Sausage was a tube seared around the outside, delicious inside: ground meat with bits of plants added. Fringe tea Debby knew from last night. She still had a trace of the morning headache.

The situation felt uncomfortable, and Debby was rehearsing excuses to leave. She asked, "Are you going to stay in the Navy?"

"I think so. I'll never get further than Bosun, though."

"You'll be flying. More exciting than guarding the Library."

"As a Guardian I could spend some time making a home! Get married, carry some guests!"

"Don't they mind Navy people making babies?"

"You go to half pay when you're showing, but you've got a mate working . . . and even if you don't, Navy pay is good." Sectry drank deep. She hadn't touched her sausage.

Rather asked, "Sectry? Why would someone like the Captain-Guardian be interested in a recruit?"

"Wayne? That's easy. If he can get enough dwarves at Guardian rank, he can move up to Captain. He's got the rank but not the duties. Him, he'd be better off if he couldn't fit a pressure suit."

Debby took the rest of her tea in two gulps. "I've got to be going. Thanks, Sectry. I shouldn't have come in. I'm supposed to be buying stuff at the Vivarium, now that we've got money."

"Well, remember you're on fringe," the redhead said. "Watch the prices."

"I'll be careful."

Outside, Debby let herself smile.

How would Rather handle it? Let Sectry believe that he'd come to the Navy only to get close to a lovely dwarf woman?

It might even be true.

A sheet of rainwater clung to the window. A blurred puff jungle drifted past.

Rather had finished his sausage. Sectry passed him half others. When Belind came past she ordered more fringe tea. She asked, "How do you like the Clump?"

"It's mostly strange. Too wet, for one thing. I think I could get tired of boxes. Huts in a tree aren't like that. Sectry, why did they build Headquarters round?"

"It was built to spin."

"Spin?"

"The early officers, they thought we'd need tide to stay healthy. They gave that up early. They couldn't dock a ship while Headquarters was spinning, and it tended to wobble. So they stopped the spin and they built the exercise room, centrifuge included. Those early Navy men must have been monstrously strong. But it turns out we don't get sick. We still use the exercise room, though."

The fringe tea was fizzing in his blood. Sectry Murphy seemed to glow. His mind was trying to follow a dozen paths at once. It suddenly seemed very natural that the early men would move a tree into the Clump, spin it, try to settle the tufts, get the benefit of tide and the clustered resources of the Clump. . . and produce the burl that later generations hadn't been able to duplicate.