Changelings

Holograms were handy things. They could be lessons or environments or costumes, if you needed them to be. It was a little hard to keep them in place in zero g, but everyone seemed to have a good time swimming or flying, depending on what they were supposed to be. Ke-ola was a sea turtle, a big one. Lan Huy was a dragon. Rory was a shark, which was a little scary, especially for Chesney, who was a lake gull. She flapped her arms so hard she ended up hitting Dewey, who came as a monkey, in the nose, which made him cry until Marmie had him come out to help her bring down the cake.

"I thought Marmie had people who did things like baking cakes and carrying them around for her," Ronan said.

"She does. I think she wants to do this personally because it's, you know, for us. Letting Dewey help instead of one of the people who work for her keeps him from crying. Have you noticed how if one person starts crying, pretty soon everybody else does too?"

Suddenly, Ronan wasn't having any fun anymore. He faked being an otter sliding but since he didn't go down, no matter what, it didn't look right. By the time he stood back up, he saw that Murel's eyes were glistening, and he felt a lump in his own throat. But then a voice on the intercom said, "All members of the Shongili birthday party please report immediately to Ms. de Revers Algemeine's deck for cake and ice cream."

Rory, sharklike, burst through the hatch and fell with a clunk into normal gravity on the deck outside.

Ronan did a halfhearted otter slide and landed on his butt, without his holo-costume. Murel slid down beside him. "Your costume is still flickering on and off," Rory told her. "But you're barely ottered at all!"

Murel just groaned and rolled her eyes, and Ronan pretended he was puking.

Aboard the intrastation transfer flitter, however, they saw someone who lifted their spirits.

"Look!" Murel said aloud, pointing. "It's Johnny!"

You think he's come to take us home? Maybe as a surprise?

Why else would he be going to Marmie's on our birthday? Murel asked.

They kept it to themselves, though, thinking Marmie meant it to be a big secret, which they didn't want to spoil. Johnny and Marmie ate cake and ice cream off to one side and watched while Ronan and Murel opened their gifts. Rory gave them each a shark's tooth he swore had been dug out of somebody's leg. He didn't say if the leg had still been attached to the person when the teeth were removed. They were strung on thongs for the twins to wear around their necks.

"Do you like it?" the boy from Wurra-Wurra asked.

"It's awesome," Murel replied.

"Yeah," Ronan said, almost forgetting to be sad or anxious about what Johnny was doing there. Rory was turning out to be okay after all.

Lan Huy gave them a scroll that turned out to be a blueprint of the space station. "There's lots of interesting ways to get where we're not supposed to go," she leaned forward and whispered. "You just have to study it a bit."