Part 63 (2/2)

”You mean how can we afford not to keep you on,” Hanan said firmly. ”Face it, Chandris, you're part of the team now.”

”We wouldn't know what to do without you, dear,” Ornina added gently.

”I wouldn't know what to do without you, either,” Chandris confessed in a low voice. ”But if there isn't any work-”

”There'll be plenty of work,” Hanan insisted. ”s.h.i.+pping, transport, tourist rides-we'll find something.”

”Actually, I don't think you'll have to worry about that,” Kosta spoke up. ”Forsythe strikes me as the persuasive type; and if he talks the High Senate into dumping the angels, they're going to need people like you for the job.”

”What do you mean, people like us?” Ornina asked, frowning.

”Well, you can't just drop them in front of Angelma.s.s like a row of s.p.a.ce pops and expect it to gobble them up,” Kosta pointed out. ”All the outward radiation pressure will be pus.h.i.+ng them away, especially if Angelma.s.s is smart enough to figure out what's going on. They'll have to be basically force-fed down its throat.”

”And the only s.h.i.+ps that can get close enough to do that will be hunters.h.i.+ps,” Hanan said, his face brightening. ”How wonderfully convenient.”

”Don't get too excited about it,” Kosta warned. ”You won't be heroes any more, creating a better world for the ordinary people of the Empyrean. You'll be busily taking that better world away for reasons half the people won't believe in the first place.”

”We all do what we have to,” Ornina said quietly. ”Besides, we didn't go into this business to be heroes.”

”No,” Kosta agreed. ”I guess for some people it just happens that way.” He stood up. ”I'd better get back to the Inst.i.tute and start working up a nicely threatening letter to send to Lorelei.”

”We'll see you later?” Chandris asked.

Kosta reached out and took her hand. He'd always rather been afraid of Chandris, he realized suddenly. For that matter, he'd always rather been afraid of all women. Part of his general social inept.i.tude, he'd always thought, and had cursed the awkwardness and nagging fears of youth.

But that was before he'd faced death, out there at Angelma.s.s, and suddenly all the fears of saying or doing the wrong thing had become utterly trivial. Maybe that had matured him. Maybe he had finally grown up.

”Sure,” he told her. ”Count on it.”

Or maybe, the thought whispered through his mind, it was only the angels.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

Timothy Zahn is the author of more than a dozen original science fiction novels, including the Cobra and very popular Blackcollar series. He has had many short works published in the major SF magazines, including ”Cascade Point,” which won the Hugo Award for best novella in 1983. He is also author of the bestselling Star Wars trilogy Heir to the Empire, among other works. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Copyright 2001 by Timothy Zahn ISBN: 0-312-87828-1.

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