The Silver Ship and the Sea by Brenda Cooper

deep into my leg, and I bit my lip against the pain, not wantingto cry out. It was hard enough to be the center of so much attention.
    Bryan looked politely away while I struggled carefully back into my pants. “Well, no running for you today. Did you and Joseph figure out this key business yet?”
    I sighed. “I haven’t told him about it yet. I didn’t want to mix it in with yesterday’s trip.”
    Joseph flashed me a disgusted glance and I said, “Well, I was going to tell you. I just…I thought you’ve been getting enough pressure. The way Nava’s always on you.” I sighed and sat down carefully, looking Joseph in the eyes. “Jenna surprised me and Kayleen the day we were working gate five, trying to remesh the data nodes, right after the paw-cat came in. She told us to get you back in the data nets, that you’re ‘the key.’ She was really insistent, and seemed to think we should know what she meant. She didn’t say anything else useful.”
    Joseph lay down on one of the benches, staring up at the roof of the tent tree. His lips tightened in a stubborn frown. “I don’t ever want to go back to riding the data nets.”
    I took a twintree fruit from Kayleen’s stretched-out hand. “I know. But we need your help. Kayleen just can’t do it all herself.”
    “Artistos did fine before we got here.”
    “Tom said the same thing, but he also said we all pull together.” That was a colony rule. And ours, as well. Anyone violating the rule earned sharp tongues and difficult tasks from whichever guilds-master they served. “The nets have been much stronger since you started helping. Your work matters.”
    Joseph kept his eyes on the graceful belled canopy of the tent tree. His jaws were locked tight. He was silent a long time, and then when he spoke his voice was soft and halting. “I know. But I don’t think I can anyway. Not now. I can’t relax enough.” He turned toward me. “I used to hear the data all the time, and I haven’t been able to since…”
    “Could your system be burned out?” Kayleen asked. “Sometimes when I try three flows, I go deaf to the net for a while. Did such a big flow of data hurt you? Maybe you just need time.”
    Joseph turned to her and put a hand out for a piece of twintree fruit. “Thanks. I don’t hear the nets, feel them, like I used to. I don’t want to.” He tossed the fruit carefully from hand to hand, like a ball, yelping once when a sticker penetrated the fleshy pad of his ring finger. “Don’t you understand? I couldn’t help them. Any of them. I heard them die and there was nothing I could do.” Tears glistened in the edges of his eyes, and he swiped the back of his free hand across them and turned his face away from all of us, gazing up at the green diamond leaves.
    A minute passed before Bryan spoke into the quiet. “They would have known that. They knew you loved them. But what would Steven and Therese want you to do? They spent every waking hour worrying about everyone’s safety and needs, and now Tom and Nava are doing the same.” He paused, his brow furrowed. “Nava’s hard, I know, but you can adjust. I’ve had to. The Smiths resent me, but I still do what I need to do. And they do, too. It’s just harder.”
    Joseph pulled the outer rind off in one strong twist of his wrist. The sour-sweet smell of fruit permeated the still air. “I like the kind of work I’m doing. It feels good to see something physical get done, to lay a pipe, and see water going through it. I feel better.”
    It was a lie. He hardly ever smiled anymore. He just worked, and came home, and went to his room.
    Kayleen practically spoke for me. “All right. I think Jenna meant something important. You’re the strongest one of us in the nets. I can’t do what you do. And Jenna doesn’t seem to be able to either. I don’t think she can feel data at all. She’s like Chelo. She has other gifts.”
    Bryan said, “We don’t know that. We only know what we can observe,