Babel-17 Read Online Free PDF Page B

"Captain Wong?"
    She nodded.
    "Better not mess with you, then." He laughed. "Come on. Captain, and I'll buy you and Customs here something to make you happy.'' They pushed their way to the bar.
    What was green and came in small glasses at the more respectable establishments here was served in mugs.
    "Who you betting on in the Dragon-Brass skirmish, and if you say the Dragon, I'll throw this in your face. Joking, of course. Captain."
    "I'm not betting," Rydra said. "I'm hiring. You know Brass?"
    "Was a navigator on his last trip. Got in a week ago."
    "You're friendly for the same reason he's wrestling?"
    "You might say that."
    The Customs Officer scratched his collarbone and looked puzzled.
    "Last trip Brass made went bust," Rydra explained to him. "The crew is out of work. Brass is on exhibit tonight." She turned again to the Navigator. "Will there be many captains bidding for him?"
    He put his tongue just under his upper lip, squinted one eye and dropped his head. He shrugged.
    "I'm the only one you've run into?"
    A nod, a large swallow of liquor.
    "What's your name?"
    "Calli, Navigator-Two."
    "Where are your One and Three?"
    "Three's over there somewhere getting drunk. One was a sweet girl named Cathy O'Higgins - She's dead." He finished the drink and reached over for another one.
    "My treat," Rydra said. "Why's she dead?"
    "Ran into Invaders. Only people who ain't dead, Brass, me and Three, and our Eye. Lost the whole platoon, our Slug. Damn good Slug too. Captain, that was a bad trip. The Eye, he cracked up without the Ear and Nose. They'd been discorporate for ten years together. Ron, Cathy and me, we'd only been tripled for a couple of months. But even so . . ."He shook his head. "It's bad."
    "Call your Three over," Rydra said.
    "Why?"
    "I'm looking for a full crew."
    Calli wrinkled his forehead. "We don't got no One anymore."
    "You're going to mope around here forever? Go to the Morgue."
    Calli humphed. "You gonna see my Three, you come on."
    Rydra shrugged in acquiescence, and the Customs Officer followed behind them.
    "Hey, stupid, swing around."
    The kid who turned on the bar stool was maybe nineteen. The Customs Officer thought of a snarl of metal bands. Calli was a large, comfortable man—
    "Captain Wong, this is Ron, best Three to come out of the Solar System."
    —But Ron was small, thin, with uncannily sharp muscular definition: pectorals like scored metal plates beneath drawn wax skin; stomach like ridged hosing, arms like braided cables. Even the facial muscles stood at the back of the jaw and jammed against the separate columns of his neck. He was unkempt and towheaded and sapphire eyed, but the only cosmetic surgery evident was the bright rose growing on his shoulder. He flung out a quick smile and touched his forehead with a forefinger in salute. His nails were nub-gnawed on fingers like knotted lengths of white rope.
    "Captain Wong is looking for a crew."
    Ron shifted on the stool, raising his head a little; every other muscle in his body moved too. like snakes under milk,
    The Customs Officer saw Rydra's eyes widen. Not understanding her reaction, he ignored it.
    "Don't got no One,'* Ron said. His smile was quick and sad again.
    "Suppose I found a One for you?"
    The Navigators looked at each other.
    Calli turned to Rydra and rubbed the side of his nose with his thumb." 'You know the thing about a triple like us—"
    Rydra's left hand caught her right. "Like this, you have to be. My choice is subject to your approval, of course."
    "Well, it's pretty difficult for someone else—"
    "It's impossible. But it's your choice. I just make suggestions. But my suggestions are damn good ones. What do you say?"
    Calli's thumb moved from his nose to his earlobe. He shrugged. "You can't make an offer much better than that."
    Rydra looked at Ron.
    The kid put one foot up on the stool, hugged his knee, and peered across his patella. "I say, let's see who you suggest."
    She nodded. "Fair."
    "You know, jobs for broken