Barbary Read Online Free PDF

had a different texture from his black fur. He had
white paw tips and a white chest. He was only half-grown — he had been a kitten
when she found him. If Barbary had been forced to wait for next month’s
transport, Mickey would have grown too big to hide in the secret pocket. She
had no idea what she would have done then.
    She smoothed his whiskers and scratched him under the chin,
his favorite spot. He licked her hand, two quick warm scratchy touches, and she
laughed with relief. He was going to be all right.
    o0o
    Mickey adapted much faster than Barbary to the almost
nonexistent gravity. Acceleration, she reminded herself, not really gravity.
But, after all, Albert Einstein himself showed that the two were
indistinguishable.
    Perhaps Mick did so well because, being a cat, he knew he
was a superior sort of creature. The first time he tried to run, he left the
floor at the first stride like a cartoon cat, running along in place with his
feet touching nothing. The second time, he jumped and sailed. He found it
unsurprising that he could suddenly, without warning, fly.
    Barbary had one piece of sleeping pill left for him. She
would have to use it in three days to make him lie quiet when she took him from Outrigger to the research station. She had some food for him. She even
had some cat litter, but it would spill all over if he dug in it in such low
gravity.
    Back on earth, when they lived in an apartment, Mick had
learned to use the same toilet people used. A lot of cats learned how to do
that. The toilet in the tiny bathroom was a weird vacuum arrangement, but
Barbary thought Mick would understand that it was the same thing, and that he
would use it if the vacuum did not frighten him too much. Luckily, not very
many things frightened Mick.
    Otherwise I might have to get diapers for him, she thought,
and could not help giggling. But the problem was too serious to keep her
laughing for long.
    If he kept quiet and no one barged into Barbary’s room, she
might get away with smuggling him onto the science station. But if the room
started smelling bad, someone would notice. Then they would be sunk.
    Mickey bounced from the floor to the table, landing softly
and holding himself there by hooking his claws into the net. He gave one paw a
couple of licks, blinked, and drew his legs against his body. That left him
drifting just above the table, as if he had suddenly learned how to levitate.
He closed his eyes. Usually he curled up to sleep, with one paw over his nose.
If he had had a tail he would have wrapped it around his front paws, but he was
a Manx cat so he had no tail.
    Barbary wondered if curling up in zero g was as hard for a
cat as sitting in a chair was for a human being.
    She stroked Mick, and he started to purr.
    “That’s right,” she said. “You take it easy. You have a nap
and be very quiet and I’ll go try to find us something to eat.”
    She waited until the purring stopped. Normally he slept
lightly. Barbary hoped he would only wake for a moment when she left and then
go back to sleep, not get curious and try to follow her.
    Cracking open the door, Barbary peered into the empty,
color-striped corridor. She slipped out. The door had neither a lock nor a Do
Not Disturb sign. There was no help for that. She would arouse suspicions if
she spent the whole trip in her room. The authorities might decide she was
space-sick and therefore unable to live on the research station. Then they
would send her back to earth. If she acted normal and stayed out of the way,
probably no one would even notice her.
    She had to find a dining hall. The cat food hidden in her
baggage would only last a little while. She wanted to save it for emergencies.
    And, if she was honest with herself, she was dying to see
the rest of the ship, particularly Jeanne’s observation deck.
    o0o
    In the corridors of the ship, most of the colored
stripes lay on the surface that was “down,” and the ringlike handholds hung
from the surface that had