a hand in farewell then dropped it as though frustrated.
The walk back to their cabin was completed in a thick silence.
Trina could feel tension gathering in her neck and shoulders. When she reached up to trigger the door, she hesitated.
Katie came up behind her and pressed Trina’s hand against the scanner. The door swished open, leaving her no choice but to step inside.
Trina crossed the room to stare at their mother’s painting. Her hand slipped into the pocket holding her father’s pen as if to find an answer, a better answer than what she suspected.
Katie sat down with her shoulders slumped. She ran her fingers along the edge of the table and cleared her throat, but said nothing.
Trina threw herself into the opposite chair, suddenly angry. “What is it? Why are you being this way?” She banged a fist down on the table hard enough to make the painting rattle.
“I’m not going.” Katie’s words when they came barely disturbed the space between them.
Jumping up, Trina slashed the air with her hands. “Of course you’re going. You were all worried about the test and now we passed it better than we could have imagined. You heard the officer. We’re perfect for the Guild.”
She stopped next to Katie, leaning down to stare into her sister’s face. “Don’t you realize what this means? Someone wants us. Not for our usefulness, not for our shafter background, but because of who and what we are. Don’t you feel it? We’ve achieved our dream.”
Katie pressed her hands flat against the table, avoiding her sister’s eyes. “I am wanted by someone. Aaron.”
“There’ll be other Aarons. You’ll never have another chance at the Guild.”
Now Katie rose, the chair crashing to the floor in her haste. She advanced on Trina who backed up until the replicator pressed against her.
“You think Aaron doesn’t matter, especially when compared to your fancy guild. You’re wrong. I’ve tried to imagine a life without him and it’s empty.”
Trina stared at her again, this time in shock. “But what about our dreams?”
Katie threw her hands into the air before pacing away. “Our dreams? Our dreams? Since when have I dreamed anything? Do you remember why I agree to come in the first place? It was to save our mother at first then the only other choice was to live trapped in a house until shafter rats broke in and enslaved us.”
Walking up to her sister, Trina placed a hand on Katie’s shoulder. “All the more reason to join the Guild. You only came because of fear. You’ve been worried about the open spaces. I know you have. If you become a guild member, you’ll never have to step under the open sky again.”
Katie shrugged away from the touch and sat down, tracing a finger along the table. “I didn’t want to come, but I’m a part of this colony now. I have friends, people I don’t want to leave behind. I have a purpose. They need my seamstress skills and will need a healer more than the Guild does. They respect me even without Aaron.”
“And you don’t think you’ll get respect in the Guild? Did you see how Lenat looked at you? She sponsored you for the exams. What better sign of respect?” Trina knelt before her sister.
Taking Trina’s outstretched hands, Katie shook her head. “That’s just it. You’re still looking for respect. You’re still looking for someone who wants you for yourself. I’ve found that already.”
Trina pulled away and paced to the door. She pressed a fist against the wall. She wanted to run, to get as far from this conversation as possible before it was too late. Instead, she turned back to face her sister. “And what about me? Do you want me to throw all this away?” She pointed at the papers on the table.
Katie shifted in her chair, turning to face her sister. “I tried to fail. I thought if I didn’t pass, you wouldn’t make me choose. You wouldn’t go.” Her soothing voice irritated Trina, but Katie wasn’t done. “I was wrong to do that. And you’re wrong now.”
Trina pushed off the door, denying herself escape as she returned to the table. “But we’re all we have left. I can’t abandon you here among strangers. I have to go. I don’t belong here. You adapt wherever you are. I’m not like that. I need this. You’ll come to like it in the Guild.”
Katie shook her head. “I’m not among strangers. I know these people better than I knew anyone in the shafts. I’m ready to stake my future on them, on Aaron. Don’t take that away from me.”
Staring at her sister, Trina finally recognized the same determination driving her to accept pulled Katie away. “Is he really worth it?”
Katie smiled. “He’s worth it. They all are. While you were so busy working for Grandfather”—she put out a hand to still Trina’s flinch—“I was becoming Menthak. They’re my family, not like you are, but still my family.”
“Then why’d you take the test at all?” The question haunted Trina. “Why pretend?”
Katie sighed, tracing an imaginary line on the table. “I didn’t want to disappoint you. You wanted this so much for both of us.”
Trina moved around the table to pull her sister into a hug. “I never wanted to force you into something you didn’t want. I just wanted us to stay together, a family.”
Katie leaned in close and whispered, “We are a family. We’ll always be wherever each of us ends up.” Pulling away, she stared into Trina’s eyes. “And when you can choose your own posts, you’ll have to choose a ship that stops at our new colony. I know it’ll be a long while, but you’ll get to see my children. I plan to have many. And they won’t be afraid of the open sky. They’ll have a real life, the life you and I were denied.”
Trina wanted to protest, to demand her sister follow her in this as well. The confidence radiating from Katie stopped her. What she chose to do now would determine Katie’s happiness, and whether her sister would come to hate her.
Sobering, she looked at her sister, seeing again the quiet serenity her sister had earned here. “You are happy with them, aren’t you?”
“I am. I’m happy for you, Trina. Never doubt that. But the Guild isn’t my dream. It’s yours. You’ll thrive there where I’d only survive. I’m done with just surviving. I want more from my life.”
Trina twisted her mouth into a crooked smile. “Then I guess we should get this over with. After all, you’ve got an eager, confused, and frustrated man waiting for you up in the commons.” Trina reached for her papers and signed them with her father’s pen, feeling the connection to him surging through her. It was his blood, his longing, she’d inherited.
Katie picked up the contract. She stared at it for a moment, but regret didn’t appear on her face. “As much as I’d like to see it burn, I don’t want us getting in trouble with the crew again.”
They both laughed, remembering their nickname.
“I can take it back with mine. They’ll know when they see it’s unsigned.”
Katie nodded. “I suppose that’s the best way.” She brushed a hand over Trina’s hair. “I’ll miss you.”
Trina smiled again. “I’m not gone yet. It’ll be a while before we reach the port.” She picked up the two contracts, tapping them against the table to straighten the pages. “Come on. We both have somewhere to be.”