The spoken conversation continued on a light tone, with Sunbeam as
usual carrying most of it. Corina was almost silent, content merely to
absorb the alien atmosphere and continue accustoming herself to it.
She felt occasional twinges of familiarity which she knew must come
from the Medart-pattern that was becoming a part of her mind. Most of
the integration, of course, would be done by her undermind while she
slept that night--but she could feel it beginning already.
* * * * *
As she had known it would be, Corina's sleep that night was restless,
disturbed by her undermind's attempt to fit those alien memories into a
pattern that would allow her to grasp and use them. She might never
fully understand them, but when the process was complete, she would
have more feeling for humans than was possible for an Irschchan who
hadn't experienced pattern rapport with one.
The integration process worked mostly in the form of dreams, some
fragmentary, some less so. She/Jim was laying in a bed with bars, a
huge pink face framed in white looking down at her/him and radiating a
feeling of peace.
Then Corina-as-Jim was sitting beside a wicker basket, stroking a
Siamese cat who was giving birth to her first litter of kittens and
wouldn't let him leave. There were three already, tiny white-furred
things blindly nursing. The mother stared up at him, butting his hand
with her head, and purred as only a Siamese could, seeming to be proud
of her accomplishment.
A nude swim in a warm blue sea--the memory a pleasant one for the
human, but one that made Corina's sleeping body tremble with distaste.
But it was Jim's invitation to the Rangers that claimed most of her
attention, from Perry appearing in his room after the Test Week results
were posted, through his first meeting with the Emperor soon after--it
had been Yasunon then, not Davis, who was still Crown Prince--to his
brief visit home before starting his new duties.