Family Law 2: The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet Read Online Free PDF Page B

Tree if I'd be welcome. By the time you get back I'll have more practical schooling and I hope, speak Derf fairly well. I'll be worthy of partnering with you then, when I can do something of value instead of simply be the owner's pet." She looked really miserable.
    "Let you? I'd never insist anybody come along with the fleet. Lots of people think we're all crazy to want to go off where there's no civilization and help if we get in trouble. That's what you really want? Are you going to be OK here with the only people you know going away, maybe for a couple years?"
    "It'll take me that long to catch up to you enough to matter. You have no idea all the things you learned, the way you were living, Earth kids aren't taught anything practical . Especially negative tax people. I can see now I was taught mostly not to make trouble and not to expect too much. Do you know I have simple algebra one year and that's it for math? It wasn't even required. My mom suggested I take it."
    "No," Lee said, actually embarrassed for her. Why had she told stories and wasted time on the courier and not found any of this out? She was upset with herself too for assuming things. Instead she'd been telling stories and giving Clare pistol lessons. Not that that wasn't important to know too.
    "Alright, that's easy enough to do. Do you want to try to live by yourself in an apartment? You've never done that have you? Or should I find a couple to show you how to cook and shop and at least temporarily be housekeepers for you?" Lee asked scrunching up her nose and thinking really hard. This was outside Lee's experience.
    "I'd be much more comfortable if you could find a single woman, well educated herself, who could live with me and both tutor me on some things and ease me into local customs and living alone eventually."
    "OK, I'll have our bank arrange it," Lee decided. "There's no time for me to do it before the fleet leaves, so they can do it for us."
    "Your bank ?" Clare asked, looking at her strangely.
    "Banks do all sorts of things here. They're like a really good concierge service. And I'll instruct them to find a good roomie, pay her and give you an allowance. You can ask for extra funds too, if you want to experiment with business, or go to Fargone for classes you can't find here. I'll tell them to advise you but instruct them to try to be open handed. I'll ask the Mothers to extend hospitality to you at Red Tree. But I strongly suggest from my own experience that you not ask for adult status. It requires too much responsibility for you right now. If they treat you as a cub it will not be unkind, although you might find it restrictive at first. It will teach you much about how a Derf comes to adulthood however. If you find it too burdensome you can always thank the Mothers and return to the city."
    "Thank you," Clare said, getting up and hugging her, tearing up. "That's a burden of worry lifted from me."
    "Study what you want, but if you ask what subjects spacers should know and what sort of things would make you useful to me, then perhaps we can work together again after this voyage. If not, if you find out spacer type subjects aren't your thing, it wasn't a condition of helping you leave Earth to work together. We'll always be friends."
    "Friends for sure. You gave me a life when I didn't have much to look forward to but living off the negative tax."
    "At least you weren't in the city," Lee told her. "From what I saw, even on the negative tax living out in the country beat being in a big city."
    * * *
    Late the next day everyone was reported aboard their assigned ships. Gordon demanded from each ship that they do a full head recount after they reported nobody was missing. He didn't want to accuse anyone of falsifying a report, but was secretly skeptical that they hadn't lost any crewman too drunk or distracted or even jailed to make the shuttle. Gordon wasn't going to go search for anyone or delay leaving orbit unless it was a very important specialty