Part 50 (1/2)

”But I don't feel like an elder, either,” Lunzie said, consciously relaxing her hands, which wanted to clamp into fists. ”I feel... I don't know what 1 feel. I can't be young, it seems, or old: I'm suspended in life now just as much as when I was in coldsleep. I don't even know which child she is-did I see her and forget her? Is she one they never mentioned?”

”The leaf torn from the branch by wind,” he said softly, smiling a little.

”Exactly.”

”You must come to believe that the branch was no more yours than the wind is; you must come to see that we are each, in each moment, in the right place, the place from which all action and reflection come, and to which they go.” He c.o.c.ked his head, much like a bird. ”What will you do if you must enter coldsleep again?”

She had not let herself think of that, forcing away the panic it brought with all the Discipline she could bring to bear. How had he known that she woke sweating some nights, sure that the terrifying numbness was once more spreading through her?

”I-I can't.” She held her breath, stiff in every muscle, looking down and away from him. She heard the faintest sigh of breath.

”You cannot know that it will never happen.” His voice was neutral.

, ”Not again-” It was as much plea as promise to herself; all the days of retraining might have been nothing for the rush of that emotion.

”I had hoped this would heal of itself,” his voice said, musing. ”But since it has not, we must confront it.” A pause so long she almost looked up, and then he snapped, Adept Lunzie!” and her eyes met his. ”This is not beyond your strength or ability: this you will conquer. We cannot send you out still subject to such fears.”

She wanted to protest, but knew it would do no good. The next several days tested her strength of will and body both: intense sessions of counseling, hours

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McCajfrey and Moon

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spent in a variety of cubicles resembling cold-sleep tanks of various types, even a couple of cold-sleep inductions, with the preliminary drugs taking her briefly into unconsciousness.

She thought at first she would simply go crazy, but the Venerable Master had been right: she could endure it, and come out sane. Valuable knowledge if she needed it, though she hoped she would not.

By the time her other instructors approved her skills, her mind had found a new balance. She could see her past uncertainties, her flurries of worry, her bouts with envy and guilt, as the struggles of a creature growing from one form to another. Most people had some emotional turmoil in their thirties; at least some of hers was probably just that: growing out of one stage of life. She had been that person; now she was someone else, someone who no longer envied Sa.s.sinak's power or Aygar's physical strength. Her life made sense to her, not as a tragic series of losses, but as challenges met, changes endured and even enjoyed.

The memory of her stuffier descendants no longer irritated her-poor darlings, she thought, they don't even know what fun they're missing-and Sa.s.sinak's potential for violence now seemed the appropriate foil for her own more pacific abilities. She could cherish Sa.s.sinak as a descendant, and respect her as an elder, at one and the same time, with a ruffle of amus.e.m.e.nt for the odd circ.u.mstance that made her both.

Her last sight of the Mountain was of that same quiet pool, that same boulder, the door opening now in the hands of another novice. She knew her own fece expressed nothing but calm; inside she could feel her heart smiling, feel the excitement of another chance at life with all its difficulties.

Now the medical personnel in the corridors looked more like potential colleagues, and less like fortunate strangers who would never accept her. Lunzie checked into the Transient Physicians' Hostel at the first open terminal, and then entered the callcode the Venerable if Master Adept had given her. The screen flashed briefly, 5 then steadied as a line scrolled across it.

1- ”Lunzie . . . good news. Level 7, Concourse B, 1300 tomorrow.” And that was that, and she was on her way. The Hostel, when she arrived at its door, gave her the clip to a single room with cube reader and datalink. $he put her duffel on the single bed and touched the keypad. A menu of services available filled the wallscreen. She could find a partner for chess or sleep, purchase goods or information (to be included, with a service charge, in her hostel total), or roam the medical databases, all without leaving the room.

She was tempted to send a message to Sa.s.sinak; Fleetcom, the public access mail system for all Fleet personnel, would forward it. But that might bring attention they didn't want. Safer to wait. She had almost a lull standard day before meeting someone (the Venerable Master had not said who) the next day at 1300. She would use that time to make predictable inquiries, things anyone would expect her to want to know.

She treated herself to a good meal at a cafe that occupied the s.p.a.ce where, years before, she'd known a bar. The music now had a different sound, lots of chiming bells and some low woodwind behind a female trio. Back in her room, she fell asleep easily and woke without concern.

Level seven of Concourse B still sported the apricot striped walls that made Lunzie feel she had fallen into a layered dessert. Various names had been tried for this section, from Exotic Epidemiology to Nonstandard Colonial Medical a.s.sistance. None had stuck; everyone called it (and still called it, she'd found out) the Oddball Corps. Its official designation, at the moment, was Vari-; ant Medical Concerns a.n.a.lysis Division . . . not that anyone used it.

Lunzie presented her credentials at the front desk. Instead of the directions she expected, she heard a V. cheerful voice yelling down the corridor a moment ^ later.

V ”Lunzie! The legendary Lunziel” A big bearded man .

:ff grinned as he advanced, his hands outstretched. She

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searched her memory and came up with nothing. Who was this? He went on. ”We heard you were coming. Forty-three years, in this last coldsleep? And that makes how much altogether? We've got a lot of research we can do on you.” His face fell slightly and he peered more closely at her. ”You do remember me, don't you?”

She was about to say no, when a flicker of memory gave her the face of an enthusiastic teenager touring a hospital with a cla.s.s. Now where had that been? She couldn't quite say - . . but he had been the most persistently curious in his group, asking questions long after his companions (and even his instructors) were bored. He had been pried loose only by the fifth reminder that their transport was leaving . . . now. She had no idea what his name was.

”You were younger,” she said slowly, giving herself time to think. ”I don't remember that beard.”

His hands touched it. ”Oh . . . yes. It does make a difference, I suppose. And it's been over forty years for you, even if most of that wasn't real time. I mean waketime. I was just so glad to see your name come up on the boards. I suppose you never knew that it was that hospital tour that got me into medicine, and beyond that into the Oddb.a.l.l.s-”

”I'm glad,” she said. What was his name? He had worn a big square nameplate that day; she could remember that it was green with black lettering, but not what the name was.

”Jerik,” he said now, relieving her of that anxiety. ”Doctor Jerik now, but jerik to you, of course. I'm an epidemiologist, currently stranded in Admin because my boss is on leave.”

He had the collar pin of an honor graduate and the second tiny chip of diamond which meant he was also an Adept. It was not something to speak of, but it meant he was not just out here blathering away for nothing. His pose of idle chatter and innocent enthusiasm was just that-a pose.

”You'll be wondering,” he said, ”why you were dragged

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