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she saw. She'd worn bare scalp before- well, close-clipped enough to feel like
sandpaper-when that was the only way to cope with the itchy, sticky mud of
Shaarbant's swamps. This time, with roots and all discarded, not even a shadow
indicated the boundary between face and scalp; totally smooth, her skin was.
Irritated, though; taking her time about it she rubbed herself with lotion,
and welcomed the soothing effect.
At the mirror again, she decided the lack of eyebrows was the worst part.
Until now she hadn't realized how important they were in defining expression;
her face had a blank look to it. Hmmm; no problem there. With cosmetic pencil
she drew in brows as near her natural look as she could manage. Yes, much
better.
Anyway, from all accounts the condition wasn't permanent, though she had no
idea how long it might last.
Well, Houk and the captain would be in the same boat. And by the time the
others came out of freeze she should be looking reasonably ordinary. Come to
think of it. at that time they'd likely go through the same ordeal.
Her chuckle died quickly; the misery she d endured wasn t funny at all.
She dressed. Time to go topside and see what the captain was doing. Entering
Control she found Katmai
Delarov in the pilot's seat, wearing no more hair than a hardboiled egg, and
said, "Morning, skipper. I see the radiation hit us about the same."
Looking around, Delarov said, "Seems so. Not permanent, though, I understand.
Funny how we all put so much importance on that non-essential protein fiber;
women, anyway." She cleared her throat. "Do you happen to know how long-?"
"Not me. Before we get anywhere near Goal Star, though, I'd think." Delarov
hadn't faked any eyebrows yet.
Lisele decided to suggest the idea-but later, not just now!
"Yes. Well, being recovered from that ghastly bout of radiation sickness, I
count this a small price. Now sit down, and see what you think about this most
recent parcel of data."
As Lisele moved to comply, something caught her notice. Delarov's jade disc
earrings had been replaced.
Now the woman, in her left lobe, wore three small gems that formed
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an equilateral triangle, point down: ruby-red forward, emerald-green aft, and
below, the sparkling brilliant blue-
white of diamond.
Lisele's staring must have been obvious; the captain touched that lobe and
said, "A few extra ornaments, in compensation." She turned her head, revealing
that on her other ear the pattern was reversed, the triangle pointing up with
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a diamond at the top, green at front and red behind. "Do you like it?"
"Sure. Seems like an awful lot of piercing, but the way it all looks, I expect
it's worth it." Lisele's own earlobes were still intact; she was in no hurry
to change that status. But it was interesting to see the configuration
Delarov had chosen. Well, enough talk of appearances: Lisele took her seat,
saying, "New data, you mentioned?
Okay, let me look, now."
The main thing was that Tinhead thought Goal Star had at least one huge,
non-habitable planet. What else the computer's guess might mean, neither
Delarov nor Lisele could predict. Over the next few days they took more
observations and readouts, but at such a distance, decreasing but still vast,
Goal Star wasn't telling anybody very much. Mei Lu-teng's estimate still stood
as anyone's best guess: another twenty weeks, now, until that stellar system
could be reached.
From here, only the star itself was visible. Odds were that it had more
planets than just the big one hypothesized by Tinhead, but odds didn't always
pay off.
And with a weak Drive, the decel for that rendezvous was going to take some
careful figuring and a lot of luck.
One thing that annoyed Lisele was that deWayne Houk still had his pale,
scarcely-noticeable hair. Hindsight showed that during the ship's worst
radiation exposure, the man's duty station had been shielded by the bulk of
the Drive itself. So he'd had a great deal less sickness and no depilation at
all.
And to top it off, she thought, instead of keeping his hair stubble-short he
was now letting it grow.
Just to show us he can do it and we can't!
She knew her unvoiced complaint was irrational: maybe he just didn't have
time, or someone else usually did his barbering for him. But the fact was, she
didn't like the man anyway, so nearly everything he did got on her nerves.
Delarov had been right about Houk's ability to impro-
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vise. Within days he'd programmed circuits to allow him to do most of his
monitoring and adjustment functions from Control. So that Lisele had more of
his company than she really wanted, which would have been practically none.
When all three were present he was polite enough. But once the ship's affairs
settled into reasonable order, the captain had rescinded the business of
sleeping near their watch-posts; now she went to her own digs, and
Lisele to hers. And when Lisele and the Drive Chief were alone in Control,
Houk s talk became more and more insinuating.
"It must get lonesome, a young woman like you, with your handsome fella down
there in a tank, cold as a ship's outside. Really lonesome, I guess."
Unwilling to look into his probing stare, she said, "Not especially." The
screens showed no need for possible action on her part, and the galley
terminal was set on permanent monitor, anyway. So she said, "Excuse me. Galley
break," and left.
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The only way three people could run the ship and keep fed, without a mess
piling up, was by taking turns on joint meals: both preparation and cleanup.
And handling individual snacks the same say.
Never leave the galley any way but neat.
In this matter, Lisele had to admit, Houk did pull his own weight.
Now she fixed herself a lunch from the frozen stores, made enough coffee that
she could take some up to
Houk, and sat. Eating, and enjoying relief from the man's company.
Eventually, with reluctance, she took the coffee pot upship to Control.
Setting it down where Houk could pour for himself, or not. He said, "Thanks,
Moray. Now what I was saying-"
She might have known he wouldn't let it drop. "I thought we settled that. I'm
not lonesome."
His eyebrows-a scraggly pair, but maybe better than pencil marks-rose, then
came down again. "Ah- see.
I
Well, I suppose that's fine, for women who take to each other in such
fashion."
At first she didn't catch his meaning. When she did, she had to laugh. Because
obviously he thought he was insulting her, her and the captain both. Lisele
didn't know about the captain's tastes, one way or the other. And didn't care;
they were none of her business. For herself, she could have strong
43
feelings toward a man or woman, either one. With women, there was nothing
physical about those feelings. Had there been, she supposed she d accept the
fact as just one more aspect of herself.
Now, though. If Houk could ad-lib, so could she. "In such fashion? Your guess
is wrong. If you don't believe me, try that last remark on the skipper. And to
set things perfectly straight, Chief Houk, I don't take to you in any fashion
at all."
"Hey, now, you don't have to get unpleasant about it." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]