Closed System

lifting his coffeecup, hiding behind it for a moment, taking too biga gulp

so that it burned his mouth.

'He wasn't lying to you,' she said. 'We weregoing to give you half.'

'We?' he asked.

'All right,' she said. 'I guess it's time to put itall up front and be honest.'

'I'd deeply appreciate that,' he said.

'Murphy knew that I'd be leaving Taratwo. Hegot my attention by sending me dozens of expen­sive bouquets, adoring fan letters, and finally Iagreed to see him. He had the diamond right therewith him in that same leather bag. He said that ifthe government or the government gem monopolyfound out that he had it they'd take it from him.

I felt sorry for him. He'd spent his life on variousout-planets and that was his first big strike. Healmost lost his life getting it, digging a diamondpipe that was quite near an active volcano, always in danger of being buried alive by an earthquakecollapsing his shaft. I guess I'm soft, but I thoughthe should enjoy the fruits of his luck and labor. Itold him I'd help, notify him when I was leaving,arrange a sale for the diamond when we were backon Zede II.'

'You didn't have to help much,' Pat said. 'Hedid it all himself, contacted me, came to the shiphimself.'

'But I told him about you, told him when youwould arrive and when you'd be leaving.' A smalltear came to her right eye and fell, rolling downher cheek. 'I thought he was aboard, hiding. I keptwaiting for you to tell me that there was another passenger.'

'But you, you and Murphy, were going to giveme half of the sales value? How much was in it foryou?'

Her lips tensed in quick anger, then she shookher head. 'Well, I don't really blame you for think­ing that.'

'So what do we do now? Do we split it fifty-fifty?' He didn't know why, but there was some­thing in him that seemed to be driving him to beharsh with her when what he wanted to do was exactly 180 degrees away from harshness.

She drew herself up proudly. 'If that's the wayyou want it.'

'We might wonder if Murphy had children, awife back in the UP somewhere,' Pat said.

'Oh? And you'd be generous and honorable aridgive the diamond to them?'

'Would you?'

She rose and walked away, and when she spoke,her face turned away from him, her voice wasstrained. 'You won't believe it, I'm sure, but that'sexactly what I would do. As it happens, however,he was alone, no close kin, an old man who wantedonly to spend his last years in comfort on somenice planet.'

He wanted to go to her, put his arms aroundher, tell her that he was sorry. 'Hey,' he said.'OK. I'm sorry. I believe you would do that. Ididn't know the old man well, but I'm sorry he's dead.' She turned to face him. The computer waspurring and clicking as it built a nice, three-dimensional map on the screens, working withsmooth efficiency to find one, just one, point ofreference.

'Could the security police have been after thediamond?' he asked.

'I don't think so. I don't see how they couldhave known.' 'They had to have a reason. If not the diamond,you. Maybe Brenden wasn't ready for you to leave.' 'He wouldn't have tried to kill me,' she said,her voice strong, sure. 'All right. It's going to take the old man a while to get a fix. Are you hungry?' She nodded withalmost

childish eagerness. 'Care to check the menu,or shall I just give youSkimmer's best?' 'Please,' she said, coming to sit on the paddedbench again. Skimmerwasn't a luxury liner. They ate on thebridge, and as they ate, she demonstrated that shehad

people skills, diverting his questions with charmingly asked questions of her own, drawingPat out of his shell of suspicion. He found himselftalking his head off, telling her about his youthfullove of words and languages, of his pride at beinggiven the chair at Xanthos University which hadbeen endowed by the man who had first translatedthe one alien language which man had encoun­tered. She was familiar with the sad, frighteningstory of the Artunee civilization, the story of Miaree.She had, in fact, played the part of Miaree in a Zedeian production of the tale.

'I want a copy of that,' he said. 'I think you'dlook great with Artunee wings and those cute littleantennae

coming out of your forehead.' 'And I'll bet you charmed all the coeds atXanthos U,' she said, turning the conversationagain. 'Audrey Patricia Howe.' She was reading from the ship's license, mounted over the console.

Pat rolled his eyes. 'You're asking?' 'Shouldn't I?' 'My mother was a certified nut.' 'Poor baby,' she said, pursing her lips. 'No, really, Audrey is an old family name. Moth­er's grandfather, Fleet Admiral Alexander P. Audrey.'

He rose and programmed a course change.The ship was still moving along at a small fraction of the speed of light on flux thrusters. Somewhere back there were two well-armed light cruisers, andhe was making it as difficult as possible for themto track him. 'Her name was Patricia, and she wanted a girl.'

'Cruel,' she said. 'You had fights in first schoolbecause other boys teased you.' 'Had to learn to fight.' 'Do you also always fight with ladies?' She wasswamping him, foundering him, with those greeneyes. All

of her attention was focused on him, onhis face, his eyes. 'The last thing I want to do with you is fight,'he said, smiling. 'Good.' When she smiled her mouth seemed to double in size, a true east-west smile, a glory of asmile

which changed every aspect of her lovelyface, made her look quite young. 'How long doyou estimate before the computer locates us?'

He shrugged. 'The old man has already gonethrough a few hundred possibilities, using a grad­ually increasing data base.'

'Sorry, I'm just an actress. I don't understandthat technical talk.'

'Well, he builds a model of the visible star fields,then rotates the model, trying to match the stars with a known point of reference. For example, ifyou looked up at the night sky and saw the Bellconstellation, you'd know that you were lookinginto space from the area of Zede II. If you were afew parsecs away from Zede II, at right anglesfrom the plane of the Bell as seen from the planet,the Bell would be unrecognizable. Build a holomodel and rotate it and soon you'd see the Bell, andfrom that known position, in the area of Zede II,you could figure out where you were.'

'It's as clear as a Taratwo ashfall,' she said,laughing.

'The computer starts with a few stars in themodel, and then begins to add in more and morewhen rotation fails to produce any known patterns.With millions of stars to work with, he might haveto

construct quite a few models before he hits paydirt.'

'So we could be here for afew days?'

'Or weeks.'

'We'll just have to find a way to entertain ourselves, won't we?' she asked, then she flushed hotlyas he

grinned.

'I won't make the obvious suggestion,' he said.

'Please don't.'

Not yet, he was thinking. Not yet.

For the next meal she tried her hand at makingup a menu, learning the operation of the nutritionservo

quickly. She went through theSkimmer'sfilm library, picked out a few of her old favorites,and with her

comments, her inside knowledge offilmmaking, the often-seen pictures took on newinterest for Pat.

On the third ship's day, he kissed her. Her mouth tasted of lipstick and cherries. It was just after the evening meal, and he kissed her without prelimi­nary, rising and lifting her from the padded bench into his arms. Her mouth went soft and pliant andher arms tightened around him, and when he lookedinto her face she was weeping quietly, the tearswelling up in those huge, blazing green eyes to wether lashes and slip silently down onto her cheeks.

'That bad?' he asked, his voice husky with de­sire, which had been building, building, building.

'Please don't,' she whispered.

He drew her to him again and lost himself in theglory of the feel of her, the warmth of her.

'Please don't,' she repeated.

What the hell? Even though she was a Zedeian,that business of saying yes yes with the lips and nono

with the tongue was passe. A woman did, orshe didn't, and it was her choice, and, althoughthe old morality was strong, the family unit thebasic building block of civilization, women hadlong since been free, as men were, to do as theypleased.'You're confusing me,' he said, leaning toward her lips again.

'You're a nice man—' 'Just nice.?' 'Please, Pat.' He released her with a sigh. 'All right,' he said. 'Oh,' she said, in