Crystal Line

Chapter 9

"Did you get enough blacks in?"Killa asked Lars the first time she saw him after she began to pull out of the traumatic exhaustion.

"Enough to reduce the clamor a few decibels, Sunny."He bent to kiss her cheek and then pinched it, a gleam of mischief in his eyes."The ones we cut together were the best."

"Naturally," she said with a flash of her usual arrogance.

"Seen the figures on that octave?" he asked.

"One of my first conscious acts."She leaned into the fingers that stroked her cheek."I've a bird to pluck with you.You gave me part of those you brought in when you went back out by yourself, and that's not in Rules and Regs.You cut by yourself," she said, scowling at him but well pleased at his generosity.

"Ah, but it's your site.All things being equal, you'd've continued cutting with me until the weather turned."

"So," she said, moving her head slightly back from his caresses and eyed him speculatively, "what is such charity going to cost me?"

Lars gave a hearty laugh, throwing his head back and tipping the chair away from the bed, balancing it deftly on the back legs."I wasn't so much charitable as conscious of my administrative edict that those whose claims were cut without their participation would be awarded a settlement."

"I'm an existing and active singer," she said, outraged." I'm not-not yet, at any rate…" And she waved her hand in agitated denial toward the section of the Infirmary, which cared for the brain-damaged singers.

"No, of course, you're not.The fact remains that I was compelled by press of orders to obtain black crystal from any viable site," he said, solemn for a moment."And you did cut there earlier with me, so it was only just, meet, and fair that you got your share-especially at the current market price of blacks."He rolled his eyes."Best ever."

"Yes, it was, wasn't it!"Killa grinned back at him.Blacks always generated top earnings.Their octave had earned her more than she had made in-her mind stumbled over the time factor.Quickly she turned away from such speculations."Has that octave been processed yet?"She was still annoyed with Donalla and Presnol for not allowing her to access that information.They had kept her restricted to a simple voice-only comunit.

"Oooh, as fast as it could be shaped and bracketed.The Blackwell Triad drooled when I made it available to them.Eight was what they needed, and eight matched was a plus.Which they paid for."

"Too right!"

"Terasolli installed them."Lars's grin turned sour."Then lost himself so well in Maxim's Planet I haven't been able to locate a trace of him.Even with what the pricey establishments on Maxim's charge, he's got enough to lose himself for months."

"I remember going to Maxim's once with you," Killa said, though she could recall no details of the legendary exotic pleasances that the leisure planet offered.Though some singers risked mind and body to cut enough for repeated visits to Maxim's, she couldn't recall any desire to do so.

"Once.No seas, not even lakes, so no sailing."He cocked her a malicious grin."Which reminds me.Care to get out of here for a few days R and R?You can crew for me."

"To get out of here I'd even crew!"

Counterfeiting irritation at her jibe, he ruffled her hair into snarls and left, whistling a chanty.

Three days later, when she made her way down to the pier, she was surprised to find Donalla, Presnol, and Clodine already there, carisaks at their feet.She very much resented Lars's extending his invitation to anyone else, much less these three.She had wanted-expected-only his company on board the Angel.The ship was more than enough rival for his attention.Then she experienced a second, more disjointing shock when she got a good look at the ship moored to the long pier: it was not the Angel she thought she remembered clearly, but a craft some ten or fifteen meters longer.A sloop, but a much bigger one.That somewhat explained the extra hands but did not disperse her disgruntlement.

Lars arrived before she got past a stiff greeting to the others.He jogged down the pier, grinning broadly at the success of his surprise.

"She's great, isn't she?" he said, his face boyish and more like the Lars she had known than the Guild Master he had become."This'll be her maiden voyage.You're the shake-down crew."

Not even Killashandra had the effrontery to blight his pleasure as he shepherded them on board, pointing out the technological improvements and amenities, the spaciousness, the luxury of the several cabins and wardroom, still smelling of varnish, paint and that indefinable odor of "unused".There was even space for a body-sleeve-sized radiant bath.Killa lost the edge of her vexation when Lars guided her to the captain's cabin, genially waving the other three to pick out their own bunks.There would be much more privacy on Angel II-unless, of course, Lars insisted on standing a different watch.Maybe they would have to, for she had no idea of how much seamanship the two medics and the Sorter had.

"Like it, Sunny?"Lars said, tossing his duffel to the wide bunk and gesturing around the beautifully appointed cabin."The rewards of cutting black!"

"Must have cost you every bit you made," she murmured, looking about her appreciatively."State-of-the-art?"

"She was when she left the boatyard on Optheria."Lars slipped his arms about her waist, enfolding her to him and burying his face in her short crisp curls."Probably still is, though I waited to sail her until I could have my Sunny aboard.No fun for me to sail without you, you know."He kissed her, then let her go to swing his arms about expansively."She's a beaut, isn't she?Saw her sister ships on Flag Three and I've lusted after one like her ever since."

"Do the others know how to sail?" she asked, curious and still somewhat resentful.

"They sailed on the old ship a couple of times," he admitted casually."They don't get seasick, if that's your worry, and, while this baby should run herself, they know their way about a deck."

"Who cooks?"Killa said, half teasing.

"Whoever's off-duty," he replied gaily, and then hugged her to him."It's good to have you back on board, lovey.Real good.Now-" and his manner turned brisk-"let's get this cruise underway."

It turned out to be a very good cruise, especially when Killashandra realized that she was a much more capable sailor than any of the others.And, as usual, she responded automatically, and correctly, to any of Lars's orders.

The important things to remember she remembered, she told herself.The rest was chaff, which time would have winnowed out of active memory anyway.

