*
The sparks in his vision darkened, and he slid the headset from his temples, rubbing his eyes. /Charlie—/ He remembered, suddenly, that Charlie-One hadn’t intended to send the data that way; he’d meant to wait until they could go in person.
/// I’ve—caused problems,
haven’t I? ///
/Yeah./ Bandicut got up, wincing from pain in his bad leg. He opened the door to the booth and peered out.
Somebody was yelling across the rec lounge: “Datanet’s down, people! Anybody who’s got an automatic linkage, get to your terminals for damage control—right now!” A loud murmur rose, and half the people in the lounge ran out of the room. Bandicut watched them go, clicking his teeth nervously. /Charlie—/
/// I couldn’t have . . .
caused permanent damage, could I? ///
/Let’s hope not. Let’s just mokin’ hope not./ Bandicut hobbled over toward the refreshment bar. /And I don’t care what damn pills I’m on, I’m having a mokin’ beer right now!/
Chapter 16
Julie
AS HE SIPPED his glass of the watery stuff that passed for beer here on Triton, he shifted unconsciously into observer mode, guiltily watching those who remained in the rec lounge. There weren’t many, to his relief. He felt a profound desire not to interact with anyone. He was angry with Charlie, and angry with himself, for what they had done to the datanet. And he was terrified that he would somehow be connected with it.
The first half of the first beer went quickly, before he slowed down, remembering the painkillers he was on. His gaze wandered to the far corner of the EineySteiney area, where two women were playing. He blinked, realizing with a start that the two women were Georgia Patwell and her friend, Julie Stone. How had he not noticed them before?
/// You’ve been . . . distracted, ///
croaked the quarx, who seemed more than a little distracted himself.
/I guess so./ In truth, this wasn’t exactly a time when he wanted to see anyone he knew—though as he watched them play, he found his isolationist resolve softening ever so slightly. Still, there was a weightiness surrounding his thoughts. Oddly, he found himself more interested in the women’s EineySteiney shots than in the women themselves. The table-holo was programmed with some fairly sophisticated gravity-well combinations, and the two women were making slingshot banks through the maze of curves and valleys. The tabletop was a vibrant grass-green color, and the balls winked with faces that Bandicut couldn’t quite make out; probably it was the cartoon-character program.
It was strange enough, his choosing to ogle trajectories instead of women—but odder still was the fact that he found himself not only following the motions of the balls, but visualizing practically impossible trajectories for them, with an extraordinarily sharp inner eye. Suddenly he realized what was going on, and it didn’t make him happy.
He turned away and drained his glass and walked around the bar for a refill. /Charlie, quit mokin’ with my brain! If I want to look at women, I’m going to look at women! You have any idea how long it’s been since I was with a woman?/ He returned to his barstool and continued watching.
Georgia made a nearly impossible three-body shot, and he found suddenly that he didn’t care so much about the shot.
/// Sorry.
I guess I got carried away.
What they’re doing is very . . .
interesting. ///
Bandicut grunted. The weight lifted from him a little, and he found a new appreciation of Georgia’s graceful movements around the table. She was married, of course, so it was just harmless appreciation; but Julie wasn’t married, and Julie moved with a quickness and intensity that he found even more appealing. He watched as she lined up a shot—and missed spectacularly, sending the ball on a loop off the far end of the table, where it vanished in midair with a great burst of stars. Julie laughed good-naturedly. It should have been an easy shot. He liked her laugh.
He cleared his throat, suddenly self-conscious. /You don’t have to go to the other extreme,/ he muttered. /I can generate my own interest without your doing anything. Okay?/
/// I wasn’t doing anything. ///
/Oh./ He took a sip from his glass and studiously looked elsewhere around the lounge, so as not to be caught staring.
When next he looked back at the EineySteiney table, he saw Georgia pointing her cue-wand in his direction as she said something to Julie. Julie grinned and looked the other way when she saw that Bandicut was watching. Georgia moved toward the bar, waving her cue-wand at him. What was she going to do? he wondered dimly. Whack him with it?
He felt a brief flurry of lust, and then embarrassment. Down, boy. Julie was following Georgia now, and he felt different colored sparkles of lust. Now? he thought, remembering what had brought him here to drink in the first place.
“Hey, Bandie—I have to leave,” Georgia said, offering him the wand. “Want to step in for me? Julie’s a good player.”
Bandicut swallowed, eyes darting from Georgia to Julie and back again. Say something, idiot.
/// Aren’t you going to say anything? ///
He cleared his throat. “Uh—yeah! I saw! Looked good out there!”
Julie rolled her eyes as she stopped her low-gravity lope to stand at the bar. “Thanks for the reminder. That last shot wasn’t my best.”
Bandicut blushed. He hadn’t been thinking about that last flub, at all. He’d been thinking of how she looked. He felt like an imbecile who couldn’t talk to women without tangling up his words. He forced himself to try to relax, and was aware at once of the dopey smile he probably had on his face. “Oh, I didn’t mean—I mean, yeah, that last one was—”
“I know.” Julie grinned. “But I seem to remember you popping off a couple like that the other night.”
“Yeah,” he admitted.
Georgia laughed and handed him the wand. “So are you going to play with my friend here or not? I told her you were good company, Bandie.”
“Right, right!” Bandicut slid off the barstool, accepting the wand. “Okay, you’re off the hook, Georgia. You can get lost now. That is, if you want to, Julie,” he added hastily.
“Let’s go,” Julie said, as she loped back to the table.
/// This I want to watch, ///
Charlie muttered.
/You can get lost, too,/ he said cheerfully as he stumped after Julie.
Neptune Crossing Page 31
