Robert Asprin – Tambu

“I’m not going anywhere,” Ramona soothed, drawing her legs up under her. “Take your time and start anywhere.”

“Well,” he sighed. “For openers, look at this.”

He extended a hand at chest height, fingers spread loosely.

Ramona peered at it, but saw nothing unusual. She shot a cautious glance at him and found him frowning at his hand.

“That’s funny,” he mused to himself. “A while ago, it was shaking like a leaf. I couldn’t stop it.”

“I know,” Ramona nodded.

“I’ve seen it before,” she explained. “When you were sleeping. Sometimes you’d lie there shaking all over. I always thought it was fatigue from pushing yourself so hard. You know how sometimes I nag you about getting more sleep? Well, that’s why. I get really worried about you.”

“I get worried about me, too,” Tambu acknowledged. “But it goes a lot deeper than fatigue. It’s the main reason I’m quitting.”

He paused again. Ramona waited.

“I’m tired, love,” he said softly. “Not just physically, get-some-sleep tired, I mean tired all the way through. I’m tired of making decisions, tired of giving orders, tired of speaking out, tired of not speaking out… tired of being Tambu.”

“I’d say you’ve got a problem,” Ramona observed with mock judiciousness. “I mean, when Tambu gets tired of being Tambu, where does that leave the fleet?”

“I’ll let you in on a deep, dark secret, Ramona,” Tambu announced wearily. “Perhaps the most closely guarded secret in the fleet.”

He looked over both shoulders with melodramatic suspicion, then leaned forward to whisper in her ear.