Galaxy's End: Book One by LeRoy Clary (pdf ebook reader txt) 📕

traveled with. Two of them were used to me making such changes. I could start anew—again. I always liked new beginnings.

In the past, one day my hair had been down to my waist and shaved to a clean skull the next. Light brown hair coloring, dark, pale pink, any color that would rinse out with the next washing . . . or rainstorm I got caught in.

Making changes to myself was like keeping the boogeyman away because he couldn’t find me. Remain the same and you get caught when they catch up with you. I didn’t want to get caught despite that I’d never really done anything I’d be ashamed of. Well, not professionally.

Kat was maybe a good name, I reconsidered. A longer one might suit me better. In some ways, Kat sounded like the noise people make when they inhale flying insects. Kat. Kat.

I grinned as I imagined Fang making the kat sound. I laid on my back in a perfectly comfortable bed, the nicest ever, and looked up at the underside of the bed above me and growled in frustration at my attitude. I was warm, dry, fed, surrounded by three friends, and had credits in my bank account. For the first time, I might have a future where I’d earn a good living.

So, why did I feel like I did?

I got up and growled some more as I said, “Bert, I’m going to the galley. Want anything?”

“Worms,” he said. “Live ones. If not, grubs. Any kind will do.”

“Carrots okay?” I knew he ate them.

“Skip it,” he said in a voice that sounded like he had some frustrations of his own, and his computer keys began clacking and clicking again. He also inputs data via voice and touchpads. Using all three was faster for him, and since he usually worked on more than one computer, and more than one subject, it saved confusion by turning off the voice commands on all but one.

I went out the door intent on finding what the ship was all about. Not just the surface stuff, which was not impressive nor clean. Small signs were attached to each door. Most were cabin numbers for passenger cabins. Others were for crew functions and included stern warnings for passengers to “stay out”.

A community bathroom for those who didn’t find the facilities in their cabins satisfactory, and the galley where we ate, and our cabin, were the only places I could access without getting into trouble. I opened the door to the galley and found Bill sitting alone, scraping the bottom of a small bowl with a utensil.

I went to the table and sat in one of the tall chairs. “What’s that?”

“Ice cream. You should try some.”

“Where’s Stone?”

“With Fang, I think. Can we just order what we like? I mean, if I want more ice cream, do I just ask for it?”

“Use your wrist-comp or the menu on the table surface. Touch the rim to bring it up. It shows what they have available and the cost.”

“Captain Stone just asks the steward for what she wants.”

I leaned closer. “Stone, just Stone. Nobody needs to know any more about her than that.”

“Stone does not look at her wrist. She asks the stewards.”

“Oh, for the sake of shutting you up, call a steward over here.”

To my utter surprise, he did. He lifted his chin without consulting his tablet and said, “Ice cream for both of us. Three scoops, but none of that yellow kind. Double up on one of the others.”

The steward smiled as if they shared a small joke.

I was so proud of him. When we’d met, Snotnose had been an introvert, and others on the street often took out their frustrations by beating him. It had taken years to build his self-confidence. Now he was ordering stewards around as if he’d done it his whole life.

He leaned closer. “Stone said I could study and learn to make things for the ship. Maybe to become an engineer or maintenance worker.”

His eyes were alight with hope and anticipation. Even if I didn’t wish to go with Stone on her ship, I’d have gone with him because of that look. It was a hunger for learning, for improving his station in life. It was a future for him. I’d do anything to make that dream of his come true.

I decided to seal the deal. We hadn’t had time to discuss it so far and it seemed perfect. “I want to go with her on her ship. I can learn how a trader operates, we can see new worlds together, and I don’t know how we fell into such a good thing.”

“We have to talk to Bert,” Bill said.

“I’m sure he will want to go along, at least, for a while. After we go back to the cabin, we can see what he thinks. By now, he’s probably investigated everything there is about traders and their ships. He can offer us good advice. I say we listen to him.”

Stone barged into the galley, took one look at us, and jerked her thumb to point the way. “Our cabin. Now.”

If she was still trying to hide her authority and that she was a starship captain, she was doing a poor job. All eyes were on her. There was no mistaking the crack of authority in her words and tone. All action and conversation had ceased in the dining room with her first order.

Our ice cream arrived.

We left it untouched and scrambled to our feet. Fang was already in the passageway, against a wall where he couldn’t get stepped on, probably a self-defense mechanism learned when he first started hanging around with creatures the size of humans and larger. A glance behind when we reached our cabin door found the green thing hopping at our heels. His diminutive size didn’t