And, as they anchored every evening in a cove and the ship could be rigged to rouse the crew if its monitors received any critical readings, Lars and she spent their nights together in the captain's double bunk.

They fished and ate the panfried catch, sweet and delicate in flavor and flesh.They sailed, or rather Lars did-he would let no one take the helm for very long, even Killa.By the afternoon of the third day out, they encountered some stormy weather.She reveled in it, for it brought back to mind flashes of other storms she had experienced on ships with Lars.It was four days before the pressures of the Guild had to be considered.Lars tried to settle one set of problems that were patched through to him, but since he had no assistant to handle matters during an absence, they regretfully had to turn back.

"I thought you were going to find yourself an aide," Killa said, unhappy at having the halcyon trip truncated.

"I've been trying to find the right personality for the past seven years, Sunny. Isn't easy to find anyone suitable.Oh, there've been a couple of recruits who had some potential, passable as temporaries, but none who had the breadth of experience to be effective executives.I need someone who knows and understands Guild tenets, has or could cut crystal, has managerial skills without being a power freak.Most especially someone I can trust…"

"Not to usurp your prerogatives?"Killa asked facetiously.

"That, too," he agreed, grinning at her."It's not an easy position to fill.I've learned to do as much as I can myself without delegating it to others because, bluntly, singers forget too much."

Killa heard that on several levels and winced.His arm came about her, lovingly tucking her against him, and she felt his kiss on the nape of her neck.

"Worse, they sublimate-Donalla's word-crystal singing into the most important aspect of their lives which, in many senses, it has to be.The disadvantage to that is the balance: they end up with such narrow parameters in which they can function that they're bloody useless for any broader view.They're either singing or they flee from singing until they can no longer ignore the need for crystal.That sort of myopia compromises a lot of otherwise good people.Life holds more-hey, Sunny, what's the matter with you?"Killa had stiffened in his arms, and tried to push him away."Hey, no need to take offense!"He laughed at her and pulled her back into his arms, caressing her until she began to relax."Silly chunk!"

She made herself soften in his arms because they were nearly back at the Guild harbor, but whether or not he denied it, she felt that his comments had not been as casual as he pretended.And yet… nothing in the past few days suggested to her that there had been any other, subtle alteration to their long relationship.Donalla was patently interested in Presnol, and Clodine apparently had a like-for-like preference.

Then Lars issued the necessary orders to ready the ship for docking, and there was no time for any further conversation.On the one hand, Killa resented that Lars had left her so unsettled with his remarks unclarified, but, on the other, she wanted time to mull over what he had said.If the suit fits, wear it, she thought.

With utter honesty, she recognized that she was guilty of compressing her personal parameters into just such a narrow track.Had Lars seen that?Was he hoping that his remarks would jolt her out of that myopia?Only how?Something teased at the edge of her mind.Something important.She couldn't catch so much as a hint.

She sighed and finished cleaning up the galley and removing the last of the perishable foods.Well, maybe she wasn't as myopic as some.She sailed, didn't she?And she could remember seeing more water worlds than any galaxy had the right to offer.

Sailing had given Lars Dahl some respite from the pressures of his responsibility, but the main one had doubled on him-more black crystal was ordered.

"I left instructions that no further orders were to be taken," Lars said, angrily furrowing his brows as he glared at the comscreen.It had been buzzing for his attention the moment he opened the hatch on his private ground vehicle.

"Guild Master, we never refuse orders for black," he was told.

"We can't fill the orders we've got."Lars leaned out of the open door."Donalla, you're going to have to lean on Borella and Rimbol."

The names were vaguely familiar to Killashandra.

"I'll do what I can, Lars," Donalla called back to him, but she shrugged as if she was none too sanguine about success.

"Rimbol?I knew him-I think," Killashandra said as a hazy image of an ingenuous smile on a boyish face flickered in recall."And Borella…" The woman's face was not clear; memory centered on a tall strong body and a badly lacerated leg."I haven't seen them in a long time," she added.

"You're not likely to, Sunny," Lars said kindly."They both turned off storm warnings once too often."

"Oh!"She paused, considering that information."Then how can Donalla lean on them?"

Lars had stowed their two duffels; he strapped himself into his seat, motioning for Killa to do the same, as he prepared to drive back to the cube.

"Regression," he replied succinctly.

That was the word.

"What's that?"

"It's an old technique of accessing segments of memories lost on purpose or from brain injury.We don't use but two-fifths of the brains we've got.As Donalla explained, some functions can be switched to unused portions of the mind, and often memories get shunted out of active recall.Off and on, there have been fads of regression, usually to former lives."He chuckled before continuing, an indication of his opinion of such an exercise."We're using it to tap memory strings.Donalla's research on memory loss suggests that we don't actually lose anything we've seen, heard, and felt.The unpleasant we tend to bury as deep as possible, depending on its effect on our psyches.Oddly enough, good memories get dropped just as thoroughly.Through a careful use of hypnosis, Donalla has been able to reclaim lost knowledge."

"That's illegal."Lars shook his head at her outburst."Isn't it?"

"No, it isn't.I had that point clarified.We are custodians of those husks of former singers, and they get the best physical care we can supply.Some of them, under Donalla's care, have actually been restored as functioning humans."

Killa stared at him, aghast."You can't possibly put them back in the Ranges!"

Lars laughed harshly."I'm not sadistic, Killa, it's a plus to me if they are able to care for themselves.Some have improved enough to undertake simple duties in the Infirmary."

"That's macabre, Lars," Killa said with a shudder.

