“Colville,” Ran said as he straightened up in bed. Who knew that he was—
“Ran,” Wanda Holly said in a tone that melded humor with the grating seriousness of the words, “you need to get back aboard the Empress ASAP. We’ll be making an early departure from Nevasa. Parliament has just declared war on Grantholm.”
“Right, I’m on my way,” said Ran. His mouth was open to say more, but Wanda broke the connection at the other end.
He put the handset on its cradle and looked at Susan. She had tossed the bedclothes back. Her body was supple and flawless. “It’s war, so we’re undocking early,” he said. “I’ve got to get to the ship soonest.”
He swung his legs out of bed. Pain slashed through his shoulders and the sheets of muscle over his ribs. He gasped involuntarily and tucked his elbows in close for a moment.
Susan touched his back. Her fingers were warm.
“It’s okay,” Ran explained. “I—haven’t had that particular sort of exercise in about ten years, God be praised.”
She looked startled. Ran laughed. “Oh, not that exercise,” he said. “I meant earlier last night, the . . . the trouble.”
The spasm passed and he stood up.
“I . . .” Susan said. Her tongue touched her lips. Her nipples were small and very pale. “I hadn’t been with anyone in three months. Since Tom was transferred to the consulate at Bu Dop on the other side of the planet But you seemed to need me as much as I . . . ?”
Ran leaned over and kissed her. He reached gently between her thighs. Her labia were swollen. “Umm,” he said. “You’re going to be bruised, m’dear.”
They hadn’t slept much. Every time he started to doze off, Susan had hugged him to her again; and he’d responded. He didn’t know that was really what she’d wanted, but it was what he had to give, and give again.
“And he laughs, the brute!” she said chuckling. Then, in a neutral tone, she voiced the first question to cross his mind when he heard Wanda speak. “How did she know where you were? The woman who called?”
“I should’ve clipped my commo unit to a phone when I took it off,” Ran said. He’d pulled on his trousers and shirt, but he waited a moment before he dealt with his boots. “I didn’t, but they could still locate it from the Empress. Bridge, that’s the AI, must have dug the telephone address of the location out of the local system’s records.”
The marquee support had trailed a line of bloodspots across the sleeves and front of his tunic. The white fabric filtered the blood as it wicked through. Each spot had dried as a black center in a reddish ring, with a pale brown margin surrounding the lot. Ran put the garment on anyway.
“I’ll be leaving Nevasa City in two days,” Susan said from the bed. “There was a commercial attache slot open in Bu Dop. I put in for a transfer to be with my husband.”
Ran finished sealing his boots. Momentary twinges suggested that he’d broken a rib, but he was sure it was just muscle strain. He didn’t say anything.
“I—don’t suppose,” Susan said, “that your ship will be returning to Nevasa anyway, because of the war?”
Ran put on his commo unit. He knelt on the bed to kiss the blond woman again. “Not during the war, no,” he said as he held her. “Trident probably should have chosen an alternative port even for this run, but nobody really expects a crisis to get worse yet.”
He stood up again. He didn’t remember ever having seen a more perfect body than hers, and he’d seen a few . . . .
“After the war, whenever that is,” he said, “you’ll know when the Empress docks. And what you do then is your business.”
He made his way out of the apartment alone. Susan lay on the bed, her eyes empty.
* * *
The sky-stabbing departure horn of the Empress of Earth sounded its three notes for the second time as the taxi dropped Ran Colville at the gangplank. It had been a quiet drive. Debris from the vast assemblages of the previous night lay over many of the streets, but the mobs themselves had dispersed.