One's Aspect to the Sun Read Online Free PDF Page A

had made him uneasy. “I haven't had many other offers.”
    I wasn't surprised. Kiando was a long run—three wormhole skips with long insystem stretches between—and there wasn't much passenger traffic direct from Earth to the Cassiopeias. I mentioned Hirin, hoping to put the alien more at ease, and his face broke into a smile, the wrinkles in his skin thinning and flattening.
    “My good friend Hirin Paixon! He is family?”
    “He is family,” I agreed. “He may be making the trip with us, so you can speak with him again if you like.”
    “But his health! Is it wise?” The doctor seemed truly concerned, which made me like him despite his initial weirdness. Maybe it was just an alien thing.
    I shrugged. “It is—irrelevant,” I said finally. “He wishes it.”
    The doctor nodded his head sagely, and we turned the conversation back to business. Rei waved silently to me and left the room.
    When we had completed our conversation and terminated the connection, I sat back from the screen. Dr. Ndasa's words rang in my head. Is it wise? I smiled. No, it was not wise, but wisdom had not been a notably guiding principle of our lives together. It was too late to start taking much notice of it now.
     

     
    Chapter Three
Shortcuts and Long Moments
     
     
     
     
     
    I was busy following up cargo tenders an hour later when Yuskeya hailed me over the ship's comm.
    “Captain?”
    “Right here, Yuskeya.”
    “Do you have a minute? I have the wormhole data. I think you'll want to see it.”
    “I'm on my way.” I went to the galley first and fixed myself a double caff. My eyes felt bleary after staring at cargo manifests for too long, trying to decide which were the most advantageous offers. If we made the skip to Kiando our first priority, which I wanted to do, it didn't leave much leeway for arranging other stops. The trip to Mu Cassiopeia involved skipping through three wormholes, taking us through the MI 2 Eridani and Beta Hydri systems. I could take on cargo for Mars, the planet Eri in MI 2 and either Vele or Vileyra in Beta Hydri, but that was as far as I wanted to stretch it for cargo hauling. Any more stops would add too much time, and the mysterious female scientist on Kiando could leave long before we got there. It had to be a balancing act.
    I sighed and breathed the caff's enticing fragrance in deeply, the mug warm in my hands. Was she my mother? Was there really much chance, or was I still hanging on to a groundless hope that I'd been chasing for thirty years now?
    Our life had been fairly normal, as far as I could remember, up until the time I was nine. Mother was a scientist and worked for PrimeCorp. I knew she worked on anti-aging research, but that was all I understood. She talked to me sometimes about how someday we'd live forever, would have probably found a way long before then if it hadn't been for the Chron War and then the Retrogression, but hell, I was nine, how closely did I listen? I went to school, I had friends. I was happy.
    One day my mother came home from work and took Father into the study. They had a long, low-voiced conversation that lasted until my little brother Lanar finally pounded on the door and demanded some supper. They didn't say much when they came out, although they both looked grave. The next morning we woke to find our entire apartment packed up to move, and we left on a far trader before noon. There wasn't much in the way of explanation, only that this was “the way it had to be” and that it was for our safety. A succession of travels, moves, and midnight getaways continued until I turned fourteen.
    That's when Mother said she couldn't keep putting all of us in danger and that she'd have to “go away” for a while. They fought about it, she and Father, but in the end there came a morning when she just wasn't there. For a while we received sporadic, untraceable messages, saying she loved us. Then—nothing. Father never believed that anything bad had happened to her, and