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He bit his tongue against an angry retort. Chessie had been impounded and Janina was upset as it was. He knew too well what she was feeling to yell at her now, even if he hadn’t wanted something from her.

“I had to try to find you,” he said in a rush. “I thought maybe you’d let me help you take care of Chester and his mom.”

“Your timing isn’t very good,” she said. “Is your mother with you?”

“No,” Jubal admitted. “My father brought me to the station. He was trying to help me get in touch with you. But something happened to him and he didn’t board before we took off.”

“It’s all kind of pointless now, isn’t it?” she said glumly. “You heard what happened to Chester?”

“Some of it. I want to talk to you about it. Is there somewhere in Galipolis we can meet in person?”

“There’s a fountain in the center of the city,” Beulah offered. “It’s famous. Anyone can direct you to it.”

“That will do,” Janina said, but seemed uncertain.

“Look, if you want to, you can bring a friend. This is Sosi,” he said, pulling the girl forward. “She’s Captain Loloma’s daughter. They just took her cat Hadley. She’s, uh, she’s the CP on the Ranzo. She’s coming too.”

He looked at Sosi, half expecting that she would ruin it by disagreeing since it wasn’t her idea, but she nodded gravely. She still hoped there was something they could do, even if she didn’t quite believe it.

“I will speak to Captain Vesey and the others,” Janina promised.

As soon as the Ranzo’s crew was cleared to disembark, with Captain Loloma’s permission, he and Sosi set out for the fountain. It was a good thing Sosi was with him, because she’d been to Galipolis several times before and was used to its size, its crowded marketplaces, its glittering shop windows and crowded walkways, the artificial light the people needed during the day because the ground was so overshadowed by the air traffic.

Although six space stations serviced the planet, the dirtside port was still a favorite destination for space travelers.

Sosi pointed out the fountain from five blocks away, as tall as many of the surrounding buildings. Its central geyser shot into the air so high it threatened to wash the underside of the lowest-flying shuttlecraft, then the waters cascaded down the central structure, tumbling from one shining precipice to the next. Smaller geysers danced and glittered around it.

Janina and three crewmates, one woman and two men, looked tiny beside the massive fountain. All of them still wore their ship-suits, as did he and Sosi.

Jubal gave them a short wave as he and Sosi approached. Janina’s crewmates wore sad expressions that turned hard when they saw him. He said, “This is Sosi. Her ship’s cat Hadley was impounded too.” The other crew members—the slender sandy-haired woman, the tall white-haired and bearded man, and the shorter red-haired man—regarded his shipmate with more sympathetic expressions.

“What did you need from Janina, son?” the white-haired man asked.

Jubal hesitated, gulped, and cleared his throat. He wanted to talk to her alone about Chester, but for the rest of his plan, he figured they’d need all the allies they could get. He decided to start with that part. “I couldn’t say this on the com,” he said, “but I think this whole thing with taking our cats and other animals stinks and we need to do something. I have an idea. I was hoping you would all know other people who would help too.”

He explained his plan, and to his surprise the adults all seemed to think it was a reasonable thing to do and agreed to help. When they’d talked it over a little, Janina gave him the information about Chester, her voice threatening to break when she described how it had happened. Janina’s crewmates seemed a lot more sympathetic now than over the com screen at the vet clinic when they’d made him let Chester go.

He didn’t know what to make of what she’d told him about Chester and the derelict. He chewed on it as he and Sosi headed back toward the ship. Her mood had improved a lot since the meeting, and she pulled him toward the