Part 10 (2/2)
”That's as you wish, Kincaid,” she said lightly but oh so very pleased to know the healing was now complete. ”And thank you.” She raised her head high enough to reach his lips and gave him a soft kiss, then immediately rolled to the side of the wide bed to rise. ”Let's hope that Van wasn't right and today's load doesn't include sudden emergencies. And we are all going to take a holiday when we finally get Talavera completely supplied.”
”Good idea,” was his amiable reply. ”I'd best shower ... in my own room.” And he 'ported himself away.
It would be more fun to shower together, she thought very quietly and to herself alone. But she did feel much better today. In fact, she was aware of some very important change in herself as she bathed and dressed.
”All I needed was a good night's sleep,” she told Lionasha as they met for breakfast.
”Does wonders . . . that is, if you spend your night sleeping,” Lio said, and for one startled moment, Laria wondered if Lionasha could possibly know how she really had spent the first part of the night. But Lio was looking significantly in the direction of the engineering section and obviously meant Vanteer. Laria felt his weary but satisfied presence doing the usual dawn check on the generators.
Kincaid was whistling when he emerged into the lounge and started building himself a breakfast.
”Let us devoutly hope, Lionasha my dear, that you were not enjoying any prescience for today's workload,” he said as he filled his tray.
”There's not an ounce of clairvoyance in my Talent, Kincaid,” Lio said. ”Besides which, I can't imagine what can have been left out of what we've sent streaming out to that planet.”
”Officials to make sure the work's being done well and on time,” Laria had occasion to remark drolly later that morning when a small pa.s.senger craft begged 'portation to Talavera. ”And Plrgtgl's on it, so let's set it down as lightly as possible by headquarters.”
”At least that's the only one,” Kincaid said, stretching until his joints audibly popped when they had dispatched it. ”Was that Zara aiding Rojer this morning?”
”No, actually, it was Flavia. But they're both T-l's and strong.”
”I thought Zara was more of a healer than a Tower Prime,” he said, slewing sidewise and resting his elbows on his knees, his big hands clasped lightly.
”That's her personal preference, but Rojer's been rotating the T-l's. We're not the only ones sending him 'portages.”
You know, I'd like to see what they've done with all the stuff we've sent to Talavera, Lionasha said, busy sorting the day's files into their respective piles.
Want to rotate with someone there? Laria asked.
Well, not exactly rotate, but just have a good ho^ round, Lionasha said in a careful tone.
Kincaid and Laria chuckled at her qualification.
* thinly I would too, Kincaid said, winking at Laria. Sort of busman's holiday.
Busman? Lionasha repeated, confused.
Laria grinned at Kincaid, since she did understand the archaic reference.
Life a s.p.a.ceman taking a cruise on a liner for the fun of it, she explained.
Oh! Wouldn't he have had enough s.p.a.ce travel? Lionasha asked.
That's the point, Kincaid said.
Not much of a point, or a holiday, Lionasha said with a little snort of contempt.
Laria and Kincaid exchanged glances, his eyes twinkling with an amus.e.m.e.nt he kept well hidden from Lionasha. She had a pedantic tendency and misunderstood the subtler whimsy of Laria and Kincaid.
Laria, a special cargo-quite animate-and just for you, said Jeff Raven, with such a smug tone to his voice that Laria was very much surprised, and curious. * know both 'Dtni Towers have been hard pressed with outgoing. Gollee suggested this T-2, so kindly don't bang him up.
As if I would, Laria replied tartly.
She heard her grandfather's chuckle and then felt the incoming personnel carrier, which she deftly caught and landed gently in an appropriate cradle. 'Dinis swarmed to greet the newcomer.
Messages, Laria, said Rojer at the same instant. Priority.
When she realized from his mind that there was a drove arriving, she immediately linked with Kincaid to prevent any of the incoming tubes from getting lost. The ma.s.s of them took up every available rack, with several rolling onto the ground. The 'Dinis who had opened the personnel capsule were now chasing the fugitives.
