Pat Murphy.
There and Back Again.
Tor. 1999
Bailey was heading home in his steam-powered rocket
when he found a message pod.
It was only by luck that he spotted it,
disabled and drifting in an eccentric orbit
around a large M-type asteroid.
Strange to find a message pod so far from interstellar trade routes,
drifting through the Asteroid Belt around Old Sol.
Bailey picked up the message pod,
and notified its owners that he had it.
And that was the beginning of the adventure.
The next thing he knew, the legendary Gitana,
adventurer extraordinaire, was arriving at Bailey’s asteroid home,
and then he was on a starship, heading
for the center of the galaxy!