other voice picked up. "This is your Personal Room
Stewardess, Miss Drellgannoth. Forgive the intrusion, but the ship will
dive in one hour. Do you wish to have a rest cubicle prepared?"

"No, thanks," Trigger said. "I'll stay awake."

"Thank you, Miss Drellgannoth. As a formality and in accordance with
Federation regulations, allow me to remind you that Federation Law does
not permit the bearing of personal weapons by passengers during a dive."

Her glance went to the Denton. "All right," she said. "I won't. It's
because of dive hallucinations, I suppose?"

"Thank you very much, Miss Drellgannoth. Yes, it is because of the
misapprehensions which may be caused by dive hallucinations. May I be of
service to you at this time? Perhaps you would like me to demonstrate
the various interesting uses of your personal ComWeb Cabinet?"

Trigger's eyes shifted to the far end of the cabin. A rather large, very
elegant piece of furniture stood there. Its function hadn't been
immediately obvious, but she had heard of ComWeb Service Cabinets.

She thanked the stewardess but declined the offer. The lady switched
off, apparently a trifle distressed at not having discovered anything
Birna Drellgannoth's personal stewardess might do for Birna right now.

Trigger went curiously over to the cabinet. It opened at her touch and
she sat down before it, glancing over its panels. A remarkable number
of uses were indicated, which might make it confusing to the average Hub
citizen. But she had been trained in communications, and the service
cabinet was as simple as any gadget in its class could get.

She punched in the ship's location diagram. The Dawn City was slightly
more than an hour out of Ceyce Port, but it hadn't yet cleared the
subspace nets which created interlocking and impenetrable fields of
energy about the Maccadon System. A ship couldn't dive in such an area
without risking immediate destruction; but the nets were painstakingly
maintained insurance against a day when subspace warfare might again
explode through the Hub.

Trigger glanced over the diagrammed route ahead. Evalee.... Garth. A
tiny green spark in the far remoteness of space beyond them represented
Manon's sun.

Eleven days or so. With the money to afford a rest cubicle, the time
could be cut to a subjective three or four hours.

But it would have been foolish anyway to sleep through the one trip on a
Hub luxury liner she was ever likely to take in her life.