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“Get your goddamn supervisor.”
    Nicci shuffled off to one side, looking slightly relieved now that the situation was being handled by a person and in a manner she was accustomed to. The people behind them in line gave them a littl e space. Crewman Scott stared at her, his mouth shut tight and his ears brick-red, then turned around and walked stiffly up the hall to the place where the other red-suited Manifestors were standing. They listened to whatever he had to say and soon one of them came for Amber.
    “Good morning,” he said pleasantly. “I ’m Steven Fisch, the docking coordinator. How can I help?”
    “She doesn’t like her assigned—”
    “I’m handling it, Scott,” said Fisch, still pleasantly and without looking at him. “What seems to be the trouble?”
    “My sister and I signed up for a five-year contract,” said Amber, presenting her thumb for him to scan, which he did. “And I was told we’d be stationed together for the flight and at the colony.”
    “Mm-hm. And it looks like you’ve both been assigned to beds in the family housing unit.”
    “Right, on different floors and different, um, letters. That’s not acceptable to me,” said Amber as Nicci sidled up closer to her. “I’m not looking for trouble, but I was told we’d be together and I kind of want what I was promised.”
    “I understand. ”
    “We don’t have anyt hing to do with the bed assign—”
    “I’m handling it, Scott,” said Fisch again, not quite as pleasantly as before. He pushed a few buttons on his digireader. “It looks like you waited for the last minute before signing on with us, Miss Bierce. And Miss Bierce,” he added, with a nod to Nicci, who nodded nervously back at him. “I’m afraid the group units in family housing filled up months ago. There’s nothing left except singles and frankly, I’m a little surprised you got beds there at all. It’s just like any big event, Miss Bierce. These are the best seats in the house and after a certain date, you just don’t find two of them together. I’m sure the recruiters made you all kinds of promises to get you, but they don’t have anything to do with you once you’re on board and they shouldn’t have made you any promises at all.”
    “I realize this seems like a petty problem to you,” Amber began.
    Crewman Scott uttered one of those huffy little breaths that snotty people liked to use when they didn’t quite dare to laugh out loud. Amber was willing to overlook it this time, but Fisch’s face went cold.
    “Excuse us for just a moment, please,” he said, and took Scott aside.
    Amber couldn’t hear anything that was said and couldn’t hazard any guesses to judge by Fisch’s broad and rather bland face, but she waited and watched Scott’s ears turn red with a faint sense of satisfaction. In less than a minute, Fisch was back, smiling again.
    “I apologize for the interruption, please go on. A petty problem…?”
    “We’ll both be in Sleep,” said Amber. “I get it. We won’t be conscious, we won’t be lying there missing each other for years, we won’t miss anything at all. But we’ve been checking in for three hours already. I’ve got no reason to expect to check out in less time. And yeah, it may only be a few hours, but it’ll be a few hours on another planet, for God’s sake, and I want my sister with me.”
    “Please,” said Nicci.
    Fisch glanced at her and his eyes lingered. When he looked back at Amber, he seemed somewhat less politely pleasant and more sincerely thoughtful.
    “Isn’t there anything you can do?” asked Amber. “We don’t have to be in family housing. We just want to stay together.”
    He hmmmed again and checked with his digireader, tapping the stylus through several screens before frowning at her. “I think we could find a way to accommodate you, Miss Bierce, but you need to understand that once you’re confirmed to a bed, those may be your living quarters for quite a long time after we