Page 22 (1/2)
Judgment prepares you to enter the strea is the performent, a convection center for the currents where past prepares a future It is a balancing act
- Kerro Panille, The Avata Argue
HALI EKEL, race, leaped up one-handed to grasp the lift bar for the ceiling hatch leading to the software storage section of Records Her pribox, suspended on its shoulder harness, slapped her hip as she jumped She had discovered less than an hour earlier that Kerro Panille was headed groundside He had done this without farewell, not even a not or a poem
Not that I have any special hold on him!
She opened the hatch and levered herself up into the service tube
He refuses the breeding hts aside But his leaving this way hurt They had coe (within days) and had remained friends She had heard his stories of Earthside and he had heard her stories Hali had no illusions about her own eht Kerro the most attractive male shipside
Why was he always so distant?
She crouched to scuttle up the curving oval of the tube It was only one hundred and sixty centiht centi around Ship through such little-known shortcuts
It’s not as though I were ugly
Her shipcloth singlesuit, she knew, revealed an attractive feure Her skin was dark, eyes brown and she wore her black hair cropped short as all technicians did All of the es of hair shorn to a bristly cap Not that she had ever wanted Kerro to clip his hair or beard She found his style exciting But he did not have to deal with medical problems
She found the Records access hatch locked but she had memorized the code and it took only seconds to work the latch Ship buzzed at her froh into the storage area
"Hali, what are you doing?"
She stopped in shock Vocal! Everyone knew the flat, metallic work-voice of Ship, thedifferen a resonant voice full of emotional overtones And Ship had used her name!
" I want a software reader station There’s always one open in here"
"You are very unconventional, Hali"
"Have I done sos as she spoke, and she hesitated there, fearful that she had offended Ship
But Ship was talking to her! Really talking!
"So"
"I was just in a hurry No one will tell roundside"
"Why did you not think to ask Me?"
"I wa" She glanced along the narrow passage between the rotary bins of software discs toward the reader station Its keyboard and screen were blank, unoccupied as she had expected
Ship would not leave it there "I am never farther from you than the nearest monitor or coe bulb of the sensor-eye It was a baleful orb, a cyclopean pupil with its surrounding ry with her? The measured control of that awful voice filled her with awe
"I aest that you show more confidence in Me I am concerned about you"
"I’ confident of You, Ship I WorShip You know that I just never thought You would talk to me like this"
"As I talk to Kerro Panille? You are jealous, Hali"
She was too honest to deny it, but words would not coo to the keyboard at the end of this aisle Depress the red cursor in the upper right-hand corner and I will open a door behind that station"
" door?"
"You will find a hidden room there with another instruction station which Kerro Panille often used Youand fearful, she obeyed
The entire keyboard and its desk side to reveal a low opening She crouched to enter and found herself in a sht came from concealed illue console with screen and keyboard, a familiar holofocus circle on the floor She knew the settins lab, but one she had not even known existed It was smaller than any other of her experience
She heard the hatch seal itself behind her, but she felt unaccountably secure in this privacy Kerro had used this place Ship was concerned about her There was the unmistakable musk of Kerro’s flesh on her sensitive nostrils She rubbed at the gold ring in her nose There was a stationary swivel seat at the keyboard She slipped into it
"No, Hali Stretch out on the couch You will not need the keyboard here"
Ship’s voice came from all around her She looked for the source of that awesomely-measured voice There were no sensors visible or monitor-eyes
"Do not fear, Hali This room is within my protective shield Go to the couch"
Hesitantly; she obeyed The couch was covered with a slick ainst her neck and hands
"Why did you co for an unoccupied terminal, Hali?"
"I wanted to do somethin definite"
"You love Kerro?"
"You know I do"
"It is your right to try to e"
" I want hiht My help?"
"I’ll take any help I can get"
"You have free access to information, Hali, but what you do with it is your own decision You area life?" She could feel her own perspiration against the slick material of the couch
"Your own life It is your ow a gift You should treat it well Be happy with it"
"Would You ain?"
"Only if that really suits you both"
"I’d be happier with Kerro And Kerro’s gone groundside!" It caes of her eyes
"Can you not go groundside?"
"You know I have Shipside medical responsibilities!"
"Yes, the Shipmen must be kept healthy that Colony may eat But I ask about your own decision"
"They need me here!"
"Hali, I ask that you trust Me"
She blinked at the ee statement! How could one not trust Ship? All people were creatures of Ship The invocations of WorShip marked their lives forever But she felt that soave it
"Of course I trust You"
"I find that gratifying, Hali Because of that, I have so just for you You are to learn about a e which was known as Aramaic Yaisuah is a forets his name"
In all of this, Hali was most startled by Ship’s pronunciation of Jesus Anyone shipside referring to Jesus called him Hesoos But Ship’s diction could not be questioned: "Geezus"