Part 24 (1/2)

With some resentment, Damia dampened down her emotional outpouring.

'I suppose you arrived with an appet.i.te like a mule,' she said with some resignation.

Larak's expression was a study of innocent hurt.

'I'm a growing boy, and while you're out courting, Afra's getting overworked, leaner and hungrier.

Damia looked guiltily at Afra.

'You do look tired,' she said with concern. 'Let's all push over to the house and have dinner. Larak, why are you here?' 'Oh, Dad wants Afra to pinch-hit on Procyon. Those two Ts who're buffering Guzman are down with one of the local viruses and traffic is backing up. You know we have to jolly Guzzle along but he hasn't much stamina these days.

He's complained that I'm too young for such responsibility,' and Larak's grin was pure malice. 'Say, what's this alien s.h.i.+p of yours like? Crew or full automation for a void trek?' Hand poised over the cooking dials, Damia hesitated.

She regarded her brother with a blank expression.

'Oh, you men are all alike. Details, details!' 'Details like that may bore you, sister heart, but they fascinate me. But if you want to continue on the abstract level, let me catch such mundane details for myself.' 'You can't reach that far.' To Afra her tone was protective as well as defensive.

'Let me hop a ride with you tomorrow, then.' Larak snagged a raw vegetable stick from the crisper and seemed more interested in its taste than her agreement.

Damia hesitated, looking for support from Afra, who shrugged 'why not' as he followed Larak's example and savoured a crunchy white root with a slightly aniseed flavour. She caught no more than that from Afra's mind when she sent a swift probe. And, he was certain, no more than that from Larak's if she tried her brother. Even as close as they were, her probe was a poor imitation of her customary mental dig.

'C'mon, sis, what's to be coy for?' 'I'm not being coy!' Her temper flared in irritation, then subsided. 'It's just that just that... these are very delicate stages in establis.h.i.+ng a rapport 'Delicate? Rapport?' Larak blurted out, staring at her as if he couldn't believe his ears. 'You're making a first contact, not a first date! That is, if it's even marginally humanoid.

'His is a true mind, brilliant, powerful,' she said haughtily.

'The form is immaterial.' 'Oh?' Larak's mobile face expressed extreme doubt.

'Never thought you'd fall for the cerebral type, Damia, not the way you've developed.' He eyed her, not as a brother, but as an interested male.

Damia reddened, half with fury and indignation, and half with a sudden virtuous embarra.s.sment for her brother's accurate jibe.

'Ever since you and Jenna propagated a child, you've turned insufferable! Why, if I hadn't been out here, we wouldn't have been warned at all.' 'Warned?' Afra leapt on the choice of word. Perhaps she was not as completely bedazzled as they'd thought.

'Of this momentous occasion,' she went on, oblivious to the implication. 'You've touched Sodan, Afra. Don't you agree that his feat of crossing to another galaxy is momentous?' 'Yes, it is,' Afra said tactfully. 'Only a brilliant mind could accomplish such a feat.' Damia caught an undertone he wasn't quick enough to suppress. 'Oh, you! You're jealous! Jealous?' Damia eyed Afra closely, plainly struggling with this new dimension to her oldest ally.

'And you're also letting dinner burn,' Larak said, pointing to a sizzling pan.

'Don't either of you know better than to distract a cook with stupid questions?' she demanded, quickly s.h.i.+fting the pan. 'It's a mercy nothing is burned!' She served them, irritated that her dinner was not as perfect as usual, and the two men could think of no way to break the strained silence, especially as both had to concentrate on maintaining a convincing level of trivial surface thoughts. They hardly needed to use such a subterfuge because Damia went off into a private reverie, ignoring them completely.

Finally, Larak pushed back his plate, having finished every sc.r.a.p on his plate and what was left over in the pans.

'Even with half your mind on what you're doing, sis, you're a great cook,' Larak said, wiping his mouth and sighing with repletion.

