e it?"

"If it's still possible. Half the Fed Council probably would like to see
it happen. But they don't even dare think along those lines. There could
be a blowup that would throw Hub politics back into the kind of snarl
they haven't been in for a hundred years. If anything is done, it will
have to look as if it had been something nobody could have helped. And
that still might be bad enough."

"I suppose so. Holati--"

"Yes?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. Or if it is, I'll ask you later." She
stood up. "I think I'll go have my swim."

She still went loafing in Plasmoid Creek in the mornings. The bat had
been identified as an innocent victim of appearances, a very
mild-mannered beast dedicated to the pursuit and engulfment of huge
mothlike bugs which hung around watercourses. Luscious still looked like
the safest of all possible worlds for any creature as vigorous as a
human being. But she kept the Denton near now, just in case.

She stretched out again in the sun-warmed water, selected a smooth rock
to rest her head on, wriggled into the sand a little so the current
wouldn't shift her, and closed her eyes. She lay still, breathing
slowly. Contact was coming more easily and quickly every morning. But
the information which had begun to filter through in the last few days
wasn't at all calculated to make one happy.

She was afraid now she was going to die in this thing. She had almost
let it slip out to Holati, which wouldn't have helped in the least.
She'd have to watch that in future.

Repulsive hadn't exactly said she would die. He'd said, "Maybe."
Repulsive was scared too. Scared badly.

Trigger lay quiet, her thoughts, her attention drifting softly inward
and down. Creek water rippled against her cheek.

It was all because that one clock moved so slowly. That was the thing
that couldn't be changed. Ever.

26

Three mornings later, the emergency signal called her back to camp on
the double.

Trigger ran over the developments of the past days in her mind as she
trotted along the path, getting dressed more or less on the way. The
Devagas dome was solidly invested by now, its transmitters blanked out.
It hadn't tried to communicate with its attackers. On their part, the
Fed ships weren't pushing the attack. They were holding the point,
waiting for the big, slow wrecking boats to arrive, which would very
gently and delicately start uncovering and opening the dome, taking it
apart, piece by pie