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The Drenard officer ducked through the door When he raised his head, the two large aliens locked eyes, and Molly could feel the tension sparking across the roo over his shoulder to his two companions One of the warriors appeared at the door, his lance at a higher angle than before

"This situation is non-optimal," Edison said "And the spatial requirements of our combined forms are not adequately met by the dimensional constraints of ht be hard to understand, but the deep growling tenor of his voiceslow uests’ attention toward the prone figure in Edison’s lap Anlyn looked to be stable, but the front of her body remained heavily bruised frons of awareness, since they escaped fro to the Drenard system with a brain-dead husk

As soon as the officer saw the feed The muscles in both arms flinched, and he nearly dropped his tunics He threw the lengths of fabric over his shoulder to get thee step He leaned over Anlyn, reached into her ar on Edison’s chest Not so gingerly

"Don’t move," Molly told the cub

Edison’s face twitched with the effort, the fur on his face and shoulders bristling Molly pleaded ide eyes for inaction Her friend begged her in return with narrow slits--for so else

The Drenard touched Anlyn in a few places, then felt her cheeks with both pal her s short and soft

Molly looked back and forth between theet some sense of whether or not her friend would be okay

When the officer scooped up Anlyn with one arm, Edison raised his hands in protest Molly started to say so the e hand on his chest, but the officer pulled away instead

Wrapping Anlyn in both ar hiood one

"Wait--" she squeaked

Edison rose as the crackle of electricity filled the rooht whizzed past Molly’s head and struck hi hi liainst the bulkhead

Molly spun to protest--to say the only tords of Drenard she knew--and saw the lance Horizontal Level with the deck Her brain processed theof this as the crackle of ionized atmosphere reached her ears

The blast hit her square in the chest, launching her into the air and sending her flying toward the bunk

She dearly wanted to arrest her fall before she passed out, but everyat once--vibrating with their refusal to cooperate

Part VII - The Thin Line

"Sy us, makes itself invisible"

~The Bern Seer~

6

Cole woke up sore Full-body sore It felt like he’d just played two gaalaxy ball with no pads on

He tried to sit up, but thehi back down on the bed

The very soft bed

Sitting up hadn’t worked, so he rolled onto one side and surveyed his surroundings fronized the place Or a place like it

Lisbon

He and so as busboys The lobby, the hallways, everything had looked just like this He must be in one of those rooms, or in a place just like it

He rolled onto his back, soaking up the luxuriousness of the sheets and the perfect mattress; he closed his eyes and felt some of his stiffness slide away When he opened theing froed around hundreds of tiny lights, all twinkling like stars through carboglass

Cole followed the light to the walls, which appeared to be made of a mottled-yellow marble A darker material, some species of wood, cut up the expansive slabssills and support beaht to pour in, bathing the roos out froe of the bed It took soet his body to comply What it really wanted to do was stay there for a week, recuperating