He had been quite good enough for her while they were chasing around the wilds of the Phemus Circle or Serenity, or trying to escape from the Zardalu or the Torvil Anfract; but as soon as she got back to her homeworld of Sentinel Gate it was a different story. He had been pushed out of the way and ignored. She preferred her snobbish and intellectual friends — people he was apparently not civilized enough to be introduced to, still less to converse with.

During the seminar he had decided, even if unconsciously, that he would get his own back. He would show her. There were other women, sophisticated and attractive ones, who found him acceptable even by the upscale standards of a world like Sentinel Gate. He had known, from the first moment that he met Glenna Omar, that she found him intriguing. It was time that Darya learned it, too.

Unfortunately, she had done exactly that, but not at all in the circumstances of his choosing.

Had Glenna left the door open on purpose? Was she someone who was excited by the chance of discovery, just as danger always excited him?

Hans stared out through the still-open door at the teeming rain. He wanted to tell Darya what a fool he had been and how sorry he was, but in that dark cloudburst he had no idea how to find her. At least, though, he had to look. He would dress, and tell Glenna that she must leave.

He turned toward the bedroom, and found her standing silent in the doorway. She had taken a sheet from his bed and draped it modestly around her.

He sighed. He was angry, but it ought to be with himself and not with Glenna Omar. “How long have you been there?”

“Just a minute or two.” She glided forward to his side. “I didn’t want to disturb you. You looked so upset.”

“I am. I think you’d better put your clothes on and get out of here.”

“I know.” She held out her dress and shoes. “If you don’t mind, I’ll borrow the sheet and just carry these with me. They’ll get soaked anyway, even if I’m wearing them.”

Her voice was as dreary as the driving rain outside. A cold draft blew in through the open door, and she shivered. She stepped forward to the threshold and hesitated there.

“Are you all right?” Hans moved to her side. “That sheet won’t be enough. I think we ought to find you something waterproof. And I’ll look for an umbrella, too.”

“It’s not that. Not the cold, I mean, or the rain.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“It’s me. Hans, I’m really sorry. This is all my fault. When we met today I was feeling lonely and awful down, and you were kind to me. You’re a very attractive and sexy man, but what I wanted more than anything was company. I needed someone to talk to, someone to hold me and tell me that I haven’t made a total mess of my life…”

Hans was horrified to see tears filling Glenna’s eyes. He felt better equipped to handle an attacking Zardalu than a weeping woman. He tried to put his arm around her, tentatively, but she pulled away.

“No. I’ll go now. It’s not your problem, it’s mine.”

“You’ll freeze if you go out dressed like that. You’re already shivering.” He put his arm around her again, and tried to lead her away from the door. “At least have a hot drink, to warm you up before you go.”

“I don’t think I ought to. Professor Lang—”

“She won’t be coming back.” That was sure enough, he thought bitterly. “And even if she did, we’ll be doing nothing wrong.”

“We-e-ell.” Glenna allowed herself to be steered through the living room. “I don’t want a drink, though.”

“Something to eat?” Hans’s guilt toward Darya was mysteriously turning into guilt toward Glenna, too.

“No. What I’d really like is just to be held for a few minutes, until I don’t feel so chilled. Then I’ll go. Would you do that for me? I mean, you don’t have to, and I really have no right to ask you.”

“It’s all right. Let’s sit down until you feel better.”

Hans had in mind that they would sit in the livingroom, but Glenna walked him into the dimlit bedroom. She put her hand on his cheek, and then to his chest.

“But you’re freezing! And I’ve been the one complaining about feeling cold. Come on.” She threw back the bedclothes. “Lie down next to me. We’ll both warm up, and then I’ll leave.”

He was bare, sore, and muddy, and his hair was still wet. He ought to go and take a hot shower, but Glenna stood waiting by the bed.

“It’s quite all right,” she said. “All I want is a tiny hug. You’ll be quite safe.”

Hans was not so sure. He climbed into bed reluctantly, and heard Glenna squeak as his chilled bare foot touched her leg. She didn’t seem cold at all. He could feel the heat radiating from her body to his. She pulled the covers over them and moved closer.

“That’s better, isn’t it?” She sighed contentedly. “You know, I feel quite exhausted. But we’d better not nod off. Would you put your arms around me, just for a little while? Then I’ll get up and go.”

After another couple of minutes Hans did as she had asked. Somewhere in the process of getting into bed, the sheet had vanished from around Glenna’s body. He eased away from her, about to explain why he was doing it. Then he noticed that her eyes had closed, and her lips were slightly parted. She was breathing evenly and deeply.

After a moment of hesitation he reached out and turned off the little bedside light. It didn’t seem right to disturb her. A few minutes of rest, while both their chilled bodies became warmer, could do neither of them any harm. In a little while the rain would stop and Glenna could leave.

Hans sighed, and closed his own eyes.

Chapter Eight

The Bose Network permits passage between its nodes, many light-years apart, in no time at all. Its use frees the beings of the spiral arm from the tyranny of slow-speed travel. Few people realize that it produces a mind-set of its own, in which all “significant” travel must be over interstellar distances.

Thus, Hans Rebka, told by Darya that she was leaving Sentinel Gate, assumed that she would head far-off through interstellar space, perhaps to the remote reaches of the Zardalu Communion, or the most distant territories of the Fourth Alliance. The truth never occurred to him as he stepped, bleary-eyed, weary, and guilty, into the balmy morning air. Inside, Glenna snored her happy head off. (If she had been exhausted last night, he wouldn’t like to meet her when she felt fresh and rested.)

The truth was that Darya was still practically within sight. Using the biggest telescope on Sentinel Gate and the right adaptive optics, Hans could have actually seen her ship.

Darya was heading for Sentinel, the artifact that sat a mere couple of hundred million kilometers from Sentinel Gate. From the planet’s surface it showed as a shining and striated ball, an undersized fixed moon in the evening sky.

She needed evidence to disprove Quintus Bloom’s theories, and no one in the universe knew Sentinel better than Darya. The sight of it had first roused her interest, as a child growing up on Sentinel Gate, in the Builders and their artifacts. Heading for it now was like a return to the simple days of childhood.

Of course, there were differences from the old days. Some of them were hard to ignore. One of them was crouched beside her, staring at the screen where Sentinel filled the field of view ahead. The Hymenopt at Darya’s side was eight-legged, with a chubby barrel-shaped body covered with short black fur. Its small, smooth head bore rings of bright black eyes all around the perimeter. At the other end, the tubby Hymenopt abdomen carried a lethal yellow sting, now safely retracted and out of sight.

There had been nothing remotely like Hymenopts, or any other aliens, in Darya’s childhood. But she did not give this one a second thought. She and Kallik had been through so many difficult and dangerous times together, from Quake to Genizee, that she felt closer to the Hymenopt than to most humans.