Derelict For Trade

11

”Mr. Ya,” Captain Jellico said, "contact the Monitors."

Dane Thorson felt the little being twitch in his grasp, but it was so small his feet were in no danger of lifting off the deck even though he

hadn’t magged his boots.

"No thief, me!" it declared in a fluting voice. "I trade, I trade everythings!"

"What were you doing in our engine compartment?" Stotz asked, his eyes flinty. "That was trading?"

"No! I stop you move, me," came the prompt answer in heavily accented universal Trade speech. "No take cable, turn it. You not move to heavy zone, far away other side."

The captain sat down in a chair directly opposite the little blue-green person. Seated, he and the prisoner were eye to eye. Dane didn’t envy the stowaway’s view of an angry captain. Even at his most mild, Jellico looked tough, and he was obviously not in a good mood now.

"Who are you?" the captain asked. "And why are you on my ship?"

"I Tooe," was the prompt answer. "I Trader, me. No thief! Goo," the stowaway added in a sound midway between a cry and a whistle. Its frustration was palpable as it added some rapid words in Kanddoyd and then in Rigelian.

At the latter, Dane saw Rael Cofort’s eyes widen. The doctor turned to the captain and said, "I can speak some Rigelian. Would you like me to question her?"

"Her?" the captain said, with a curious smile. "I might have known you’d speak Rigelian."

Dr. Cofort’s lovely face glowed with color. "We traded quite a bit with certain Rigelian colonies when I was very small," she said. Then she turned to the stowaway and addressed her slowly in the hissing saurian tongue: "Tell us who you are and why you are here."

Dane understood that much, but none of the answer that spilled at terrific speed from Tooe in response.

No one spoke as the little stowaway talked, sometimes gesturing with her thin webbed hands. Dane watched with fascination as the fervor of her animated movements lifted her off the deck; she merely hooked out a foot

under the edge of the table and pulled herself back down with impossible grace—and left her leg cocked up as though the position were perfectly natural. She now stood at an angle to everyone else in the room.

He looked down at the little head with its smooth, faintly scaled skin, colored much more blue than the normal Rigelian green. He saw Tooe’s crest flicker, rise, flatten in anger, then fold as she talked. She was obviously a hybrid between a Rigelian and one of the other races seeded by the same saurians millennia ago. The Rigelians did not countenance hybrids; unlike Terrans, who mostly welcomed diversity in the human genome, they were exceedingly purist in outlook, and just as antagonistic toward those with similar biologies as they were toward those of far different backgrounds. He wondered how old she was.

Finally she came to a stop, and Dr. Cofort rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "It’s been a long time, and the dialect Tooe speaks is... unique, but I think I have most of her story."

"Let’s hear it," the captain said.

"She came on board just after we landed, and has been hiding in the cargo area ever since. She brought along a stash of items she thought we could use, and has been leaving them out, one at a time, since she ran out of her own food and had to start using ours. She insists she would have come forward as soon as we blasted out, but it was taking us a long time to do so. She wants to be a Trader, and thinks this was her only chance."

"Does her family concur?"

"She claims her only family is a group of other. castaways. They live up at the Spin Axis," Cofort said. "Her age works out to be about nineteen Standard years, which is technically adulthood by Terran law, at least. So she’s an independent entity."

Jellico tapped his fingers lightly on the table, then looked up at Dane. "Lock her in the brig for now. We have things to discuss."

Dane gently pulled his prisoner back and turned toward the door; she was so small her mass seemed utterly negligible. He hated this kind of duty, especially when it involved a being so small and flimsy. As he passed by Dr. Cofort he saw her wince in silent sympathy for the little Rigelian, which made Dane feel even worse.

Tooe made no protest as they descended to the brig, Dane keeping a firm grip on her spindly arm. Having seen her performance at the table, he had no doubt that he’d never catch her in free fall.

And yet Stotz did.

