Journey Between Worlds by Sylvia Engdahl Page B

up!”
    I shook my head, not knowing what to say.
    He went on, smiling, “I wanted to know more about you, that’s all. Are you a university student? Biology? Geology?”
    â€œNot yet. Not on Mars, I won’t be.”
    â€œThen how did they happen to let you emigrate? You’re at least sixteen, so you can’t be with homesteading parents—”
    â€œI’m not an emigrant, ” I told him hastily. “Dad and I are on a trip. For his firm.”
    His eyes questioned the way in which I’d emphasized “emigrant” as if it were a category in which I’d hate to be placed. But then they lit up again. “I was sure you were something special,” he said. “That is, I didn’t think you could have the experience for a nonresident job on Mars; the career people we get are older.”
    â€œWe?”
    â€œThe Colonies. I’m a Colonial citizen; I was born on Mars. My home’s in the city of New Terra. By the way, I’m Alex Preston.”
    â€œAnd I’m Melinda Ashley.” I was staring at him again. I simply couldn’t think of Alex as a Martian! He wasn’t any different from anyone else. Well, hardly any different; there were those few little things I’d noticed, but there wasn’t anything Martian about those differences. Not that I could have said just what I thought Colonials would be like.
    The music stopped and the intercom burst out again, evidently a recording this time. “We are now beginning the final two minutes of countdown. Liftoff minus one hundred twenty seconds . . . one hundred second . . .”
    Alex buckled his straps with quick, practiced fingers and got his seat reclined just as the flight attendant hurried over for a last check before taking her own position. I glanced at Dad; his eyes were closed and there was a big smile on his face.
    â€œEighty seconds . . . sixty . . . fifty . . .”
    Alex leaned over and touched my hand. “Why so quiet, Melinda? You’re too solemn!”
    â€œForty . . . thirty . . .”
    â€œOh, I was just wondering what on earth I’m doing aboard this spaceship,” I said. My voice sounded terribly tragic, I think.
    He laughed. Then suddenly I did too, at the utter inappropriateness of the idiom, and when liftoff hit us we were both still laughing.
    That was the second time I surprised myself with Alex. There were lots more times to come.

Part Two
    SPACE

Chapter 5
    Right from the beginning Alex was a person that I could talk to. I’ve never been a talkative person; that’s one reason I’m shy and find it hard to make friends. I never know what to say to people. Even Dad and I never had a great deal to say to each other, which was too bad considering how much we both wanted to be close. But with Alex it was different. He always came out with something that I just naturally replied to, or at any rate something interesting enough to make me content with listening. Alex and I had more real conversations during the trip to Mars alone than Ross and I had had during the whole time we were dating. It seemed funny, because I was in love with Ross, while Alex was just someone I met boarding a ship.
    The acceleration that accompanied liftoff wasn’t really very bad (though I wouldn’t want to go through it too often). I felt somewhat woozy and relaxed from the shots, but I don’t think I would have panicked anyway. The worst part was the immobile, helpless feeling more than the actual pressure: the feeling of being unable to stir, to draw a deep breath, even. And the awful, ear-shattering noise! But those things didn’t last long. Besides, there was Alex next to me, and I couldn’t help but find comfort in the thought that he’d been through this before. Why that seemed more significant than the simple fact that shiploads of people did it every day, I couldn’t imagine.
    When the rockets cut off we went right into zero gravity,