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have no trouble at all, but
Jenise Rorvik wouldn't even try, and Lisele couldn't blame her much. Jenise
was hurting enough already, with her bad wrist healing from an attempt at
corrective surgery. Maybe the plastic-laminate "bones" would restore movement
and maybe not; Lisele was sure that Trent and Jeremy Crowfoot had done their
best, but would it be good enough?
Another who avoided the Tsa was Anders Kobolak. Bewildered and resentful of
his sister's death, the
Second Hat took to his quarters and would see no one but his wife, Alina.
Normally a temperate man, he stayed drunk for three days; then, a day later,
he joined a group in the galley. Rissa said, "Are you better now, Anders?"
Looking well, Lisele thought, for a man just done with a binge, he nodded. "It
needed some time, Rissa-for me to understand why it had to happen. But Ivan
saw no choice, and Dacia wanted to be with him." Now he smiled, sort of. "I
heard the tape this morning. The last thing he said was, he loved her."
After one meeting with Tsa, Tregare came back to the
Deux and said, "I was talking with the young one; Elzh said I could. He's a
cute little blob."
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"Not a he," said Lisele. "Or a she, either, or even a something I don't quite
understand. Not yet. But Ceevt will be-all of them, if I have it right."
Tregare shook his head. "Well-whatever works."
Acting as go-betweens, the humans negotiated a firm agreement that Tsa and
Shrakken would stay clear of each others' worlds. Only then did Tregare
announce that both species would be given the FTL drive. "To spread word of
the truce, as soon as possible." Actually the Shrakken had one ship fully
converted to Hoyfarul specs, and now that Elzh no longer barred the way, that
ship lifted from Shtegel port, to take word-and the specs-to Stenevo.
Also from Shtegel, where the Shrakken had their main labs and fabrication
facilities, came components needed to repair
Inconnu Deux and Elzh's two crippled ships, and modify those latter for FTL.
The Shrakken had two other ships, but one was under repair and the other in
process of FTL conversion, so that left the scoutship to do all the ferrying.
Sometimes Tregare flew it, and sometimes Rissa, when she wasn't busy getting
reacquainted with baby
Renalle. Lisele nagged until she was let to fly it in trajectory, later to do
liftoff, and finally to land the thing. The landing wasn't the best she'd ever
experienced, but she looked defiantly at her mother. "I
told you I could do it.
And next time I'll do it better." Rissa only shrugged. But the next chance
they gave her, three trips later, Lisele made the promise good; she set the
scout down, level-solid, with hardly a jar. And Rissa said, "Congratulations,
Lisele. You do seem to have the makings of a good pilot."
Told you so!
Then they all carried several loads of Shrakken-made electronic components
over and up into
Inconnu Deux.
What with all the things that needed doing, Lisele hadn't been on the ship
much, yet. Now, sweating after effort, she stopped off at the galley for a
coo! drink of fruit juice. What she got was the squeezings from local berries;
it tasted good, though.
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Looking for a place to sit, she met Arlen Limmer. She'd seen him at a distance
once or twice, since he came out of freeze, but never to talk with. Now she
looked at the tall, dark young man-not as tall, of course, as she recalled
him-and said, "Hi, Arlen. Remember me? Come and sit down a minute."
With one eyebrow cocked, he looked at her. "You have to be Lisele. Aren't you?
But you're older. I-"
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She laughed. "You froze your butt while I didn't, is all. Come on; let's
talk."
"Sure." They sat; while Arlen ate, she sipped juice. He said, "You and
Tregare, all of you, you really walked halfway around this planet? I heard you
did." He grinned at her. "Hey, that must have been a real adventure. Lots of
excitement, I'll bet."
"You could say that. It wasn't halfway around, though. More like a fourth, I
think."
He shrugged. "It's still quite a way. Say-I notice your mother doesn't have
long hair now. Why'd she cut it?"
Almost, Lisele smelled swamp mud; she felt the urge to scratch a scalp itch
she didn't really have.
"Oh, it got to be too much bother."
"Yes, sure." Finished with eating, Arlen sipped his coffee. "Y'know, the other
day I had a chance to talk with a Tsa. What I can't see is why everybody
thought they were such monsters."
Lisele looked at him. "Didn't they attack you in the
Deux, when it lifted from Shaarbant?"
"I guess they did. I hadn't time to feel much of anything, though, before zap
-I was in freeze. Your uncle Ivan-"
She felt uncomfortable. "My uncle Ivan did the best he could. He didn't freeze
you on purpose, I
understand, but-" Her turn to shrug. "Believe me, you were a lot safer that
way."
"I guess you're right." He leaned forward. "Hey, Lisele- how old are you now?
Bio-years, I
mean?"
She wasn't certain. "Fifteen, maybe." She was stretching it, probably, but if
he didn't know the difference... and he was still eighteen, of course. She
felt herself frowning. "Why did you ask that?"
His cheeks reddened. "Well, you used to say-
you know. And now you're not a kid. I thought maybe we could go walk up the
river a way, where we could be by ourselves a little while, and-"
She shook her head. "Not now. There's a conference in about an hour, some
people who haven't met with Tsa yet, and Elzh needs me to sit in. So I'm
flying an aircar over with them, and-"
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He laughed. "Oh, come on, Lisele. They don't need you.
Tregare can handle it, he and Rissa. So why don't we-?"
"If Elzh says he needs me, he needs me."
Arlen grinned again. "All right. Why don't we take our walk tonight, then?
That'd be even better, wouldn't it?"
Now she thought she understood. He wanted sex with her.
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Well, she could, if she chose; she was old enough. Just in case, maybe she
should get a contraceptive implant from Rissa; it couldn't harm. And then, how
many days was it, before the implant "took"? She didn't remember. It hardly
mattered yet, though, because she didn't know
Arlen well enough to want to be lovers with him. And he didn't know her,
either, or what she'd done and survived, and what it meant to her.
He waited for her answer; she said, "Let's just get acquainted for a while,
Arlen. Talking, like we are now."
"Well, all right; sure." He looked a little disappointed, she thought. But now
it was time for her to leave, so she did.
Arlen was a nice kid, but he sure had a lot of growing up to do.
XXVIII.
Elzh
Watching humans board aircar,
Elzh mindsaid gratitude to Lisele, the human young who would control it.
Meeting with new humans, changing them to not-
mindbeasts, had held danger. But Lisele had said, "Elzh? When the mindspeak
starts to turn harsh, send them pleasure."
More, that young said, for his better understanding. A new thought, never
tried with mindbeasts, but Elzh mindspoke Tserln and Idsath for gathering and
aid, and they three agreed: to learn, as always. As correct, as understood.
At later, Lisele sent the three Tsa pleasure. "It worked, didn't it? I could
feel you doing it, every time anyone got edgy. And it worked."
Into aircar now, Lisele, and the small construct rose with no jarring and
little sounding of air. Until a ridge came between, Elzh watched its leaving.
Much thought, Elzh had.
To follow two Tsa ships sent ahead. To mindsay the changes
Elzh knew, so no need to attack mindbeast worlds. But long and
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long, to reunite with those two ships. If only Elzh could ride the ship that
had come from nothing! For now he understood that coming; the Tregare human
had told how the ship outpaced its own radiation, as no Tsa ship could ever [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]