Get Off the Unicorn (39 page)

“I'm not certain I'd know a cuy particle if I met it,” Helva replied drily. “But they've done something to the shielding about the drive. To the alloy itself. It's denser and light. And I feel light, if that makes sense.”

“Nothing they do makes sense or no sense.” Niall gave a rueful snort.

“We did use that drive. D'you realize how far we went in three days?”

“Not far enough.” Niall spaced the words out. “And let us not speed home, c-v drive operative or not. I'm in no shape to face debriefing. In fact, I'm going to avoid it if at all possible.” But his grin was Niall-normal as he raised the hot coffee in a toast.

“That is good!” Helva said with mild surprise at the taste.

Niall blinked. “What did you say?” He leaned forward. “You tasted that?”

Inexplicably, she had savored the coffee taste in his mouth.

“Yes, that coffee tastes good,” she said again after a very long thoughtful silence.

“Well!” Niall scratched his nose. “How d'you like them apples?”

“You haven't tasted me apples yet.”

Niall took a deep breath that he exhaled in a long chuckle, all the while regarding the tendril of steam writhing up from the coffee container.

“Helva, we didn't complete the recombination?”

“I think,” Helva spoke slowly, trying her thought out loud, “that the time limit flipped us back right at the critical moment.” She felt reluctant to examine her reaction to that interference. She
knew
with that part of her which
was
Niall, just as he
knew
with his fractions of her how perilously close they'd come.

“I wonder—would we have withdrawn at all from Beta Corvi had the fusion been complete?” Niall laughed softly, his eyes brimming with amusement. “Hey gal, into which one of us would we both go? Hell, you're pint-sized and so am I, but who'd've been us? Or would we have been stuck in the shell? Say, what was going on down there with that character who kept pushing you? And pulling me? Oh, that was them? Fardles, did we damned near get stuck with that Colmer bitch?” His dismay dissolved in a weak laugh of relief and then he sat, a long time, while the coffee cooled, just staring contentedly at her panel. She knew that he, too, was mentally probing to estimate the extent of their meshing.

“I suspect it will take all our lifetimes to figure it out.”

“Quite likely.”

The prospect daunted neither.

“Hell, we can't wander off like this,” Niall said after a long, long period of mutual introspection. He shoved himself out of the couch, lobbed the old coffee into the disposal chute, and went for another.

“So they altered the shielding?” he asked, leaning against the counter. “Is there a separate inhibitor? Or is that the alternation in the shielding? And did you grasp what the crot are
cuy
particles? Breslaw is going to want to know something more specific than that they're dangerous.”

“He suspects that . . .”

“And inconvenient if the Corviki catch us making/exhaling them?”

“I think their warning should be deterrent enough. There is a black core within the drive-isotope that didn't previously exist. There is more of that same black stuff in a specially shielded container in the supply bay. It's radiating a purple shade.”

“Hey, Helva, did you actually sort out the personalities of Kurla, Prane, and Chaddress. What'n'ell do we tell Dobrinon?”

“As little as possible. No, they were there. At least I was aware of a Kurla-Prane core, but only because it was a strong combination.”

She saw Niall wince with a regret that she shared.

“We don't, do we, tell him about that in us?”

“Never! I shouldn't like to have to explain something that is so personally subjective.”

“Like tasting coffee?”

“Among other things. Dobrinon would take us apart to find out which facets of you got into me in the reassembly.”

“Gal, we are together!” He enunciated each syllable with a jab of his finger. “But no one, not any one, gets any chance to dissect our feelings. Right?”

“Right!”

Then his face dissolved into a smile, part malice, part pure self-delight, part utter triumph.

“Yeah, gal, have we got a thing going together!” He shook his head and slapped his thigh. “Hell, yes! By anything that's been left holy, Helva, there's nothing
we
can't do now. C'mon, gal, pour on that power. Cycle that crotty drive to get us back to Regulus yesterday. Scatter us
cuy
particles where we may. We're going to buy the body corporate forever free of dear Railly.”

If stars had ears, they'd have heard the vast halelujahs ringing from the partnered ship.

 

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

“Lady in the Tower,” copyright ©1959 by Anne McCaffrey.

“A Meeting of Minds,” copyright © 1969 by Anne McCaffrey.

“Daughter,” copyright © 1971 by Ben Bova for
The Many Worlds of Science Fiction,
Ben Bova, ed.

“Dull Drums,” copyright © 1973 by Roger Elwood for
Future Quest,
Roger Elwood, ed.

“Weather on Welladay,” copyright © 1969 by Galaxy Publishing Corporation for
Galaxy Magazine
, March 1969.

“The Thorns of Barevi,” copyright © 1970 by George Hay for
The Disappearing Future,
George Hay, ed.

“The Great Canine Chorus,” copyright © 1971 by Lancer Books for
Infinity One,
Robert Hoskins, ed.

“Finder's Keeper,” copyright ©1973 by Marvel Comics Group for
The Haunt of Horror,
August 1973.

“A Proper Santa Claus,” copyright ©1973 by Anne McCaffrey.

“The Smallest Dragonboy,” copyright © 1973 by Rand McNally & Company for
Science Fiction Tales,
Roger Elwood, ed.

“Apple,” copyright © 1969 by Anne McCaffrey.

Books by Anne McCaffrey

 

Decision at Doona

Dinosaur Planet

Dinosaur Planet Survivors

Get Off the Unicorn

The Lady

Pegasus in Flight

Restorree

The Ship Who Sang

To Ride Pegasus

Nimisha's Ship

Pegasus in Space

 

THE CRYSTAL SINGER BOOKS

Crystal Singer

Killashandra

Crystal Line

 

THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN
^®
BOOKS

Dragonflight

Dragonquest

The White Dragon

Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern

Nerilka's Story

Dragonsdawn

The Renegades of Pern

All the Weyrs of Pern

The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall

The Dolphins of Pern

Dragonseye

The Masterharper of Pern

The Skies of Pern

 

By Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough:

Powers that Be

Power Lines

Power Play

 

With Jody Lynn Nye:

The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern

 

Edited by Anne McCaffrey:

Alchemy and Academe

 

 

 

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OH TO BE A DRAGONRIDER

 

The only thing Keevan wanted in life was to be a dragonrider, just like his father. Surely nothing could ever be as thrilling as soaring through the air while sitting between the two powerful wings of a dragon.

 

But Keevan was small and there always were more boys who wanted to be dragonriders than there were dragons. So someone surely would be disappointed.

 

When Impression time came, Keevan couldn't be there. His cracked skull and broken leg would make him the poorest candidate of all, even if he could get to the cave where the dragon eggs hatched.

 

At least that was what the other boys thought.

 

But dragons have a different set of standards, especially the bronzes—the most highly prized dragons of all!

A Del Rey Book

Published by Ballantine Books

Copyright © 1977 by Anne McCaffrey

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN is a trademark of Anne McCaffrey. Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off.

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