Robert Asprin – Tambu

“Before I agree, what was the other condition to your staying with us, Rosalyn?”

“Oh, that.” Roz grimaced. “It’s nothing really. Your agreeing to be captain was the big one. My second point was that I think we should all take new names.”

“Oh, come on, Roz!” Abuzar exploded.

“Hold on a minute, Abuzar,” Eisner said. “Why do you think that’s necessary, Roz?”

“I don’t know about you other space bums, but I’ve still got family out there. I’m not too wild about dragging their name into the crazy things I’m going to be doing, and I sure don’t want some pirate tracking them down to get back at me. Besides, up until now we’ve all got pretty clean records. On the off chance that someday we want to quit what we’re doing and go back to leading normal lives, it wouldn’t hurt to have a ‘clean’ name to go back to. Whether the rest of you want to go along with this or not, I’m going to use a different name for my new career. From now on, I want the rest of you to get used to calling me ‘Whitey.’ “

“Whitey?” Eisner raised his eyebrows.

“That’s right.” She grinned. “All my life I’ve wanted someone to call me that. I guess this is as good a time as any to get it going.”

“Whitey.” Eisner repeated, shaking his head. “All right, what do you two think about the whole idea?”

“Puck” Nikki said thoughtfully.

“What was that again?” Eisner frowned.

“I said Tuck,’ ” Nikki repeated. “That’s what my dad always called me. It’s the name of some cutesy-poo character in an old play. I always hated that name, but I like the idea of a feared pirate hunter called Tuck.’ “