Well, at least it's all inan-ahhhhh. Lionasha's exclamation of total surprise and her sudden surge of immense s.e.xual attraction caused both Laria and Kincaid to exchange startled looks.
As one, they made for the stairs. Kincaid halted but Laria continued, curious to see who could have had such a startling effect on Lionasha. The tall man had been holding both Lionasha's hands in his-surpris- ing enough, a tactile contact from one T for another-but she was gawking like a teenager at the very handsome and somehow familiar man bending toward her. Vanteer was standing stock-still on the top step of the stairs down to engineering, his face expressionless.
The new arrival, still holding Lionasha's fingers in his hands, turned slowly toward Laria, smiling with such charisma that Laria had no trouble at all understanding Lionasha's reaction. What she didn't understand was the immediate and intense antipathy that his smile generated in her.
”Vagrian Beliakin, T-2, reporting from Blundell Tower to a.s.sist Clarf Tower and Prime Laria Lyon,” he said, showing very white and even teeth in a smile that was meant, Laria knew instantly, to have the same effect on her that it had had on Lionasha. ”Kincaid.” His smile altering subtly, he gave Dano a glancing look. ”I look forward to merging with the man who developed the probe techniques on the Strongbow ...”
Laria caught the spurt of absolute rejection from Kincaid: a violent abhorrence at the thought of even the lightest merge with the mind of this man. Fast as it was, Kincaid's reaction also had something to do with his long tour on the Strongbow.
”It's required reading now, you know,” Vagrian went on, totally unaware of anything save his making a very strong impression on everyone in Clarf Tower. Laria shot a quick probe at Vanteer and caught envy, distrust and, unusually enough, a touch of fear from her engineer. Lionasha was still smitten, the undercurrent of her thought wondering if she had a single chance of getting him into bed, along with a sense of puzzlement because Vagrian looked familiar to her too.
Familiar to whom? Laria realized, although the impact of his forceful greetings on her staff had diverted her briefly from that thought. Now he advanced on Laria, hand extended sideways in the prescribed position for Talent touching.
Inadvertently she took a backward step, banging her heel into the first riser. She felt Kincaid descend to stand directly behind her, and never had she needed his support more.
”You're Yoshuk's younger brother,” Laria said, looking down at the extended hand and wondering how she could avoid touching him.
Do it and know, Kincaid said on a very tight tone.
She couldn't smile but she did manage to make the touch-red*acerbic*pepper-as briefly as she could and being very careful not to let him see past a tightly s.h.i.+elded mind.
A wry smile pulled Vagrian's sensuous mouth to one side. ”Yes, my older brother by a scant year. I am late come to my Talent.” His smile became winsome but slightly embarra.s.sed, and he smoothed back his wavy dark hair. ”A freak accident stimulated it and I was lucky enough to save others from sure death.”
”Yes, such stimuli do activate miracles of self-preservation,” she replied, trying to fathom why she was having such a negative response to the man.
She had never felt the least bit threatened by Yoshuk, whom she had always considered the handsomest man she'd ever met. Vagrian was the taller by at least eight centimeters and, tall as she herself was, she felt dominated by his almost offensive nearness. But she couldn't step back with heels already pressed against the riser.
'Dmis, rus.h.i.+ng in with the addresses of the piles of message tubes, broke the tableau.
”Ah, I seem to have arrived at a propitious moment to start work,” Vagrian said, his smile promising eager cooperation as he glanced up to the Tower.
”In point of fact, Vagrian,” Laria began, ”it's not so much Clarf that needs bulwarking as Sef. A third T-2-and I know how easy it is to merge with a brother or sister-would ease the burden which Yoshuk and Nesrun have been struggling with. So, if you'll just get back in your personnel carrier, Kincaid and I will 'port you over.”
Vagrian's expression was stunned, his jaw dropped and all the good nature and camaraderie of his first minutes in Clarf Tower dissipated in a sudden blast of angry rejection of such a transfer. He recovered so adroitly that Laria wondered if she had accurately read that split second of fury. His disappointment she could well understand, but not that flash.
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