Lunch was good, and the tour was interesting, if tiring. The ship had
more machinery of more differing types than Corina had ever seen in one
place before, and they covered a lot of territory. Despite extensive
use of the intraship shuttles, that meant a lot of walking. Normally
that would have caused Corina no problems, but hard metal decks instead
of grass or rubberoid sidewalks made her feet hurt. That made their
arrival at the Security section a relief, since Sunbeam had promised it
would be their last stop.
It was obvious to Corina that Colonel Greggson wasn't particularly glad
to see them, but he was polite, clearly on his best behavior--until
Major Dawson entered.
"Good afternoon, Sir Corina," Dawson said with a grin. "That's quite a
wallop you pack--almost like getting hit by a Traiti. I don't suppose
you could teach me how to do it?"
"I am afraid not," Corina replied, remembering their earlier meetings
and his weak screen. "You simply do not have the right mental
pattern."
"Oh." Dawson looked disappointed for a moment, then shrugged. "Well,
I never could sing, either."
"I am sorry. But at least Lieutenant DarLeras told me you would not be
shamed by what happened in the exercise."
"Not at all," Dawson said cheerfully. "We got a little teasing, of
course, but that's no problem any more. I just reminded a couple of
the more persistent kidders why we'd been picked for SecuDiv in the
first place."
"Oh? May I ask how?" Corina could have probed, but satisfying her
curiosity wasn't a valid reason for using Talent against one who had
none.
"Telepathy's part of your Talent; why not take a look?"
"Thank you." Invited, there was no breach of honor, so Corina scanned
him. From his point of view, she saw him working out in a gym with a
couple of his kidders. Either of the two, from their relative sizes,
should have been able to defeat Dawson--but that wasn't the case.
Using close-combat techniques distilled from the most effective of
Terra's many martial arts, he had both "disabled" or "killed" in less
than thirty seconds.
"Elegant!" she said in real admiration. "I should get you to teach me
instead."
"Telepathy?" Sunbeam asked in amazement. "I heard, but I didn't really
believe--"
"Yes, dammit, telepathy!" Greggson snapped. "That's how she managed to
humiliate my men!"
"I do not understand your anger," Corina said quietly. "It was simply
a demonstration of Talent, the way it can be used against the
unTalented, as Thark plans to do. I did not intend to humiliate
anyone, and they have said they do not feel humiliated."
"Damn your intentions!" Greggson rasped. "No oversized kitty is going
to make fools of my men and get away with it!"
"Hey, Colonel," Dawson said, "it's okay, we--"
Greggson glared at him. "Keep out of this, Major. Get back to your
post. And keep your mouth shut."
"As the Colonel orders," Dawson said with icy correctness, and left.
"That goes for you, too, Ensign. Wait outside."
"But I'm supposed to--" Sunbeam objected.
"Wait outside."