“I’m Meta, pilot of this ship. And you must be-”
“Jason dinAlt. That was a lousy takeoff, Meta.”
“I’m really very sorry,” she laughed. “But being born on a two-C planet makes you a little immune to acceleration. I save fuel too, with the synergy curve-”
Kerk gave a noncommittal grunt. “Come along, Meta, we’ll take a look at the cargo. Some of the new stuff will plug the gaps in the perimeter.”
“Oh, yes,” she said, almost clapping her hands with happiness. “I read the specs, they’re simpiy wonderful.”
Like a schoolgirl with a new dress. Or a box of cqndy. That’s a great attitlAde to have toward bombs and flamethrowers. Jason smiled wryly at the thought as he groaned off the couch. The two Pyrrans had gone and he pulled himself painfully through the door after them.
It took him a long time to find his way to the hold. The ship was big and apparently empty of crew. Jason finally found a man sleeping in one of the brightly lit cabins. He recognized him as the driver who had turned the car over to them on Cassylia. The man, who had been sleeping soundly a moment before, opened his eyes as soon as Jason drifted into the room. He was wide awake.
“How do I get to the cargo hold?” Jason asked.
The other told him, closed his eyes and went instantly back to sleep before Jason could even say thanks.
In the hold, Kerk and Meta had opened some of the crates and were chortling with joy over their lethal contents. Meta, a pressure cannister in her arms, turned to Jason as he came through the door.
“Just look at this,” she said. “This powder in here-why you can eat it like dirt, with less harm. Yet it is instantly deadly to all forms of vegetable life… .” She stopped suddenly as she realized Jason didn’t share her extreme pleasure. “I’m sorry. Only I forgot for a moment there that you weren’t a Pyrran. So you don’t really understand, do you?”
Before he could answer, the PA speaker called her name.
“Jump time,” she said. “Come with me to the bridge while I do the equations. We can talk there. I know so little about any place except Pyrrus that I have a million questions to ask.”
Jason followed her to the bridge where she relieved the duty officer and began taking readings for the jump setting. She looked out of place among the machines, a sturdy but supple figure in a simple, onepiece shipsuit. Yet there was no denying the efficiency with which she went about her job.
“Meta, aren’t you a little young to be the pilot of an interstellar ship?”
“Am I?” She thought for a second. “I really don’t know how old pilots are supposed to be. I have been piloting for about three years now and I’m almost twenty. Is that younger than usual?”
Jason opened his mouth-then laughed. “I suppose that all depends on what planet you’re from. Some places you would have trouble getting licensed. But I’ll bet things are different on Pyrrus. By their standards you must rank as an old lady.”
“Now you’re making a joke,” Meta said serenely as she fed a figure into the calculator. “I’ve seen old ladies on some planets. They are wrin
Med and have grey hair. I don’t know how old they are, I asked one but she wouldn’t tell me her age. But I’m sure they must be older than anyone on Pyrrus, no one looks like that there.”
“I don’t mean old that way.” Jason groped for the right word. “Not old-but grown-up, mature. An adult.”
“Everyone is grown-up,” she answered. “At least soon after they leave the wards. And they do that when they’re six. My first child is grown-up, and the second one would be too, only he’s dead. So I surely must be.” That seemed to settle the question for her, though Jason’s thoughts jumped with the alien concepts and background, inherent behind her words.
Meta punched in the last setting, and the course tape began to chunk out of the case. She turned her attention back to Jason. “I’m glad you’re aboard this trip, though I am sorry you are going to Pyrrus. But we’ll have lots of time to talk and there are so many things I want to find out. About other planets. And why people go around acting the way they do. Not at all like home where you know why people are doing things all the time.” She frowned over the tape for a moment, then turned her attention back to Jason. “What is your home planet like?”