Andre Norton - Derelict For Trade

"Look at the price, and answer your own question," Rael said, delighted to see him talking. socially.

Jellico gave a soft, low whistle. "Could almost get a ship for that. Upgrade engines, certainly."

"That’s exactly what Teague used to say." She laughed.

"And then he’d go out and do it." Jellico’s smile was quizzical.

"Well, yes, but that’s not to say it’s always been success. He was lucky enough to have several great runs right when he started out, but there have been losses as well. Not always the monetary kind—but just as painful." She looked back into the past, then shook her head to chase the sober memories away.

When she looked up again, his blue eyes were interested. "Teague’s still solitary."

Solitary , she thought. Anyone else would phrase it the other way — has

he ever married ? "Yes," she said. "He says he can’t risk the idea of pairing with someone who turns out to be a dirthugger—or having children who want to stay on one planet. Maybe someday he’ll adopt, if he comes across someone who reminds him of the way he himself was when he was small. Until then, he says, just short relationships, entered lightheartedly and ended with an equally lighthearted good-bye."

Jellico frowned down at the table. In the discreetly designed service inset a light glowed green, and two softly steaming drink bulbs appeared.

They had both chosen the automated service rather than paying extra for a sentient waitbeing, fun as it was to have the food artfully presented and the dirty dishes winkled away. This also gave them more privacy.

Did he want to be private? Or had he chosen the automat to save money?

She took a chance, and made the transition from the quasi-personal to herself. "We’re complete opposites, Teague and I, in that way," she said. When Jellico glanced up, and she sensed a wariness in him, she laughed and added, "Though you wouldn’t think it, particularly if you were to have met me during my university years. We students, particularly when we were pursuing our studies in psychology, were all too apt to get into relationships in which we happily squandered hours and hours discussing and analyzing our every thought, emotion, and sensation. It’s amazing we got any work done at all. The relationships certainly didn’t seem to last much past the time we ran out of dreams to plumb for meaning, or each other’s tastes in music and art to pick apart for what they supposedly symbolized."

"Sounds grim," Jellico said with a thin smile. "I think I’d rather have my teeth pulled out through my toes than sit through that."

Rael laughed. "I think everyone else thought so too—for at least during those years, no one outside our department seemed to be much interested in us but ourselves. It’s inevitable, I suppose: we choose companions in our vocations, when we can."

There, it was said—a comment that could be a possible overture.

Again he hesitated, and when the light glowed green again, he turned with a quickness that revealed how glad he was of the interruption.

Rich, spicy smells accompanied the plates of food that they carefully removed from the automat, making certain the fresh peas did not suddenly become airborne. Rael watched Jellico from the periphery of her vision, and saw him staring off as if his thoughts were light-years distant.

She looked up. He seemed to become aware of her stare, and returned his gaze to hers. "Flindyk," he said, tipping his head slightly.

Rael peered through the delicate ferns surrounding their booth, just in time to see a massive figure bizarrely armored in Kanddoyd lineaments bounding with practiced grace into one of the more secluded booths directly next to the huge curving windows. Flindyk disappeared immediately behind a formidable screen of plants.

Jellico frowned, then rose. "He did say we were to come to him with any problems. We’ve got one now."

"He might not want to do business now," Rael said.

Jellico gave his characteristic curt nod as he said, "I’ll just ask him for an appointment." He slid out from his seat, and was gone a moment later.

Rael watched him navigate between the booths toward the more isolated section near the windows. His movements were neat and economical, and occasionally, as he caught at a carved bar and pulled his weight around, there was a hint of the power latent in his lean body. She saw him near Flindyk’s booth, but before he could approach the barrier of foliage a Kanddoyd glided out from behind one of the ferns and stopped him.

The conversation was short. Jellico turned away, and Rael busied herself with her food. He slid in across from her again in the space of a minute, and she looked up in mute inquiry.

Jellico gave a faint shrug. "Was worth a try, anyway. Had a Kanddoyd flunky who was apparently willing to spend all night complimenting me, but it was equally obvious I wouldn’t get anywhere. Mindful of those Hudapi gourds, I just said I’d try again during Trade hours and left." He smiled and picked up his fork.

For a time they were silent as they began to eat.

Rael was the first to speak again, praising the excellence of her dish. The talk was natural again as they discussed the meal, ranging through unexceptionable subjects from Zacathan mosaics to O’xyhh music.

They were midway through an excellent blend of rare coffee when a reedy voice caught their attention from the other side of the Terran area. "Ho! Hah! My surprised! To astound!" A cascade of stridulations accompanied this exclamation. "That thou shouldst ask, thou hast woken up without thy braincase, O Lokanadd."

Rael sidled a glance behind her, saw two Kanddoyds at the entrance. One—wearing green ribbons—was not vocalizing at all, but produced an orchestra’s worth of clicks, knocks, ticks, hums, and squeaks.

The other Kanddoyd, a small male decorated in flamboyant flame colors, raised his arms high. "But thou knowest as good as thy name—which is Fool—or thine heritage—which is worthless—that my guests do not be troubled with the malodorous threats of yon rubbishing dacoits. Vanish! To displease me no further with thy dire whispers! Hasten, ere your whiskers wither in the blast of mine righteous wrath!"

The Kanddoyd who had not spoken now retreated, his stridulations droning on a lugubrious note. The flame-colored one now whirled into the dining area, circulating rapidly among the tables as he kept up a continuous flow of greetings, compliments, and questions which he scarcely paused long enough to permit of an answer.

"Aha!" he exclaimed when he neared Jellico and Rael. "Most profound greetings, O Captain, greetings also unto you, Doctor, and welcome to the Movable Feast! My inexpressible, your pleasure here to find. Eat! Drink! Merriness unto all; if you are not pleased, my inconsolable! Assure me you shall command my minions to restitute." He danced away, carapace buzzing, to another table.

Rael looked across at her companion, and was surprised to see an odd expression on his face. Her own amusement faded into question.

Jellico finished his drink, then said softly, "It might just be my suspicious mind, but I’d swear that act over at the entrance was some kind of warning."

"Interesting," she said. "I hadn’t thought of that. It did seem staged—I thought it was merely for effect."

Jellico shrugged slightly.

"If it was a warning, to whom?" she asked.

He returned no answer, and their conversation reverted to speculations about what kind of cargo they might raise.

But when they left a short while later, the question was answered when the quiet snick of a weapon made both instinctively duck for cover, and a high-velocity pellet whined right past Rael’s ear.