Crystal Line

"Why didn't A and E pay for the crystal?"

"Too many slices out of their budget already."

"Then who's paying for a singer to install 'em?"

Lars cleared his throat. "The Guild was asked to absorb the cost."

She hauled herself about to face him, scowling. He pinched her lips shut.

"Oh, don't worry," he said. "The Guild got concessions I've been trying to wangle for the last three years."

"Such as?"

"Permission to publicize the employment opportunities of the Guild . . ."

"What?" That was an exceptional concession.

Lars gri

"That must be a first!"

"In living memory."

"So, they've finally realized how important Ballybran crystal is."

"I'd say that's a fair comment." He stretched languorously beside her, arching his back, before he cocked his free arm to cushion his head. "A good day all totaled."

"Who's the new dork at the desk?" she asked after a moment.

"Oh." The frown returned. "Him. Well, he's a spare pair of hands, and he'll be more useful when he becomes accustomed to the filing codes."

"I'd hazard the guess," she said after a long pause, "that you also can't afford to a

"I'm not letting you go, Su

"Who else can you send?" she asked reasonably. "I'm the only one qualified, and you can't afford to have the installation messed up, can you?"

Lars gave her a long searching look and then sighed. "You're right there. Much is at stake."

Just as he gathered her closer, she caught a fleeting expression on his face that might have been satisfaction. She didn't have time, then, to sift the matter through, because he distracted her thoroughly.

Being aboard the Brendan/Boira 1066 was a mixed pleasure, since Killashandra had to share the ship's good company with Rudney and Klera. Fortunately, the two scientists had brought reports with them to study, and they spent most of their time in their cabin, or using Brendan's powerful and complex computer banks.

"They did the same thing on the way out," Boira told Killa.

"The tedium was palpable," Brendan added, in the exact affected tone Rudney used.

Killa and Boira smothered laughs. Killa had taken to Boira the moment she had seen the 1066 brawn. Not that Boira could be described as brawny: she was of medium height, and her figure was compact. She was very attractive, smooth-ski

"Do be careful, Bren," Boira murmured. "You'll set me off again. Bren had me in kinks," she told Killashandra. "It got to be embarrassing, because every time they ventured out of their cabin, they'd say something that Bren had lampooned and I'd dissolve—in a coughing fit, of course. Wouldn't do to laugh in their faces!"

"Then it isn't just me," Killa said, gri

"Oh, no," Boira assured her. "It's them! The only time they acted human at all was during decomposition."

"Then they were very human," Bren said caustically. "Had to circulate and clean the air nine times."

"D'you still have the radiant-fluid tub on board?"

"Indeed, we do," Boira said, "and back in your cabin."

"What'll you do about them, then?" Killa asked, jerking her finger in the direction of the Saplinson-Trills.

"Oh, them! This time we may let them stew in their own juices, as it were," Brendan said. "I can close off the vents to their cabin so we're spared the stench. At least they cleaned themselves up afterwards."

"And what about you?" Killashandra asked Boira. But apart from a mild headache, Boira was not adversely affected by decomposition.

"Repetition dulls the effect," she told Killashandra, "though it'll never be my favorite way to spend five of the longest minutes ever invented by the mind of man."

"So, did you see much of the FMs?" Killa asked, drawling the term sarcastically.

Boira gave a snort. "After a very lengthy briefing and all sorts of dire warnings about keeping my mitts to myself and going through a rather ridiculously involved decontam. It was worth the effort," she said. "The brilliance, the design . . . I really think they ought to pay attention to the complex patterns—What did you call them? Jewel Junk? I suggested," she added, grimacing at her recollection, "that the patterns the Junk displays could be another attempt at communication."

"And?"

"I got told in long chapters how such a theory was ludicrous and had no possible scientific basis." She shrugged. "I am entitled to an opinion."

Killa mulled that over. "Pattern is as good a method of communication as any other. Aren't words patterns?"

"Hmmm. Hadn't thought of it in quite that way, but they are, you know," Bren said. "Full marks to you, Killa."

"I gather they didn't test your theory, Boira?"

"Fardles, no! What does a ship's brawn know about esoteric life-forms?"

"Fifteen minutes until the first Singularity Jump," Brendan a

Awash in the fluid, Killa had only the mildest of decomposition willies. When she returned to the main cabin, where Boira and Brendan were ru

"Oh, them?" Boira gri

"Brendan, did you have to tell Boira about that?" Killa asked, halfway between irritation and amusement.

"She insisted that I explain why I spent so much credit on food stores."

"Why? Did she think you'd wined and dined pretty girls all in a row while she was incapacitated? And thank you, Boira, I am hungry, but not starved and certainly nowhere near another Passover gorge."

Boira liked food as much as Killa did, and they compared notes until the next Jump. Both women were spared the company of the Saplinson-Trills, though Boira periodically enquired solicitously after their health and well-being. The two did emerge when the last Jump brought them into the Opal system. Rudney asked Brendan to open a cha

"You'd think, from all that gibberish, that they were activating a sorcerous spell or something," Boira said.

"Equations are a form of spell, aren't they?" Killashandra asked.

"Hmmmm, perhaps, if you get the right answer."

They batted the notion about until Brendan quietly informed them that they would be landing in fifteen minutes.

Rudney and Klera were excited about something, the upshot of which was that they wanted Killa to install the crystals as soon as possible. Rudney sputtered, close to being inarticulate in his instructions. Fortunately he had a diagram of where he wanted crystal installed, though to judge by the strikeouts, the list of priorities had altered several times. He wanted the biggest, or strongest, of the crystal pieces to go in Cave Fifteen, which Killa shortly learned was the one that she and Lars had named Big Hungry Junk.

"It already has crystal," she began.

"It must have the best of the crystals," Rudney insisted, spittle spattering Killa in the face.