Vorgens closed his eyes, momentarily, he thought, but when he opened them again, the girl was gone and Sittas was standing alone by his cot.
“What time is it?” the Star Watchman asked.
The priest smiled. “Past midday. You have been unconscious all night and morning.”
‘”What are you grinning at?”
“Your Terran training. Only a Terran would awake from many hours of unconsciousness and ask what time of day it is.”
Vorgens propped himself up on an elbow. “Time is getting to be important …”
“How do you feel?” the priest asked.
“Not bad. My head hurts a bit. How seriously was I hit?”
“You took a strong bolt from a sonic gun. I have no way of knowing how seriously the shock might have affected your nervous system.”
“There’s one way to find out,” Vorgens said. He pushed himself up to a sitting position, and with Sittas’ help got to his feet. “A little wobbly,” he said, walking slowly across the tent with die old man at his elbow, “but I think I’m all right.”
“You should try to eat,” the priest said, gesturing to a tray of food on the small table in the middle of the tent.
Vorgens nodded. “How about the other two? Did they gpt away safely?”
Tes,” Sittas answered. He hesitated for a moment, then said, “Perhaps it is not proper for me to ask, but I do not understand how they escaped successfully and you did not.”
Vorgens sat down on a stool, next to the table.
“I didn’t want to escape,” the Watchman said.
Sittas’ mouth formed an unspoken why?
“It was necessary for someone to get back to the Mobile Force and warn Brigadier Aikens of the odds he’s facing,” Vorgens explained. “Mclntyre can do that. Giradaux is better off with the sergeant than here. But I have a mission to carry out—a mission that calls for me to see Okatar Kang. You said he would not see an ordinary officer, only someone of high rank or great righting ability.”