Seven Against Mars. Martin Berman-Gorvine

the net. Katie returned it just as fiercely, and they had a volley going before the ship made a minor course correction that sent one of Katie’s return serves bouncing off Pete’s head.

      “Sorry,” Katie said as he got up and stalked away in disgust.

      “Ha! One-love,” the woman taunted.

      “That’s no fair! It wasn’t my fault the darn rocket jiggled just as I was serving!”

      “Space rules, girlie. You wanna play with me or your dollies?”

      “I’ll show you!” Katie snarled. A furious volley followed. To her surprise, she eventually won the point. Each point after that was hard-fought, but with the continual minuscule changes in “gravity” caused by the ship’s inconstant acceleration, Katie’s more experienced opponent had the advantage of her.

      When she reached 21 points to Katie’s 14, Katie braced herself for some heavy-duty gloating, but instead the woman put down her paddle and walked around the table grinning, her hand held out. “Never had an opponent as good as you,” she said as they shook. “The name’s Gun.”

      “Gun, huh? Well, I’m Katie Webb, from the Lone Star Republic.”

      “Never heard of it, but apparently they raise some good table tennis players there,” Gun said as they shook hands. “I grew up on Ceres myself, so I’m a true Belter through and through. Even the biggest of them asteroids don’t have enough mass to hold a wad of spit, but they spin the inhabited ones to make artificial gravity. At slightly different rates, though, which is why I can play the game under variable acceleration. Oh, and by the way, my full name is Sherilynn Gunnarson, but if you ever call me Sherry I’m gonna push you out the nearest airlock. Capeesh?”

      “Suits me.” Katie grinned. Gun was the first person she’d met on this ship—and really the only one in this whole crazy world she’d stumbled into, with the partial exception of Rachel—with whom she felt instantly at ease. That wasn’t true of the princess, who despite all her attempts to put Katie and Rachel at ease was still larger than life and just too, too perfect. But Katie had to scrape together the courage to ask to talk to her alone—that business about the “new Martian flag” being a near-copy of the Texian flag couldn’t be just a coincidence.

      ♂

      Her chance came one day when she found herself alone with Anya in their cabin. Katie pulled herself even with the bunk where the princess was resting with her hands clasped neatly on top of her head, as if ready at a moment’s notice to swing into action. Seeing Katie, she turned and put on her full, radiant smile. “Kaitlyn, I can’t believe how quickly you’ve adapted to weightlessness! You are a natural at it. I only wish it were as easy for Ray.”

      “Shucks, princess, if Rachel is Ray you can certainly call me Katie.”

      “All right then, Katie. You look like you want to talk to me about something.”

      “Yeah, I do. That new Martian flag that the fake Ares forced everyone to use.”

      Anya’s eyes widened, then an unaccustomed scowl tugged at the corners of her mouth. “What about it? That night at the bar, you said it resembled the flag of your Republic of Texas, didn’t you?”

      “That’s right, I did. And you said there was a rumor about the fake Ares.…”

      “Must we talk about him?” Anya blew a few stray strands of red hair away from her face. Seeing that Katie wasn’t giving up, she sighed. “There are many rumors about him. Nobody seems to know who he is, or where he comes from. He speaks Marpolski worse than Jack. Some people whisper that he is actually an Earthling—no offense.”

      “Just so’s you don’t say nothin’ bad about Texas.” Katie paused and bit her lip. “Does anyone say he’s from Texas?”

      Anya thought for a moment, then shook her head. Katie let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. “No, I never heard anyone say what country on Earth the usurper is from. But my mother once heard that he came from some place with a weird name—the Potholder?”