"I don't know. I haven't got that far yet." She looked down at her protruding chestplate unhappily. "Maybe I won't fit. I'd still keep my rank as Petty. Understand, you have to be qualified, you have to be trained. It's just easier if you're the right size." "Training. What's it like?"

"They'll put you through exercises. You may think you're strong-you're a tree dweller? I can see the muscles. But Petty Wheeler could tie you in knots. After you've been through training you could tie him in knots. I could, I think, and you're stronger. Your people, do they use polar coordinates to find themselves?"

"No."

"They'll teach you how to find yourself in the sky. You'll learn how to count, if you don't know-"

"I can count."

"You'll learn how to work a rocket, not a steam rocket but a Navy rocket. They teach you how to obey too. You want to go in braced for that, Rather. A superior officer tells you to fly, you fly, wings or no."

It sounded unpleasant. "Where do the Navy ships go?"

"Mmm . . . Where do you come from?"

"Citizens Tree. A little west of the Clump."

"You're not likely to visit your family. We don't see many tree dwellers. We send ships outside the Clump, but not often, and never more than a few thousand klomters. Mostly we cruise the Clump itself. We collect taxes, of course-"

"Yeah."

"We fight the wildlife. Dark sharks and other things. Citizens find a drillbit nest, or honey hornets, they call us and we burn it out."

"Triunes too?"

"Oh, no, the triunes got the idea fast. They never attack us. Some of them like us. There's a guy, Exec Martin, he hunts swordbirds with triunes. Nobody knows how bright they really are, but they can be trained."

"Why do you bum honey hornets? Booce says they're valuable."

Her expression soured. "Honey is contraband. Put just a tip of a fingernail's worth on your tongue, you dream wonderful dreams. Then you can't stop. Use a little more and you die in ecstasy. Some people will pay a lot for that."

Honey is suicide. Rather hadn't realized that Booce meant it literally. He thought it over, then said, "But it's their choice-"

She shook her head. "Not my decision. Then there's detective work, and riot control, and rescue work. We don't specialize much. You learn to do all of that, but first you learn how to fly a ship."

"What happens to cadets who fail? Murphy, what happens to dwarves who fail?"

"Nothing. I mean, they're out of the Navy, of course. They hire out or they build a business, maybe they go diving in the Dark for mushrooms and fan fungus, or they go logging. Hell, what does a logger do if he fails at something?" She looked closely at him. "What's the matter?"