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he at least answered when spoken to, usually, and made himself at home despite
the cramped space. The ship had only a small commons/galley and two private
cabins for living space. Cephean had his food from Garsoom s Haven stacked
neatly in the galley, and he was eating it and no longer complaining or making
vulgar noises. He even tried several of Carlyle s packaged synthetics, and he
used the fertilizer solutions in both the riffmar beds and the riff-bud trays.
The young ferns were doing quite well; they were now about a third the size of
Idi and Odi, though they were still fragile and not yet walking. Cephean,
despite his snorts at them, seemed pleased.
Later, they rigged through more exotic scenes: a flaming forest, a sunset
blazing through silver-leafed, blue-barked trees. It was a mysterious wood,
with slinking ground creatures and swift, shy animals of the air.
Brooks darted and cascaded from hidden sources.
Spillix became an air-
eel gliding and snaking through the trees, never pausing.
Carlyle grew more excited toward the end, and Cephean more perplexed.
Whass, Caharleel? Fsthraange! H-why hyou sso ssthraange?
We re in Aeregian space now, Cephean. We ll be coming to Chaening s
World soon
. If the image was strange and frenetic, that was because the
Aeregian worlds occupied a crowded region of space, with many stars less than
a lightyear apart, all congregated within the curled end of a thin, crimson
nebula.
My home, Cephean. This image reflects my feelings
. Excitement, mystery, and hope against danger; it was not so much a
reflection of his actual world of the past, as of his fantasies of the past.
Memories as they might have been; of a past that might yet exist beneath
reality s clouds. Visions
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STAR RIGGER S WAY by Jeffrey Carver of a world which orbited at the heart of
this Flux image, visions of certain people.
Janofer, I ll be there soon. Skan? Legroeder? Have you kept my place for me?
Silence. They were not there, right now, to answer.
You haven t forgotten me? Not after helping me through with
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Sedora
!
Still, silence.
Caharleel. Hyor frenss noss here?
No, Cephean, they aren t here
. They never were, really. But they would be soon.
The forest became dreamy, with queer creatures peering out of hollows to watch
the eel, Spillix
, glide by. The sun grew bloodier and gloomier.
Carlyle squinted and steered by instinct, and he laughed in a whisper at the
evening animals in the treetops.
Ahead, the forest opened to a glinting terrain. Cephean, hanging way back in
the net, whispered nervously, Caharleel! Iss s-sea ssmell?
Yes
. The sea. Nothing symbolized Chaening s World to him quite so vividly as
sunlight flashing over the coastline of the sea. They were very close now.
Soon they would withdraw from the Flux; and they would be at the edge of the
Verjol star system. By normal-space they would proceed to Verjol s fourth
planet, Chaening s World.
Carlyle was riding a crest of expectancy. Salt smell filled the breaking
forest, and sunset turned into sunrise. The light grew whiter and the distant
glitter became patches of water. His pulse quickened as he applied real muscle
to the net. The forest fell astern and the ship flattened into a wide board
beneath his feet. He shifted his weight back and forth, testing his control,
and then he loosed all restraint and rode the fastest winds toward the
approaching shore. At once he peered for a sign of people along the seashore,
people who might be waiting for a particular rigger.
He saw gulls, tiny boats bouncing on the waters, clouds high overhead, sun
beaming onto sand and sea and there, at the base of a sand cliff, people
watching the sky.
He banked perilously and skimmed lower, along the cliff. The people waved.
Janofer blew him a kiss, and Skan watched him with hands on his
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STAR RIGGER S WAY by Jeffrey Carver hips, grinning. Legroeder glanced up at
him and immediately looked out to sea, but with a twinkle in his gaze.
Coming!
he cried.
They waved again, laughing, calling, Gev
! The rest was lost, but that didn t matter; Carlyle leaned into the board
again, carried
Spillix over the water, and climbed for a towering view of the sea. Sapphire,
as far as he could see, all the way to the horizon where it met the sky. And
the sun, flashing and splintering with abandon on the swells. And the shore,
sand tumbling down from the edge of the forest.
Delirious, he flew higher, higher, the sky darkening and the land shrinking&
he took
Spillix ever higher in the Flux, circling and spiraling.
The glow of sea and land beneath him faded, darkened& and he was surrounded by
stars.
Normal-space.
Cephean wheezed nearby as the net fell dark. Carlyle tilted his rigger-
couch forward and activated the normal-space controls. He turned the ship for
a view of Chaening s World s sun, Verjol, a blazing disk against jeweled
space. The sight of that sun made him dizzy with emotion. So many times he had
doubted now he was overwhelmed.
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Caharleel. Iss thiss h-where h-we gho? Cephean was peering at him, not at
the view. (
Anxiety
.)
This is it, Cephean. That s the planet. That s where my friends fly their
ship from. He was so nervous it hurt. He had to get on with it before he
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