out, that's all. Everything's all right."
When I released her with the sparker, she flew at me. We pitched back and
almost toppled down the steps. Her grip was so tight I couldn't breathe.
"Don't kill me, don't, please, don't."
I rolled on top of her. "Kamala!" I wriggled one arm free and used it to
pry myself from her. I scrabbled sideways to the top step. She lurched
clumsily in the microgravity and swung at me; her fingernails raked across
the back of my hand, leaving bloody welts. "Kamala, stop!" It was all I
could do not to strike back at her. I retreated down the steps.
"You bastard. What are you assholes trying to do to me?" She drew
several deep shuddering breaths and began to sob.
"The scan got corrupted somehow. Silloin is working on it."
=The difficulty is obscure,= said Silloin from the control room.
"But that's not your problem." I backed toward the bench.
"They lied," she mumbled and seemed to fold in upon herself as if she were
just skin, no flesh or bones. "They said I wouldn't feel anything and
here... do you know what it's like ... it's ...."
I fumbled for her clingy. "Look, here are your clothes. Why don't you
get dressed? We'll get you out of here."
"You bastard," she repeated, but her voice was empty.
She let me coax her down off the gantry. I counted nubs on the wall
while she fumbled back into her clingy. They were the size of the old
dimes my grandfather used to hoard and they glowed with a soft golden
bioluminescence. I was up to forty-seven before she was dressed and ready
to return to reception D.
Where before she had perched expectantly at the edge of the couch, now she
slumped back against it. "So what now?" she said.
"I don't know." I went to the kitchen station and took the carafe from
the distiller. "What now, Silloin?" I poured water over the back of my
hand to wash the blood off. It stung. My earstone was silent. "I
guess we wait," I said finally.
"For what?"
"For her to fix ...."
"I'm not going back in there."
I decided to let that pass. It was probably too soon to argue with her
about it, although once Silloin recalibrated the scanner, she'd have very
little time to change her mind. "You want something from the kitchen?
Another cup of tea, maybe?"
"How about a gin and tonic -- hold the tonic?" She rubbed beneath her
eyes. "Or a couple of hundred milliliters of serentol?"
I tried to pretend she'd made a joke. "You know the dinos won't let us
open the bar for migrators. The scanner might misread your brain chemistry
and your visit to Gend would be nothing but a three year drunk."
"Don't you understand?" She was right back at the edge of hysteria. "I am
not going!" I didn't really blame her for the way she was acting but, at
that moment, all I wanted was to get rid of Kamala Shastri. I didn't care
if she went on to Gend or back to Lunex or over the rainbow to Oz, just as
long as I didn't have to be in the same room with this miserable creature
who was trying to make me feel guilty about an accident I had nothing to do
with.
