'Welcome aboard, Fred, Aldon,' she said, cutting through the chatter with her own, higher-pitched voice.
Silence, as both the grad students looked around for the speaker.
Fred caught on first, and while his face remained completely without expression, he had already learned the knack of displaying human-type emotions with his voice. 'My word!' he exclaimed with delight, 'you are a brainship, are you not, dear lady?'
As a final incongruity, he had adopted a clipped British accent to go along with his voice.
'Precisely, sir,' she replied. 'AH One-Oh-Three-Three at your service, so to speak.'
'Wow,' Aldon responded, dearly awestruck. 'We get to ride in a brainship? They've actually put us on a brainship? Wow, PTAs don't even get rides from brainships! I've never even seen a brainship before. Uh, hi, what's your real name?' He turned slowly, trying to figure out which way to face.
'Hypatia, Tia for short,' she replied, tickled by the young beings' responses. 'Don't worry about where to look, just assume I'm the whole ship. I am, you know. I even have eyes in your quarters,' she chuckled at Aldon's flush of embarrassment, 'but don't worry, I won't use them. Your complete privacy is important to us.'
'I can show you the cabins, and you can pick the ones you want,' Alex offered. 'They're all the same; I'm just reserving the one nearest the main cabin for Doctor Hollister-Aspen.'
'Stellar!' Aldon enthused. 'Wow, this is better than the liner coming in! I had to share a cabin with Fred and two other guys.'
'Quite correct,' Fred seconded. 'I enjoyed Aldon's company, but the other two were, dare I say, spoiled young reprobates? High Family affectations without the style, the connections, or the Family. Deadly bores, I assure you, and a spot of privacy will be welcome. Shall we, then?'
The two grad students were unpacking their carryon baggage when the two post-docs arrived, this time singly. Treel arrived first, accepted the greetings with the calm, intense demeanor of a Zen Master, and took the first cabin she was offered.
Les Dimand-Taylor was another case altogether. It was obvious to Tia the moment he came aboard, without the automatic salute he made to her column, that he was ex-military. He confirmed her assumption as soon as Alex offered him a cabin.
'Anything will do, old man,' he said, with a kind of nervous cheer. 'Better than barracks, that's for sure. Unless, Lady Tia, you don't have anything that makes an unexpected noise in the middle of the night, do you? I'm,' he laughed a little shakily, 'I'm afraid I'm just a little twitchy about noises when I'm asleep. What they euphemistically call 'unfortunate experiences'. I'll keep my door locked so I don't disturb anyone but-'
'Give him the cabin next to Treel, Alex,' she said firmly. 'Doctor Dimand-Taylor,'
'Les, my dear,' he replied, with a thin smile. 'Les to you and your colleagues, always. Pulled me out of a tight spot, one of you BB teams did. Besides, when people hear my title they tend to start telling me about their backs and innards. Hate to have to tell them that I'd only care about their backs if the too, too solid flesh had been melted off the bones for the past thousand years or so.'
'Les, then,' she said. 'I assume you know Treel?'
'Very well. A kind and considerate lady. If you have her assigned as my neighbor, she's so quiet I never know she's there.' He seemed relieved that Tia didn't press him for details on the 'tight spot' he'd been in.
'That cabin and hers are buried in the sound-proofing around the holds,' Tia told him. 'You shouldn't hear anything, and I can generate white-noise for you at night, if you'd like.'
He relaxed visibly. 'That would be charming of you, thanks awfully. My superior, Doc Aspen, told the others about my little eccentricities, so they know not to startle me. So we should be fine.'
He went about his unpacking, and Alex returned to the main cabin.
'Commando,' Tia said succinctly.
'That in his records?' Alex asked. 'I'm surprised they left that there. Not saying where, though, are they?'
'If you know where to look and what to look at, the fact that he was a commando is in his records,' she told her brawn. 'But where, that's not in the Institute file. It's probably logged somewhere. Remember not to walk quietly, my dear.'
'Since I'd rather not get karate-chopped across the throat, that sounds like a good idea.' He thought for a moment and went off to his cabin, returning with what looked like a bracelet with a bell on it. 'These things went