'So! This Sodan ent.i.ty is clearly not a new reconnaissance device of the Deneb Beetles?' Larak looked from Damia to Afra who shook his head quickly in denial.

'No question of that,' Afra replied. 'Totally different mentality ---' he ignored Damia's snort, 'and vehicle.

There is an impression of immense distances traversed, far longer than the twenty years since the Deneb Entanglement.' Larak whistled appreciatively, as if this was news to him.

'You didn't happen to catch any details about propulsion and power which my sweet sister would not deign to notice?' 'No, actually, for there were no obvious visual images to be sensed and I was only concerned with identification.

Clearly this ent.i.ty isn't a Beetle.

'Stop calling Sodan an ”ent.i.ty”,' Damia said. 'That's rude. And he has eyes,' she added defensively. 'We've discussed the concept of sight. You must take into consideration that he is also in control of the s.h.i.+p, and the drain on his energies to reach me as well as manage s.h.i.+p function and crew is enormous. It certainly is on me.' 'Yeah.

You could do with some beauty sleep, sis,' said -Larak.

'Thanks muchly,' she said, bridling.

'Children! Cut it out!' Afra intervened out of habit.

Larak and Damia glared at each other, but the long habit --of obeying Afra held.

I'Get to bed, the pair of you,' he added. 'Snarling at each other in the worst example of sibling rivalry I've seen since you graduated from Isthia's fosterage,' and now he gave --Damia his full disapproval.

'Makes me wonder how your father dared install you as Aurigae Prime.

'If there's anything that annoys me more than Larak acting fraternal, it's you, Afra, being avuncular.' She spoke coolly, but her flare of temper had been controlled.

Afra shrugged, relieved that his diversion had worked before Larak inadvertently disclosed to Damia why he was fielding these particular queries.

'At least this avuncular ent.i.ty has sense enough to go to bed when he's out on his feet,' he murmured. As he pa.s.sed Larak, the boy winked.

The next morning at breakfast, no-one looked particularly rested by a night's sleep. Afra kept a surface rumble going on his mind to mask both tension and anxiety. Larak delivered a running monologue about his son's developing intelligence and Jenna's maternal charms.

Damia was also closely s.h.i.+elding. When the three reached the Tower, Damia took the most cursory glance at station business, noting that cargo was light and the few messages were standard communications.

'I'll take you out now, Larak, and then you'll be free to handle the afternoon despatches.' 'Fine. Dad wants Afra on Procyon as soon as I've taken over from him.

Damia hesitated, then jutted her chin out. 'I suppose you want to come along again, too,' she said, flinging the challenge at Afra who merely shrugged.

'I wouldn't mind another gawk. Fascinating mind,' Afra said casually. He was intensely grateful to whatever quirk had prompted her to make such an offer. He'd thought he'd have to surrept.i.tiously follow Damia and Larak. With such distances to travel, he'd been nervous of losing even their combined touch.

'You two get settled. I can follow if Damia's leading,' Afra said, boosting the generators to their peak. Xexo had got the ailing one back on line, for which Afra was extremely grateful.

As Damia and Larak left the Tower for their capsules, he contacted Jeff and the Rowan to stand by, then settled into his own sh.e.l.l, rea.s.sured by their sustaining presence in his mind.

Is there any possible chance we're wrong about Sodan's intentions, or the depth of Damia's emotional commitment? the Rowan asked hopefully.

Less and less, Afra told her grimly. We'll know soon for certain.

Larak needled her last night. She'll have to check to make sure he's wrong about Sodan.

Then Afra touched Damia and Larak, and all three went the mere half light-year further to the s.h.i.+p, and Sodan.

You have rested well and are strong today, was the cool greeting after an instant's welcoming flash.

Damia instinctively covered against the discovery of her co-riders, but the greeting stuck in her mind. She could not escape the inference that Sodan was displeased with her strength, yet a tinge of relief coloured that fleck of thought.