all
cats
are
gray
by … Andrew North
Under normal conditions a wholeperson has a decided advantageover a handicapped one. But outin deep space the normal may bereversed—for humans at any rate.
Steena of the spaceways—thatsounds just like a corny titlefor one of the Stellar-Vedo spreads.I ought to know, I’ve tried my handat writing enough of them. Onlythis Steena was no glamour babe. Shewas as colorless as a Lunar plant—eventhe hair netted down to herskull had a sort of grayish cast andI never saw her but once draped inanything but a shapeless and baggygray space-all.
Steena was strictly backgroundstuff and that is where she mostlyspent her free hours—in the smellysmoky background corners of anystellar-port dive frequented by freespacers. If you really looked for heryou could spot her—just sittingthere listening to the talk—listeningand remembering. She didn’t openher own mouth often. But whenshe did spacers had learned to listen.And the lucky few who heard herrare spoken words—these will neverforget Steena.
She drifted from port to port.Being an expert operator on thebig calculators she found jobswherever she cared to stay for atime. And she came to be somethinglike the master-minded machinesshe tended—smooth, gray, withoutmuch personality of her own.
But it was Steena who told BubNelson about the Jovan moon-rites—andher warning saved Bub’s lifesix months later. It was Steena whoidentified the piece of stone KeeneClark was passing around a tableone night, rightly calling it unworkedSlitite. That started a rushwhich made ten fortunes overnightfor men who were down to theirlast jets. And, last of all, she crackedthe case of the Empress of Mars.
All the boys who had profited byher queer store of knowledge andher photographic memory tried atone time or another to balance thescales. But she wouldn’t take somuch as a cup of Canal water attheir expense, let alone the creditsthey tried to push on her. Bub Nelsonwas the only one who gotaround her refusal. It was he whobrought her Bat.
About a year after the Jovan affairhe walked into the Free Fall onenight and dumped Bat down onher table. Bat looked at Steena andgrowled. She looked calmly back athim and nodded once. From thenon they traveled together—the thingray woman and the big gray tom-cat.Bat learned to know the insideof more stellar bars than even mostspacers visit in their lifetimes. Hedeveloped a liking for Vernal juice,drank it neat and quick, right out ofa glass. And he was always at homeon any table where Steena electedto drop him.
This is really the story of Steena,Bat, Cliff Moran and the Empressof Mars, a story which is already alegend of the spaceways. And it’s adamn good story too. I ought toknow, having framed the first versionof it myself.
For I was there, right in the RigelRoyal, when it all began on thenight th