"It's also expedient.The infirmary is damned near full, and I won't short anyone on the care they need if they've totaled their minds.The other problem is that the Guild is not attracting enough new recruits to make up for those losses…"

She felt both anger at him and a stirring of terror.She'd come all too close to being one of the "totals" herself "If I'd totaled, would you…"

His eyes on the ground speeding past them, Lars reached out to grab her hand."If you were totaled, Killa, you wouldn't be aware of anything that was happening to you."

"But would you subject me to…?"She couldn't continue, horrified at the very idea of someone crawling about her mind without permission, at that ultimate loss of privacy.The painful grip of his fingers increased, jolting her out of such considerations.

"I told you I didn't want to be Guild Master.Lanzecki left me with quite a mess to cope with, only, when I agreed, I didn't know the half of it.Full disclosure wasn't required of him."Lars's smile was droll."But I did have some ideas on how to revitalize the Guild, to reorganize it for efficiency and predictability.I can't leave so much to the vagaries of the singers and the weather."

"Vagaries?" she repeated indignantly."Vagaries?"His choice of word infuriated her.

"Yes, singers are permitted far too much leeway-"

"Too much?When we risk our sanity every time we go into the Ranges?"

"That's the most haphazard part of the whole operation," Lars said scornfully."Most singers-and you are not in that category, Sunny, so relax and listen up-cut just enough to get off-planet.They leave viable sites long before they need to quit because of an approaching storm.They don't remember from one time to the next where they've profitably cut and waste a lot of time trying to locate old ones or find new ones.This paranoia that keeps a singer from noting coordinates of claims is absurd.It's easy enough to use codes."

"If you can remember it later," Killa put in.

"Numbers aren't that hard to remember," he said, "and something has to be done to make such invaluable information available to the individual.It'd cut out the guesswork and make every trip into the Ranges far more profitable.Our friend Terasolli's another example of wasted time.He gets top price to set that octave, and he won't come back to Ballybran until crystal itch drives him back.That'll be a year or so-a year or so of unproductivity.That's got to stop."

"Stop?"She sputtered the word in her amazement at his uncompromising attitude.

"Two, maybe three months, should be respite enough for a singer."

"How the fardles would you know?"Killa demanded."You've never set black crystal.You don't know…" She tried to stop, she was trembling so badly."Set this thing down.I'm not going any further with you.I'd rather walk back to the Guild than stay another minute…"

Lars did set the vehicle down, but he also shoved in the door lock and swung his back against it so she couldn't reach it.His face was set and his eyes flashing with anger.He took her by the shoulders.

"You'll stay and you'll listen!If I can persuade a mind as closed as yours against any change in wasteful habits and stupid archaic perks, maybe I have a chance of pulling the Guild out of the hole it's in."He gave her a little shake, his fingers digging into the flesh of her upper arms.He ignored her squirming."I'm trying my damnedest to save this Guild.Its position in communications is no longer as secure as it used to be because people have got tired of waiting for Ballybran crystals and have developed alternatives.Not as good as our crystal but performing much the same functions and… always… available… for replacement…" He spaced the last words for emphasis."I've got nine orders for black crystal I cannot fill because my singers cannot relocate the sites where they've found black.So they go wandering about in the Ranges, looking, trying to remember.I want them to remember.I've been patient long enough-just as Lanzecki was patient-but there's an end to patience and I've reached it.I'll do anything I can to supply black crystal, to build up a backlog of the stuff, to reinstate the Guild to its former prominence.And if it means I have to plumb the depths of crazed minds to find out where black crystal is, I will.But it'd be much easier to have a live singer willing, and able, to cooperate with me."

His bitter gaze held hers, and she could see his deep anxiety, his frustration, his fears in the dark agony of his clouded eyes.His voice was harsh with desperation.

"How could I cooperate any more than I have?" she asked in a low voice, shivering internally with fear of what this compliance might do to her.

"Oh, Sunny…" He embraced her tightly, holding her head under his chin with one hand, stroking her body as if contact would express his gratitude and relief.Then he held her slightly away, her face in his hands, stroking her cheeks with gentle thumbs, looking deep into her eyes."You know where you cut blacks.It's there in your memory."One hand cupped her head tenderly."We just have to access those memories… it'll all come back.Donalla says that with the proper clues, you could remember everything…"

Killashandra stiffened, regretting her impulse, pulling herself free."I don't need to remember everything, Lars.I don't want to remember everything.Get that straight now."

"Honey, all I'm asking is landmarks for the black-crystal sites you've cut.I've remembered only two and I know there were more.I have got to have black crystal," and he pounded his fist into the plas above the control panel with such force that it left a dent.

She reached for his hand, to prevent him repeating the blow.Immediately he covered hers with both of his.

"If we could only"-and his voice was low now, his frustration vented-"get singers to note down landmarks so they can get themselves back to the best sites…"

Killa gave a snort, not as derisive as she might have been because she was not going to exacerbate Lars's despair."Now that's asking a lot, love," she said wryly."You know how paranoid singers are.Put something down that another singer could find and locate?"She shook her head."Not to mention roping singers back to Ballybran before they absolutely have to return."

Lars looked deeply in her eyes."That's why your cooperation is so vital, Sunny.You're senior among the working singers.If you can be seen to accede to executive orders," he said with a bitter smile, "the others will accept them.Especially if you start bringing in more crystal, better crystal, because you know exactly how to get back to workable sites."

"I've already cut more crystal than any other singer…"

"You have that enviable reputation, Sunny," he said with a hint of his customary ebullience.

"So how does this regression process work?"

He straightened up, his eyes losing their grimness."Under hypnosis.Donalla's become expert.She found the coordinates I needed to access one of our old claims the last time I went out."