He looked at her thoughtfully when they reached the bare cabin that served as the Queen's brig and he had pushed her gently through the door. She drifted across the tiny room, folded down the bench from one wall, and sat upside down under the seat, curling her limbs up into a ball and putting her chin on her knees. Vertigo seized Dane as the utter naturalness of her motions upended his perceptions—now he was the one on the ceiling. He magged his boots, feeling himself click firmly to the deckplates, and he breathed deeply, forcing the vertigo away.

She said nothing; big deep yellow eyes looked up at Dane. He hastily closed the door, by now feeling like the biggest villain in the universe.

It wasn’t until he got back to the gallery and heard the others talking that he was able to rid himself of the sensation of walking on the ceiling.

"We’ve been in microgee too long," he muttered under his breath as he ducked through the hatch.

"... biggest discrepancy in what she was saying," Stotz’s voice carried over the others. "If she wanted to blast off with us, then why did I catch her sabotaging my drive?"

Dr. Cofort said, "She insisted it was a measure to keep us from moving up to the heavy zone. She must have been listening when the captain issued the order to prepare for the move, just before we left to visit the legate."

Jasper Weeks said softly, "Have to admit it was clever, to reverse the cable connecting the ignition system to the drive. It would have taken us hours to check all those cables, but it wasn’t really damage."

Stotz grunted. "Knows her way around an engine, then."

Mura said, "And these other things she left for me to find. Some of them are odd, but they’re not useless."

Jellico looked across at the doctor. "Did she say why she picked our ship?"

"Yes, she did," Cofort answered. "She said it was clean, and the animals were happy. She said she couldn’t believe that a ship of villains would be kind to their animals."

"Villains!" Ali exclaimed. "That’s a loud one, coming from a saboteur!"

"What I don’t like," the captain said, "is the fact that her being here is one more strange thing going on in a series that is far too long for my peace of mind."

Van Ryke pushed himself back down the bulkhead, where he had slowly drifted during the discussion. "But if what she says is true, she got here before things started going sour on us."

"Which was the day we tried to track down the old owners of the Starvenger," Rip said.

Jellico nodded. "Right. But none of you know this: the doctor and I were shot at when we were returning just now. Shot at with taste-agains, and chased halfway back to the docks—and no Monitors in sight."

The crew stared in amazed silence.

"So you can see why I don’t like any more coincidences showing up."

"So what do we do with her?" Dr. Cofort asked, frowning slightly.

"I have to admit, if she is a free agent, and if the authorities are corrupt, the idea of turning her over to them sticks in my craw," Jellico said. "But I don’t want her wandering around my ship unsupervised. Though she didn’t do any real damage up until now, our situation is too ticklish to risk any more problems. And though she claims to be honest, didn’t she admit to coming from one of the Spin Axis gangs? I thought that was where the detritus of the three civilizations hid out."

"Behind every being in such ’detritus’ usually lies some kind of personal tragedy," Cofort said in a quiet voice. "People, especially those so young, seldom choose a life beyond the law. They are usually driven to it." The doctor shook her head. "Tooe did mention she lived in a creche when she

was very small, but they threw her out for nonpayment."

Jellico grunted. "Rigelian. they don’t take kindly to hybrids. If her other parent was a spacehound and thought he or she’d make it back, but didn’t, that might explain the nonpayment."

"But not why a small child was thrown out to live hand to mouth," Van Ryke growled. "The name ’Harmonious Exchange’ seems to fit this canister less every hour we’re here."

The captain frowned for a long time, during which no one spoke. Then he surprised Dane by looking up at him. "What do you think we should do with her?"

Dane rubbed his jaw, trying to think. He hated the idea of any of the others thinking him sentimental, but the more he heard of Tooe’s story—if it was true—the more it reminded him of his early years in the Federation Home. Of course no one had thrown him out, but there had been times he’d half wished they would, so bleak was the life there, with the constant hard work in order to strive for the grades that would get one into the Training Pool, and thence to Service, and the constant reminders about how grateful the orphans should be for their free education and board.

He felt that if she spoke the truth, she deserved a fair chance at a decent trade, just like he’d had. So he said, "I’ll take charge of her for now, if you like."

