Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (30 page)

"Would
any
of
our
official
party
be
likely
to
have
such
skills?"
he asked.

"Yes,"
she
said,
nodding.
"But
they're
all
still
in
Abbeyville,
pretending
you're
holed
up
there;
and
I
thought
it'd
be
best
not
to
risk exposing
that
ruse."

"You're
right,"
he
said.

"Why
don't
you
tell
me
what
you
want
researched,"
she
said. "Then
you
can
catch
a
nap
while
I
get
it
all
in
motion?"

"We
want
historical
researchers,"
he
said,
"but
I'm
still
trying
to work
the
problem
in
my
own
head....
Let
me
sleep
on
it,
and
I'll have
it
by
the
time
we
have
people
ready
to
work.
Besides,
you need
sleep
even
more
than
I
do."

Things
were
quiet
aboard
Favored
of
God
that
evening.
In
fact, Bleys
thought,
it
was
almost
like
being
in
space,
except
there
were fewer
people
around.
He
had
napped
for
nearly
four
hours
before getting
up
to
have
a
small
meal,
which
he
prepared
for
himself
in the
ship's
kitchen.
Toni
was
still
asleep.

He
wished
he
could
look
out
from
the
ship
now,
to
see
space
as they
passed
through
it—to
look
out
at
the
stars,
as
he
always
tried
to do
when
out
among
them
...
but
then,
it
wasn't
space
he
would
see out
there
now.
He
could
activate
a
sensor
to
watch
the
Cetan
night sky
from
here
in
the
lounge,
but
it
would
not
be
the
same
thing.

It
was
strange
that
he
could
feel
so
free,
in
a
ship
like
this,
when it
was
out
among
the
stars,
and
yet
feel
so
penned
in—in
the
very same
ship—when
it
was
at
rest
on
a
planet's
surface.

He
had
not
really
realized,
until
now,
how
much
he
had
come
to miss
those
visits
with
the
stars.
On
his
first
interstellar
trips
with his
mother
he
had
gotten
out
from
under
the
thumbs
of
the
caretakers
she
set
to
watch
him,
by
parking
himself
in
the
lounges
of the
various
liners
and
watching
the
starscapes
the
vision
screens presented....
Some
of
the
better
liners
had
even
had
wraparound effects
that
could
make
him
feel
as
if
he
was
floating
in
space
without
need
for
a
ship.
On
later
trips,
when
he
was
an
adult
traveling alone,
solitary,
that
feeling
of
kinship
with
the
stars
had,
if
anything, grown
stronger.

These
years
his
trips
were
always
made
in
the
company
of others—other
people
and
other
concerns
...
so
many
of
both,
he could
never
seem
to
find
the
solitariness
necessary
to
recapture
that feeling
of
kinship.

Would
he
ever
be
that
alone
again?
It
seemed
strange
even
to him,
that
he,
who
had
felt
loneliness
so
keenly
all
his
life,
should miss
being
alone.

It
did
not
seem
likely
he
would
ever
again
be
in
a
position
to travel
by
himself,
unburdened
by
the
presence
of
others
who
could demand
his
time
and
attention.

—Maybe
not.
He
remembered
now,
suddenly,
that
many
years ago
Donal
Graeme,
who
had
come
as
close
as
anyone
ever
had
to being
the
ruler—no,
make
that
guardian
—of
the
entire
race,
had still
managed
to
be
alone
in
a
ship,
on
that
last
trip
when
he
had vanished,
as
sometimes
occurred
when
a
phase-shift
went
wrong.

Did
Graeme
travel
by
himself
because
of
some
similar
desire
to be
close
with
the
stars?
Maybe
he
ought
to
look
into
more
details
of the
man's
life.

And
maybe
he
could
learn
to
handle
a
ship
and
go
off
on
trips
by himself....

But
then,
he
reminded
himself,
Graeme
had
been
a
Dorsai,
an accomplished
member
of
a
people
skilled
in
ship
-
handling.
Still
...

He
shook
his
head.
His
mission
was
going
to
require
all
the
lifetime
he
could
manage
to
attain,
and
more
besides.

A
few
hours
later,
Toni
came
into
the
lounge
by
way
of
the
comms room.

"Henry's
on
the
line,"
she
said.
"He
wants
to
know
if
you
have any
new
orders."

"He
told
us
earlier
that
the
Soldiers
found
no
identification
of any
sort
on
the
dead
attackers
around
that
bunker,
but
that
they were
going
to
try
to
analyze
some
of
the
clothing
and
equipment," Bleys
said.
"Did
anything
come
of
that?"