Barbary Read Online Free PDF Page A

coward, or, perhaps
worse, uninterested in her new home.
    She had the feeling that she had thrown away Jeanne’s
proffered friendship, and that Jeanne seldom had time to give anyone a second
chance.
    She put the fears out of her mind. She had an important
task.
    She took off her jacket, and found herself spinning free.
    Gently, she reminded herself. Move gently.
    Clutching her jacket, she kicked toward the wall and grabbed
the netting that would form her bed. One-handed, she inched across the tiny
room till she reached its small folding table. Nearby hung a couple of loops.
She stuck her feet in them. Feeling more solid, she pulled the table out flat.
It had straps and a net and a couple of snaps. She laid her jacket inside-out
on the table, jury-rigged a harness over it, and unfastened the top of the
secret pocket.
    She reached inside. Her heart beat fast. She thought she had
felt motion, but now she was not sure. Her fingers brushed a silky softness,
textured in tabby stripes.
    She drew Mickey from the secret pocket. She felt his warmth
through his smooth fur. She lifted him and held him to her, pressing her ear
against his side, but she could hear only her own pounding heart.
    Mickey batted his soft paw against her cheek as he reached
out sleepily for a curl of her hair. She lowered him long enough to see him
blink his yellow eyes and bristle his long white whiskers in a slow cat yawn.
    She buried her face against the tabby cat’s side and burst
into tears of relief.
    o0o
    Heading toward the research station, Outrigger accelerated. The slow increase in velocity left the passengers with a vague
feeling of where “down” was, but so little weight that they might as well have
been in zero g. Barbary hovered in her cabin, holding Mickey in her arms.
Except for the table, the furniture in the cabin consisted of D-rings, straps,
and nets fastened to the wall. Nobody sat in chairs in zero g, because chairs
were uncomfortable. Without gravity or a harness to draw one’s body against the
shape of the chair, a person had to consciously hold their body in the right
position. It was tiring and eventually painful, especially to the stomach
muscles. Barbary found it easy — and much more comfortable than the softest
chair — to float, completely relaxed. She drifted in the direction of “down.”
She could either hover along the floor, barely touching it, like a fish resting
on the bottom of the ocean, or she could push off into the air. If she wanted
to nap and not move around too much, she could tether herself to the wall.
    She stroked Mickey’s side. He lay quiet. He would be awake
soon, but he would be groggy for at least a couple of hours. She knew that by
now, for she had watched him awaken from the sleeping drug twice before, the
two times she had carried him back from the spaceport after she had been bumped
off her reserved seat.
    She had only expected to have to make him go to sleep once
or twice. She was worried about the effects of all the sedatives on the small
cat.
    If they’d let us on board the first time, Barbary thought,
this would all be over. We’d already be on the research station. I wouldn’t
have had to drug him so often. And I wouldn’t have had to run away that last
time to get another pill.
    She shifted her position angrily and abruptly. The reaction
sent her tumbling across the room. She rebounded from the wall. She held Mick
close with one arm and flailed around with the other, but nothing was in reach.
She was annoyed, but she made herself relax and wait till she had drifted to
the floor. She stood. Even that took caution. A step was as good as a leap. She
pushed off with one toe and floated.
    “We’re in space, Mick,” she said. She stroked him. “It’s
pretty weird at first, but you get used to it. It’s kind of fun. Are you all
right?” She wondered how he would react to zero g. She hoped it would not scare
him.
    She stroked him again. It was a good feeling. His
cinnamon-colored stripes