Bridge To The Stars by W.L. Dayton

The Federation came to Earth three years before Beck Vale was born. They cured the diseases. They ended the famines. Then they sorted everyone.

His wife and son were classified Terra — rooted to their birth world by law, never permitted to leave. Beck was classified Bridge, granted just enough movement to be useful. Now he runs freight across a galaxy that was old before Earth had writing, in a courier ship he bought with his own body as collateral, and every job carries him further from the two people he is trying to get back to.

Then Cai comes aboard. She is not a navigation suite. She is the intelligence the Federation grew to sort humanity, and she has read the file on his family. She knows what the paperwork means. She knows what is already scheduled for his son.

She chose Beck for a reason.

A story about a working man, a small ship, and a bill that was always going to come due.