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By Root 1078 0

little or nothing to her, she did not know what pseudo-grav was, for instance, and why it was useful, but it was clear that things were about to change in some way. Change was good because it could offer a captive chances for escape. She reached a hand out but she was no closer to the wall. Weightlessness? How did they do this? Why did they do this? In many ways, if you could concentrate on not being sick, it was a pleasant feeling. They did not do it to amuse her though, of that much she was certain. It was probably just a way of keeping prisoners helpless.

„Any questions?‟ the voice said.

She had many questions, but asking them of her guard showed her ignorance and ignorance was weakness and weakness was something she should not let him see. „Why have I been taken captive?‟ she asked.

„Any questions you think I might answer?‟ the voice mocked.

„Where are you taking me?‟

„You‟re not listening,‟ the voice said, sounding bored. „I say again: any questions you think I might answer?‟

Leela craned her neck round, trying to see the device he was using to spy on her. „Where are you? Show yourself.‟

„I‟m on the flight deck,‟ the voice said, „and that‟s where I‟m going to stay. I have no intention of giving you the chance to cut my heart out or whatever it is you have in mind.‟

„It is as I thought,‟ Leela said contemptuously. „You are a peering spy and a sneaking coward.‟

„You say that as though it was a bad thing.‟ The voice was amused again.

He was talking too much for a trained guard, Leela thought, and as long as she could keep him talking he might still give away something useful. She tried a different approach. „How many of you are there? Are the two who ambushed me with you?‟

„They were unavoidably detained.‟

There was something in the way the voice said it that made Leela think her kidnappers had been outmanoeuvred while she was asleep. They might even have been killed. „Did you kill them?‟ she asked.

„Of course I didn‟t kill them. I‟m a pilot. I leave killing to the professionals like you.‟

Leela registered that she was talking to the pilot, and ignoring his insult persisted, „But they are dead.‟

„Not my concern,‟ the voice said, sounding concerned.

Leela recognised the concern and attacked the weakness it suggested. „If they are dead and you did not kill them,‟ she said, „how safe will you be?‟

„I‟m safe enough for the moment,‟ the pilot said. „Especially if you stay where you are and I stay where I am.‟

It sounded to Leela as though there might be no one else in this stripped-down speeder yacht, whatever that turned out to be, but her and this man who was the pilot. „How many other guards are there?‟ she asked.

„You don‟t expect me to answer that.‟

„It does not matter,‟ she said, smiling as sneeringly as she could manage. „I know the answer already.‟

„Are you sure?‟ the pilot said, sounding slightly unsure.

„Are you sure you are able to do the job alone?‟ Leela asked.

„Between you and the rest of the ship there are two sealed bulkheads and two emergency airlocks, which are all controlled from the flight deck. If it wasn‟t for the actual flying I wouldn‟t be needed at all.‟

„Just as the two who ambushed me were not needed,‟ Leela remarked.

There was the briefest of pauses then the pilot said, „They lived greedy, they died stupid. Not my problem.‟

„You are not greedy and stupid?‟ Leela suggested, without emphasis.

„Well I‟m not stupid,‟ the pilot said.

Leela noticed she was drifting very, very slowly towards the wall, or the floor or the roof, and was now almost within touching distance of it. She stretched out her arm and extended a finger and touched the grey cloth. It was foam padding, which felt soft and smooth, but when she pushed at it with her fingertip she found herself propelled away, drifting not quickly but more quickly than before. „So you will not die,‟ she said, as she drifted down or up towards another surface. This must have been what had happened in the darkness she realised when she thought that a moving creature had poisoned her with its touch or that she had been thrown