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dirt, they have to sit through a lecture on local behavior and pass a test before they’re allowed down, so most don’t bother. Those orbital stations are Federation run and have everything you can think of, but Faraway, being so far out, is a little on the rough side, just like the planet it orbits. If they didn’t need it for a change-of-trains stop, the planet Faraway would have to get along with shuttles and freighters the way other young planets do. A planet doesn’t get an orbital station until its rate of advancement earns it one.”
    The black eyes watching me grew briefly annoyed at the statement of fact I’d made, then became amused.
    “I’ve discovered that anything worthwhile has to be earned,” he commented with a faint grin while I took my attention briefly away from him. When I looked up again he was standing right over me, the faint grin widened. “I’ve never minded having to earn things, Diana, and I’ve always managed to earn whatever it was I really wanted.”
    “And what is it you really want this time, Val?” I asked, for some reason feeling uncomfortable as I looked up at him. The control room was too bright for me to miss seeing any part of his expression, and the amusement he showed in both face and eyes was completely unexplained.
    “This time I really want to be partners with a female who spent twelve years proving what she can do,”
    he said, leaning down suddenly to lift me out of the pilot’s seat. “I don’t think it will take me nearly as long to prove what I can do.”
    “Not many assignments are given out on the basis of that sort of expertise,” I pointed out, as I moved in protest against the arms holding me. “If you’re thinking about trying to match me, Val, don’t waste your time. And put me down. I haven’t done any loosening up yet this morning.”
    “Don’t you think it’s about time someone did try to match you?” he asked, looking less amused as he held me without the least effort. “There’s a saying among my people that points up the lack of crowding in the highest positions.”
    “It’s lonely at the top,” I quoted without thinking, then immediately regretted saying something that mindless. “Lonely and rough, or possibly lonely because not too many people can hack it. If you’re tired enough of living and want to give it a stab, why should I care?”
    “That’s right,” he agreed very quietly, for some reason watching me as he finally put me down. “Why should you care?”

    I turned away from him without adding anything to the conversation, then remembered the exercising I hadn’t done. I wasn’t really in the mood any longer, but went to take care of it anyway. In the past I’d cared about my partners, but only in so far as the job was concerned; what they did outside that particular frame of reference was strictly their business, and absolutely none of mine. If Val wanted to get himself killed the way so many others had, why should l care? It was his life, wasn’t it? I stood still in the middle of the exercise area for a minute, suddenly less than pleased at being so close to home, then said to hell with it and got on with the exercising. Val was nothing but another partner, so why would I care what he did?
    “How many times did you say you’ve done this sort of thing?” Val asked from the co-pilot’s seat, his eyes glued to the screens. “What happens if you miss the opening”
    “I’ve done it at least twice, and if I miss the opening the ship will crash and explode,” I muttered in answer, paying more attention to what I was doing than to Val’s hysterics. Commercial liners send shuttles to all orbital stations to pick up and deliver passengers, but small private ships rarely have shuttles to send. With a ship the size of ours it was necessary to dock the ship itself, and that docking was done tail first.
    Just then I was edging us closer and closer to the huge globe that was Faraway Orbital Station, aiming for the