Scene 9 Flashcards
“What are you doing?”
“Sorry, what? Um-get below, boy. If Slank sees you on deck, he’ll rear up like the-“
“You were talking to your neck-thing.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
“I know what I saw.”
“Well, there was… there was a porpoise swimming alongside the ship, and it was making those funny noises that porpoises make, and I thought I’d make some funny noises too, that’s all.”
“So you were talking to a fish.”
“Porpoises are not fish. They’re mammals, just like you. Or Germans.”
“Then how come your neck-thing glows and rings all by itself?”
“It’s for swimming. I’m a good swimmer. It’s a swimming medal.”
“Right. Swimming. Sure. And what’s starstuff?”
“Decision. I’m going to trust you.”
“Why? I’m just a boy.”
“I know. Pity.
You like to look at the stars? Well, there they are—“
“There’s so many…”
“They look safe, don’t they, sparkling up there like diamonds.”
“I like when they shoot across the sky! Shooom!”
“Sometimes pieces of them fall to earth-little bits that look like sand. Can you keep a secret?”
“WE CAN.”
“Those little bits are starstuff. The trunk in Slank’s cabin is full of it.
There’s some in here too, in case I’m ever in trouble.”
“Lemme see!!”
“NO!!
It changes people if they touch it.”
“How?”
“Different ways—depending on what they want to be.”
“So if somebody gets their hands on this starstuff and—
“—and they’re evil and greedy like Genghis Khan, or they’re hungry for world domination like Caesar or Napoleon or, you know, Ayn Rand—“
“Who’s that?”
“Uch, didn’t you learn anything at the orphanage?”
“Was kinda busy trying not to die.”
“Oh.”
