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15
Next, they went to their place of work in a protruding nodule in the lower human deck.
Jory noticed that, as they approached the busier parts of the ship, people parted the way for them and nodded distantly, without warmth. They got many strange stares. Malinu said: "We are freaks to them. They can consort with all sorts of aliens much stranger looking than we are, but they are revolted at the sight of one of their own with plates on the head like a lizard."
They passed through the industrial areas and into quiet, plushly carpeted corridors that were indirectly lit. Malinu said: "They do treat us well, even if at arms' length. They know we need to concentrate, so they carpet our halls and keep the lights dim. This is our part of the ship, Jory. This is Astropathy. I'm the First Astropath, which is like a ship's first officer, only a hair's rank below. Kinkidai is Second Astropath, and Nolani is Third Astropath."
"Would I theoretically be Fourth Astropath?" Jory almost laughed. "I'd have nobody to give orders to below me."
"On the contrary," Kinkidai said, "we rank just under the top officers, who are all Ruandap; but, other than that, we are outside the chain of command. Their lives depend on us, because we can get them where they want to go in half the time, but if we make a mistake, we can all land in the heart of some sun. You can imagine how long we'd last. They may not like our looks but they have deep respect for us, and even fear."
"Outside the chain of command?" Jory asked, bemused.
"Yes," Malinu said. His face darkened. "Humans are supposed to be slaves. They can't be ship's officers." "That's why you'll find service aboard the Dora Mora to be very exceptional. We keep the secret among ourselves and move from port to port before rumor can follow. Our masters are—well, you'll see."
They passed through a spacious offices revolving on a blister deck, all unmanned and dark except for the surrounding starlight. They entered a huge bubble further on, whose ceiling was glassix like the blister on the ob deck, and again Jory saw the fields upon fields of stars.
Six comfortable captain's chairs occupied the central area of the floor. Though there were instrument panels around the periphery of this room that looked as though it could hold twenty people, the chairs were unadorned.
"Sit here," Malinu ordered. As Jory sat back in the comfortable chair, Kinkidai said: "Relax. We're going to hook you up and you'll get your first feel of this."
"We're between jumps right now," Malinu explained, "or all three of us would be strapped in here, working together. It will be a wonderful addition to have your power, if it is as considerable as we think it may be."
Nolani put a kind of well-padded, comfortable cotton helmet on. Its foam interior molded automatically to the exact shape of her skull, leaving the area of her keradz exposed. As he lay looking up, Jory saw the array of cables and fasteners hanging on retractable trapezes over each of the six chairs. Nolani lowered his trapeze. She and Kinkidai began doing thing to his keradz, and he squirmed as it tickled. He'd never had any use for the things, and wished he could pull them out of his head.
"I'm going to power up," Malinu said. "Let me know when you see or feel anything."
Kinkidai placed a pair of black goggles over Jory's eyes that made him blinder than a human on Oba Island. Jory felt a hum of power, and then saw tiny red and amber lights wink on in the goggles. "I see little red lights."
"Good. That's the beginning of the metaphor. Keep looking, and relax. This is a live run, but there's nothing you can do to alter course or cause any harm."
"Tomorrow we will begin a live session as we prepare for the next jump," Malinu said. "See anything more?"
Jory's field of vision expanded as a host of white and red lines started to appear. The lines raced across the field, vertically and horizontally, chasing each other and blurry speeds, while tiny yellow and blue globes slid along the lines this way and that. Jory cried out and tore the goggles off.
"Blink next time," Kinkidai said. "Close your eyes and will it under control. You must find that on your own. You must bring it under control or your gift isn't much use."
"Relax," Nolani said. She stood with her arms crossed around herself, as if she wanted to be an island from him.
He put his goggles back on and lay back. The lines appeared, and he squinted. They appeared to break up, crumble into dust, disappear—then they appeared again. He practiced making them go away by squinting. "I still have no idea what this is all about," he noted. "But the squinting helps."
"They go away and reappear?" Malinu asked anxiously.
"Yes."
Malinu shook Jory's shoulder in congratulations. "Then you have a powerful gift," Kinkidai said.
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