"You-by yourself?"The notion that he had risked himself like that made her choke with fear.

"As Guild Master, I had to set the example, despite my partner's illness.I can't ask singers to do what I won't do myself, you know."

"And you talk about capricious singers!"

"Don't shout, Killa.I cut, I got back and at least filled another order."

"Order?Order!"She was indignant.

"An order that's been unfilled for twenty years, Killa!It's no wonder the Guild's reputation has been suffering.I've finally got permission to inaugurate a more active recruitment campaign, but it's experienced singers I need and right now-and out in the Ranges, not carousing on Maxim's or Baliol and spread out across the galaxy."

The bleak expression of a man who was not given to desperation, the flat, despairing edge to a voice that had always been rich with humor and optimism, moved her more deeply than any other moment in a basically egocentric and selfish life.She owed Lars Dahl, and now was the time to repay him in the only coin that mattered.

"So, let's get back to the Cube and let Donalla beguile me, or whatever it is she needs to do."

"Regress your memory."

"I can't, and that's that," Donalla said, swinging her stool around and projecting herself off it.She paced angrily about the room."You don't trust me, Killa.It's as simple as that.Until you can trust me, hypnosis can't happen."

"But I do trust you, Donalla," Killa insisted, as she had over the past few days and the increasingly frustrating sessions she had had with the medic.

"Look, ladies," Presnol said, coming out of the corner of the room where he had been as unobtrusive as possible, "there are some folk who are psychologically unable to release control of their minds to anyone, no matter how they trust the operator.Killa's been a singer a very long time now…"

"Don't keep reminding me of that."Killa heard the edge on her voice, but she was too keyed up by failure to control the reaction.

"Habits are ingrained…"

"I've never been a creature of habit," Killa protested, trying to inject a little humor into the tensions that crackled about them all.

"But," he said, turning to her, "protecting your site locations has played a dominant role in your subconscious.I mean, I've sat in on Donalla's sessions with some of the inactive singers"-Killa approved of his euphemism-"and often it's sounded to me as if they were keeping the information from themselves: the subconscious refusing to permit access of knowledge to the conscious."

"Ha!"Killa folded her arms across her chest."I go to sleep telling myself to remember.To dredge up the necessary referents, I dream of fardling spires and ranges and canyons and ravines.I dream of the act of cutting; I dream of crystal until I wake myself up thinking I'm asleep on a bed of the fardling shards!"

"Like a mystic?"Donalla tried to cover up the giggle that had slipped out.

Presnol looked shocked, but Killa grinned."I know the sort you mean-total disregard of the purely physical.Mind over matter!Oh, Muhlah, if I only could…" And she groaned, covering her face with her hands.

"Wait a minute," Donalla said, drawing herself erect at a sudden inspiration."You get thralled, don't you?By crystal?"

"It can happen to any singer," Killa said guardedly.

"Yes, but thrall's a form of hypnosis, isn't it?I mean, the crystal triggers the mesmerism, doesn't it?"

"Indeed it does."

Presnol caught the significance of their exchange."But that would mean you'd have to go into the Ranges."

"What's wrong with that, Presnol?"Killashandra asked, slapping her hands to her knees."I'd be doing something constructive at the same time, instead of sitting on my buns here accomplishing nothing.Sorry, Donalla.You've tried.I just can't comply!Maybe, in the Ranges, and in thrall, you can get through."

"But-but-" Presnol floundered.

"But you've never been out, have you?"

"Only to rescue singers."And a convulsive spasm shook the medic's frame.

"Well, it's about time you saw the Ranges at their best," Killa said, amused.

Presnol gulped.

"No, I'll go," Donalla said, giving her lover a reassuring smile."I'm-supposedly-the hypnotist.And I'm not afraid of the Ranges."

"I'm not, either," Presnol protested, but both women exchanged knowing glances."I'm not, truly."

"Donalla's presence is sufficient, I'd say," Killa said.

"One of us should remain here, Pres," Donalla said, "and you could continue the hypnotics with-" She hesitated, glancing at Killashandra-"another patient."

"Yes, I could," Presnol said, beginning to relax.He was not as adept at the process as Donalla, but he had been successful with two of the inactive singers."That would be a much more useful disposition of my time right now.Ah, when will you be going?" he asked, turning back at the door.

Killa and Donalla exchanged looks.Killa shrugged."We'll check with Lars…"

But when they explained their plan to Lars Dahl, Killa could see plainly his resistance to the idea of her going out into the Ranges without him.She herself had had to override her own reluctance to go out in the company of a nonsinger, however dispassionately involved with the singing of crystal.

"There's been no tradition of nonsingers-" Lars began.

"Ha!Since you've been demolishing tradition all over the place, why cavil at this one?The results could be exactly what's needed.At least with me," Killa said."As you point out, I'm one of the oldest still active singers…"

"Killa!"His tone held a warning not to try his patience just then.

"Look, we can rig lots of safeguards.Weather's behaving itself right now, so we can cancel that worry.Donalla can wear a combutton direct to your console, so if you have to do a rescue flit, you'll be the first to hear," Killa went on, perversely determined to undermine any argument he might voice."Donalla's stronger than she looks, if it comes to her having to break thrall."She grinned."Know any good throws?" she asked Donalla, who dismissed the question."So, teach her your special techniques, up to and including setting my cutter sour.Muhlah knows that the reward could be worth the price of a cutter."

"Don't let Clarend hear you say that," Lars remarked with a good attempt at genuine humor.

"Hmmm, too right," Killa grinned back at him.Over the decades they had both taken plenty of abuse from the cutter.

