Stardogs Read Online Free PDF Page A

teenager. She attempted to jolly him out of his rebellion. “But you like furry creatures, Juan. Why, I bet you’ve got Ratty in your shirt right now.”
    Juan blushed fierily, his olive skin darkening. She always did this to him, with her soft curves and soft voice. He’d had rather detailed fantasies about her, before he’d found out she was actually sleeping with his father . Now he was torn three ways, loyalty to his mother, jealousy of his father, and guilt at his own fantasies. “His name is Rat, not Ratty. ”
    He stormed off, ignoring his father’s demand that he come and apologize. He couldn’t go that far. One couldn’t in the 17 square yards of apartment. Of course, his father, as chief docking controller, was entitled to more, but with his political ambitions he wouldn’t take any more than the minimum. Juan’s own five square yard cubicle was supposedly soundproofed. But that didn’t mean that even through the headphones of his comp-unit he couldn’t hear his father’s angry voice.
    Not even the drama he’d Hack-patched into (restricted access, no four to twenty-one) could hold his attention. His eyes drifted from the screen to the various hanging models suspended from the ceiling. The Denaari barge. The Gloria Mundi . An Imperial Chi fighter. A troop-lander. They should come down. None of his friends had kids’ stuff like this in their cubes any more. Somehow he never got around to it. The models stayed, symbols of happier times when his parents had kept the disintegration of their marriage from him. He clicked comp access off. Went out.
    “I’m going,” he said sourly to his father, before the man could get a word out edgeways. “But I’m not going to namby-pamby Youth. I’m going to go and see Mother.”
    Even as he walked off down the accessway Juan knew it would be a waste of time. He’d said it to hurt his father more than anything else. She wouldn’t be in her new 6.5 square yards of singles apartment. She’d still be in the electronics-lab, peering through a microscope at a circuit. She’d talk to him, sure. But half her mind would still be with her work. He flicked on to the slideway going to low-g. He’d go and mooch around the ball-courts instead. He wouldn’t mind a game, but he didn’t have his racquet or kit, and anyway Rat couldn’t be relied on to stay in his locker.
    He was frustrated and angry. He didn’t realize that uncertainty about his return time, and the emotional tensions he’d stirred, had left his father and his father’s girl-friend just as frustrated. Possibly, if he had known he would perhaps have chosen a better time for that silly revengeful practical joke with a tube of superglue from his mother’s lab. She’d brought it for him to fix the piece of Gloria he’d broken off by accident the day before the terminal argument.
    The glue had been the final item that had brought the disintegration of his parents’ relationship to an open quarrel. It had led to her abrupt departure, and to Betty’s too sudden appearance. The memory of the glue brought up the idea. He’d like to stick the old man’s mouth shut so he’d stop carping… Of course he wouldn’t actually do something like that, but false teeth…
    Which is why the next morning Juan’s father’s roar of rage was through clenched teeth. “That’s it! That is final. You’re not going to Illuria station.”
    Juan stopped laughing. “You can’t. You promised!”
    “You’re too irresponsible and childish to go. I’m sorry, but you’ve brought this on yourself. If…”
    “I will go. You can’t stop me.” The boy stormed back into his cubicle. He sat there angrily on the fold-bed, staring at the forest-scenes on the picture-wall without seeing them. His father could stop him. Travel between stations was mind bogglingly expensive. The stationers managed it with a sort of Quid pro quo with the League. Favors for favors. His father, as Docking Controller, had a lot of leverage. He’d