It took all three humans to herd eight wriggling `Dinis out of the main Tower entrance. They were still reeling with laughter until they reached the outer gates when suddenly all eight assumed the usual dignified postures of `Dinis of reasonably high rank.
Laria Prime?
The summons must have been repeated on gradually increasing levels of urgency before Laria woke, unable in her sleepiness to identify the caller.
who? She was surprised as well as slightly annoyed to have a deep slumber broken into.
Kincaid. I apologize but I am rested sufficiently now to make an extremely important and top secret report to Earth Prime. There was a hesitation that Laria interpreted as both embarrassment and necessity.
I am unable right now to make so long a `path and ask for your assistance.
What he did not say, and which alerted Laria as nothing else could have, was the fact that the secrecy of the communication was crucial.
None of the Tower staff must know of the `portation, the generator must not be used.
Kincaid might say he was sufficiently rested but Laria knew by the edge on the words he spoke that he was by no means as rested as he would like her to believe.
I’ll collect you on my way to the Tower, she said, and slipped into the loose, light, long robe that most of the humans living on Clarf preferred.
He was standing at his closed door, still wearing the ship suit he had arrived in although he was bare-footed.
She nodded approval and led the way. It was four in Clarffs morning and the floor under their bare feet was almost cool. She took the stairs two at a time and realized that he did so, too. Another nice change from Clarissia who had been prim to the point of the worst excess of methody. Laria pointed to the couch which, she also noted, they would have to lengthen to fit his frame comfortably but he sank onto it now without a murmur.
Have you merged often enough to be comfortable with the procedure?
she asked. There was a great deal she would need to learn about this man before they did many `portations.
More with other T-2s and T-3s than with a Prime .
It’s as well you’re still too tired to resist then, she said and firmly took control. Deep inside, she wondered again what the navy had been doing to the man to reduce him to this level of nearly total mental and physical exhaustion. Then she caught edges of anxieties, deep loss and disillusionments. So he’d had a rough emotional time on the Strongbow as well as overwork. Despite that, the merge was as easy as slipping a hand into a perfectly fitting glove. More to admire in the man.
Laria id merge to Earth Prime, urgent.
I’m here and I’ve been expecting Kincaid’s contact, Laria.
Just support him, will you?
That was surprise enough for Laria and she immediately assumed the secondary position of the merge, deft enough with all the practice she’d had with her parents at Aurigae Tower, bolstering the strength of the merge.
I had my orders, as you know, sir, but there were other ways in which I was asked to assist the squadron and since there was no specific limitation, I used my own judgement when the matter was presented to me.
Properly done, Kincaid. Proceed.
Laria tried to keep herself from tensing: this sounded suspiciously like what had happened to her brother; no specific orders against an action which had disastrous consequences. Judging by what she had empathed of personal distress, even Kincaid’s maturity and a wider scope of experience had not prevented a trauma with which he was trying to cope.
I was asked to send the new designed plastic probes to those M-5
planets which we were passing when at a fesible distance for my ability. Captains Steve rice and Hsiang were most anxious to establish some reason for such by-passes. The first had once – and Kincaid paused significantly – been occupied by hivers for the colony ship was in orbit and sufficient of the now identifiable Hive buildings and agricultural workings were visible – though the world did not show the same concentration of effort that was visible on the Xh-33. No activity was observed during the forty-el;ght-hour parabolic surveillance. The second world examined was completely devoid of life or vegetation but there was a ring of debris which both Captains Steve rice and Hsiang decided was similar to the one observed by Squadron B.