“Fetch Mr. Graf’s bag, will you, Tony?” said Van Atta. “Come on, Leo, I’ll show you your quarters, and then we can do the grand tour.”

Leo followed his floating guide into the indicated cross-corridor, glancing back over his shoulder in renewed amazement as Tony launched himself accurately across the chamber and swung through the shuttle hatch.

“That’s,” Leo swallowed, “that’s the most extraordinary birth defect I’ve ever seen. Somebody had a stroke of genius, to find him a job in free fall. He’d be a cripple, downside.”

“Birth defect.” Van Atta’s grin had grown twisted. “Yeah, that’s one way of describing it. I wish you could have seen the look on your face, when he popped up like that. I congratulate you on your self-control. I about puked when I first saw one, and I was prepared. You get used to the little chimps pretty quick, though.”

“There’s more than one?”

Van Atta opened and closed his hands in a counting gesture. “An even one-thousand. The first generation of GalacTech’s new super-workers. The name of the game, Leo, is bioengineering. And I intend to win.”

Tony, with Leo’s valise clutched in his lower right hand, swooped between Leo and Van Atta in the cylindrical corridor and braked to a halt in front of them with three deft touches on the passing handgrips.

“Mr. Van Atta, can I introduce Mr. Graf to somebody on the way to Visitor’s Wing? It won’t be much out of the way—Hydroponics.”

Van Atta’s lips pursed, then arranged themselves in a kindly smile. “Why not? Hydroponics is on the itinerary for this afternoon anyway.”

“Thank you, sir,” cried Tony, and darted off with enthusiasm to open the air safety seal before them at the end of the corridor, and linger to close it again behind them on the other side.

Leo fastened his attention on his surroundings, as a less-rude alternative to surreptitiously studying the boy.