Andre Norton: Redline the Stars

Jellico spread his hands wide. "That she knows goods, especially luxury items, but whether she can do anything with them is anyone's guess. Her dealings with us are no indication. We're her own kind, and she was holding the blaster."

That was about what Tau had expected to hear. "Strong in biotic areas, adequate with machines and math." The common pattern. Most people leaned to one or the other. "It's the degree of achievement she's attained in the areas where she's good that sets her apart. I'd say Teague Cofort was none too pleased when she lifted off the Roving Star."

"Credits down he wasn't," Miceal agreed. Even if he had been more than a little relieved to see her go.

"What about you? Have you been able to leam anything yourself?" He knew Rael had been spending a good part of what she would allow herself of free time in the Captain's company, although there was little help she could give him on the bridge.

"Not much. She's got a layman's knowledge of animals, but it's broad and detailed. She likes them, so I guess she retains whatever she reads about them. It works that way for me. At any rate, I haven't had to talk down to her yet."

He glowered. "Queex'll never be the same after she goes. He looks for her to show up now. To be more precise, he demands her presence."

"Maybe she should continue showing up," the Medic suggested seriously.

His companion looked at him incredulously. "We know hardly anything more about that damn woman than her name!"

"Be reasonable, Miceal," Craig said smoothly. "We could establish a precedent, a whole new rank. Hoobat-Sitter First Class ... "

Too late, Jellico saw the sparkle in his dark eyes and knew he had been taken over the jets proper. He informed the other, graphically, just where and how he should file that particular suggestion.

Both were grave again in the next moment. "She isn't terribly communicative," Tau agreed. "Plenty of detail on a lot of different subjects, but nothing about one Rael Cofort. Do you have some suspicions over and above that mystery?"

"Just a lot of questions with no answers forthcoming." "You've done some checking?"

He nodded briskly. "Van and I both. What we could check. Her brother's the legend of the starlanes, not her. There's not much information on her floating around."

"She meshes well," the Medic observed.

"Maybe aye, maybe no. Unless I'm misreading some of the signals, Cofort rasps on a couple of our junior members. She's older than any of them and well out of apprenticeship, but she's so good at so damned many things that she can come across as a threat at times."

"Dane?"

He nodded. "He's struggling manfully to keep any ill feeling in check, but he's not that long out of Pool, and he wasn't exactly the most serene recruit we'd ever shipped when he first came."

"His experience in the Pool wasn't one of unremitting joy. — Afraid for his job?"

"Probably not. A Medic's not likely to be after that, but with all he's still got to learn, he can't view Van's tale of her prowess in the gem market with any great pleasure."

"Well, she can't be upsetting Shannon. According to you, she's no shining star at all on the bridge."

Miceal laughed. "Hardly. Rip Shannon is so secure and easy about himself that he's almost frightening. He also happens to like just about everyone and everything on two or more legs that anyway deserves liking."

"Ali?" he asked. "Rael's no danger to him, either. Machines are his game, and not hers."

The Captain began to feel uncomfortable. "We're pushing into your field, Craig," he apologized.

Tau only smiled. "Pray continue. You've managed to stay in the right lanes so far."

"Kamil's a different charter from the others. — No, he knows Rael Cofort can have no influence whatsoever in his department, but I think he welcomes change, however temporary, even less willingly than Thorson does. He wants, maybe desperately needs, stability, and any alteration in personnel threatens that. He's smart enough to recognize that there isn't a whole lot he can do about Rael's presence, but he still isn't likely to embrace what he has to regard as a potential hazard with open, loving arms."

"There's no actual hostility," the Medic assured him.

"I've been monitoring the lot of us for anything of that nature."

"Just the potential for hostility is enough to make me very nervous," Jellico said dryly.

The Medic's eyes narrowed. "What is it? If you've got something against Rael Cofort, maybe the rest of us should know about it. I haven't seen your instincts play us false yet."

"Like I said, just half a galaxy of questions."

"Why she wants a place at all on a ship like the Solar Queen being one of them?"

"It's not exactly unreasonable to wonder. The idea of Teague Cofort's sister bumming around the rim trying to pick up odd berths here and there does give a man pause."

"Sure, unless she happens to be telling the truth. The Spirit of Space knows, that's logical enough on the face of it, and she never said she's planning to spend her life on the rim. Once she logs in some practical experience she could then rejoin her brother's organization on her own terms or link up with some other inner-system ship. She can't be blamed for not going for a Psycho placement. Its decision's binding and long-term. If she's hoping to go back to her own people in anything like the near future, she wouldn't want to lock herself up elsewhere.

"The rim's a reasonable place for her to come, too," Tau went on. "She can find work here without having to worry about having her knowledge used in a Trade war against Teague since none of us deals with the same markets on any regular basis, or at least not regularly enough to form a threat."

"So you've been considering some of the problems as well, I see,-for all your enthusiasm about our new hand."

"Naturally. I'm not completely space-addled yet, I hope and pray. I'm just willing to make use of her talents while I'm wondering."

"So am I, assuming she's after what she claims she is. We can't confirm that, not with almost everything we've got to go on coming straight from Rael Cofort herself."

Jellico said nothing more for a moment, then he sighed.

"She's so damned good, Craig. Why did Cofort let her go?

— I know. She claims she wants to try herself on her own, but Teague owns several freighters outright and has a strong interest in a number of others. Just about all his apprentices find places in his organization when they qualify. It doesn't make sense that he couldn't manage to come up with anything at all for his own sister."

Mfceal gave a sharp shake of his head. "What's the matter with her? I can't find it, but Cofort actively wanted to be rid of that woman or was at least more than willing to see the end of her.

"Even the way she fits in here's against her. She's trying too hard. No one not working at it full time could have the right answers, the precisely correct phrases, all the time." The Captain frowned. "How much of Rael Cofort are we actually seeing and how much a skillfully constructed facade?"

Miceal's face hardened. "Right now, I wish we had turned Cofort's damn offer down. I may well have shipped a potential nova aboard the Solar Queen—that or something half a universe worse."

Jellico had little time to dwell on the puzzle of his unwelcome temporary hand the following day. The Queen was scheduled to set down on Canuche of Halio by late evening, and all the myriad tasks that accompanied planetfall kept him and the rest of her hands fully occupied.

Excitement ran high. The direction their immediate future would take would be decided on the rapidly nearing world.

Would they be lucky enough to pick up a charter, paying passengers or cargo that would enable them to write off the