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groundside already."
And in the galley Hawkman cut short her embrace with Liesel, to lift her high
and kiss her himself.
When she had breath again Rissa said, "Well, you both look well enough. Zelde
said you were pale but I do not notice it." They sat; a crewman brought food
and coffee.
"Oh, we're fit to travel," said Hawkman. "Whenever you're ready."
Liesel said, "Funny thing-recovery this time seemed faster than at
Stronghold."
"It's a shorter haul, for one item," said Aedra. "We don't know why, but it
seems to make a difference."
"Well, it sure feels that way." Then, to Rissa; "Where's our granddaughter?
With Tregare?"
Rissa explained. "And it will be-oh, I have lost track of time-a few weeks
more, before Dacia arrives with the scout-ship."
Hawkman said, "Well, we'll just have to wait, then." And; "I hear we missed a
good fight, in space. But no one's told us the details."
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Between bites of food, Rissa described the battle, "-so, riding with Kickem
you broke through
UET's formation- twice." Hawkman grinned and shook his head. Rissa went on to
tell of the hit on
Graf Spee, Ilse's injuries and Ivan's destruction of the UET command ship.
"A deadly young man, your brother," said Hawkman.
"And how's Use now?" Liesel said. "Have you seen her lately?"
"No-and I must. I will try to again call Ivan."
Taking coffee with them, the four went to Control. The woman at the comm-panel
soon had Ivan on
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questions.
\r161
\r"It's been bad, Rissa, but she's coming out of it-physically, anyway."
"What do you mean? Can I come see her?"
"I-I'll ask. If you do-well, be careful how you react. Her appearance-"
"Ivan! What has happened? Bran mentioned surgery, and-"
He shook his head. "That's not it; the latest operation was mostly to pin her
shoulder together better, and some of the bones around it. She suffered shock
from that, sure. But her face-maybe she won't want you to see her without the
bandages. I'll go find out." He left, but the screen stayed lighted.
Rissa turned to the others. "I had not known. When I saw her, her head was
bandaged, but no one said-"
"Maybe they didn't know, yet, how bad it was going to be," said Liesel.
"But how bad is it?" Rissa said. "I-oh, here is Ivan again."
Her brother was frowning. "She says she'll see you-that she can't hide
forever."
Liesel moved forward. "Can I come along? I'm her friend, too." Hawkman began
to speak but Liesel motioned him away. "I think-just Rissa and I, for now." He
nodded and gripped her shoulder; she patted his hand.
Ivan said, "I'd think so. If Ilse says no, our galley can keep that coffee cup
full for you
"Very well. We will be only a few minutes." Rissa signed for the technician to
cut the circuit.
Aedra said, "Perhaps it's a hurt that looks terrible for a while, but only
until it heals."
"No," said Rissa. "I cannot think so. Ilse-she is tougher than that." She
breathed deeply. "Well-
let us go."
SINCE LIESEL'S vigor was still below par, Aedra called a groundcar for them.
Walking up Graf
Spec's ramp, though, the older woman moved briskly enough.
Ivan met them. "She's had a trank shot to relax, her, so if she's a little
erratic, don't mind."
He led them to the quarters he and Ilse shared, and they entered.
Rissa, determined to show no reaction, was hard put to keep her resolve. / had
not imagined it would be this bad! The right
162
side of Ilse Krueger's face-more than half, over to the line of the left
cheekbone-was unharmed.
But the left side-from near the mouth's corner to within inches of the top of
the head
-was covered with massive scabbing. A burn wound, Rissa guessed, and saw that
it was cut by a slash of deeper scar- pointed near the mouth and pulling it up
and wider, pointed again high on the side of the head, and widening to nearly
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an inch where it crossed-
"There wasn't enough left of the ear," said Ilse, "-just a little tag at top
and bottom, no point in trying to save it. I'm deaf on that side, too." She
tried to laugh, choked on it. "I've always been vain of my face, my body, and
my competence. Weli, I can forget the face, can't 1? And for catching this,
maybe the competence, too."
"It was a freak chance!" said Ivan. "You know that." He turned to Rissa. "One
in a billion-I
investigated it, later. A turret blew-faulty component, I guess-you hear of it
now and then. And three to one on us, they were, Ilse-remember that. Caught in
crossfire and still you got one of them-and got us out of there, after the
hit." He was nearly shouting; now he lowered his voice.
"Plain bad luck they hit the hole the turret left. And someone fleeing that
blowup opened a bulkhead door-there wasn't much left of whoever it was-and one
lousy flash of their beam reflected off it. Less than half a millisecond, or
her head would have been taken clean off-but she got the flash burn. The deep
scar, almost to bone, was the beam itself; the rest is side-dissipation."
"Yes," said Ilse Krueger. "They put the right things on it, your medics, when
they arrived. So maybe I've got skin re-growing under these scabs, or maybe
scar tissue and I'll need skin grafts.
Either way I suppose the hair's gone on this side, but they've been making
wigs a long time. Bat this-" She pointed to the deeper slash. "I think it's
too deep; a graft won't help, even if there's enough left over the bone for a
graft to grow to."
"We had a groundside doctor look at it," Ivan said. "A top man. He says, once
it's healed, at the least he can take out the lower end of that scar, where it
thins down-"
"So I won't have to go around the rest of my life with this idiot half-grin.
Well, that's something, I guess."
Rissa knew she must speak. Finally; "The loss of hearing
-you are sure it is permanent, not correctible?"
\r163
\rIlse stared at her, then broke into real laughter. "Rissa-I love you!
Because-I think that's the same question you'd ask if you were lying here."
She waved away Rissa's attempt to answer.
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"Oh, it's permanent, all right-no eardrum and damned little middle-ear
apparatus. In fact, they closed the passage off-too good an access for
infections, otherwise."
Liesel spoke. "That's sound practice. Now, then-how's the rest of you?"
Ilse said, "You two do make a pair. Well, the beam flash didn't do anything [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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