Galaxy Blues Read Free

of internal waste-removal systems; for that, I’d taken the precaution of not eating or drinking for two hours before I went on duty.
    From the thigh pocket of my discarded suit, I pulled out a pair of faux-leather boots. I put them on, then stood erect and checked my appearance in the glass window of the inner hatch. What I saw pleased me: a young guy in his early twenties, well dressed and obviously wealthy, but otherwise inconspicuous. Not an immigrant or a tradesman, but rather the sort of person who’d have enough money to spend on a vacation to the new world. No one would guess that I was a former Union Astronautica officer desperate enough to escape from Earth to stow away aboard a starship with little more than the clothes on my back.
    Yet I was more than what I wore. Once again, I patted the inside pocket of my jacket. The documents I’d need to prove my identity were there, along with L 2,000 that I had converted into colonial dollars— C 1,200 at the current rate of exchange—at the Banque Americano branch on Highgate just two days ago. These things would come in handy once I reached my destination.
    At the moment, I was a stowaway. Very soon, though, I’d play the role of a passenger…and once I set foot on Coyote, I’d become a defector.
    IV
    Four bells through the loudspeaker, followed sixty seconds later by a vibration passing through the floor, told me that the Lee had activated its differential drive. The ship was now on the way to rendezvous with Starbridge Earth.
    A quick glance through the hatch window to make sure I was alone, then I turned the wheel counterclockwise. Beyond the airlock lay an EVA ready room, its walls lined with suit lockers. I found one that was empty and shoved my suit inside, then eased open the door and peered out.
    I was on Deck One, the ship’s lowest level, about one-third of the way back from the bow. The central passageway was deserted, yet I knew that it was only a matter of minutes before the captain called an end to GQ and the crew would be able to move about freely. Closing the hatch behind me, I moved quickly down the narrow corridor, heading toward the bow.
    From either side of me, I heard voices from behind the closed doors of various compartments. If an encounter was unavoidable, I was prepared to play stupid: whoops, silly me…you mean this isn’t the way to the lounge? Yet I didn’t run into any crew members before I found the ladder leading to Deck Two. A quick jog up the steps, and from there it was a short walk down another passageway until I reached the hatch to the passenger section.
    I peeked through the window. No one in sight. I took a moment to straighten my cravat and run my fingers through my hair, then I grasped the wheel. The hatch opened with a faint sigh as I stepped out into the narrow alcove leading to the restrooms. The signs above the doors showed that they were all unoccupied. I quietly opened the door of the nearest one, shut it just loudly enough to be heard, and then commenced down the center aisle.
    Before it was seized by the Coyote Federation during Parson’s Rebellion—an incident that was something of a coda to the Revolution—the Robert E. Lee belonged to the European Alliance, where it’d been known as the EASS Francis Drake . Once it was rechristened and became the flagship of Coyote’s fledgling navy, the vessel had undergone a major refit that allowed it to serve as the principal means of transportation from Earth to the new world. Although most of Earth’s major governments had signed trade and immigration agreements with the Coyote Federation, the easiest way to get to 47 Ursae Majoris was to buy passage aboard the Lee . Tickets were cheaper, tariffs were lower, and—provided that one possessed the proper credentials—the customs hassles were fewer.
    When I arrived on Highgate ten months ago, I didn’t have a ticket, nor did I possess a tourist visa.