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women. Not like some of the shit on this ship.' He shrugged and took another
snort from the flask. 'Still . . . '
Horza cleared his throat and leant forward in his seat, not looking at
Kraiklyn. 'She's dead now, anyway,' Horza said, looking up.
'Hmm?' Kraiklyn said absently, looking at the Changer.
'The Culture woman,' Horza said. 'She's dead.'
'Oh yes.' Kraiklyn nodded, then cleared his throat and said, 'So what do you
want to do now?
I'm sort of expecting you to come along on this temple caper. I think you owe
us that, for the ride.'
'Oh yeah, don't worry,' Horza said.
'Good. After that, we'll see. If you shape up you can stay; otherwise we'll
drop you off somewhere you want, within reason, like they say. This operation
should be no problem: easy in, easy out.' Kraiklyn made a dipping, flying
motion with his flattened hand, as though it was the model of the CAT which
hung somewhere over Horza's head. 'Then we go to Vavatch.' He took another
gulp from the fumes in the snifflask. 'Don't suppose you play Damage, hmm?' He
brought the flask down, and Horza looked into the predatory eyes through the
thin mist rising from the flask's neck.
He shook his head.
'Not one of my vices. Never really got the chance to learn.'
'Yeah, I guess not. It's the only game.' Kraiklyn nodded. 'Apart from this . .
. ' He smiled and glanced about, obviously meaning the ship, the people in it
and their occupation. 'Well,'
Kraiklyn said, smiling and sitting up, 'I think I've already said welcome
aboard, but you are welcome.' He leant forward and tapped Horza on the
shoulder. 'So long as you realise who's boss, eh?' He smiled widely.
'It's your ship,' Horza said. He drank what remained of the flask's contents
and put it on a shelf beside a portrait holocube which showed Kraiklyn
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standing in his black suit, holding the same laser rifle which was mounted on
the wall above.
'I think we'll get on just fine, Horza. You get to know the others and train
up, and we'll knock the shit out of these monks. What do you say?' The Man
winked at him again.
'You bet,' Horza said, standing and smiling. Kraiklyn opened the door for him.
And for my next trick, thought Horza as soon as he was out of the cabin and
walking down to the mess, my impression of . . . Captain Kraiklyn!
During the next few days he indeed got to know the rest of the crew. He talked
to those who wanted to talk and he observed or carefully overheard things
about those who didn't. Yalson was still his only friend, but he got on well
enough with his room-mate, Wubslin, though the stocky engineer was quiet and,
when not eating or working, usually asleep. The Bratsilakins had apparently
decided that Horza probably wasn't against them, but they seemed to be
reserving their opinion about whether he was for them until Marjoin and the
Temple of Light.
Dorolow was the name of the religious woman who roomed with Yalson. She was
plump, fair skinned and fair haired, and her huge ears curved down to join
onto her cheeks. She spoke in a very high, squeaky voice which she said was
pretty low as far as she was concerned, and her eyes watered a lot. Her
movements were fluttery and nervous.
The oldest person in the Company was Aviger, a smallish, weather-beaten man
with brown skin and little hair. He could do surprisingly supple things with
his legs and arms, like clasp his hands behind his back and bring them over
his head without letting go. He shared a cabin with a man named Jandraligeli,
a tall, thin, middle-aged Mondlidician who wore the scar-marks from his
homeworld on his forehead with unrepentant pride and a look of perpetual
disdain. He ignored Horza devoutly, but Yalson said he did this with every new
recruit. Jandraligeli spent a lot of time keeping his old but well-maintained
suit and laser rifle clean and sparkling.
Gow and kee-Alsorofus were the two women who kept themselves so much to
themselves and were alleged to do things when alone in their cabin, which
seemed to annoy the less tolerant of the
Company males - that is, most of them. Both women were fairly young and had a
rather poor grasp of
Marain. Horza thought maybe that was all that kept them so isolated, but it
turned out they were pretty shy anyway. They were of average height, medium
build, and sharp-featured in grey skin, with eyes that were pools of black.
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