“Which has just been in touch with something overhead.”

“Really? That’s sneaky.”

“You didn’t know?”

“I should have guessed.”

“This isn’t the real you, is it?”

“No; spare body carried by an SC ship, altered to suit.”

“I imagine another you will be popping into existence very shortly, somewhere near The Mountains of the Sound, on Cethyd.”

“I dare say. That is where you think he is?”

“Yes,” the drone said. “I’m too old to play those kinds of games. Your word stands, of course.”

“Of course.”

“Well; good hunting, to your next self. What happens to you – to this you – now?”

“Supposed to head back to the VFP. Naturally it wants to snap me back instantly, now, and be on its way, but I said you’d appreciate me making the effort.”

“Well, I have. But don’t let me detain you.”

“Really?”

“Go immediately if you wish.”

Tefwe thought. She could almost feel the VFP – doubtless listening – willing her to agree. “Later,” she said, and half expected to be snatched away anyway as the ship’s property, or to see a wrathful bolt of fire falling from the heavens to strike her, or at least the nearby desert. “Around sunset, perhaps. First I ought to let the aphore drink, but I’d like to see more of the sandstream. If it’s not too much trouble.”

~Ms Tefwe, sent the ship via some internal piece of augmentation which, obviously, she only thought she’d turned off.

“None at all,” the drone said. “Though, sandstreams, in the plural, you should have said.”

“There’s more than one?”

~Ms Tefwe, the ship sent again.

“Many. Most of the outcrops you can see from here are similarly adapted.” The old drone sounded proud.

“Really! I must see them.”

~Ms Tefwe, the ship sent once more.

“We could visit two or three in the time. Soon I hope to start linking them, underground, and complete a programme of replacing all the external raising screws with internal ones.”

“Not the wheels, though, I hope. I like the wheels.”

~Ms Tefwe; kindly reply.

“Not the wheels. Those I intend to keep.”

“How long will all that take?”

~Ms Tefwe …

“Many decades. Don’t you think you should answer the ship?”

“… Na.”

Sixteen

(S -9)

xLOU Caconym

oMSV Pressure Drop

Cethyd? Barely mentioned in my data reservoirs.

∞

Will you down a current all-civs/systems overview? This is becoming ridiculous.

∞

Ignorance can be interesting.

∞