All Cats are Gray by Andre Norton — Read

Steena of the spaceways -- that sounds just like a corny title for one of the Stellar-Vedo spreads. I ought to know, I've tried my hand at writing enough of them. Only this Steena was no glamour babe. She was as colorless as a Lunar plant -- even the hair netted down to her skull had a sort of grayish cast and I never saw her but once draped in anything but a shapeless and baggy gray spaceall.

Steena was strictly background stuff and that is where she mostly spent her free hours -- in the smelly smoky background corners of any stellar-port dive frequented by free spacers. If you really looked for her you could spot her -- just sitting there listening to the talk -- listening and remembering. She didn't open her own mouth often. But when she did spacers had learned to listen. And the lucky few who heard her rare spoken words -- these will never forget Steena.