Debby was still fuming. "You know, arguing isn't the thing I do best. But Clave is going to have this out of you, because it's stupid not to tell us how to use the basic logger's tool. Won't the Admiralty expect us to know-?"

"No. You're hired labor."

"Right. I forgot."

The days went fast this close to Voy: nine days between waking and waking. North and west, the reddish fringe of the Clump's shadow was sliding rapidly down a tremendous wall of cloud. Storm and lightning inside, and ponds forming. . . The line of sunlight picked out a green dot, a drifting jungle emerging from the fringes of the storm.

Carlot suddenly asked, "Debby, should we know how to use the CARM?"

"Yes. Yes, we should know how to run the CARM! Treefeeding fools they are, Lawri and Jeffer both."

Booce was jolted. "Debby? You can't fly the CARM?"

"Nobody knows but the Scientists. Classified. Lawri I can understand. But Jeffer, he stole the thing himself, and now he acts just like her! Fifteen years, almost!"

"Dad? She's right. We should all of us know all of that, and we have to start somewhere."

Booce sighed. Crossyear child! Playing around with a dwarf tree dweller ... but the women always won the arguments. "Debby, as far as any Admiralty citizen is concerned, you know nothing about how a rocket works. Understand?"

"Yes, Logger Booce. Now, what is it you loggers have been concealing from us laborers?"

"Go ahead, Carlot."

Carlot considered before she spoke. "All right. Just the way you taught me. Debby, you'll have to imagine the sikenwire in a tube around the pipe. I stuff firebark inside and light it."

Debby nodded.

"The coals are just along the middle of the pipe, not too close to the ends. I wait. I want the metal to get hot. It should glow red. Hotter than that, the nozzle starts to char. That's bad. So I run water through the pipe. The metal stays dark red, and steam comes out the nozzle. You can't see it where it comes out, but it can flay the flesh from your bones, so stay clear."

Her father smiled, nodding approval. He'd taught her well.

"Now, how do I move the water into the pipe?"

Debby mulled it. "No tide-"

"How do I keep outsiders from watching me do it?"

Debby brightened. She kicked herself to the fore end of the water tank. "I'm here, right? There's a cabin, and I'm in it. And here's the plug ..."

"Just so!" Cariot joined her. "You pull the plug. You blow in it. When the water spurts back at you, you slam the plug in quick."

"I could get a lungful of water that way."

"Sure you could. We've all done our share of choking. Father taught us this so he wouldn't have to do it himself."

"Why does it blow back?"

"I ... Dad?"