Part 27 (2/2)
For a long minute they stood there in silence. Chandris found herself leaning into Hanan's side, feeling the warmth and strength and security of his presence. In some ways it reminded her of how things had once been with Trilling; and yet, in other ways, it was an entirely new experience. There was no s.e.xual content to the hug, none of the underlying current of predator ferocity that had seemed to saturate everything Trilling said or did. Hanan's touch was one of friends.h.i.+p; nothing more, nothing less. And it asked nothing more or less in return.
Which was only going to make it that much harder when she left.
She blinked back the tears from her eyes and straightened away from him. ”I'm all right,” she murmured. ”Thanks.”
Hanan dropped his hand away. ”It's not always a blessing having a perfect memory, is it?”
”It's not a blessing at all,” she said bitterly. ”It's a tool that's been useful in scoring. Nothing more.”
And speaking of tools... With a sigh, she reached for the wrench again- And from the gate behind them came the sudden clink of the latch.
Trilling! Chandris jumped, banging her head on the underside of the Gazelle, feet scrambling for traction as she came down. She spun around, hand darting to the tool tray for something-anything-she could use as a weapon. Grabbing a long screwdriver more by luck than design, she twisted to try and get around Hanan's bulk- It wasn't Trilling. It was Kosta, frozen like a startled animal halfway through the gate. ”Uh... h.e.l.lo,” he managed, eyes flicking to the screwdriver gripped in Chandris's hand and then back to her face. ”Have I come at a bad time?”
”No, no,” Hanan said cheerfully, his serious mood vanished without a trace. ”That was nothing to do with you. I told a bad joke and Chandris was taking exception to it. Come in, come in.”
Slowly, obviously not convinced, Kosta resumed his interrupted trip through the gate. ”Because if it's a bad time-”
”No, really,” Hanan waved him forward. ”Chandris, put that screwdriver down. What brings you out this way, Jereko? You need another ride out to Angelma.s.s?”
”I'm sure his credit line must be unsnarled by now,” Chandris put in before Kosta could answer, tossing the screwdriver back into the tool tray in disgust. Kosta, anytime, was an annoyance. Right now, he was a flat-out intrusion.
She looked back up in time to see a muscle in Kosta's cheek twitch. ”As it happens,” he said, ”it's not.”
”Odd,” Hanan frowned. ”I thought it was just some sort of clerical error.”
”So did I,” Kosta agreed. ”Apparently, it's something more complicated than that. What, exactly, I don't know. Director Podolak's still having trouble getting straight answers.”
They probably caught on to whatever track you're trying to score, Chandris thought with sour satisfaction. Now if only Hanan would wish him well and send him on his way...
”Well, we'll be going up again in two days,” Hanan offered. ”If you want to come along, you're certainly welcome.”
Kosta's eyes flicked to Chandris. ”I somehow doubt the invitation is unanimous. Anyway, for now there's not much point in my going up. I want to look for the kind of conditions the theory says ought to precede these radiation surges, but until my credit line gets unfrozen I can't get any new equipment.”
”Can't you do anything with your original experiment?” Hanan asked. ”Modify it somehow?”
”That's what I'm trying,” Kosta nodded. ”So far it's going pretty slowly.”
”Well, if you need any tools, you're welcome to use ours here,” Hanan said. ”Sorry that we can't offer you anything else, but hunters.h.i.+ps tend to run on a tight budget.”
”Oh, I understand,” Kosta a.s.sured him. ”And thank you for the offer. Actually, the main reason I came by was to see how you were doing.” He glanced again at Chandris, his eyes a little hard this time. ”For some reason, I've been having trouble getting hold of you by phone.”
”Oh?” Hanan asked, throwing Chandris a speculative look.
”We've been having problems with the Gazelle's phones,” she told him evenly. ”The system's been locking out some incoming calls. I've been working on it.”
”Ah.” Hanan held her gaze a moment longer, then turned back to Kosta. ”Sorry about that. However, as you can see, I'm pretty well recovered. Certainly enough for Ornina to put me back to work. You mentioned a theory in the works about these radiation surges?”
The cheek muscle twitched again. ”So they say. Dr. Qhahenlo thinks it's a self-focusing effect triggered by something falling into Angelma.s.s from one of the hunters.h.i.+ps. I'm not convinced, myself.”
”I don't recall you liking the Acchaa theory much, either,” Chandris put in. ”Are there any theories you like?”
He glared at her. ”Actually, I'm rather partial to the idea that the angels are a deliberate alien invasion,” he said tartly. ”Here to turn everyone in the Empyrean into something non-human.”
”Unfortunately, we don't need alien help to become less than human,” Hanan murmured, glancing at Chandris. ”Matter of fact, Chandris and I were just discussing that.”
Kosta looked back and forth between them, then shrugged. ”Anyway, I wrote the whole thing up-results, comments, and everybody's theories as to what happened. We'll see what kind of response I get.” He hesitated. ”Incidentally, I also discussed your trapped-alien theory with a couple of people. They said that the idea's been around for quite a while.”
”Old doesn't necessarily mean wrong,” Hanan pointed out. ”Did any of them actually refute it, or did they all just make the usual learnedly snide comments?”
”The latter, mostly,” Kosta conceded. ”One of them compared it to the ancient epicycle theory of planetary motion. Said it complicated matters without really explaining anything.”
”You agree with that?”
”I don't know,” Kosta admitted. ”That's the other reason I came by, actually; I wondered if you'd be willing to discuss it some more with me. When you're not so busy, of course,” he added hastily.
”I'm sure that would be fine,” Chandris put in, letting a little acid drip off her tone. ”Look us up in about six months. Eight, if we keep getting interrupted.”
Kosta reddened. ”I'm sorry,” he said, taking a step back toward the gate. ”I didn't mean to interrupt your work.”
”Oh, don't mind Chandris,” Hanan told him. ”Though if you've got the time, we actually could use an extra pair of hands. You interested?”
”Uh-” Kosta looked at Chandris, a wary look on his face. ”Well... sure. Sure, why not?”
”Good.” Hanan stepped away from Chandris's side. ”Why don't you give Chandris a hand with the connector replacements while I go inside and get the leak-checker warmed up.”
Without waiting for a reply he ducked under the Gazelle's hull and headed back toward the hatchway. Kosta looked at Chandris, seemed to brace himself. ”Okay,” he said, coming forward, his expression that of someone approaching a large dog. ”What can I do to help?”
”Absolutely nothing,” Chandris growled, turning her back on him. She reached into the access hatch and started uns.c.r.e.w.i.n.g the loosened connector. ”I mean that. You want to be helpful, go follow Hanan around. Better yet, go away.”
She felt him come up behind her. ”Look, I'm sorry you don't like me,” he said. ”I'm not exactly crazy about you, either, if you want to know the truth. But the fact of the matter is that Hanan and Ornina did me a big favor, and I'd like to try and pay them back a little. I don't know if you can understand that or not.”
Chandris clenched her teeth hard enough to hurt... but under the circ.u.mstances there wasn't a single nurking thing she could say to that. ”Give me one of those grommets,” she ordered.
They worked in silence for a few minutes; Chandris doing the real work, Kosta handing her tools and parts as requested. She had just finished tightening the last connector when the phone hanging on the tool tray's handle trilled. ”Chandris?” Hanan's voice called.
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