But apparently someone did notice and a commotion erupted near the walkthrough hatch. Several Dushau turned, calling urgently to those around and behind. Others gathered and retreated swiftly through the walkthrough. Then everyone seemed to relax, and a male came up to her.

"Katherine Minogue?"

"Actually, I'm Krinata Zavaronne, a friend of Jindigar."

"Krinata Zavaronne, the one who devised the plan?" A sudden wary awe suffused the indigo features, and it seemed to Krinata that the nap on his face stood up. She'd never seen that in a Dushau before.

"I was just looking for Jindigar."

"If you'll wait here, I'll find him for you." With that, he strode away into the walkthrough.

That was how Dushau often earned a reputation for species prejudice. They could be abrupt and inhospitable. Telling herself she could locate Jindigar herself, she was about to follow when she remembered these Dushau were going to run a blockade and risk breaching their only home's defenses because they had three "youngsters" in Renewal. No Ephemeral, except perhaps Terab, had ever seen a Dushau in Renewal. Though she'd searched the archives diligently, she'd never been able to find a reason for this.

Shortly, a Dushau female approached Krinata. "Jindigar has asked me to bring you to him."

Curious, she followed the short, slender Dushau up a ramp and through cramped corridors into a Sentient's core room. Jindigar's feathered legs were protruding from an open access panel, and his voice boomed as he requested various tools. Across the room, Rinperee and several others worked over exposed circuitry, muttering together and occasionally calling, "Thirlein, can you hear now?"

It looked like the work would go on forever, so she wandered off to one side to wait. As she was examining the instrumentation near the door, Grisnilter came in, spotted the feathered legs and made for Jindigar. She didn't like the expression on the elder's face.

She stepped in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. "With great and elaborate respect, Sir Grisnilter, I must beg you not to disturb Jindigar right now."

She thought she sounded civil enough, but the older Dushau looked at her as if she had crawled out of something damp. "Did he instruct you to say that to me?"

"No." And then she hit flashpoint. She knew her temper was out of control by the way her teeth refused to part to let her words out. "I just thought you ought to know that your hysterical meddling almost cost all of us our lives. You don't have the sense of an Ephemeral adolescent if you think you can get away with picking a fight with him right before a ticklish operation and still expect him to be witty, clever and clear-headed enough to cope with all emergencies! We're not out of this yet, so if you expect your fellow Dushau to survive to get home, you'd better just take yourself..." She swallowed the obscenity and finished, "off this ship!"

She suddenly noticed an intense silence had fallen. Everyone was looking at them. Jindigar's voice boomed, "Now!" After a long pause, Thirlein's voice burst upon them, a wail of pain and terror. Someone turned the volume down, while others began talking soothingly to Thirlein. One Dushau female in a greasy coverall helped Jindigar out of the access hole, saying, ''Beautifully done! I thought it impossible—"

Jindigar hugged the woman absently, eyes riveted on Krinata and Grisnilter squared off and the center of attention. Absently, he muttered to the Dushau woman, "Comes from battering about the galaxy in an antique. Let me know if Thirlein decides to stay with you."

Jindigar came over to them. Grisnilter eyed his smudged and unkempt appearance, and said, without a trace of apology, "I'm sorry. I didn't intend to upset you."

Jindigar put a hand on the frail shoulder, and said in a quiet, ultimate tone, "It's all right. I understand."

Krinata's face felt flaming hot, but she stood her ground. Grisnilter made a defeated gesture and left. Jindigar looked after him, worried. Then he pulled himself back and turned to Krinata. "What are you doing here?"

Krinata outlined the results of the vote, ending, "So there's a Dushau looking for you to ask you to train him, and Arlai says Truth's ready to go as soon as you're finished."

"You had to come here to tell me this?"

She pulled herself up and pronounced, "I apologize. I wanted to help." She turned on her heel and marched toward one of the hatches, though she wasn't sure where it led.

Jindigar caught up with her and took her elbow. But despite the strain he'd been under, there was no body odor. "This way," he said, steering through another hatch, his long legs eating the distance so she had to stride to keep up.

"We're not in that much of a hurry," she protested.

He slowed, saying tightly, "I've got to get you out of here before you cause another incident."

Tired, fighting the gravity and the lighting, nerves shredded, she suddenly couldn't cope. "If it bothers you that much, I'll go move my things onto Terab's ship!" She wrenched free and stalked away from him.

He caught up with her near the walkthrough and pulled her to a stop. They were blocking traffic, and she was conscious of curious stares swiftly averted. In a hoarse whisper pitched just to her ears, he pled, "Don't, Krinata. I only meant that I must protect those in Renewal here. We're all under a lot of stress."

"Haven't you ever heard the theory that stress brings out the true person?"

"That may be for humans. Not for Dushau." He raked the indigo crowd around them with a glance. Krinata noticed the odor again as he escorted her through into Truth.

As he hustled her along, she asked, "Does being human mean being socially unacceptable? Or is it just socially unacceptable to stand up to Grisnilter?"

Staring straight ahead, he breathed grimly, "Sometimes being Dushau means being socially unacceptable!"

Through his light touch on her arm, she noticed a faint tremor; not the same as when she'd come to him in the imperial antechamber, nor the suppressed fear she'd felt before. This was different.

Curious, she let him steer her to his own cabin. When they were alone in the large living area, he motioned her to a seat. "Let me talk to this Oliat trainee, and then I'll do what I can to explain. Don't leave yet. Please."

He went into the tiled room, leaving the hatch slightly ajar. Under the sound of rushing water, she heard a swift conversation in modern Dushauni. What she caught of it sounded like a job interview crossed with a character probe. She listened, trying not to think that he might want nothing to do with her after what she'd said to Grisnilter. Her mother had always told her that her imagination and her temper would be the end of her.

Through the fretting of her own thoughts, she heard Frey, the young Oliat trainee, answer a question, "Yes, I've heard all your reputation. Is it true?"

"Yes," answered Jindigar.

"You're one of the most experienced Oliat officers still working. You could not have survived so long, or still be welcomed by Thellarue, if you hadn't learned to respect the power of Oliat—in all of its manifestations."

The word the youngster used for power had a half dozen other meanings Krinata had never quite grasped. She'd once thought "magic" might be one possible translation, but no glossary listed it. She'd never considered that an Oliat had power that had to be respected, the way one respected the power of a weapon. Yes, that was the connotation: the Oliat was a weapon to be respected. I wonder what Rantan would make of that idea?

When Jindigar returned, dressed in a crisp white ship's uniform, he shoved a low cushion up beside her couch and sat cross-legged in his whule-playing position. "I apologize. I should not have been so abrupt with you. Forgive?"