Free A Princess of the Aerie by John Barnes Page A

stooped to talk to him, Jak noted how deep, wise, and kind the Captain’s eyes seemed to be,
     and tried not to note the faint whiff of gin and citrus.
    The Captain cleared his throat. “So you three were CUPVs on this mission.”
    “Yes, sir,” Jak said, since the Captain was looking at him.
    “And that was as part of something you were doing for the PSA, I understand?”
    “Yes, sir,” Dujuv said, for the Captain had moved down the line.
    “And the PSA is the Public Service Academy, is it not?”
    “Yes, sir.” Myx managed not to sound puzzled or surprised, and Jak silently gave her points for that, since he wasn’t sure
     he could have managed.
    “Well,” the Captain said, after a very long pause and stepping back to look them all over, “the Public Service Academy is
     a very fine thing. It encourages public service. I hope that all you young people will seriously consider going into public
     service.”
    He wandered on up the line; a few seconds after he was out of Jak’s peripheral vision, the techny who had been the last in
     the little party of ship’s officers said, “Rest position, CUPVs, and keep it neat.”
    After a very long time, during which there was plenty of time to meditate on the ever-softer and more distant drone of the
     Captain’s voice talking to each of the higher ranks, the Senior Techny shouted ‘Captain going out,’ and Jak and his toves
     went back to salute position. Jak had read somewhere that the salute originated a thousand years ago in the old Martian Empire,
     as a signal of submission, indicating that you were willing to cooperate in either your own torture or your own execution.
    Jak spent some no-time mentally in Disciplines meditation before the Senior Techny shouted, “Per Captain’s instructions, you
     are dismissed.” Muster Deck A rang with a sustained cheer and the three toves were nearly bowled over by an extremely orderly
     flying stampede. In the docking body, grav was less than one percent of standard, and airswimming was fast and easy. The crewies,
     officers and enlisted alike, all moved fast and stayed close but gave way to the person on the right or of higher rank, so
     quickly and neatly that there was hardly any turbulence or drag to the flow of thousands of bodies; they went through the
     big main doors like water swirling down a drain.
    Since Jak and his toves were somewhere below a toaster in rank, they were quickly swept to the back of the flow by the tremendous
     tide of precedence, but the overall flow was so swift that still it was less than three minutes before they made their last
     touch on the gangplank and bounced into the receiving area to claim their luggage—civilian once more.

C HAPTER 5
Weird-bad
    D ujuv asked, “Well, now what? Do we just take the gripliner out to Greenworld, go to the Royal Palace, knock on the door, and
     say ‘Hi, we happened to be in the neighborhood?’ ”
    Myxenna wrapped her bags in a cargo tow and grabbed the sling. “I suppose it would be politer to call first. There must be
     some public access terminals around someplace? Speck you shouldn’t call direct on your purse, Jak, security and all that.”
    They airswam down a long shopping corridor that appeared to be mostly duty-free liquor stores; Myxenna airswam close to Jak
     and whispered, “I know somebody who will be shopping here soon.”
    Jak made a little raspberry and snickered. “Yeah, I was wondering if anyone else noticed.”
    “I suppose the job must be mostly ceremonial, in peacetime.”
    They found a Pertrans stop before they found public access terminals. “Well, they’ll have them for sure at the gripliner station,”
     Jak pointed out. “Let’s just go there.”
    The docking body of the Aerie was less than a fifth the size of the Hive, and because it did not have a black hole enclosure
     at its center, routes could be much more direct. The Pertrans whisked them right across the big metal sphere to Station Eight,
     where