Barbary is a 1986 science fiction novel written by Vonda McIntyre about an orphan and her cat moving to a space station.

The novel opens with her waiting in a spaceport for a seat on a shuttle to Earth orbit, which will be the first step on a journey to the research space station Einstein, where she is to live with her new foster father, Yoshi, a poet and college friend of her mother's.

Heather agrees to help her keep Mickey hidden and fed while showing her around her new home and taking her on a trip outside the station in a vehicle called a "sled."

Barbary asks Heather if she knows any private places on the station where Mickey can move about more freely so he won't be bored.

In the meantime, Thea has been constructing a telescope instrument in the family's quarters which is to be put on a sled and sent toward the alien craft, which has finally made a course change to bring it near Einstein and has sent transmissions in many human languages.

It is mentioned that Barbary has never eaten beef and has almost been caught up in riots, that she has only ever seen animals like cows in zoos, that few people in cities keep pets any more, and that travel into the wilderness requires difficult-to-obtain permits.