"In here, sir--" Dane found himself being led to a house on the right.
"Are you in Trade--?"
He suppressed a start, shedding his uniform tunic had not done much in
the way of disguise. It would be nice, he thought a little bitterly, if
he could flash an I-S badge now to completely confuse the issue. But he
answered with the partial truth and did not enlarge.
"Yes--"
The boy was flushed with excitement. "I'm trying for Trade Service
Medic," he confided. "Passed the Directive exam last month. But I still
have to go up for Prelim psycho--"
Dane had a flash of memory. Not too many months before not the Prelim
psycho, but the big machine at the Assignment Center had decided his own
future arbitrarily, fitting him into the crew of the Solar Queen as the
ship where _his_ abilities, knowledge and potentialities could best work
to the good of the Service. At the time he had resented, had even been
slightly ashamed of being relegated to a Free Trading spacer while Artur
Sands and other classmates from the Pool had walked off with Company
assignments. Now he knew that he would not trade the smallest and most
rusty bolt from the solar Queen for the newest scout ship in I-S or
Combine registry.
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