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TWENTY-TWO

"Goddamm it, let's get some order on this ship!" Anna stormed across the bridge, glaring at the officer of the deck in orbit. "Social occasions aren't worth the loss in time."

"Congratulations, madam," the ODIO said, smiling at her over his shoulder.

"Leave this ship for a few weeks and everything falls apart." She ordered her chair out of its nook and sat in it imperiously, lifting her hand to warn away an attending sphere. "Mister Oliphant," she said to the ODIO, "call Mister Kondrashef to the bridge. We are about to do unspeakable things to space-time."

Oliphant stepped back from the bridge monitors and stood with his hands clasped behind him. He was officially relieved of duty until another port of call was made. Kiril Kondrashef appeared on the bridge in a uniform slightly fancier than the occasion called for. Nestor looked him over with a withering stare.

"In celebration, madam," he explained.

"Of what? Having something to do for a change?"

"Of your impending marriage."

"What cause do you have to celebrate? Think I'll soften in my conjugal bliss?"

"A contented captain is a good captain, so the legends say."

"Tell me if you notice any difference. Request permission to leave orbit, and make damned certain a waste beam doesn't cook our sensors. I'll expect you to dodge."

"Request made," Kondrashef said, watching the automatic sequencer. All orbit organization was handled through computers. "Permission granted. Rental charges halted."

"I have a series of worlds plotted on my duty tapas," she said. "I expect to orbit around the first objective in about seventy hours."

"How many objectives?" Kondrashef asked.

"At least twenty. We're looking for a good place to honeymoon."

"Kyushu wasn't good enough?"

"Terrestrials don't think the way we do, Kiril. Yoshio and I are seeking peace and quiet on far, sparsely peopled worlds. A romantic quest."

"Very well. We'll enter first warp in ten hours."

"Fine. Yeoman," she addressed the hovering sphere, "notify DiNova that I'm canceling all business dealings which can't be handled by ship-to-ship or deep-space communications. He'll select the best dealings for me, to be delivered to my cabin."

"When's the happy day?" Kiril asked.

"We'll be married on Bayley's Ochoneuf," Nestor said. "If you do your job right, in seventy-two hours."

 

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Framed