officers standing nearby. "Ensign Yamata?"

A young female with a gold bar for collar insigne answered. "Yes,
sir?"

"You're assigned to Ms. Losinj until further notice. Get her a cabin
and anything else she needs. You're relieved of regular watch
standing."

"Yes, sir!" Yamata said with a wide smile. "If you'll come with me,
Ms. Losinj?"

Corina inclined her head. "I appear to be in your hands, Ensign."

"You might as well call me Sunbeam," Yamata said as they left the
group. "Everyone else does, even Ranger Medart, except on watch. And
you heard the Captain, I'm not standing watches any more, thanks to
you. I really do mean thanks--I was supposed to go on rotating shifts
tomorrow, instead of staying on first watch, and now I don't have to."
She smiled again, even more widely.

Corina's ears twitched in surprise at the flood of words, but Sunbeam
didn't seem to notice. "All right, Sunbeam. What do we do first?"

That was something else she would have to get used to, Corina told
herself. Humans were, by Irschchan standards, quite informal,
sometimes to the point of appearing rude. But they did not intend
offense, and she really ought to adapt to their ways, so she added,
"You may call me Corina."

"Great! We find you a cabin, that's first, then we can eat, if you're
as hungry as I am. C'mon, let's get a shuttle."

That reminded Corina that she hadn't eaten since the previous night.
"I am hungry," she agreed, as they entered one of the elevator-like
cubicles that provided intra-ship transport. "But what if Ranger
Medart wants me for something?"

"That's right, he called you his special assistant. Don't worry about
it, Chang handles the intra-ship communications." The young Ensign
spoke into thin air. "Emperor Chang?"

A pleasant baritone voice replied. "Yes, Ensign Yamata?"

"We have a VIP guest, Ms. Corina Losinj of Irschcha. Ranger Medart
wants her assigned a cabin near his. What's available?"

"There is one next to his," the ship-comp replied. "3N-2-1-8 is free."

"Great! Take us there, will you?"

"Affirmative. Is there anything else?"

"No, thanks."

"Chang out."

The shuttle began to move, and Sunbeam turned to Corina. "You'll have
to memorize those coordinates, I'm afraid. You're not a member of the
ship's crew, so until Ranger Medart or Captain Hobison say otherwise,
that and comm patches are the only commands of yours the Chang will
obey, once you get its atten