Free STAR HOUNDS -- OMNIBUS by David Bischoff, Saul Garnell

remaining ten months of the contract expire without close proximity to the lieutenant.”
    “Marriage, yes, of course,” Laura said, smiling despite herself. “My brother and I … we watched ancient films about marriage. Cal found the most bizarre books. It is a very funny state, marriage.”
    “I wish I could have convinced Kat Mizel of that. We’ve had more conflict in this boat the past two months than the Federation Fleet experienced when the Jaxdrons invaded! The captain, for all he swears, is just not suited for even temporary matrimonial bliss.”
    “Then the rumors are true. The rite still exists on some of the more barbaric colony worlds, I thought the tales in the tabloids were manufactured. Are you married, Dansen Jitt?”
    “I will admit to a few wives on various worlds, yes. But you mentioned a brother. I didn’t know you Feddies had brothers and sisters. I thought they just stirred up some zygotes in a womb vat, added salt to flavor, and disgorged children into the maw of society.”
    Laura could not help but smile mischievously. “The government goofed. We found out, you see. We love each other. We have sworn loyalty to one another.”
    “The Feddy Friends must not approve of that,” Dansen Jitt commented.
    “There’s nothing they can do. They need us.”
    “Right. Blip-ship pilot. Marvelous. I’ve never met one. You seem reasonably normal. Is that what your brother does as well?”
    “No.”
    Dansen Jitt, unfrightened, proved conversationally convivial. Twenty minutes later, though Laura had learned little about the
Starbow
beyond the fact that it was an independent vessel plying its mercenary and piratical trade on the rim of Federation space, she did find out much about Dansen Jitt—he seemed to adore talking about himself, and he did so wittily and fluently. As though the speech was practiced, thought Laura, and Jitt was eager for an audience.
    The state of being human had always been a confusing experience since the dawn of consciousness, Laura knew. But life in the thirty-first century Old Dating System, 734.34 in the N.D.S., was particularly vexing because of shadowy areas developing between the “human” and “nonhuman.” Indeed, on certain worlds one could opt out of the dilemma totally by literally transforming to the alien. Xenoforming the process was called, and it was a development created more than five hundred years before when colonists seeking a planet to make their own learned that it was much less hassle and infinitely less expensive to genetically engineer themselves to an environment instead of terraforming a non-Earth-standard planet.
    Dansen Jitt was born on a planet in the Antares sector, a world called Changeit in Neogalactic. His colony was one of the first to adopt xenoforming, adapting to fit to the ecology of a world rich with a different chemical structure from Earth standard. However, after thousands of humans had adjusted, something cataclysmic happened to their sensibilities. It was voted, through their democratic government, to change back to Earth Human Standard and travel the course of terraforming. The transition, though costly and difficult, was a success, and Changeit became one of the most successful new worlds, rich in everything. But its inhabitants were somehow different for their double change; tradition said the Changed had seen something in their New Reality that so terrorized them that their choice was either to return to their previous state or destroy themselves. As a result, their descendants owned unusual near-psychic talents … and tended toward a constant state of low-level fear and paranoia.
    Dansen Jitt had been the son of a merchant. Early in his life he had discovered his knack for accuracy in statistical odds—without the benefit of actual hard statistics. The facts, he told Laura, would pop into his head at the most erratic moments. He found that he could use this “talent” to his best advantage in the casinos of the Anarchy