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teams put together-the teams Effi herself trained. But she won't even
acknowledge that half the progress we've made so far is due to my team's effort."
"She is H'Mu. Your success only gives her greater reason
to hate you. Envy is a powerful motivator, Wae, and Effi is not jealous but
frightened."
"Of me?"
"Of her age."
Kiondili tightened her jaw.
"She cannot force the other teams to make the progress your team has made.
She does not have the strength to work as the sensor for one of the prime teams.
She sees that you have everything she does not. So she pushes the prime teams
to catch up, to reach beyond you, to beat you-as if this were a game or race. And
so you and your backup team go to Rae, Coos, even Waon and me for your
training."
"And you came here to complain," Kiondili scoffed.
 From experience and from Effi's training, the other teams have more
knowledge of the physics, of the drive theory, of ship control. That experience,
applied, is what I need to complete my own research." Lan-Lu adjusted her
persona adapt to turn her personal grav sphere off. As the zero-grav field in the
float library picked her up, she floated toward the nearly invisible pane that held
back the stars. "It wastes my time to duplicate Effi's work with the prime teams."
"Then why don't you go back to working with the other teams to finish your
research?"
Lan-Lu looked at her. "I am a hunter, Mu. And the espers on the other teams
have less effective blocks than you. My research is crippled by their crudely
blatant emotions, and my instincts disturb my thoughts."
Kiondili said nothing. Lan-Lu mistook her silence for a lack of comprehension.
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"The urge to hunt is heightened when the prey projects certain emotions," the
Ixia explained tightly. "Frustration, which makes them careless; anger or hostility,
which challenges; and helplessness, which makes them such easy prey that my
claws come out each time Effi spurs them to feel they have lost control or failed.
The tension on the prime teams is eating at their nerves. And so it eats at mine."
"And I'm not stressed when I'm around Argon?"
"Your hostility behind blocks is less . . . provocative," Lan-Lu said, "than the
other espers' tension leaked through their blocks. Ce'eldi, the sensor on Team A,
makes my teeth want to sharpen. And Arond, on Team B, sweats so that I desire
nothing more than to chew his spindly arms off and gnaw on his bones. Also,"
she added as an afterthought, "neither has the potential that you do."
Then why was Kiondili on backup and not prime?
Lan-Lu answered as if Kiondili's thought had been spoken out loud. "Because
you lack the emotional maturity to be prime."
Kiondili stared. Emotional maturity? Since when did that matter? Sal, who was
as emotionally unstable as they came, was on learn B as controller. Kiondili was
at least as emotionally mature as he.
"Are you sure?"
Kiondili opened her mouth to retort, stopping only when a movement by the
predator reminded her of what the alien could do. She set her jaw. If Lan-Lu
wanted to play rough, fine. Kiondili had not honed her sensor skills for nothing.
She could manipulate the fields in this float library without half thinking, tighten
the grav sphere around herself and leave the rest of the room in no-grav. She
would drop to the floor while Lan-Lu sprawled in the air. And Kiondili could
manipulate those fields all day. Then see what Lan-Lu thought of her lack of
experience in field control.
Lan-Lu did not need to be esper to read Kiondili's intention. "I am not here to
fight, Mu. I am here to offer a compromise. It will help my research and ensure the
success of the program. And," she added, "gain you greater prestige at this
outpost."
Kiondili had to laugh. "Prestige? All I want is to get out from under Dugan's
eyes and out of range of Argon and Effi. As for the success of the flights, as Effi
said, the prime teams are supposed to do that, anyway."
 Backup is the only team to reach recombination phase,'' Lan-Lu spit. "Your
fields hold together tighter; your blocks
stabilize the tension on your team. And I must be able to train at least one team
to go through recombination properly. Effi will not agree to put you on Prime A
or B, and I cannot work with the espers on the other teams amplifying each
person's stress." The Ixia's muscles rippled tautly under her golden skin as she
shoved off from the window toward the door.
"I will think on it," Kiondili said finally.
Kiondili was startled at the expression on the Ixia's face. When Lan-Lu next
spoke, the softness of her voice betrayed her intensity. "My people need this
drive, Mu." Her slitted lips were tight. "We Ixia would never have stooped to
working with H'Mu-or any other species of prey-had it not been for our need for
the Lightwing drive. We have little left to trade with the Federation for the lease
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of their ships. Without more development, without the ability to explore what we
have already discovered, we will be condemned to sub-light status." She
touched her chest. "H'Mu, Ixia, Robul- we will all share the Lightwing drive if it
succeeds. My work must not be wasted. Nor your talent." She regarded Kiondili [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]