`Don’t worry about my feelings, Gravy.’ She gave him a very direct look. `You may think you’re fooling others, and you are, actually, since you’re so good at what you do, but I happen to know you’re not as old, despite that sexy silver streak of yours, as you’d want others to think you are.
Especially when you’re teaching,’ and she grinned at him, to take the sting from her message, `you sound exactly like our Professional Ethics prof, so stuffy and precise… Of course, speaking `Dini makes you be precise or you garble everything…’ `Gravy, you’re hedging, he said, not prying but recognizing a delaying tactic.
`Partly because I think the rumour’s so stupid,’ she said with some heat, and then rushed on to say, `but there’s some think you’re a glory-grabber.’ `what?’ Thian laughed in surprise, more relieved than he could ever let Gravy realize. He couldn’t imagine how anyone could have overheard his interview with the captain, or known of the special preservation list, but if that was what Gravy had heard, such orders were already compromised.
`They seem to think that you’ll reach out with your Talent and somehow do what the Fleet ought to be doing.’ Thian laughed more heartily then. `Gravy, that’s not very likely. Not to mention impossible.’ `But you Talents did that at Deneb. Twice!’ `Talents, plural, Gravy. In fact every Talent available down to kids of ten and twelve. Not singular, me, with a dozen minor Talents to assist.
There’s no way I could or would grab any glory. `Sides which, I do know my limitations. Heroism is not indicated.’ She gave a sniff.
`Heroes happen. Generally,’ and now she grinned rakishly at him, `when it’s not indicated.’ Then her expression altered to earnestness.
`However wrong the thinking is, it’s there and it’s not good.
Folks are odd. I mean, here you got a lot of `em home for shore leave – even if it got cancelled – and you’d think they’d be at least grateful. But no, they’re out to find something … something…’ `negative?’ Thian suggested, knowing exactly what people could find to disparage the Talented.
`That’ll do,’ she said. Then, in a rush of empathy, she put her hand on his arm. `You’re a nice guy, Thian, and I’ll do what I can to offset the flat. D’you want me to report it to Ashiant?’ `Only if you have something specific that has an adverse effect on morale as a whole,’ he managed to say, more distracted by the warm hand on his arm, and her very feminine presence, the delicate floral taste of her, than he thought possible.
She caught his response, though, because he was lax in reining in his thoughts, because he hadn’t felt the need to shield in Gravy’s company, and because he was missing the company of Mur and Dip.
`Sometimes it’s better to squash a rumour as flat as possible especially right now when we might be heading into action,’ she said, keeping her hand on his arm so that he couldn’t help but `read’ her which, he also realized, was exactly her intention.
Her very expressive eyes confirmed it.
`I thought,’ he began in a sort of daze, `that’s when rumours would multiply, a sort of combat-readiness reaction.’ `Hmmm,’ she said, leaning into him, clearly no longer interested in the previous subject of conversation. `D’you know where I got my nickname?’ she asked.
Thian rather thought he did but he hedged in a sudden fit of shyness. He had had that dream involving her, and he’d dreamed long enough with `Dinis to know that there were true ones.
`Can we get to your cabin without being seen?’ she asked him, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. He was suddenly deluged by intense sensuality which he was unable, and unwilling, to deflect. Her smile challenged him to seize the moment.
`Yes, ma’am.’ And grasping her in his arms, he `ported them neatly on to the floor space beside his bunk. But he had slightly misjudged their mass and, off balance, they tilted on to his bunk. That took care of his residual reserve.
Thian had never truly appreciated the company of an empath such as Alison-Anne Greevy and he didn’t care where she acquired her nickname.