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.But "I'm sorry," he said, then, between breaths, when he'd suddenly finished,and sounded mortally earnest and embarrassed." 'S all right," she said, andfussed with his hair while he just lay on top of her breathing hard andsweating, for a long time."Hope to hell nobody needs in here," she said finally, when his breathing hadcalmed down, but he hadn't moved, and she wasn't sure he was collected enough tothink of practicalities."You all right?"He didn't say anything.He just started making love to her then, really makinglove, nice and gentle a touch as could be, best man she'd had since Bieji,except he was already done and he was doing it, she thought, just forpoliteness, just a thank-you."Damn!" she said finally, not as exhausted for a moment as she'd thought;"Damn…" and several other things.She held onto him awhile then, and he heldher, and when she'd gotten her breath back she said, "Thanks, mate.I appreciatethat.I really do."He didn't answer.He just held her and rubbed her shoulder.And finally, aftershe'd been comfortable a few breaths: "I got to get to bed," she said, notwanting to talk, not wanting to think about moving."I'm going to go to sleephere if I don't."So he politely helped her up and helped pull her clothes together, all in theabsolute dark.Then he put his own self in order, went and felt around after thelatch, and cracked the door carefully.She leaned on his shoulder, looked outand listened too, and the two of them slunk out into the corridor and shut thelocker door."Better go on ahead," he said, then, tight-mouthed, the only words but two he'dsaid during the whole business."Find yourself a bunk.There's two vacant midwayup the loft."She looked at him with a real clear idea now at least what part of hisspookiness was, and why he had no inclination to do anything in crew-quarters.Aman living in with everybody, where everything went on all the time without anyprivacy, that bothered a lot of people who hadn't grown up with it: botheredher, at first, on Africa.It bothered a man a lot worse, if he was inclined tofreeze up real easy, if he was on the outs, and people gave him a hard time, andespecially if he was straight off some family ship like Ernestine, where hewasn't used to that.Merchanter.The war killed ships and scattered theirpeople.She knew that for sure, knew it the way she knew the breed when Africajerked some scared kid in off a merchanter deck and put him through theInitiation, same as she'd gotten, same as everyone got.But some of that breed cracked.Some suicided.Some just died."Muller make a habit of giving you a hard time?" she asked.He drew a breath, hesitated as if words cost by the gram, and looked skittish atthe sound of somebody coming further around the curve."Get.I'm doing you afavor.""Oddest damn favor I ever had." She stayed, he started walking, so she walkedand caught up with him, stride for stride, keeping ahead of whoever it was backthere."They'll give you hell," he said without looking at her."They'll give you realhell if you get caught with me, think it's real damn funny.Take your stufftopside, 'bout third, fourth bunk up-ring." He reached over, gripped hershoulder, friend-like, let it go with a sexy little brush at her arm that left atingle behind it.Oddest man she'd ever had, she thought, except Ritterman.Two in one couple ofmonths.What'd I do to deserve this?Blind tired, I'm going to screw up tomorrow, sure, hell of an impression I'mgoing to make with Bernstein.But she got inside, slipped up the ladder with her duffle and tied it to the endof the second vacant bunk, fell down on top of the mattress, cover and all,fumbled the safety-net across her and snapped it, and just went numb, out, gone,till the alterdawn bell rang."I got to talk to you a minute, Yeager," Bernstein said when she reported intoEngineering, and then, beckoning her over into a corner: "We got a complaint,Yeager, we got cleanliness standards on this ship, don't care how tired you are,you don't fall into a bunk that isn't dressed and you be careful and showerafter duty, Yeager.""Yessir," she whispered, feeling her face burning."Not my habit, sir, Iapologize, sir.Just couldn't find everything right off, I didn't want to wakepeople up.""Not putting you on report," Bernstein said."First and only warning.""Yessir, I appreciate that, sir."He looked at her odd, then, real strange for a minute, so she thought maybeshe'd reacted wrong, or spoken wrong, or something, and that made her nervous.God, maybe somebody had spread the word about her and her associate."You just remember," Bernstein said, then took her the tour himself, what waswhere, where the jury-rigs were, the special problems, told her what had to bedone, what had to be checked on what schedule.Thank God, she thought, she'd done a lot the same for Ernestine, even to thepoint Jennet let her sit alterday watch alone toward the end, taught her theread-outs and told her in Jennet's sane, easy way what was critical and what wasan as-you-can.Walk the rounds with Musa, Bernstein said, and introduced her toa small, dark man.And introduced her to NG, who looked at her cool, smartass, and just insideBernstein calling him down.She felt the tension in the air.So she gave NG Ramey a raised eyebrow and a cold stare for Bernstein's andMusa's benefit, as if she'd just met somebody she had no trust of at all.Which might be the case.Musa had nine fingers.He was one of those people you'd never ask how that was.Something had hit his nose once, broken it and scarred it right across, and thatsame something, probably, had made a burn-scar across his temple and right oninto his cotton-wool hair, where there was a gray bit right at that temple: youdidn't ask him about that either.He looked about fifty, his skin was palebrown, that shade really dark skin did when you went on rejuv, not a bad-lookingman at all, but his real age might be fifty or ninety-five or a hundred fifteenfor all she could tell [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]