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"A damned lot."
Cadma
Terry froze. "My relationship with Sylvia is none of your damned business."
"You brought it up. Which makes it my business. We talk, and if you're worried that she looks for more than talk, maybe there's something else you don't give her enough of."
Terry turned away, walked two steps and turned back. "You really are an asshole, Weyland." He turned away.
"Terry."
Faulkner stopped. "What?"
"Did you think that getting Sylvia knocked up as soon as they thawed you out would hang a big ‘hands off' sign on her?"
There was a sudden lull in the air around them. Every face near them was carefully, deliberately turned away from the exchange. Cadma
Too loud! Aw, shit.
The thin man kicked at the fire, sending a burst of sparks into the air. "You know, Weyland, I don't really care what went on before I woke up. Because you're not the big man anymore. You're not a farmer, you're not a builder. You're not even an engineer. You're just an assistant navigator, and an extremely expendable security arm." He leaned closer to Cadma
He turned and stalked away.
Wordlessly, Carlos tossed Cadma
Cadma
The entire beach seemed to heave a sigh of relief, and slowly the music and laughter rose up from a soft burr and swallowed the silence.
Carlos poked his arm. "He's wrong about you, isn't he, amigo? You've never made a move on the lovely lady."
"Not yet."
"Meaning?" Carlos's dark face was split in a suggestive grin.
"Meaning that I'm going for a walk."
"Have a good walk, amigo! I think I'm going to investigate Carolyn."
"She's a tease."
"She's also depressed. I have just the thing for her."
"Your generosity never ceases to amaze me. Bon appetit." Cadma
A finger stroked lightly along his spine, and he turned, startled. Mary A
"How?" He reached out, lacing his fingers behind her neck. Impossibly, her skin seemed cool and hot at the same time. I don't want you, he said silently, but I need...
"I just look for where people are having fun, they're getting together. Enjoying themselves. There you are. Cadma
Go away. Just go away, he thought, drawing her closer. "Watching," he said. She shivered as he traced a circle under her ear. "I don't always just watch." Suddenly, he wanted very, very much to put the lie to her words.
Her eyes reflected the glowing surf. When she spoke again, her voice was husky. "Well, I tell you what. Why don't you show me what you do when you're not just watching?" She linked her arms around his neck.
He didn't know whom he needed to convince more, himself or Mary A
She took his hand and led him away from the campfires, toward warmth.
Something was ahead of her. Sheena strained to reach it. A shadow bigger than herself, it seemed to move in jumps, waiting until she was almost on top of it, then streaking away into the dark, cutting behind the animal cages, across the stream, into the cultivated ground.
Sheena yipped in confusion, disbelieving what she had seen. Machines moved that quickly, but not animals. She sniffed the ground. The new smell was already faint, so fast had it moved, but there was no mistaking it. Wet and warm, and unlike men or calves or chickens or anything in the compound: the stink of it was a mortal insult! She streaked after it, splashing through the icy water, shaking her fur before continuing on into the dark.
She was beyond the plowed area, into the zone filled with burnt crumbled tree stumps and sprigs of tough grass just now puffing up through the blackened crust of the earth. Where was it? Clouds were moving across the smaller moon, and Sheena sniffed the ground again, purring low in her throat.
The cloud cover parted for a moment.
There on the hillock, black with lunar highlights, sat something inexplicable. A thousand generations of instincts couldn't identify it. Big. Not man. No ancestor had hunted this thing, none had fled and lived to remember. Her cortex knew what it was not, but could not say what it was.
Unknown. A threat. It might harm man or man's children. Kill!
The thing cocked its head sideways and cooed.
The sounds were disturbing. What had ever sounded like that? Where were the men? Sheena's ears flattened back against her head. This was not a dog's job. There were no men here. Sheena leaped to do battle.
One moment it was there, and Sheena's teeth were snapping at its neck. Her teeth closed on nothing. It receded like a cloud-shadow beneath the moon, and returned as fast, and now it was on Sheena's back. Its cold, broad feet clamped around her middle with sudden, terrifying strength. Sheena's ribs sagged inward. She snarled her agony and rolled to mash the thing from her back.
It walked off her while she was rolling and was several feet away. Fast, unfairly fast! Thick fleshy lips pulled back from daggerlike teeth in a grimace of pleasure. Lovingly it cooed to Sheena.
Sheena was terrified now, but she leaped.
She was in the air when the creature rolled. Its jaws flashed up and locked on her throat, reducing her death scream to no more than a terrified hiss. It drew back into the shadows before she hit the ground.
She lay on her side, struggling weakly to breathe, bubbles of air shining blackly in the moonlight as they pulsed from her throat.
She watched her killer draw close, stared into its eyes, its huge, soft, silver eyes. She whimpered.
It cooed at her, and when Sheena's flanks ceased trembling, came closer and gently licked at the blood oozing from her throat. The creature was hot, like a stove. It turned its back. Sheena felt blades entering her, and then nothing.