"You'll lend us the double sled then?"Killa asked.She looked out of the broad window, beyond the Hangar."Hell, it's only midday.We could be deep in the Ranges and cutting in a couple of hours."She leaned across the desk toward him, daring him, silently urging him to agree."Of course, if you happened to have some black-crystal coordinates handy, I could be productive on several levels."

"Killa, you do know what you're doing, don't you?"

"No, but Donalla thinks that thrall will help her get past the barriers I can't seem to lower."

He sighed deeply and threw his hands out in capitulation."If you could come back with some black…" He set his lips firmly, hearing the desperation in his own voice.

He propelled himself out of his chair, and while Killashandra contacted the Hangar and arranged for his sled to be readied and stocked, he demonstrated to Donalla the various ways in which thrall could be broken.

"I didn't realize thrall was that dangerous," Donalla said, her eyes wide with the newly acquired information."And you let Killashandra stay thralled to green…"

"That was a most unusual situation.Killa needed the overdose of crystal to counteract deprivation.I would never have permitted her to thrall to black-it's far harder to break out of.And that's why I don't like just the pair of you going."

"Well, if you want another singer along to see where we've cut black…" Killa teased.

"There isn't another singer in or you can believe I'd send someone."

"Who's that dork at Trag's desk then?"

"Certainly not yet a singer," Lars said sarcastically, "but she does have business management experience and she's capable of organizing pencil files and auditing accounts."

Killa smiled, relieved by his disparagement of the very pretty girl's abilities.

"Now, if you can't break thrall by any of the methods I've demonstrated, you club her behind the ear and haul her bodily out of the Ranges.You are checked out on sleds, aren't you?"

"You know we all are, Lars," Donalla said, giving him an almost condescending smile."I've even driven some of the worksleds when there was excessive storm damage to patch up."Lars nodded acceptance of her competence."But I'm not charmed by the idea of bludgeoning Killashandra Ree into submission.I'll bring along something soothing."

"You have to be careful, though."Lars held up a warning hand."A singer in thrall can become violent.Strap her down in the sled if it comes to that."

"Now that you've given her the worst-case scenario, how else can you scare her out of this attempt?"Killa asked in some disgust.She turned to Donalla."Anyone would think he didn't want this to succeed.I've never slugged him yet.Though I might start…" And she lifted her fist in mock anger.

He raised both arms and pretended to cringe from her blow."Just in case," he added, his manner lighter and a sparkle in his blue eyes, "have you any idea where you're going?"

She grinned at him."You need black.So, since you have already bared the location of your latest black site to Donalla, I thought you wouldn't mind entrusting it to me, your partner."

His smile deepened."Here."He thrust a slip of paper at her."When you're on course, eat it!"

"You are all heart, Lars Dahl," Killa said, and marched Donalla out of the office and to the lift.

In the descending car, Killa was amused by the way Donalla eyed her.

"Sorry?"

"Not a bit," Donalla said, scowling sternly; then her expression altered to anxiety."It's just I hadn't realized the possible complications.

Killa laughed."You don't, unless you've had to work with 'em.Lars shouldn't have scared you like that."

"He doesn't want to lose you again, Killa," Donalla said, her fine eyes intent."He idolizes you."

"He has an odd way of showing it at times," Killa replied, trying for a casual acceptance to conceal her reaction to Donalla's appraisal.

"Sometimes that's because it's too important to admit, even to himself."

The intensity of those quiet words rang in Killa's mind.Lars had so often told her he loved her, but usually in a sort of offhand manner, as if he didn't really mean it, or was astonished by blurting out the declaration.Always his hands and eyes had conveyed more than he actually said aloud.Even when she was denying him, she couldn't genuinely deny her love for him, just her dependence on the affection of any other human being.

The lift door opened and, taking a deep breath, she led the way out to the Hangar and the double sled waiting and ready.

As there was no other sled in sight, Killa set the course directly toward the coordinates Lars had given her and, making a little display of it, dutifully chewed and swallowed the note.Donalla gave her a nervous smile.Killa found the fidgeting of the usually self-confident medic amusing.Well, her self-confidence was only to be expected-in an infirmary.But now she was in the singer's bailiwick, and the Ranges were awesome.No question of that.

When Donalla relaxed enough to watch the spectacular scenery streaming by, Killa made something hot to drink and broke out some munchables.They hadn't had any noon meal, and she wanted something in her belly if she was to let herself get thralled.

There was one problem, Killa mused, now that she focused her mind on the actual process.She never remembered a thing from any period in which she had been thralled.It was all a blank from the moment she lifted the crystal free to the moment thrall lifted.Of course, Donalla had carefully explained that one didn't remember the span of a hypnotic incident either.Well, Killa thought with a shrug, finishing the last of her ration bar, it was worth a try!Lars needed the boost a success would give him.

Between sessions with Donalla, Killa had done some surreptitious poking in general files, from Recruitment to Deliveries, all readily accessible information.There certainly had been a drop in the numbers of applicants to the Guild.There had only been six in the last bunch to be processed, and a mere ninety signing up for Guild membership over the last decade.She checked back over four decades, when the totals had been up to the two hundred mark.More singers were rated "inactive" than active on the Roster.No deaths listed in the past twenty years.Killa's thoughts were grim.The cost of caring for singers was higher than the budgets for Research and Development, yet profits were dwindling.Lars had been all too correct in saying the Guild was in serious trouble.She really should have brought in… she frowned, for the name escaped her.She had found someone, hadn't she?With the perfect pitch required.Could that sort of ability be on the wane in the modern world?It was a trick of the ear and the mind.

