"Yes, of course," he said.

Klara was getting restless. "I think," she said, "I want to go to sleep now."

There was some extra message in the tone of her voice. I looked at her and said, "I'll walk you back to your room."

"That's not necessary, Rob."

"I'll do it anyhow," I said, ignoring the message. "Good night, Francy. See you next week."

Klara was already halfway to the downshaft, and I had to hurry to catch up to her. I caught the cable and called down to her, "If you really want me to, I'll go back to my own place."

She didn't look up, but she didn't say that was what she wanted, either, so I got off at her level and followed her to her rooms. Kathy was sound asleep in the outer room, Hywa drowsing over a holodisk in our bedroom. Klara sent the maid home and went in to make sure the child was comfortable. I sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for her.

"Maybe I'm premenstrual," Klara said when she came back. "I'm sorry. I just feel edgy."

"I'll go if you want me to."

"Jesus, Rob, quit saying that!" Then she sat down next to me and leaned against me so that I would put my arm around her. "Kathy's so sweet," she said after a moment, almost wistfully.

"You'd like to have one of your own, wouldn't you?"

"I will have one of my own." She leaned back, pulling me with her. "I wish I knew when, that's all. I need a lot more money than I have to give a kid a decent life. And younger."

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A NOTE ON THE HEECHEE RUMP

Professor Hegramet. We have no idea what the Heechee looked like except for inferences. Probably they were bipeds. Their tools fit human hands tolerably well, so probably they had hands. Or something like them. They seem to have seen pretty much the same spectrum as we do. They must have been smaller than us -- say, a hundred and fifty centimeters, or less. And they had funny-looking rumps.

Question. What do you mean, funny-looking rumps?

Professor Hegramet. Well, did you ever look at the pilot's seat in a Heechee ship? It's two flat pieces of metal joined in a V shape. You couldn't sit in it for ten minutes without pinching your bottom off. So what we have to do, we stretch a webbing seat across them. But that's a human addition. The Heechee didn't have anything like that.

So their bodies must have looked more or less like a wasp's, with this big abdomen hanging down, actually extending below the hips, between the legs.

Question. Do you mean they might have had stingers like wasps?

Professor Hegramet. Stingers. No. I don't think so. But maybe. Or maybe they had hell's own set of sex organs.

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We lay there for a moment, and then I said into her hair, "That's what I want, too, Klara."