on society. Would anyone else
like some chovas?"

The four adjourned to a small dining hall, to find themselves
anticipated. Four mugs of the steaming beverage waited for them, and
they drank silently.

For the rest of the day, Tarlac was given the unobtrusive but
unmistakable support that his n'ruhar needed to give--and it helped
them moderate awe to the acceptance, casual but touched with deep
respect, they held for the other Lords. By evening, their emotions
were subsiding to a certain permanent pride that Ch'kara had given a
Lord to the Circle. It helped Tarlac, as well. He'd grown pleasantly
accustomed to the clan's support and closeness--its love--and he'd
regretted the loss of it that seemed inevitable. He came to realize,
however, that as long as Ch'kara existed he would have its love, giving
him a peace he could never have imagined before attaining his new
maturity.

That night, while his body was surrounded by sleeping n'ruhar, Tarlac
took advantage of his new powers to explore. Having the freedom of the
galaxy was exhilarating, far better than the suit-enclosed EVA he'd
enjoyed before. No helmet blocked his view, and if he wanted to, he
could perceive the entirety of what surrounded him. He reveled in it,
swooping from system to system, observing for himself what Kranath and
the others had told him.

He understood the cloudcats and their psionic survival aids perfectly
now; he repaired a minor fault in one, though it wasn't yet necessary,
for the sheer pleasure of using his new skills.

He looked in on a young Irschchan student, graceful as her feline
forebears, with no idea yet of the service she would soon do the Empire
and her homeworld alike; he wished her well.

He checked the condition of his friend, James Medart; if Kranath hadn't
assured him Jim would live, Tarlac would have been sorely tempted to
intervene. Knowing the older Ranger was in critical condition hadn't
prepared him for the sight of Jim hooked up to a roomful of life-support
machinery, not in even a low-grav bed but submerged in a tank
of rapid-heal solution. That was further evidence of how seriously
he'd been wounded; Tarlac had only heard of the technique a couple of
months before leaving Terra, as an experimental treatment for massive
injuries.

It wasn't quite first-tenth at the clanhome, about 0730 Palace Standard
Time, when Tarlac stopped amusing himself and went back to work. His
new power made it simple for hi