Andre Norton - Derelict For Trade

"I thought I heard some hinting around," Rip said. "Well, that’s fine with me."

"Too bad." Ali flipped upside down and grinned. "I’ll miss seeing old Viking here blush every time she appears."

"I don’t," Dane said, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

"You did." Ali wiggled his brows.

"But he doesn’t anymore," Rip put in, ever the peacemaker.

Ali made a graceful, careless turn and oriented right-side-up. "I told you, you just need to come with me. Get plenty of practice being around beautiful women. You’ll like it, I promise."

Dane sighed. "I like them already," he said. "I like them a lot. It’s when they look back at me that I suddenly grow an extra foot, and find I’ve got too many arms and legs."

"It’s all right to look," Ali said, for once at least semi-serious. "Cofort now, she has fine taste, and she looks at me." He grinned smugly. "Everyone does. They can’t help looking at such a handsome fellow. Of course that’s all she does, is look. I could wait until the galaxy goes nova before she’d act on it."

"I know, I know," Dane said. "I’m learning." He wasn’t going to admit to anyone, not even Rip, that he’d had a talk with Rael, and had gotten a lot of things clear just about interacting with people. Not that it would change him overnight. But at least he didn’t feel quite so stupid anymore.

"Speaking of females, what about Tooe?" Rip asked, as the apprentices parted to pack their gear.

"She knows we’re leaving now," Dane said.

That was all he said. He went back to his old cabin, and started packing, thinking over the events of the last few days. After all that work, it didn’t really seem like much of anything was changing. Nunku still wanted to live at the Spinner, as did most of the klinti, though apparently at least they’d get ID papers, and jobs if they wanted them.

About the only concrete change that Dane could see was that Tooe had been given papers. She now was a free citizen, with no debts, ready to start her life. But though she’d worked hard and uncomplainingly, each

day she’d talked less.

Would she be able to leave the klinti? Dane had been honest with her, saying he didn’t know if they’d ever be back. Of course once she was out in the starlanes, if she decided not to stay with the Queen she could work her way back on any ship.

What was toughest was leaving in the first place.

Dane shook his head as he finished packing away his belongings. He looked around the bare cabin, wondering who would live there next, and how they’d feel about leaving wherever they were coming from—how they’d feel about the Solar Queen and her crew.

For him it had been easy. No family, no ties. This was it, his home.

In silence he joined the others, and helped push the baggage into the shuttle. Ali chattered happily, cracking jokes and singing snatches of song. Rip kept sending Dane glances of sympathy from his dark eyes, but he said nothing directly. Jasper just worked, as always keeping his thoughts to himself.

When the shuttle was ready to go, Rip made a business of checking over the com once more—and then he stopped, for a little blue figure bounded down the tube and flung herself in, clutching in her thin webbed fingers a ragged, bulging receptacle.

Dane grinned at her, and watched her drooping crest lift. No one was in sight on the dock; her good-byes had been said.

In silence the crew of the North Star made their way to their new ship. And not long after that, the two ships eased their way out of the great lock, and nosed out toward space.

Though there was plenty to do, Dane hovered near Tooe, watching. She stopped at the port, but her gaze was not back in the direction of the rapidly dwindling habitat.

As they built up speed for the jump to hyper, she turned and smiled out at the stars.

For over fifty years, Andre Norton, "one of the most distinguished living SF and fantasy writers" (Booklist) , has been penning bestselling novels that have earned her a unique place in the hearts and minds of readers. Honored with a Life Achievement Award by the World Fantasy Convention and with the Grand Master Nebula Award by her peers in the Science Fiction Writers of America, her numerous science fiction and fantasy novels have garnered her millions of devoted readers across the globe. Works set in her fabled Witch World, as well as others, such as The Elvenbane (with Mercedes Lackey) and Black Trillium (with Marion Zimmer Bradley and Julian May), have made her "one of the most popular authors of our time" (Publishers Weekly) . She lives in Winter Park, Florida. Sherwood Smith is the author of over a dozen novels, including Wren to the Rescue and two other Wren adventures. She is also the coauthor, with Dave Trowbridge, of the Exordium series of space opera novels. Smith lives in California.