"I’ll help," Ali spoke up, which surprised Dane. It seemed to surprise the others as well, for there were lifted brows and questioning glances, to which Ali returned a wry smile and an elegant shrug. Dane remembered what little he’d heard about Ali Kamil’s past, and realized he probably felt the same as Dane.

"And I," Rip Shannon said, with his easy smile. "Thorson and I dead-ended on our search, anyway."

Jellico grunted again. "That was my next question." He dropped his hands onto his knees; Dane could see the muscles in his leg bunch as they compensated by curling up under the bench he was seated on to cancel the reaction of his gesture. "Well, then, let’s try this. You boys take charge of this stowaway. If she offers you any trouble, any at all, or lies to you, then over to the Monitors she goes, corrupt or not. I won’t have a troublemaker

on board, especially now. But if she seems useful. we’ll talk again. Maybe she can earn passage elsewhere, at least."

Dane nodded, feeling pleased.

"As for our other matter, it’s beginning to look like someone doesn’t want us finding out anything about our derelict.

What we need to know is if it’s the authorities—or someone else. And Jan and I might be the ones to look at this for now. After you, Tang, get the rest of the data from the Starvenger's log deciphered."

"Aye, Captain," Ya said. "I’ll get back to it right now." He pulled himself out of the mess and disappeared in the direction of his cabin.

"I’ll go let Tooe out of the brig," Dane said.

Frank Mura motioned to him. "Bring her back for a meal," he said. "From the looks of her, it’s long overdue."

Dane grinned as he descended to the brig, and opened the door.

Tooe was still under the bench, upside down. Again, vertigo seized Dane; after a brief struggle he accepted the inversion of his world. She looked down at him, her yellow eyes huge. The pupils narrowed into slits and her crest rose in a gesture that looked so hopeful, Dane tried not to laugh. "You’re in my charge," he said in Trade, then repeated it again, awkwardly, in Rigelian.

"Speak Trade, me," Tooe said proudly, pinwheeling out from under the bench and flipping upside down to match Dane’s orientation. Watching her made his stomach flip-flop. She smacked her scrawny chest. "Learn off vids Nunku get." Then she peered closer at him, as if puzzled.

"Well, you’ll need some more practice," Dane said, fighting off vertigo again. What was happening to him?

Then a vivid flash of memory filled his inner gaze: Tooe, interrogated by the captain, surrounded by people all of whose heads were oriented parallel to the same axis. Except hers.

We all act like we're under acceleration, even when we're not. She

doesn't. So who was better adapted to space?

"I fast. Very fast." Tooe took her gaze from his face, then hesitated, her pupils widening and narrowing disconcertingly as she looked around as if searching for a word. Then she said, "Zounds!"

"Zounds?" Dane repeated, no longer able to hide his laughter. "How old are those vids you’ve been watching?"

Three days later, Dane floated into the Starvenger's galley and drew a bulb of hot drink.

Rip Shannon bounced gently against a wall and watched his big, yellow-haired friend maneuvering carefully in free fall. Behind him was a diminutive blue person, miming his movements.

Rip delighted in the absurdity of the situation, but he kept his voice steady as he said, "Good workout, you two?"

Dane looked over his shoulder at Tooe, who had become his shadow during the two days he and Rip had been stationed for their turn on the Starvenger. During those two days both men had talked to the little Rigelian, but it was Dane who did the most, sometimes using vocabulary culled from three or four languages. Tooe’s understanding of Trade speech was much better than her spoken use of the language, but she was a very fast learner, and her ability to express herself grew noticeably better each day.

"I strong, me," Tooe chirped. "I strong in one grav, like Terrans."

"She can pull a lot of weight for her size," Dane admitted. "She’s apparently been working out in high grav for years, ever since she formed her plans for getting into space."

Tooe obviously understood this; her crest spread out at a proud angle above her head, and she grinned, showing a row of sharp, pointed little teeth.

"Everything locked down on the lower deck?" Rip asked.