Gradually as the state of affairs of the Guild became obvious, her initial repugnance over invading singers' damaged minds to find the location of their sites began to subside.At Donalla's suggestion, she sat in on a hypnotic session with a man whose symbiont was visibly failing him.He was gnarled and wrinkled with age, joints thick with calcium deposits, veins engorged on fleshless limbs and digits.He seemed content, though, wrapped in a warm, soft blanket and smelling of a recent bath.There hadn't been much intelligence in the dull, deeply receding eyes, despite the fact that they were following the movement of the random fractals ever-shifting on the large screen in the corner of his room.He was an improvement over some of the living corpses Killa had seen on her way to his small single room.

"I chose Rimbol, because at least he's tracking what's on the screen," Donalla said."I've had some luck in restimulating one or two of the least damaged singers.I've just turned off the music in here, but we've found he does respond to aural as well as visual stimuli.I think whatever we do to try to reach their brains is better than just letting these poor hulks have nothing to see and hear.Rimbol's more receptive to hypnotism than some of the others."

She held up the prism and turned Rimbol's head slightly so that the crystal was on a level with his eyes.She twisted the chain so that the prism caught the light, and immediately Rimbol's eyes were captured.

"Watch the prism, Rimbol, watch the lovely colors, shifting and changing.Your eyes are getting heavy, you can't hold them open because your lids are so very heavy and you're falling asleep, gently falling asleep… " Donalla pitched her pleasant contralto into a slow rhythmic pattern, and Rimbol's eyes did flicker and close, and a sigh escaped his lips.

"You will sleep and you will not resist.You will answer my questions as best you can.You will remember where you were when you cut black crystal.You will remember what the landscape was like, if there were any prominent landmarks.You will also tell me the coordinates, because you do remember them.And you do remember this particular site because you cut black crystal there, four fine crystals in the key of E Major.You made enough credits to leave Ballybran for over a year.Records show that you went to your homeworld on that occasion.Do you remember that time, Rimbol?Do remember the landmarks about that site, Rimbol?"

"Ah, the E majors?Best I ever cut.I 'member."The words were slurred, but both medic and singer listened hard."I 'member.Two peaks, like cones, and then the flat part…" The words became more distinct, the voice even sounded younger, more vibrant."Narrow ravine, winds like an S, had to tip the sled and damned near lost her but I knew there was black around.Fardling steep slope up to the peaks, sharp to climb, slipped often but crystal's there… feel it in my knees and hands…"

"The coordinates, Rimbol.What are the coordinates?You saw them when you finally set the sled down.You know you did.So put yourself back then, when you're looking down at your console.Now, you can see the figures on the scope, can't you?"

"See 'em…"

"What do you see, Rimbol?Look closely.The numbers are very clear, aren't they?"

"Clear."

"What numbers do you see?"

"Ah…" And another sigh escaped the old man."Longitude, one fifty-two degrees twenty-two, latitude sixteen degrees fifteen.Didn't think I'd 'member that.I did!"He smiled contentedly and his closed eyelids trembled.

Killashandra had jotted down the coordinates and then looked at the figures, still uneasy about obtaining such information.

"He'll never make it there again, Killa," Donalla said softly."He doesn't need them.The Guild which cares for him does."

"Someone else could probably find the claim without scouring it out of his mind," Killashandra said, resisting the intrusion for Rimbol's sake.His name sounded familiar, but he had altered far too much for her to recall what he had looked like as a young and vigorous man.

"There isn't time for random chance."Then Donalla turned back to her patient."Thanks, Rimbol.You have been marvelously helpful."

"Have?"

Killashandra was astounded to see a smile return to tremble on the wasted lips, a smile that remained even after Donalla ended the hypnotic session.She said nothing when she noted that Killashandra had seen that smile.She turned up the music, a lilting, merry tune, and, as the two women left, Killashandra turned back and saw a distorted finger lift in time to the rhythm.

When they had finished their snack, Killashandra checked their flight path and estimated that they were nearly there.They overflew the black-and-yellow chevrons ten minutes later, and she circled, mentally chanting Lars's choosing rhyme-eeny meeny-as she looked for the landmarks he had told her marked the exact location of the black crystal.

She had turned 160 degrees before she recognized the configuration of ravines: three, one rising behind the other, in frozen waves of stone.At the base of the third, she should find signs of workings.She did: recent workings because sunlit sparkles caught her eye.

"Here we are," she caroled out to Donalla."Behold!"She gestured expansively out of the front window."An actual crystal site!"

Donalla's lips parted and then a slight frown marred her high forehead.

"No, it's not much to look at," Killa said, lightly teasing."A place known only to few and treasured by many."She locked down the controls, noting as she did so, as she always did whether she had realized it before or not, the coordinates on the screen before she shut the engines off.She had to admit that such an automatic scan was as much a part of a landing routine as turning off the engine-so automatic that she wouldn't remember she had done it three seconds after she had.There would be hundreds of such flashes for Donalla to probe…

She reached for her cutter and gave the lined carrier for cut crystal to Donalla to tote and opened the sled door.Through the soles of her heavy workboots, she could feel the ripple of the nearby black.She swallowed hard.The call of black was strong.Maybe Lars had been right: she wasn't ready for black yet.But they hadn't much choice, had they?

She led the way to the face, visible because of the regular steps where crystal had been recently cut.Nothing looked familiar.She knew from checking files that he had cut alone for nearly a decade-a decade she hadn't even known had passed while they were estranged.But, and she shook her head in surprise, the claim bore their chevron markings.Lars was a bundle of contradictions, wasn't he?He was too sentimental to be a good Guild Master, she thought; then, thinking of recent examples of his ruthlessness, she reversed her opinion.

