“You can depend on it," he told them. They smiled back and looked from one to another, nodding.

“Let’s get Zallin into a vactube. Probably dump him later," Yalson said to the other three. She went over to the body. Two

of the Bratsilakins

followed her, and between the three of them they got the limp corpse to an area of the hangar deck where

they lifted some metal planks up,

opened a curved hatch, stuffed Zallin’s body into a narrow space, then closed both hatch

and deck again. The third Bratsilakin took a cloth from

a wall panel and mopped up the blood on the deck. Then the hairy clone

group headed for the door and the stairs. Yalson came up to Horza.

She made a sideways gesture with her head. “Come on. I’ll

show you where you can clean up."

He followed her over the hangar deck toward the doorway. She turned round as they went. “The rest have gone to eat. I’ll see

you in the

mess if you’re ready in time. Just follow your nose. Anyway, I have to collect my winnings."

“Your winnings." Horza said as they got to the doorway, where Yalson put her hand on what Horza assumed were lighting switches.

She

turned to him, looking into his eyes.

“Sure," she said, and pressed one of the switches covered by her hand. The lights didn’t change, but under his feet Horza

could feel a

vibration. He heard a hiss and what sounded like a pump running. “I bet on you," Yalson said, then turned and

bounded up the steps beyond the

door, two at a time.

Horza looked round at the hangar once and then followed her.

Just before the

Clear Air Turbulence

went back into warp and its crew sat down at table, the ship expelled the limp corpse of Zallin. Where it

had found a live

man in a suit, it left a dead youth in shorts and a tattered shirt, tumbling and freezing while a thin shell of air molecules

expanded around the body, like an image of departing life.