Earthseed

and Gervais, would back Zoheret up in any dispute.
    They crept toward the last clearing; beyond it stood the entrance. They adjusted their packs while Serena and Gervais smeared red vegetable juice on their faces and clothes; Zoheret hoped that the ruse would get them as far as the infirmary before Ship discovered it had been fooled.
    It was growing dark; the dusky light made it hard to see. On the slope, under a tree, a shadow moved. Zoheret drew back from the edge of the clearing; her companions ducked down. A bare-shouldered figure stood up, back toward them, and began to walk slowly toward the entrance.
    Tonio jumped up, raised his stun gun, and fired. As the target fell, Zoheret knocked the weapon from Tonio’s hand. “You fool,” she said. “There might be others nearby.” She waited, but the clearing was still.
    Dmitri said, “We’d better go see who it is.” They ran up the hill toward the prone body, looking quickly from side to side in case anyone else should appear, and halted at its side. Zoheret wondered why the boy was wearing only shorts; in the Hollow, long pants were needed to protect one’s legs.
    “Ship’s been hiding them in the corridors,” Tonio said. “That’s why we haven’t seen Ho. That’s why Ship didn’t want you here. It—” He was suddenly silent; Dmitri had turned the body over.
    Zoheret gasped. The face was unfamiliar, its lower part covered with a short, brown beard. She had never seen this person before.
    “Does anyone know him?” Dmitri asked. It was a foolish question; the others shook their heads.
    “There are people in the corridors,” Zoheret said; her voice shook. “That’s what Ship’s hiding. Why didn’t it tell us?” Her face was hot with anger, her trembling hands cold with fear. This person was not a boy, but a young man.
    “We don’t know that,” Serena said; her voice was edged with hysteria. “Maybe he was always there, and we just didn’t see him.” She sounded unconvinced by her own words. “What do we do now?”
    “Wait for him to wake up—question him.” Zoheret was afraid that Ship was watching them; if it was, there was no place to hide, and no way to trick it now. “Ship?” There was no response. “Ship?” She felt her old childhood fear again, the fear that Ship could read their minds.
    Serena and Dmitri rubbed the man’s arms, trying to revive him. The man’s muscular big-boned body and high cheekbones seemed familiar. Dmitri rubbed one flaccid arm, his spatulate fingers kneading the flesh. The unconscious man also had spatulate fingers, long and flat.
    Zoheret peered at the bearded face in the rapidly fading light. “He looks like you, Dmitri.”
    Dmitri dropped the arm. “What?”
    “He looks like you.”
    Serena said, “She’s right.”
    Zoheret reached for the canteen attached to her belt and threw water on the man’s face. He moaned, but his eyes remained closed.
    They waited for what seemed a long time. Tonio kept glancing nervously at the woods below, now so darkened that the black treetops could barely be seen against the gray light. Zoheret watched the door, afraid that other strangers might rush from it.
    At last the man moved, opened his eyes, snorted, then sat up quickly when he saw them. Dmitri and Gervais seized his arms. “Who are you?” he asked in a husky voice.
    “Who are you ?” Zoheret said.
    His eyes widened in fear; they were dark eyes, not blue like Dmitri’s. “The others,” he said. “You must be the others.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Ship asked me not to come in here. Then it checked to make sure no one was nearby. I guess it didn’t check well enough.”
    “Is it watching?” Zoheret said, afraid.
    “I don’t think it is now. It closed its sensors after checking this slope. It said it had promised to shut down in the Hollow.”
    It had promised. Zoheret gritted her teeth. It had deceived them and it was worrying about a promise.
    “I know who you are,” the man went on. “I don’t know your names, but I know who you are. You’re living here now, the way we did.”
    “We know who we are,” Zoheret said angrily. “Who are you?”
    “My name is Aleksandr.” The name rolled from his lips; he trilled the r . “I’m living in the corridors now with a few companions. You weren’t supposed to know about us now. Ship was sure you wouldn’t return, but if you had, we would have been able to hide with a bit of warning.” He shook his head. “I’m afraid