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amber viscosity dissolved around them, and the ship began sinking and rising
in response to the net.
A curious terrain appeared, slippery gleaming panes and corners sliding
through the medium, like fantastically sized cubes of water ice slipping
through a vaporous golden liquor. Light flashed and sparkled through the
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medium, reflected and refracted from a source which might now be anywhere.
Skan s influence in the net subsided almost to nothing, as though suppressed,
and Janofer s shrank as though withdrawn. Cephean gathered himself and, with a
whisper to Carlyle, leaped.
For a strange minute, the cynthian carried the ship almost singlehandedly.
Then Carlyle resumed his efforts, but he allowed, the cynthian to thrust the
ship and to guide him.
Guinevere slipped down between two narrowly separated planes and back up
through a treacherous channel which angled and twisted past the corners of
numerous drifting cubes. By the time they cleared that maze, they were flying
again toward the light.
Cephean, do you know where we re going? To Hainur Eight?
Hyiss-yiss, hoff khorss!
How can you know that?
Carlyle was astonished, but he felt totally secure with the cynthian s
guidance.
How did you learn the way?
Hyor frenss, Caharleel! Hi ssaw iss hin ss-their mindss h-when h-we lefft-
ss!
(
What? The cat?
) Skan s voice was far away; he was watching from the innermost edge of the
net. He sounded calmer now, and distantly interested.
(
Seem to be doing very well together.)
Janofer was withdrawn, with Skan, but was very interested in watching.
Cephean, I m amazed
, said Carlyle. Bending at the waist like a diving swimmer, Carlyle steered
the speeding ship under several looming, unfocused bubbles. He wondered if
they were going to surface in the head of a glass of ale. It felt right to
him. It felt perfect, flying with Cephean.
Can we carry it all the way?
Hoff khorss, Caharleel!
Carlyle nodded and banked, and the ship sliced upward through clear
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STAR RIGGER S WAY by Jeffrey Carver space and leveled out in a lighter realm.
A frothy lane stretched out straight to the horizon, and at the end of it
glowed their light source, a setting sun: Hainur.
An hour later, in the subjective time of the Flux, Carlyle and Cephean brought
the ship upward through layers of foam and cream, and
Guinevere
popped to the surface, into a universe of stars and eternal night.
Gev. Cephean
.
Yiss?
Carlyle was so surprised to hear Cephean respond so easily to Janofer that he
forgot to answer himself. Janofer peered at them, causing them both to
hesitate before leaving the rigger-net. Her eyes caught both of them at once,
and by a silent appeal she coaxed Cephean to show his full countenance in the
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net. Cephean blinked, his eyes coppery and black. He regarded Janofer with an
uncharacteristic degree of courtesy.
To Janofer, Carlyle said, You and Skan must have been tired from your journeys
.
That s not the reason for what happened, and you know it
, said Janofer.
We would never have made it in if Cephean and you had not done such a
beautiful job of flying
.
Yiss
, said Cephean.
Caharleel h-ands hi heff ffly h-many t-thimes
.
So we have
, Carlyle said. He felt warm and nervous. For a long time he had been
resisting the suggestion that Janofer was making to him right now. But perhaps
it was time to stop resisting. Janofer was right. The real team here wasn t
Gev and Janofer and Skan, and it never had been. His real teammate had been
there all along.
I guess we re not finished, are we, Cephean?
H-no. Ffly h-more
, hissed the cynthian. His ghostly image vanished from the net. Carlyle met
Janofer s gaze and allowed her an embarrassed smile.
Then, together, they left the net to join Cephean and Skan on the ship s
bridge.
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STAR RIGGER S WAY by Jeffrey Carver
Epilogue
Rigger s Way
Carlyle rested a hand on the back of the cynthian s furry neck. Cephean craned
his eyes back as though to look at Carlyle s hand; but he said nothing and
remained crouched, looking with Carlyle across the field of the Jarvis
spaceport.
Spillix stood ready for flight, with an empty pad on one side of her and a fat
freighter on the other. She seemed a mere slip of a vessel compared to most of
the commercial ships on the field.
 A good ship, Cephean. I think we ought to stick with her as long as they let
us command her. That could be quite a long while. Carlyle picked his teeth
and thought about it, then nodded to affirm his own words.
 Hyiss, said Cephean. He dipped his head and gently nibbled at one of the
riffmar. They were arrayed in a cluster before him, with several of the
smallest leaning into his forepaws.  Yiss.
They were alone now. The return to Chaening s World had gone smoothly. Janofer
had ridden with them, to watch and keep company; but
Skan had said good-bye on Hainur Eight and was now on a ship bound for the
southern reaches of human space, with a Thangol and another human as
crewmates. Janofer would be leaving soon on a ship out of Chaening s
World. She said that she would try to keep in touch; and Carlyle believed her,
within reason. Keeping in touch was no easy thing to do.
For just the two of them, then, Spillix was the ideal ship after all.
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