Dane nodded. "All’s shipshape."

"We go back?" Tooe asked, looking from one of them to the other, her yellow eyes wide.

"We’re just waiting for the—" Rip paused as a clanking noise reverberated through the ship. "Hey, sounds like the shuttle just reached the lock. Shall we go see?"

Tooe chirped, "I help, me!" She doubled up her feet and sprang from the wall, rocketing through the hatchway into the corridor outside. Rip followed more slowly, just in time to see what looked like a thin blue streak ricochet swiftly from bulkhead to deckplates down the corridor and around the corner.

When he and Dane reached the lock, Tooe’s fingers were already busy at the console. Rip bounded toward her, then slowed.

"Will you look at that," he said.

On the screen in front of her the lock icon flashed into a steady green as she initiated the pressure checks.

"All clear, is," she announced proudly.

"All clear, is," agreed Dane and Rip solemnly.

As Johan Stotz and Jasper Weeks emerged from the tube, Jasper smiled in greeting. "How’s the new crew member synching in?" He nodded toward Tooe.

Rip saw Tooe glance their way, her crest flicking up at a hopeful angle, and he hid a smile. "Fine," he said. "Learns fast." He faced Weeks and added casually, "Almost looks like home down in the engine compartment."

Jasper’s grin twisted a little. "Isn’t it starting to look like home all over? Or haven’t you hauled over some stuff you like to mess with?"

Rip nodded slowly, thinking of the two little potted rilla-mints he’d brought over. They bloomed so nicely, and their scent did a lot to improve the antiseptic but boring ship air.

"You did," Jasper said with a triumphant grin that was not the least

malicious. "Bet you brought some of those little plants that make the silver flowers. They smell like Terra in the summer, kind of. Or they remind me of my one visit to Terra." His bleached face looked wistful for a moment.

That aroma makes a place home, Rip thought, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. None of them ever referred to the Starvenger as a future home, or themselves as its officers. They couldn’t; Rip sensed strongly that the other three felt the same. Their own ship, and officer status. No, until it came, best not to jinx it by too much chatter.

He waved a salute and pulled himself after Dane into the tube, followed closely by Tooe. Even though she had made the same short journey when they boarded the shuttle to come out to the Starvenger, Tooe looked around just as intently, her crest fluttering, echoing her mercurial emotions. She appeared most fascinated by the silvery, moist-looking walls of the tube, the molecules of which both maintained its shape and healed any punctures by tenaciously "remembering" the stress programmed into them by the lock extruder. Obviously this technology was expensive—and had not been deployed up in the Spin Axis area where she lived.

Dane slapped the lock control, visibly wincing in anticipation. Rip’s ears popped slightly as the tube behind them pulled away from the Starvenger's lock and sealed instantly in a mouthlike pucker. As the lock sealed behind them, the extruder reversed its function and began to eat the tube. Rip shuddered: none of the crew could get used to the weird Kanddoyd lock technology.

"Sucks it all up," announced Tooe. "Why it not suck us up,too?"

"Doesn’t like the way we taste," said Dane solemnly.

Tooe’s crest flattened in doubt, her slit pupils narrowing. "No tongue in lock, and yours is twisted."

Rip grinned at the expression on Dane’s face. "She’s got you there!" he said.

The hatch in front of them cycled open as the tube shortened behind them and Tooe shot through it, flipping over to bounce off the ceiling and accelerating down through the short cabin toward the control section. Rip and Dane followed more sedately.

"If we intend to be this far out of human space often, we’re going to see a lot of habitats," commented Dane, his gaze following the little blue biped.

"Nice to have crew that know them?" During their two days’ stint aboard Starvenger the big cargo master apprentice hadn’t discussed Tooe with Rip, and Rip hadn’t pushed him on it, despite his curiosity. Maybe now he was ready to talk.

But Dane merely nodded and pulled himself into the nav-pod—he’d piloted on the way out.

Rip concentrated on his piloting, listening with only half an ear to Tooe’s incessant questions and Dane’s patient answers. She was picking up the subtleties of Tradespeak now, as shown by her response to Dane’s joke.

