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she shot past two H'Mu clinging to the emergency handles. She had sensed
them long before she saw them, but the two Mu had not seen her coming until
she was almost on them. Gleefully she sped up again.
She bounced off a redirection pad so hard that she almost scraped the edge of
the chute. Taking more care, she hit the next one right on center and the one after
that even faster. She was getting the hang of it. Apply a little damp at the right
time, and she could pick up a couple hundred clicks in speed. She was almost
disappointed to slow down when she reached engines, but then, there was
always the way back.
She vaulted out of the chute and took two steps before the scene in front of
her stopped her in her tracks.
"Kiondili Wae, BZ60449." The cold voice startled her, and she jumped guiltily
and smoothed her hair in self-consciousness. The three chute guards were as
unemotional as Siln, and their neutral suits made them look like robots, not men.
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"Kiondili Wae, BZ60449," the center guard repeated.
"I acknowledge you." She forced the formal words out
with difficulty. It was not fear, she told herself, trying to control the sudden jump
in her heart and the catch in her breathing. Chute guards-they were for
emergencies. What had she done?
The center guard spoke again. "The chute speed limit for Mu of your type is
two hundred fifty clicks. You were boosting at four hundred and seventeen clicks
at top speed."
The chute guard looked as cold as he sounded, Kiondili thought, and then she
stared at him. Four hundred clicks?
"You have demonstrated your ability to go beyond the speed limit; however,
your reflexes are not fast enough to compensate for your velocity. Do you
understand?''
She nodded, speechless. They were giving her a speeding ticket? A speeding
ticket in a free-boost chute?
"Control will monitor your chute manipulation from now on," the guard
continued coldly. "You will restrict your velocity to two hundred fifty clicks. If
you go beyond that, your chute access will be terminated."
She stared at them. They were serious. She did not breathe till they left,
stepping lightly into the chute she had just vacated and disappearing along the
empty tubes. She let her breath out. She had not realized how closely the chutes
were monitored.
Or was it Kiondili who was being watched?
She shrugged, but the suspicion remained to nag softly. Central Control could
have used the chute com to call and stop her, but they had not. Why? Was she
listed in Control as unpredictable? And the chute guards had had neutral suits
on, too, she remembered. She stopped. It did not matter that the neutral suits had
not been activated. No, it was a message that Control wanted her to read. And
the message was clear: Kiondili Wae was now an unknown quantity, not to be
trusted.
She slapped her damp back on full and stalked down the hall of the engines
triad. By the time she reached engines, she was grinding her teeth at the snail's
pace of walking, but she could not risk a free jump in the grav corridors. It just
was not done. Free-boosting in a grav field, she told herself bitterly, remembering
the chute guards.
The door to Kiet's lab shimmered open at her touch, and she stepped through
into a cold atmosphere where her breath steamed in the air. Shivering, she turned
up the heat on her persona adjust, but the cold had already reached her bones.
She glanced at the three slender hulls cradled in the prototype engine area. Three
Lightwings. Two chances to make light-speed. She studied the last ship in the
cradles, noting the open engine area where part of the drives had been
cannibalized to refit the other two.
"Is Kiet here?" she asked the assistant crouched under the blast tubes of the
first Lightwing.
"In a moment," it answered without looking. "He is setting the polyxeforum
concentration. Adjust yourself to comfort over there." The bulbous creature
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squatted, unconcerned whether she complied.
Sit, Kiondili translated. Looking around, she found a Soft and collapsed into it,
watching as the assistant floated several tools up along a bidirectional grav
beam. "He requested some help adjusting one of the drive fields," she called
over. "I'm Kiondili Wae-"
"I know who you are," the assistant cut in. "Your E-presence precedes you.
You were requested because you have been working with simulation and control.
Your experience in knowing what is required for blast will be useful in adjusting
the required sensitivities into the drive."
Kiondili raised her eyebrow at the assistant, but the Soft was on its lowest
setting and felt like a pool of water, relaxing her with its flowing support. Now
that the fright from the chute guards was over, she did not feel like conversation.
"Wae?" Kiet's heavy voice startled her.
She opened her eyes. She had fallen asleep in the Soft. "I beg your pardon,"
she said quickly, struggling out of the Soft. Where was that control to firm?
The burly man reached down and touched the control, giving her a sudden
platform to climb off instead of the
marshmallow that had soothed her to sleep. "No offense, Wae." He was glancing
around the Soft as if puzzled. "Did your sensors get lost in the Soft? They
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