The Ship Who Won Read Online Free

tipped
    him a wicked wink. She was a woman of his own age with
    nut-brown hair cut close to her head and the milk-fair skin
    of the lifelong spacer of European descent. "Just kidding.
    Drink up, Keff. This ones on the house. It's good to see
    you."
    "Blessings on you and on this establishment, Mariad,
    and on your brewers, wherever they are," Keff said, and
    put his nose into the foam and slowly tipped his head back
    and the glass up. The mug was empty when he set it down.
    "Ahhhh. Same again, please."
    Cheers and applause erupted from the tables and Keff
    waved in acknowledgment that his feat had been witnessed. A couple of people gave him thumbs up before
    returning to their conversations and dart games.
    "You can always tell a light-year spacer by the way he
    refuels in port," said one man, coming forward to clasp
    Keffs hand. His thin, melancholy face was contorted into
    an odd smile.
    Keff stood up and slapped him on the back. "Baran Larrimer! I didn't know you and Shelby were within a million
    light years of here."
    An old friend, Larrimer was half of a brain/brawn team
    assigned to the Central Worlds defense fleet. Keff suddenly remembered Simeon s briefing about naval support.
    Larrimer must have known exactly what Keff had been
    told. The older brawn gave him a tired grimace and nodded at the questioning expression on his face.
    "Got to keep our eyes open," he said simply.
    "And you are not keeping yours open," said a voice. A
    tiny arm slipped around Keffs waist and squeezed. He
    glanced down into a small, heart-shaped face. "Good to see
    you, Keff."
    "Susa Gren!" Keff lifted the young woman clean off the
    ground in a sweeping hug and set her down for a huge kiss,
    which she returned with interest. "So you and Marliban
    are here, too?"
    "Courier duty for a trading contingent," Susa said in a
    low voice, her dark eyes crinkling wryly at the corners. She
    tilted her head toward a group of hooded aliens sitting isolated around a table in the comer. "Hoping to sell Simeon
    a load of protector/detectors. They plain forgot that Marls
    a brain and could hear every word. The things they said in
    front of him! Which he quite rightly passed straight on to
    Simeon, so, dear me, didn't they have a hard time bargain—
    ing their wares. I'd half a mind to tell CenCom that those
    idiots can find their own way home if they won't show a
    brainship more respect. But," she sighed, "it's paying
    work."
    Marl had only been in service for two-no, it was three
    years now-and was still too far down in debt to Central
    Worlds for his shell and education to refuse assignments,
    especially ones that paid as well as first-class courier work.
    Susa owed megacredits, too. She had made herself responsible for the debts of her parents, who had borrowed
    heavily to make an independent go of it on a mining world,
    and had failed. Fortunately not fatally, but the disaster had
    left them with only a subsistence allowance. Keff liked the
    spunky young woman, admired her drive and wit, her
    springy step and dainty, attractive figure. The two of them
    had always had an affinity which Carialle had duly noted,
    commenting a trifle bluntly that the ideal playmate for a
    brawn was another brawn. Few others could understand
    the dedication a brawn had for his brainship nor match the
    lifelong relationship.
    "Susa," he said suddenly. "Do you have some time? Can
    you sit and talk for a while?"
    Her eyes twinkled as if she had read his mind. "I've
    nothing to do and nowhere to go. Marl and I have liberty
    until those drones want to go home. Buy me a drink?"
    Larrimer stood up, tactfully ignoring the increasing aura
    of intimacy between the other two brawns. He slapped his
    credit chit down on the bar and beckoned to Mariad.
    "Come by if you have a moment, Keff," he said. "Shelby
    would be glad to see you."
    "I will," Keff said, absently swatting a palm toward
    Larrimers hand, which caught his in a firm clasp. "Safe
    going."
    He and Susa sat down together in a