Storm at Eldala

pieces that a young man on active service picks up over a tour of duty. Only this remained, a token given him as a 'lightening exercise' by a buddy who was going home and happily giving away every possible ounce of freight. Sometimes Gabriel thought he should get rid of this too, but the little thing was too evocative of the last of the good things about being a marine — the companionship, the sense that there were things worth fighting for and friends to fight beside. At first, he had not been able to think much about those friends. The screams of the ones he had killed echoed through his dreams for weeks. He still heard them, but not as often. Gabriel thought as he looked down at the ten-kilometer-long waves of the shallow tidal sea, when will I stop hearing them altogether? Will that be a good thing if Ihaven't found out who killed them?

There would be time for that. He would not stop looking. In the meantime. . better to try to get on with some other kind of life.

He made his way back to the ship that evening to sleep aboard. The next morning, the installation crew unceremoniously rousted Gabriel out, telling him not to come back until lunchtime. When he did, he heard a voice echoing downSunshine's middle corridor. Gabriel paused — then realized with a jolt of happy surprise whose voice that was. 'Delde Sota!' he called.

She turned toward him, smiling that cool wise smile of hers as Gabriel stepped out. 'Greeting: looking well, Gabriel.'

'So are you,' Gabriel said.

It was true, for she was quite handsome, even when you reckoned her looks by strictly human standards. Easily two meters tall, Delde Sota had long dark silvershot hair pulled straight back from her high forehead. Around shoulder level her shaggy mane was braided, the silver sheen of the cyberneural fiber and custom-made prehensile fibrils weaving in patterns through the hair as the braid tapered and became more complex. Finally, there was only a slender silver tail at the end, which might lie still or part itself again and weave itself into many-fibrilled patterns while the doctor considered something. This was most of the time. Delde Sota was not one whose mind was long inactive, and she seemed to consider it part of her business to keep you thinking, too.

Enda was there as well, which surprised Gabriel. He had expected her to spend another day out in town, but here she was chatting with doctor, who was dressed for travel in the usual mechalusrlin noch 'i, the simple utilitarian one-piece garment that covered the body from neck to feet — a soft gray- silver, in Delde Sota's case. Over this, she wore a long, wide-sleeved, floppy overcoat of some soft fluffy charcoal- colored material, a marked contrast to the slick gleam of therlin noch'i. Gabriel was bemused by how pleased he was to see the doctor. It was not merely that she had been a great help to him and Enda — she had. There was a peculiarly cheerful quality to her that made the power and complexity of her personality pleasant to be around.

'Doctor, what brings you over this way?' Gabriel said. 'I'd hoped we'd see you before we left, but I didn't think it would be here.'

'Agenda: business,' said the doctor. 'Also have been in touch with Helm Ragnarsson about your plans.

Suggestion from him: desired in-depth system check of your ship's software with an eye to — shall we say? — tampering. Have found none.'

She paused as if to give Gabriel a chance to say something, but the silence was a comment. There were indeed some devices aboardSunshine that enabled the ship to be monitored from outside. They were there at Gabriel's sufferance, for the time being, and he only thought about them when he chose to. Gabriel simply blinked at Delde Sota, and the end of her braid wreathed about and tied itself into a brief knot before undoing itself again. 'Thank you, Doctor,' he said. 'Query: departure time?' Delde Sota said. 'Response: uncertain as yet.'

Gabriel looked over at Enda. She gave him a smile that, for its intensity, was unusual. 'We have no more business to do here after our tanks are full,' Enda said, 'and full they will be. The response has been better than I had hoped — far better. We now are only delayed by the remaining time that the tank installation will take. When that is done, we may download from the planetary Grid and be away immediately.'

'Reaction: congratulation,' said Delde Sota. 'Propitious start. Wish that your business may continue so.' She gave Gabriel a look, suggesting that she was referring to other aspects of his business as well. 'If you'd like to check the tanks when the loading is finished,' Gabriel said, 'also with an eye to 'Tampering,' I would appreciate it.'

'Statement: would appreciate it myself,' said Delde Sota, her eyes glinting with amusement. Data tanking was usually proprietary hardware — something into which a mechalus was always delighted to get her wires with an eye to simulating it for her own purposes. 'Query: this will not violate any end-user agreements?'

Enda bowed her head 'no' and said, 'Obviously you may not examine the data itself, which lies within confidentiality seal and encryption, but as for the tanks—'

Delde Sota smiled. 'Statement: know something about confidentiality myself,' she said. 'Ancillary statement—'

She broke off. Gabriel smiled, hearing a mechalus joke. Computer circuitry and software were part of the physical world through which Delde Sota moved, almost an element, like air or water, and part of her own being. As a skilled former Grid pilot, no level of encryption would long have kept Delde Sota out if she had her mind set on making her way through it, but she did not. Her ethics were as hard and dependable as the circuitry she had weaving through her.

'How long will you be with us, Doctor?' Enda said. 'Will you have time for a meal before we leave?' 'Reply: numerous,' Delde Sota said, turning away from her brief attention to the Grid access panel across the hall from them. 'Information: I will be accompanying Helm Ragnarsson onLongshot to Terivine.' Gabriel's mouth fell open. 'Wha— Delde Sota, that's wonderful! But what about your job on Iphus?' 'Clarification: have taken extended sabbatical,' said the doctor. 'Requirements for service at Iphus Collective, medical, medico- mechanical, have dropped off nearly thirty percent over past two months. Assistant physician complaining of boredom.' She grinned, a briefly fierce look. 'Conjecture: no more complaints for the immediate future.' 'Why the drop-off, do you think?' Enda said.

Delde Sota gave Enda a thoughtful look. 'Theory: pressure from VoidCorp against independent mining operations on Iphus Collective increasing. Theory: VoidCorp pressure also being exerted against Collective facility proper, with a view to forcing closure.'

'They have wanted that for a long time,' Enda said. 'Do you think our recent activities might be responsible for this increased pressure?'

'Reply: uncertain,' the doctor said. 'Agreement: action has been in train for some time. Speculation: other influences may also be responsible.'

She turned to look over at the Grid access panel. 'Extenuating circumstances: any job grows wearying with too much time in a single place. Medicine may be practiced anywhere. Oaths pack small and light. Other equipment requires more time.' She glanced sideways at Gabriel. 'Phymech on Helm's ship has been upgraded to high standard. Query: has yours been serviced lately?'

'Not since you last looked at it.'

'Have closeout deal on new upgrade pack,' Delde Sota said. 'Twenty percent off. Twenty-five for old and trusted customers.'

Enda laughed and covered her eyes, a gesture indicating that the fraal who made it could not cope with present events and was considering taking up the contemplative life. 'Another of your discounts! Gabriel, take her somewhere quiet and negotiate with her, or push her into the tank hold and lock her in, whichever you please.'

'Twenty-three percent,' Delde Sota said over her shoulder as Gabriel guided her away, 'for insufficient show of enthusiasm.'

They walked downSunshine's hall to look through the round port in the door that gave onto the main hold. Once the hold would have been a large empty space. Now it was filled with rack after rack of data storage facility, the 'tank,' a series of ceiling-to-floor frames filled with heavy-duty data storage solids and their holding and processing shells. Occasionally a fraal or human technician could be seen squeezing among the racks, always with arms full of more solids. Closer to the door, another technician was installing the high-speed upload and download channeling transmitters that would allow the carried data to be dumped to a system grid or planetary facility on arrival.

'Very impressive,' Delde Sota said, peering through the heavy glass, and the end of her braid twitched. 'It'll