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"I suppose somebody gossiped, or one of those fool Mentorians picked it up. Got your papers? What rating?" "Astrogator first class." "Klanerol was second, but you can't have everything, I suppose." Ringg led the way through the arcades, out across a guarded sector, passing half a dozen of the huge ships lying in their pits. Finally Ringg stopped and pointed. "This is the old hulk."
Bart knew, with a cold chill, that the missing Klanerol had not simply gone "on the drift." No Lhari port would ever see Klanerol, Second Class Astrogator, again. "Bartol," mused the captain, riffling the forged papers. "Served on the Polaris run. Hm you are a good long way off your orbit, aren't you? Never been out that way myself. All right, I'll take you on. You can do system programming? Good.
Dunnan had gone to space a few times, as a junior officer on trade-and-raid voyages into the Old Federation. He was supposed to be a fair astrogator. He had expected his uncle to give him command of the Enterprise, which had been ridiculous.
In the hovering ship, the commander turned to the astrogator and said, with the bitterness of yesterday's conflict with the mutinous crew evident in his voice, "Well, our little vaporized circuit is off again." He motioned to the image of Boswellister in the forward viewscreen. It was a sight that tended to increase the tremor in the astrogator's hands.
Behind him trotted three couples of retainers, their cloaks also ragged fringes, their knives drawn. Standing up on the ramp to receive what could only be a formal deputation were Captain, Astrogator, Cargo-master and Engineer, the senior officers of the spacer. In the rolling periods of the Trade Lingo the torch bearer identified himself as Groft, son and heir of the late lamented Paft.
Dane Thorson, Cargo-master-apprentice of the Solar Queen, Galactic Free Trader spacer, Terra registry, stood in the middle of the ship's cramped bather while Rip Shannon, assistant Astrogator and his senior in the Service of Trade by some four years, applied gobs of highly scented paste to the skin between Dane's rather prominent shoulder blades.
My hyperspatial astrogator, Guatt Kirbey, composes music; he tries to express the mathematics of hyperspatial theory in musical terms. I don't care much for it, myself," he admitted. "I study history. You know, it's odd; practically everything that's happened on any of the inhabited planets happened on Terra before the first spaceship."
"Unfortunately, when the miners panicked, they stampeded into the ship. Also unfortunately, panic gas got into the ship with them. So they stayed panicked while the astrogator in panic! took off. They headed for Weald and threw on the overdrive which would be set for Weald anyhow because that would be the fastest way to run away from whatever he imagined he feared.
I took them, just to have proof that the Eysies are operating here. But note they were offered to me in trade, along with two top Koros for what? One spoonful of dried catnip leaves. Does that suggest anything?" Mura answered first. "The Salariki prefer natural products to synthetic." "I think so." "D'you suppose that was Cam's secret?" speculated Astrogator Steen Wilcox.
Back on the Row, Roger had lounged around the cafés, feeling the loneliness that haunts men wanted by the law. And only because he was so lonely he had agreed to talk to the little man who sat and stared at him from across the table. "You a rocket pusher, astrogator, or skipper?" asked the little man. "Who wants to know?" asked Roger cautiously. "Look, sonny boy," was the quick retort. "I'm Mr.