Duty Bound Read Free Page B

inclined her head, and
glanced again to Er Thom.
    "I wonder, my son, if you might not do the
Captain the honor of ferrying Scout Candidate yos'Phelium to the
planet surface tomorrow. I would expect you to stay by him until he
has satisfactorily made his contacts, attend to the few small
errands you will find listed on your duty screen, and return the
Captain's Shuttle to the ship."
    Er Thom's breath caught.
    "I'm to pilot the Captain's Shuttle alone?
Mother -- "
    She tipped her head, and he thought he
detected the beginning of a twinkle in her stern blue eyes.
    "Surely that is a task well within the skill
of a second class pilot?"
    He smiled. "Yes, Captain. It is."
    "Good, that is settled, then." She turned.
At the door, she looked over her shoulder at them. "The hour has
perhaps escaped your notice, pilots. I mention--as elder kin and as
a master pilot--that flight is much more enjoyable when one is
awake at the board." She inclined her head--"Sleep well"--and was
gone.
    * * *
    DAAV WALKED UP to the duty counter, which
looked for all the worlds like any counter in any hiring hall one
cared to name. Had Er Thom not read the sign as he followed Daav
into this place, he would have supposed himself in an office of the
Pilot's Guild, rather than the sector headquarters of the Liaden
Scouts.
    The man behind the counter glanced up from
his book, and registered Daav with one quick Scout glance. The
glance lingered a moment on Er Thom, as if the Scout found the
appearance into his hall of a halfling in Trader clothes somewhat
puzzling.
    Daav laid his license on the counter. "One
seeks Scout Rod Ern pel'Arot."
    "So?" The Scout appeared amused. "If one is
so ill-advised as to seek Scout pel'Arot on Trilsday, then one must
be prepared to seek him at the Spinning Wheel."
    Daav inclined his head. "I shall do so. May
one inquire the direction of the Spinning Wheel?"
    The Scout's amusement was almost
palpable.
    "Down on the blue median, handy to
Terraport." He moved his shoulders and picked his book up.
    "I am informed," Daav said, which his
brother considered nothing more nor less than prevarication,
pocketed his license and turned away, Er Thom trailing a respectful
two paces behind.
    Back on the walkway, Daav paused, face
thoughtful. Er Thom looked up the street, down the street, but
spied nothing remotely resembling either a blue median or a
Terraport.
    "Singularly unhelpful, that duty clerk," he
grumbled. His brother looked at him, surprise on his sharp-featured
face.
    "No, do you say so?" He, too, looked up and
down the busy thoroughfare. "Now, I think he told us everything we
needed to know, if only we apply--ah." He moved forward, stepping
off the curb, angling through traffic as if the rushing groundcars
were mere figments. Er Thom gasped, then ran after, eyes on his
brother's narrow, space-leathered back.
    He caught up on the far side of the street,
where Daav had paused before a public display-map of Venture Port
and near environs.
    "Down on the blue median," Daav murmured,
"and handy to Terraport." He frowned at the flat display, then
reached out and pushed the power-up button.
    The display flickered and rolled; colors
flashed; flat shapes expanded into three dimensions. The bright
pictographs of written Trade appeared last, putting names to this
or that building or wayfare.
    Daav laughed.
    "Here we are," he said, leaning forward and
laying his hand wide over a block limned in electric blue. "The
blue median, or I'll eat my leathers."
    Er Thom leaned forward, squinting at the
pictograph identifying a red-lined block just the north of Daav's
blue. "Terran Mercantile Association," he read, and Daav laughed
again.
    "Terraport." He turned his grin on Er Thom.
"Now, what was so difficult about that?"
    "He might have said 'near the Terran Trade
Hall,'" Er Thom pointed out, struggling to keep his lips straight
and his face serious.
    "Well," said Daav, with a final, calculating
stare at the map, "he might have done so. But then he would