But the cousins didn't listen. Joseph had turned the gravity switch off
and they were too busy floating upended, trying new positions, laughing
at each other's ridiculous postures in the ship without bottom. The
game was not a new one, but it was newly discovered and they reveled in
its glories.
Month after month, they played their weightless games while the
mecs implored them to come down. The constellations shifted in the
visiports. New Sol grew larger and then smaller as the _Destiny_ sped
toward its unseen planet.
In the recroom, the mecvoices were only noises to the trio now,
annoying noises that could be silenced, they discovered, with forceful
kicks to the red-glowing panels.
When all the mecscreens had been smashed and the weightless games grew
boring, Mary looked out the sunroom port. She was surprised to see a
rust-yellow sphere hanging in the sky. She watched it seriously for a
time, frowning as it grew bigger and filled a third of her horizon.
Then she called Eve and Joseph.
Mary pointed and they all stared in bewilderment. She opened her eyes
wide and laughed with glee. "It's an apple," she said. "An apple in the
sky!"
But Joseph wasn't fooled. Dimly he remembered something Adam had told
him--something about a thing that would appear in the sky. He fought
hard bringing it to conscious memory. Then he started aft toward the
recroom. In there, under the couch, he remembered, was Adam. Adam would
remind him what it was.
Suddenly Joseph smiled, his face flushed. He turned back to the sunroom
port. He wouldn't have to ask Adam, after all. For a moment, he watched
to make sure, while the huge yellow sphere swam closer.
"No, Mary," he said triumphantly. "It's not an apple in the sky. Apples
are red. It's an orange!"