As she narrowed the distance, she explained once more to Donalla exactly how a singer proceeded on site: finding a clear side of crystal, sounding a tuning note, setting the cutter, and then excising the crystal.

"The dangerous part is when I hold the crystal up.If sun hits it, I'll go up into thrall."Wryly she glanced up to check the position of the sun, trying to ignore the hard, cold knot developing in her stomach."Well," she said, exhaling a deep breath, "here goes!"She motioned for Donalla to step back a bit, farther away from the business edge of the cutter.

Killashandra eyed the crystal face.Yes, these were Lars's cuttings.She would know them anywhere.Recent storms hadn't damaged his distinctive style.She brushed some loose splinters away and felt the crystal resonance just a note away.She pressed her hand flat against the surface and, setting her diaphragm, sang a clear mid-C.The crystal vibrated almost excitedly to the sound.She set the cutter.Putting the blade perpendicular to the face, she rammed it in, disengaged the blade, sliced from the top to her lower cut, then quickly shifted position to make the second downward cut, freeing the shaft.She turned off the cutter, letting it slip down the harness that held it to her shoulder.

"Now, Donalla," she said.She lifted the black crystal high, high enough to catch the sun and felt the beginnings of thrall paralyze her.She could no more have evaded that than Rimbol had been able to evade Donalla.

Hard grit dug into her face, irregular hard objects poked her the length of her body, and her ears rang with an unpleasant dissonance that would soon split her skull.Abruptly the unendurable noise quit.

"Killa!Killa!Are you all right?"

A hand on her shoulder shook her, tentatively at first, then more urgently.But the voice was female.She had never cut with a woman!She propped herself up, one hand automatically feeling for the cutter.Her cutter?Where was it?She couldn't have lost her cutter?Dazed, she looked about, patting the ground.Her eyes were dry in their sockets and ached.

"Killa?"

Boots scrabbled on the litter and someone's face peered anxiously at her.But the someone held her precious cutter in one hand and a black-crystal shaft in the other.

"I didn't drop it…" Killa was weak with relief.

"I was about to shatter it if the cutter noise hadn't worked," the woman said.

Killa peered at her anxious face.It was familiar.She forced a tired mind to put name to face.Ah!"Donalla!"

"Who did you expect?"Relief made Donalla's voice sharp.

Killa eased herself to a sitting position.She couldn't trust her legs yet.Her right shoulder ached, and her arm was riddled with sharp needles of renewed circulation.She massaged her shoulder, gradually becoming aware that darkness was rapidly shadowing the narrow ravine.

"So?" she asked Donalla curtly as memory flooded back.She had cut black to go into thrall, which she had obviously done, and the thrall had lasted much longer than planned.

The look on the medic's face answered her question."You were more impenetrable than when I tried back at the Infirmary," she said, with a weary sigh."You just stood there, holding this wretched thing."She gave the black shaft a careless waggle.Killa lunged to save it.Donalla drew it sharply back into her chest.

"I'm all right now, Donalla.It can't thrall me again.Just don't damage the thing."

"After what it did to you?I thought I'd never get it out of your hand."Donalla regarded her burden warily.

"Then put it in the carrier."Killa wrenched her upper body about, looking for the carrier, and jabbed her finger at it."Just don't drop it," she added as Donalla obeyed.Her voice was strident with anxiety.She cleared her throat and went on, controlling her voice, "For some reason, fresh crystal cracks faster than at any other time.Ah!"She sighed in relief as the medic stowed and covered the shaft.

Killa got to her feet then, brushing off clinging bits and pieces of dirt and crystal.She was tired, but glancing at the sun, she saw there was enough light left to make a couple more cuts to add to this bigger C.

"What are you doing?"Donalla asked, her voice sharp with concern.

"I'm going to cut."She had to use force to get Donalla to release the cutter.

"But I couldn't break through the thrall."

"Shouldn't keep me from cutting.Especially as it's black."

Killa went down a fifth, sang loud and clear, heard the answering note, and set her cutter.Donalla stepped in front of her.

"Out of my way," Killa said, appalled that she had been about to swing the cutter into position-a movement that would have brought the blade slicing right through Donalla's thighs.

"I can't let you."

"Ah, leave off, Donalla!"Killa tried to push her away."There's no sun.It's the sun that starts thrall.For the love of anything you hold sacred, let me use the light that's left."

"You're sure?It took me hours…"

"Well, it won't happen at this time of day."Killa blew out with exasperation.Donalla was worse than any novice she'd ever shepherded."Sun's nearly down.Now, move out of my way!"

Hesitantly and watching Killa very warily indeed, Donalla stepped aside.Killa sang again and tuned the cutter, neatly slicing beyond her first cut.She excised that one, managed two more quick ones in the same level-smallish and stocky but black!She had the cutter poised for a third when the face turned sour.There was an intrusion or a flaw.Cursing under her breath, she stepped back and signaled Donalla to bring the carrier over.She finished packing crystal just as the last of the sunlight faded from the ridges above them.

The two women stumbled back to the sled, the carrier between them.Only when she had seen the carrier secured behind straps and the cutter properly racked did Killashandra allow fatigue to creep up on her.

"How long did you say I was thralled?" she asked, slumping into the pilot's chair.

"I forgot to check the time right away, Donalla admitted, "but from the time I did till I threw you down, it took three and a half hours!"

Killa chuckled weakly."Don't doubt it."She rubbed at shoulder muscles still twinging from a long inactivity."And I wouldn't answer?"

"You kept staring at the crystal.I tried every single maneuver Lars showed me and you might as well have been crystal yourself for all the blind good it did me."

