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used her key and the ship's
door slid open. She stepped inside and turned to make him an
exaggerated bow, her blue eyes shining.
    "Pilot, be welcome on my ship."
    He bowed honor to the owner and stepped into
the ship. The hatch slid shut behind him.
    Elsu led the way down the companionway to the
piloting chamber. She fair flung herself into the chair, her hands
flying across the board, rousing systems, initiating checks. From
the edge of the chamber, Ren Zel watched as she woke her ship, her
motions nearer frenzy than the smooth control his teachers had bade
him strive to achieve.
    She turned in the pilot's chair, her face
flushed, eyes brilliantly blue, and raised a hand to beckon him
forward.
    "Come, come! Second board awaits you, as we
agreed! Sit and make yourself known to the ship!" Her high voice
carried a note that seemed to echo the frenzy of her board-run and
Ren Zel hesitated a moment longer, not quite trusting--
    "So an intra-system is not to your liking?"
she inquired, her voice sharp with ridicule. "Perhaps the legendary
Ren Zel dea'Judan flies only Jumpships."
    That stung, and he very nearly answered in
kind. Then he recalled her as she had been the night before,
inflicting her hurts, tempting him, or so it seemed, to hurt her in
return--and he made his answer mild.
    "Indeed, I took my second class on just such
a ship as this," he said and walked forward at last to sit in the
co-pilot's chair.
    She glanced at him out of the edge of her
eyes. "Forgive me, Pilot. I am not usually so sharp. The lift will
improve my temper."
    He could think of nothing
to say to that and covered this lapse by sliding his license into
the slot. There was a moment's considering pause from the ship's
computer, then his board came live with a beep . Ren Zel initiated systems
check.
    Elsu Meriandra was already on line to the
Tower, requesting clearance. "On business of Clan Jabun," Ren Zel
heard and spun in his chair to stare at her. To characterize a mere
pleasure-lift as--
    His wife cut the connection to the Tower,
looked over to him and laughed. "Oh, wonderful! And say you have
never told Tower that a certain lift was just a little more urgent
than the facts supported!"
    "And yet we are not on the business of Clan
Jabun," Ren Zel pointed out, remembering to speak mildly.
    "Pah!" she returned, her fingers dancing
across the board, waking the gyros and the navcomp. "It is
certainly in the best interest of Jabun that one of its children
not deteriorate into a jittercase, for cause of being worldbound."
She leaned back in the pilot's chair and sighed. "Ah, but it will
be fine to lift, will it not, Pilot?"
    "Yes," Ren Zel said truthfully. "Whither
bound, Pilot?"
    "Just into orbit, I think, and a long skim
down. Do you fancy a late-night dinner at Head o'Port when we are
through?"
    Ren Zel's entire quartershare was
insufficient to purchase a dinner at Head o'Port, which he rather
thought she knew.
    "Why not a glass and a dinner at Findoir's?
There are bound to be some few of our comrades there."
    She moved her shoulders. The comm beeped and
she flipped the toggle.
    " Dancer ."
    While she listened to Tower's instruction,
Ren Zel finished his board checks and, seeing that she was feeding
coords into her side, reached 'round to engage the shock
webbing.
    "Pilot?" he inquired, when she made no move
to do the same.
    "Eh?" She blinked at him, then smiled. "Oh, I
often fly unwebbed! It enhances the pleasure immeasurably."
    Perhaps it did, but it was also against every
regulation he could think of. He opened his mouth to say so, but
she waved a slim hand at him.
    "No, do not say it! Regulation is all very
well when one is flying contract, but this is pleasure, and I
intend to be pleased!" She turned back to her board. The seconds to
lift were counting down on the center board. Ren Zel ran another
quick, unobtrusive check, then Elsu hit the engage and they were
rising.
    It was a fine, blood-warming thing, that
lift. Elsu flew at the very edge of her