"You'd best get used to this if you expect to be around sweet Kitten awhile, Captain," the Tolian offered.

His whiskers twitched. "I don't doubt that she agreed partially to enjoy your anticipated reaction. You came through in marvelous style."

"Thanks," Hammurabi said drily.

"Which brings me to another point, Captain." The alien took another glance at the ocean, then the console panel. "It occurs to me that we are not headed northward any longer."

"Right. However, that's the way we shall go."

"Yet that is not the way to Will's Landing."

"Two straight Lieutenant. Very good."

Porsupah pondered a moment longer before replying.

"Forgive me, Captain. I had believed my terranglo beyond reproach. Yet there seems to be a nuance here that I fail to grasp."

"Apologies are mine, Pors." Mal sat back, rubbed a hand across his eyes. "I'm irritable. When I get irritable, I grow unnecessarily obtuse." He smiled easily.

"You see, one other question needs immediate answering. I intend getting it where we will arrive."

"Keep going," said Porsupah interestedly.

"I've performed a good deal of work in the past, as well as quite recently, for a merchant-trader name of Chatham Kingsley. Always played square with me; paid me well if not generously."

"Kingsley? Then that-'

Mal nodded. "The old man's favorite- and only son. Why he bothers about him is beyond me. Even adopted blood is thicker than water, I suppose."

"Depends on the race. Here now! If the father is anything like the son-"

"No, no. I don't think the old man is even aware of his offspring's hobbies. I suspect the kid's managed on his own ever since he was big enough to order the help around. Chatham's a bastard, true, but he's a sane bastard. He only enjoys cutting people up economically.

"See, the shipment that the bloodhype and other drugs tamed up in were all consigned to Kingsley's agents. I met Rose's by accident. It's a possible tie-up there that I'm concerned about. Before I run any more of Kingsley's goods around the Arm, I've got to know if they're going to be full of silly spice."

"I appreciate your problem, Captain. Yet we are expected, especially after transceiving that report on Rose, to file reports in person to our superior."

"Look, Pors. Everything we could do about Rose has been done over the transceiver already. If this Major Orvenalix is but half up to his reputation. . : '

"...He is...

"... then there's no need for you to show up immediate-like, right nowish." "Regulations ..."

"Will be adjusted for a few hours," Mal replied gruffly. "The drug shipment is safe, you are safe, I am safe, and our good and kind acquaintance his Lordship might as well be pinned under the grating with his technician back at the island, for all the chance he has. When a few of the good Fathers finish with him, he'll wish he was ... And while I'd normally not bother to even mention it, you and your effervescent associate owe me nothing if not a little time. Seeing as how I'm in large part responsible for returning to you the balance of yours."

Porsupah didn't reply.

An hour or so later, the panel separating the forecabin and the storage compartment slid back. A clearly tired Kitten Kai-sung, Lieutenant in the service of the United Church, temporarily attached to Intelligence Branch, stepped into the cabin. Her dress, which had never been designed by its manufacturer with the contortions of the past twenty-four hours in mind, looked as worn as its wearer. The long black hair fell haphazardly in directions not always directed by gravity. The face was drawn.

There was also an unevenness to her gait, which was not caused by the slight sway of the hoveraft.

"Nice to see you again," said Mal. He found himself smiling in spite of himself. "Glad you could make it back shortly."

Kitten flopped down in a corner. She brushed an errant strand of hair from her face and glared at him.

The youthful apprentice sanitation engineer redraped himself over his packing crate without a word. His expression, revealing absolutely nothing, was significant for that. He folded his arms across his chest and fell promptly asleep.

"Get a little more than you bargained for, rewardwise?" Mal prodded.

"Let's just say, Captain, he's been amply repaid for his help. Also for any help he may render in the next, oh, ten years or so. But to satisfy your morbid interest, there was one thing that did get to me a mite."

"Oh?" said Porsupah, giving every evidence of surprise. "I must know of this wonder!"

She pointed. "Well, bristle-fur, it was that damned thing. It stared at me the whole time."

She was pointing to the recumbent form of the flying snake, which lay, blue-black and shiny, curled about its master's left shoulder.

It was either a glance at the instruments or else maybe the angle of the sun, rising over the horizon slightly behind them, that told her.

" Hey, whither the hell goest we?"

"It seems," said Porsupah, "that the good Captain feels strongly the need of an immediate confrontation with his employer. To determine if same is in any way implicated in the drug traffic. I informed him that it was necessary for us to return to central control, but he was adamant."

"Yeah," said Mal, looking straight at her. "That's me. Adamant."

"Investigation of all suspects in this matter is the government's business," she said.

"Later, maybe. Your Major can have proper seconds. I do my own dirty work."

"I will not stand for it!"

"Then sit down!" he shouted angrily. "Patrick O' Morion, I've never come 'cross such an obstinate woman!" He made a heretical gesture heavenward. "First I rescue you from a proverbial fate worse than death. Then I rescue you from death! Then I save your assignment. I even; Kelvin knows why, try to protect your virtue. How old are you, anyway?"

"Twenty-four T-years. Why?"

Porsupah interrupted sarcastically. "See, Captain, you're about twenty-three point nine years too late for that." The Tolian then found much of interest in the workings of his seat.

"Black holes have both of you!" she yelled. "I'll treat with you later, water-rat." She turned back to Mal.

"And you, baboon-that-walks-with-fundament-forward, just because your grotesque carcass isn't up to the performance of our resident sewage-dabbler ... !"

"Watch it, little girl, I ...!"

First mate Takaharu swiveled half-way round in his chair. He actually raised his voice slightly, a thing reserved for extraordinary occasions.

"I am known as a patient man," he murmured in a steadily rising voice, "but if there is not some silence about this cabin immediately. I shall direct this craft onto the nearest reef and allow your souls to drift in violent converse for eternity! Please all to shut up?"

Glaring across the tiny cabin at each other, the Lieutenant and the freighter-Captain sat.

Philip chose that moment to fill the air with a stentorian snore.

The Vom was aware of the Machine, orbiting directly above it. It had been aware thus for some time now. Yet it recognized that the intelligence needed to transform the Machine into a potential threat was not present. As long as this remained so the Vom had nothing to fear. The Machine could not act without the direction of the Guardian, and there was nothing to wake the Guardian.