Kosta smiled. "Another time, thanks."

"You young people," Hanan said, mock sorrowfully. "Missing out on all the good things of life."

"Oh, be quiet, Hanan," Ornina chided as the hug broke up.

"Story of my life," Hanan said, mock-sorrowfully. "That was a brilliant a.n.a.lysis, by the way, Jereko.

I'm with Mr. Pirbazari-I'm not sure I buy a single word of it. But it was brilliant nevertheless."

"You were wrong about one thing, though," Chandris said. "The angels do affect danger-type fear, at least a little. When Trilling attacked us, I was a lot calmer than I should have been.""Come to think of it, so was I," Kosta agreed, frowning as he thought back over that incident. The adrenaline had been pumping, all right, but his mind had still been clear to function. Unnaturally clear. "Out at Angelma.s.s, too. You're right, it does have an effect there."

"Maybe why the High Senate has always seemed so calm in the face of Pax threats," Hanan

rumbled. "Even though they never seemed to be doing anything."

"They were, though," Kosta said. "That net-and-catapult setup of theirs is a terrific defense. They got that in place, then just refused to keep worrying about it."

"I wonder how the Pax got through," Chandris said.

"I don't know," Kosta said. "I imagine we'll find out once they've pulled their ships out and we can talk to Lorelei again."

"What will you do now, Jereko?" Ornina asked. "Do you need a place to stay?"

"No, I should be fine," Kosta said. "I've still got my room at the Inst.i.tute."

"At least for another week or two," Hanan said.

"Oh, longer than that," Kosta a.s.sured him. "Mr. Pirbazari's dire predictions aside, the Inst.i.tute isn't

going out of business any time soon. Maybe not at all. Even if they agree to dump the angels back in, we'll certainly want to keep a few out to study."

"Will that be safe?" Ornina asked.

"I'm sure it will," Kosta a.s.sured her. "After all, it took an imbalance of several thousand anti-angels to make Angelma.s.s what it is. A few or even a few dozen shouldn't be a problem."

"The question is, what will you do?" Chandris asked, looking at Hanan and Ornina. "What do you mean 'you'?" Hanan countered. "Don't you mean 'we'?"

"You are staying with us, aren't you?" Ornina added.

"Well..." Chandris flashed a look at Kosta. "I'd like to, sure. But if there isn't any work, how can you afford to keep me on?"

"You mean how can we afford not to keep you on," Hanan said firmly. "Face it, Chandris, you're part of the team now."

"We wouldn't know what to do without you, dear," Ornina added gently.

"I wouldn't know what to do without you, either," Chandris confessed in a low voice. "But if there isn't any work-"

"There'll be plenty of work," Hanan insisted. "Shipping, transport, tourist rides-we'll find something."

"Actually, I don't think you'll have to worry about that," Kosta spoke up. "Forsythe strikes me as the persuasive type; and if he talks the High Senate into dumping the angels, they're going to need people like you for the job."

"What do you mean, people like us?" Ornina asked, frowning.

"Well, you can't just drop them in front of Angelma.s.s like a row of s.p.a.ce pops and expect it to gobble them up," Kosta pointed out. "All the outward radiation pressure will be pushing them away, especially if Angelma.s.s is smart enough to figure out what's going on. They'll have to be basically force-fed down its throat."

"And the only ships that can get close enough to do that will be hunterships," Hanan said, his face brightening. "How wonderfully convenient."

"Don't get too excited about it," Kosta warned. "You won't be heroes any more, creating a better world for the ordinary people of the Empyrean. You'll be busily taking that better world away for reasons half the people won't believe in the first place."

"We all do what we have to," Ornina said quietly. "Besides, we didn't go into this business to be heroes."

"No," Kosta agreed. "I guess for some people it just happens that way." He stood up. "I'd better get back to the Inst.i.tute and start working up a nicely threatening letter to send to Lorelei."

"We'll see you later?" Chandris asked.

Kosta reached out and took her hand. He'd always rather been afraid of Chandris, he realized suddenly. For that matter, he'd always rather been afraid of all women. Part of his general social inept.i.tude, he'd always thought, and had cursed the awkwardness and nagging fears of youth.

But that was before he'd faced death, out there at Angelma.s.s, and suddenly all the fears of saying or doing the wrong thing had become utterly trivial. Maybe that had matured him. Maybe he had finally grown up.

"Sure," he told her. "Count on it."

Or maybe, the thought whispered through his mind, it was only the angels.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

Timothy Zahn is the author of more than a dozen original science fiction novels, including the Cobra and very popular Blackcollar series. He has had many short works published in the major SF magazines, including "Cascade Point," which won the Hugo Award for best novella in 1983. He is also author of the bestselling Star Wars trilogy Heir to the Empire, among other works. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Copyright 2001 by Timothy Zahn ISBN: 0-312-87828-1.