She had been scared, Killashandra decided; that's what was making her angry now.

"Don't reproach yourself, Donalla.I got out, and the crystal's okay.I'd've been out of thrall once the sun went down.Or didn't Lars remember to mention that?"He hadn't, to judge by the expression on Donalla's face."Fix me something to drink, will you?I'm too tired to move and my throat's so dry…"

Donalla banged the cup on the counter as she hauled the water out of the cooler, her movements revealing more plainly than any words the state of her feelings.

With food in her stomach, Killashandra took a hand beam and went out to examine the face.If she could cut past the damaged crystal to clear stuff, she ought to.She was damned lucky to find black-then she laughed, recalling that luck hadn't entered into the discovery.Knowing that she would have black to cut in this site took some of the elation out of the work.It was the mystery, the challenge of having to find the elusive material.But the work was still rewarding-and Donalla had had the chance to acquire firsthand Range experience to augment her clinical knowledge of crystal singers.

Killa hummed softly, listening for an answering resonance, and heard none.Cursing under her breath, she went back to the sled.She would have to wait till morning to see how deep the flaw was.Worse than not finding black was finding it uncuttable.

She woke in the night, aware of the warm body beside her and instantly recognizing it as Donalla's, not Lars's.That was another matter they had neglected to explain to Donalla.As the woman was apparently unremittingly heterosexual, Killa decided she would have to manage on her own-morning song could be rather more of a shock than Donalla was ready to handle.

Moving carefully, Killa rose.She found an extra thermal in the cupboard and let herself out of the sled.This wouldn't be the first time she had slept on the ground.Rolling herself up under the prow of the sled where she would be protected from any heavy dew, she wriggled around until she got comfortable and dropped off to sleep again.

Dawn and crystal woke, singing her awake.She took deep breaths to reduce the effect on her until she heard Donalla crying out.Grinning, but as uncomfortable herself as Donalla probably was, Killa endured.She waited until the effects had faded before returning to the cabin.

"What was that?Where did you go?"Donalla demanded, her tone almost accusatory.

"That's crystal waking up to sunlight.Fabulous experience, isn't it?"Killa grinned unrepentantly, folding her thermal to stow it away again."I felt discretion was the better part of retaining our growing friendship."

"Oh!"Donalla flushed beet-red and turned away, looking anywhere but at Killashandra."No one told me about this."

"I know," Killashandra said sympathetically."It's another case of us knowing it so well we think everyone else knows it."

Donalla took another deep breath and managed a weak smile."I gather-I mean-well, is that why certain partnerships… Oh, I'm not sure what I mean."

Killa laughed, flicking the switch on the hot-water heater, as she began preparations for cooking breakfast."It has a tendency to make minor quarrels disappear in the morning."

By the time she had eaten, Donalla had turned clinical in her examination of the sensual effect of sun-warmed crystal on human libido.Killa answered honestly and fully, amused at Donalla's professional curiosity.

"What's astonishing is that more singers don't sing duet," the medic finally announced, turning inquiringly to Killa, who shrugged.

"I suppose it's like anything else," she said."Palls after a few score years."

"You and Lars were partners for-" Donalla bit off the rest of her sentence.

Killa regarded her for a long moment.Those of the Guild who did not lose "time" in the Ranges were taught not to make comparisons that could upset singers.

"A long time," Killa said."A very long time."She paused."It doesn't seem like a long time.How old am I, Donalla?"

"You certainly don't look your age, Killashandra," Donalla said, temporizing, "and I won't put a figure to it."

Killa grunted and heaved a big sigh."You're right, you know, and I don't really want a figure."

"You don't look older than four, maybe five decades," Donalla offered as compensation.

"Thanks."Then Killa rose, having finished her meal."I've got black I might be able to cut out of that face.I've got to try."She waggled a finger at Donalla."Only today, you make bloody sure you take any cut right out of my hand the moment I've pulled it free.You wrench it from me, if necessary; and carefully, mind you, stow it in the carton."

Donalla stood ready all day to follow those orders, but they were never needed.The black had fractured right down into the base of the site.Killa swore, because she had cut so carefully the day before.She hadn't heard the fracture note as she finished cutting the third shaft.Usually a crack like that was not only audible but sensed even through the thick soles of her boots.

"Damn, damn, and double damn," she said, admitting defeat in midafternoon.She had even tried to find an outcropping somewhere else in the rock, but hadn't had so much as a murmur from crystal.

"What?"Donalla asked, rousing from a state of somnolence.She had been patiently watching Killa's explorations from a perch on the height.

"It's gone.No point in staying here."

"We're going back?"Donalla's face brightened.

"We shouldn't.We should look around."

"Lars only gave you these coordinates."

"Yes, but somewhere around here," and Killa waved her hand in a comprehensive sweep that took in the entire ravine, "there'll be more black crystal."

"How long will it take you to find it?"

"Ah…" Killa waggled her forefinger."That's the rub.I don't know where."

"Well, then, let's go back to the Cube and get coordinates to another known black-crystal site," Donalla said, pushing herself off her perch and brushing dust from her trousers.

"It'll take us three hours to get back," Killa heard herself protesting."Why, I could be-"

"Circling the area unprofitably for hours, days, more likely," Donalla said."Let's do it the easy way, with another set of coordinates.Huh?"

Killa considered this, sweeping aside all the arguments she was ranging against the common sense Donalla was speaking.She owed it to Lars.He had been right.She had some black to return with.She shouldn't waste time.She should cut where they knew there was more.

"You're right.Absolutely right.We go back.We do it Lars's way."