rawl Ruya Farn's signature on a few dozen
letters and checks. Big job! Trigger sat down at her desk.

She brooded there a minute or two, tapping her teeth with her thumbnail.
The Honorable Precolonial Commissioner Tate, whatever else might be said
of him, undoubtedly was one of the brainiest little characters she'd
ever come across. He probably saw some quite valid reason for keeping
her here, isolated and uninformed. The question was what the reason
could be.

Security.... Trigger wrinkled her nose. Security didn't mean a thing.
Everybody and everything associated with the Old Galactic plasmoids had
been wrapped up in Federation security measures since the day the
plasmoid discovery was announced. And she'd been in the middle of the
operations concerning them right along. Why should Holati Tate have
turned secretive on her now? When even blabby old Plemponi could contact
him.

It was more than a little annoying....

Trigger shrugged, reached into a desk drawer and took out a small
solidopic. She set it on the desk and regarded it moodily.

The face of an almost improbably handsome young man looked back at her.
Startling dark-blue eyes; a strong chin, curly brown hair. There was a
gleam of white teeth behind the quick, warm smile which always awoke a
responsive glow in her.

She and Brule Inger had been the nearest thing to engaged for the last
two and a half years, ever since Precol sent them out together to its
project on Manon Planet. They'd been dating before that, while they were
both still attending the Colonial School. But now she was here, perhaps
stuck here indefinitely--unless she did something about it--and Brule
was on Manon Planet. By the very fastest subspace ships the Manon System
was a good nine days away. For the standard Grand Commerce express
freighter or the ordinary liner it was a solid two-months' run. Manon
was a _long_ way away!

It was almost a month since she'd even heard from Brule. She could make
up another personal tape to him today if she felt like it. He would get
it in fourteen days or so via a Federation packet. But she'd already
sent him three without reply. Brule wasn't at all good at long distance
love-making, and she didn't blame him much. She was a little awkward
herself when it came to feeding her personal feelings into a tape.
And--because of security again--there was very little else she could
feed into it. She couldn't even let Brule know just where she was.

She put t