He was dumbfounded. Sex was not forbidden to Church of the Emancipation
girls, but usually at the merest hint of it they ran away and hid
somewhere. For a moment, remembering the sweep of her thighs when she
had entered the room, he was tempted; but only for a moment. Recovering
himself, he said, "I'm afraid that kind of cash won't suffice either.
My pilot's license is my bread and butter, and I value my bread and
butter highly." He stood up. "In my capacity as captain of this vessel
I hereby place you under arrest and order you to return to your
self-chosen quarters and to remain there for the duration of this
voyage."
Disbelief darkened her wide-apart brown eyes. Then golden motes of
anger came and chased the darkness away. She made a wild grab for
the ion gun on the table. He thwarted her easily, seized her arm
and, towering above her, escorted her out of the cabin and down the
companionway to the starboard storeroom. The starboard storeroom
adjoined the hull, and in common with all hull compartments, it was
equipped with a lock instead of a door. After shoving Saint Annabelle
Leigh inside, he adjusted the sealing mechanism so that the lock could
be opened only from the outside, then he turned to go.
She ran forward and caught his arm. There was desperation in her brown
eyes. "_Please_ put me down on Iago Iago."
He freed his arm, stepped out into the corridor, and closed the lock
behind him.
An hour later, his ship passed through a Lambda-Xi field.
* * * * *
At least Drake thought it was a Lambda-Xi field. Certainly its
effect upon himself and the _Fly by Night_ fitted the hypothetical
description given in section 3, chapter 9 of _The Pilot's Handbook_--a
prose-work which all spacemen were required to know by heart. The
bulkheads "shimmered"; the artificial atmosphere took on a "haze-like
aspect"; the deck "desolidified". As for Drake himself, he experienced
a "painful prickling of nerve-ends and a slight vertigo". Then
translucence--"the prelude to total disintegration" came to ship and
master alike.
The handbook went on to state that in view of the fact that no one
had ever passed through a Lambda-Xi field and survived, all knowledge
pertaining to the preliminary effects of such a passage had had to be
extrapolated. It then added reassuringly that since such fields were
exceedingly rare, the danger they represented was virtually negligible.
The handbook said nothing, however, about any handwriting on the wall.
Handwriting there was, though, just the same. Standing in his ship,
through the translucent bulkheads and hull of which he could make out
the stars, Drake read the single word: