Changeling by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Read Free Book Online

and went
out into the night Port.
    On the walk, he turned right, toward
Findoir's, taking all of two steps before recollecting himself. Not
Findoir's. Every pilot on Port had news of his death by now.
    His comrades would turn their faces away from
him, as Lai Tor had. He might speak to them, but they would not
answer. He was beyond them--outcast. Nameless. Guildless.
Clanless.
    Dead.
    The tears rose again. He blinked them away,
aghast. To weep openly in the street, where strangers might see
him? Surely, even a ghost kept better Code than that.
    He limped a few steps to the left and set his
shoulders against the cool stone wall of Casiaport Guildhall. His
chest hurt; the bad leg was afire, and the street scene before him
seemed somewhat darker than even night might account for.
    Ren Zel took a breath, imposing board-calm.
Dispassionately, he cataloged his resources:
    A first-class piloting license. A
jump-pilot's spaceleather jacket, scarred and multiply patched. Two
cantra.
    He leaned his head against the stone, not
daring to close his eyes, even here, in the relative safety of Main
Port.
    They expected that he would go to Low Port,
Clan Jabun did. They expected him to finish his death there. Obrelt
had cast against that, winning him the right to hold his license;
winning him, so he must have thought, a chance to fly. To live.
    And how had Jabun countered? Briefly, Ren Zel
closed his eyes, seeing again the three-sided table, the crowd of
cousins, weeping and pale; heard Jabun snarl: "What ship will
employ a dead man? None that Jabun knows by name."
    And that was his doom. There was no ship on
Casiaport that Jabun could not name.
    Or was there?
    Ren Zel opened his eyes.
    Jabun's daughter--had not spoken Terran.
    Perhaps then her father did
not know the names of all the ships on port.
    He pushed away from the wall and limped down
the walk, heading for Mid Port.
    * * *
    THE MAN BEHIND THE desk took his license and
slid into the computer. His face was bored as he scrolled down the
list of Ren Zel's completed assignments.
    "Current," he said indifferently. "Everything
in order, except..." The scrolling stopped. Ren Zel's mouth went
dry and he braced himself against the high plastic counter. Now.
Now was when the last hope died.
    The duty cler--no. The roster boss looked
down at him, interest replacing boredom in his face.
    "This note here about being banned from the
big hall. That temporary or permanent?"
    "Permanent," Ren Zel answered, and was
ashamed to hear his voice shake.
    "OK," the boss said. He pulled the license
out of the slot and tossed it across the counter. Exhausted though
he was, still Ren Zel's hand moved, snatching the precious thing
out of the air, and sliding it safely away.
    "OK," the boss said again. "Your card's good.
Fact is, it's too good. Jump-pilot. Not much need for jump-pilots
outta this hall. We get some intersystem jobs, now and then. But
mostly the jumps go through Casiaport Guild. Little bit of a labor
tax we cheerfully pay, for the honor of being allowed
on-world."
    It was an astonishment to find irony here.
Ren Zel lifted his eyes and met the suddenly knowing gaze of the
roster boss, who nodded, a half-smile on his lips.
    "You got that, did you? Good boy."
    "I do not," Ren Zel said, careful, so
careful, of the slippery, mode-less Terran syllables, "require a
jump-ship, sir. I am ... qualified ... to fly intra-system."
    "Man's gotta eat, I guess." The boss shook
his head, stared down at the computer screen and Ren Zel stood
rooted, muscles tense as if expecting a blow.
    The boss let his breath out, noisily.
    "All right, here's what. You wanna fly outta
here, you gotta qualify." He held up a hand, though Ren Zel had
said nothing. "I know you got a first class card. What I don't know
is, can you run a Terran board. Gotta find that out before I turn
you loose with a client's boat." He tipped his head. "You followin'
this, kid?"
    "Yes, sir." Ren Zel took a hard breath, his
head aching with the effort of