They didn’t talk about anything important on the shuttle; they all knew that anyone who wished to could record conversations. Rip reflected that it would take him ten minutes to check for bugs, but why bother? He and Dane didn’t know anything new. Stotz had said nothing, and Jasper had only discussed Tooe and plants when they arrived at the Starvenger. This closed-mouth attitude was just as the captain had ordered.

Tooe fell silent as the little shuttle pitched down and the habitat loomed huge before them. They were coming in on an angle from the axis; the length of the huge cylinder dwindled in perspective, rendered into an abstract conic section by the harsh, knife-edged shadows of vacuum. The almost greenish light from the system primary glinted off the dull metallic maze of the huge end cap, a confusion of antennae, sensors, vents, radiators for a variety of energies, and much more that was unidentifiable. At the center loomed the vast mouth of the habitat docking bay, the still center of the visible rotation of the habitat.

Rip triggered the attitude thrusters and felt the tug in his inner ear as the shuttle spun up to match the habitat. The vast construct’s rotation appeared to slow and stop. As they approached the bay, the half-phase gray-swirl bulk of the planet it orbited slipped from sight, like moonset.

Looking at Tooe watching the phenomenon with unblinking concentration, Rip realized she had never seen a moonset. Or a sunrise.

They glided inward, joining the incessant ballet of small service vessels and space-suited figures under the terse direction of Dock Control. Tooe’s questions started up again as she pointed excitedly at a big Shver freighter newly berthed not far from the Queen, but Rip hardly glanced at it, his eyes drawn by his own ship, the Solar Queen. Rip studied her length, glowing silvery-gold in the diffuse illumination from the many lights scattered throughout the bay. She wasn’t nearly as large as some of the other ships docked along either side, nor as fancy, but she was home. Home. The word brought vividly to mind the Queen's crowded galley, the narrow hatchways, his tiny cabin, fixed snugly just the way he liked, and not the spacious home he’d spent his childhood in, with its pleasing view of the lakeside. He frowned, realized he couldn’t remember what color his room had been.

A vivid memory intruded then, the tears gathering in his mother’s dark eyes. "I’ll never see you again, son."

And his own voice, cheery, careless, "Sure you will, Mom!" He could hardly wait to wave good-bye to his family and blast off on his first journey. "The time’ll go fast, you’ll see."

Well, it had gone fast—for Rip. Had it for his mother, stuck back on Terra, looking at the skies? Though Rip would not change his life for anything, suddenly he was glad his brother and sister had chosen dirthugger careers.

The shuttle clanked and boomed as the fingers of the Queen's auxiliary lock seized it. Again it was Tooe’s eager fingers that tabbed the controls to verify proper mating and, when the light glowed green, keyed the inner hatch open.

They were soon on board the Queen. Mura greeted them, pointed with his chin to the control deck.

Captain Jellico was busy with Steen Wilcox, but when Rip, Dane, and Tooe appeared in the door, he stopped and faced them. "Anything to report?"

"Not a thing," Rip said. "Quiet two days." Next to him, Dane nodded—and a moment later, Tooe nodded in exactly the same fashion.

Rip saw the captain’s lips quirk slightly. But all he said was, "There’s

little to report here, other than Kamil is now confined to the ship. Supposedly he was caught up near the forbidden areas of the Spin Axis—though he maintains he was chased there."

Rip shook his head, mentally promising himself a visit to Ali, to find out what had happened.

Jellico continued, "You two have six hours of leave time, then check back for your orders."

Rip started to turn away, saw Dane hesitate as though he were about to speak. But then he shook his head as though he’d made a decision, and backed out into the hatchway.

"Going down to Ali’s cabin," Rip said. "Want to find out what’s up."

"I’ll check in with you later," Dane replied, which surprised Rip a little. "I have an errand to do first." At his elbow, Tooe’s yellow eyes blinked.

Rip felt a cautionary remark forming, and he bit it back. "Later, then," was all he said.