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better than I."
"Not a'fore Cassrians, and none of 'em're in any shape fer more danger." He
spun his stool about to face her, his head cocked to one side quizzically.
"But're you any better? Will keep ur nerve, girl?"
"We've lost so much time, I'm not sure we should go through with this. Maybe
we should go on to Khol."
His eyes, shielded by inserts to disguise their midnight violet color, bored
into her. Then he spun back to the console. "With ur permission, Cap'n, I'd
like to go aground on Cassr... alone, to attend me business there."
He was giving her a way out. Coward, screamed her mind. She'd given her word.
True, that was before things got com-plicated, but still...
She was brooding over her own plotting scope when a small Arlai climbed up out
of the bottom margin and words crawled across: Privately, Krinata, may I beg
you to go with Jindigar/ Rndeel? It so increases the odds of success and..,
and, I discovered grief when I thought Thirlein was dead. I wanted to blast
Act out of existence! I'm not supposed to be able to entertain such thoughts.
If grief causes that in me, and so soon after the shock of Thirlein's "death"
I have to face Jindigar's ... Krinata, he's been with me since I came out of
training. He commissioned me built. Please. Help him.
She hardly believed such a plea could come from a Sentient. She glanced over
at Rndeel's back but, no. How could he be
inserting this message onto her screen? And something about it rang true. It
fit Arlai's personality.
She drew the ragged tatters of her nerves together and fo-cused on the job yet
to be done, shoving aside all other thoughts. "AH right, Rndeel, I'll go down
with you. I'll make it." Her mouth was dry as she spoke. Fear was becoming her
perpetual companion.
Five hours later, they inserted into Cassr orbit under local orbital control
and announced themselves as here to trade Sen-tient parts for pharmacogenetics
from Trassle.
It only took Arlai an hour to arrange with his Sentient friend in Cassr Port
Authority to let him take over some of her port-of-entry duties, such as the
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idento-scanners at clerk's counters. At Krinata's amazement, he said, "I just
told her I get terribly bored sitting in orbit waiting for cargo. She knows I
'used to be' an Oliat Sentient, accustomed to being too busy to be bored. So
even though it's bending the rules, she agreed to help me out. Of course, I
did bribe her with an info-dump from our last mission, but I'm sure that had
little to do with it."
"I think I get the picture," said Krinata. She hadn't realized the
higher-level Sentients were so sociable, but it made sense. They were people
of a sort.
When they reached the port-of-entry desk at Cassr's central landing field, the
bored Cassrian clerk came alive. "Trassle. Trassle I've heard that name."
Rndeel offered, "He be owin' us cargo fera year, and we a'come collectin' now.
Doubt not, he be remiss in other deals, and you'd his name nestin' among
others' curses." He fondled the piol with a pure Skhe gesture.
Much to Krinata's amazement, the pup hadn't messed on them, or wandered away,
or clawed their clothing since Arlai presented him. The Sentient was one
terrific trainer.
The Cassrian clicked one shelled forearm against his car-apace in a gesture of
retrieving a memory. But after a mo-ment, he allowed, "Could be that's it.
Trassle. Common
enough name." He added their certification from the scanner
beam controlled by Arlai and closed their files with a flourish
"Next."
They were free on Cassr. At the door to the surface transport,
Krinata donned goggles. Arlai had already weighted her down with radiation
shielded underwear, insisting she was young enough to have healthy children.
Since she had given up that idea long ago, she'd not even considered it when
debating the excursion onto Cassr. As they emerged into the searing light, not
a speck of her skin was exposed.
Thankfully, it was winter here, and cold enough to make her grateful for the
underwear. The weight of it also served to change her overall shape and her
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