By the end of the third day, Jane had to break up a betting ring. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t all progress. What are you going to do.
Neither Jane nor I were under the illusion that we could create universal harmony through dodgeball, of course. That’s a little much to rest on the shoulders of a game played with a bouncy red ball. Trujillo’s sabotage scenario wouldn’t be sent out of the game with a snappy pong sound. But universal harmony could wait. We would settle for people meeting and getting used to each other. Our little dodgeball tournament did that well enough.
After the dodgeball final and the award ceremony—the underdog Dragons managed a dramatic victory over the previously undefeated Slime Molds, whom I had adored for their name alone—most of the colonists stayed on the recreation deck, waiting for the few moments until the skip. The multiple announcement monitors on the deck were all broadcasting the forward view of the Magellan, which was a blank black now but would be filled with the image of Roanoke as soon as the skip happened. The colonists were excited and happy; when Zo? had said it was like a New Year’s Eve party, she hit it right on the nose.
“How much time?” Zo? asked me.
I checked my PDA. “Whoops,” I said. “A minute twenty seconds to go.”
“Let me see that,” Zo? said, and grabbed my PDA. Then she grabbed the microphone that I had used when I was congratulating the Dragons on their victory. “Hey!” she said, her voice amplified across the rec deck. “We’ve got a minute left until we skip!”
A cheer went up from the colonists, and Zo? took it on herself to count off the time in five-second intervals. Gretchen Trujillo and a pair of boys ran up to the stage and clambered up to take their places next to Zo?; one of the boys put his arm around Zo?’s waist.
“Hey,” I said to Jane, and pointed over to Zo?. “Do you see that?”
Jane looked over. “That must be Enzo,” she said.
“Enzo?” I said. “There’s an Enzo?”
“Relax, ninety-year-old dad,” Jane said, and then rather uncharacteristically hooked her arm around my waist. She usually saved displays of affection for our private time. But she’d also been friskier since getting over her fever.
“You know I don’t like it when you do that,” I said. “It erodes my authority.”
“Cram it,” Jane said. I grinned.
Zo? got to the ten-second mark; she and her friends counted down each second, joined by the colonists. When everyone got to zero, there was a sudden hush as eyes and heads turned to the monitor screens. The blank blackness held for what seemed an eternity, and then it was there, a world, large and green and new.
The deck erupted in cheers. People began to hug and kiss, and for lack of a more appropriate song, belted out “Auld Lang Syne.”
I turned to my wife and kissed her. “Happy new world,” I said.
“Happy new world to you, too,” she said. She kissed me again, and then we were both nearly knocked over by Zo? jumping between us and trying to kiss us both.
After a couple of minutes I untangled myself from Zo? and Jane, and saw Savitri staring intently at the closest monitor.
“The planet’s not going anywhere,” I said to her. “You can relax now.”
It took a second before Savitri seemed to hear me. “What?” she said. She looked annoyed.
“I said,” I began, but then she was looking at the monitor again, distracted. I came up closer to her.
“What is it?” I asked.
Savitri looked back at me and then suddenly came in close, as if to kiss me. She didn’t; instead she put her lips to my ear. “That’s not Roanoke,” she said, quietly but urgently.
I backed up from her a step and for the first time gave the planet in the monitor my full attention. The planet was green and lush, like Roanoke. Through the clouds I could see the outline of the landmasses below. I tried recalling a map of Roanoke in my head but was drawing a blank. I had focused mostly on the river delta where the colony would live, not on the maps of the continents.
I came back over to Savitri, so our heads were close. “You’re sure,” I said.
“Yes,” Savitri said.
“Really sure,” I said.
“Yes,” Savitri said.
“What planet is it?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Savitri said. “That’s just it. I don’t think anyone knows.”
“How—” Zo? barged over and demanded a hug from Savitri. Savitri gave her one but her eyes never left me.
“Zo?,” I said, “can I have my PDA back?”
“Sure,” Zo? said, and gave me a quick peck on the cheek as she handed it over. As I took it the message prompt began to flash. It was from Kevin Zane, captain of the Magellan.