“I was about to ask you. Could Orlig tell what happened?”

“Not really,” Lunzie nodded. “He was too shocked to be lucid. Though come to think of it, he rabbited on about the chem lab. Could something have been flushed away that shouldn’t be and detonated in the pipe?”

“Well, the waste pipes sure were blown into a black hole,” Truna agreed. “I’ll check with the biochemistry section on the ninth level. They use that disposal system. Thanks for the suggestion.”

“Will Orlig recover?” a crewman asked.

“Oh, I expect so,” Lunzie replied offhandedly. “Even heavyworlder physiques get bent out of shape from time to time. He’ll be sore a while.”

Lunzie sat with Truna and her crew for a short time, chatting and encouraging them to share their experiences with her. All the time she was apparently listening, she was wondering how she could get to Tor or how long it would be before “someone” discovered that Orlig wasn’t in the infirmary. Then her thoughts would revolve back to the astonishing information that a Seti of Fomalhaut was involved in planetary piracy. That news would rock a few foundations. That was what Orlig had implied. Well, Seti were known to take gambles. The stakes would be very high, if the Phoenix affair had been any guide.

In the back of her mind, she ran scenarios on how to track down Tor. First she’d have to find out where the Theks were quartered. She couldn’t just list it all on the ARCT e-mail channel.

“I must check up on my patient,” she told the environment engineers she’d dined with. “I left him alone to sleep, but he’s probably stirring again.”

“Good idea,” Truna said. “Tell him I hope he heals soon.”

She took a circuitous route to Orlig but saw no one obviously following her.

“It’s Lunzie,” she announced in a low voice, tapping on the infirmary door with her knuckles. “Um, oh, whisky.”

The door slid back noiselessly on its track. Orlig was behind it, clutching his injured ribs tenderly in one arm. “I wondered how long it was gonna be before you came back. I haven’t been able to relax. Even with that sleep-stuff you shot into me I tossed and turned.”

Lunzie pushed him into a chair so she could check the pupils of his eyes. “Sorry. That happens sometimes in shock cases. The sedative acts as an upper instead of a downer. Let me try you on calcium and L-tryptophane. It’s an amino acid which the body does not produce for itself. Those should help you sleep. You don’t have any sensitivities to mineral supplements, do you?”

“You sure don’t know much about heavyworlders, do you? I have to pop mineral supplements all the time to keep my bones from crumbling in your puny gravity.” Orlig produced a handful of uncoated vitamin tablets from a singed belt pouch and poured them into her palm.

Lunzie analysed one with the tracer. “Iron, copper, zinc, calcium, magnesium, boron. Good. And I’ll see to it that the amino acid is added to your food for the next few days. It will help you to relax and sleep naturally.”

“Look, while you were gone, I thought of something to get the bugger that’s after me. You can noise it about that I was critically injured and may not live,” Orlig suggested grimly. “Maybe I can trick my assassins into the open. Let them think they have another chance at me while I’m weak.”

“That’s not only dangerous but plain stupid,” Lunzie replied but he gave her such a formidable look, she shrugged in resignation. “You’re healing but your injuries were severe. You may think you’re smart but right now you’ve little stamina to get into a fight. Give yourself a chance to regain your strength. Then you can be moved to the infirmary - and at least have assistance near at hand when you try a damfool scheme like that.”

“I’ll handle this my own way,” Orlig said brusquely. “Out. I want to go to sleep.” He sat down on the examination bed and swung his legs up, ignoring her.

Irritated by his dismissal, Lunzie left. The door shut behind her, with the double hiss that meant the seals were being put on. What they had both forgotten was that Lunzie was the medic on record attending that accident. The CMO asked for a report on the status of the victim. Lunzie filled out the requisite forms but asked the CMO to keep it secure.

“The man’s suffering from a mild paranoia.”

“Don’t think I’d blame him with a wall blowing out like that. Those heavyworlder vendettas are costly.”

“I’ve put him in one of the small treatment rooms. He felt safer there, but I’m trying to get him to transfer to the infirmary. He’d be safer from retaliation here.”

Her next visit was brief, too. Orlig was improving so much that he had a raging case of cabin fever, and exploded at Lunzie.

“Why haven’t you passed that brick on to Tor? What in the comet’s tail are you waiting for?”

“I suppose I should just list it on the Bulletin Board that Lunzie Mespil, medic, wishes to speak with Thek Tor?” Lunzie snapped back tartly. “You told me not to draw attention to myself so I’m not.”

“I risked my life for that information. You light-weights think you’re so smart - well, think up a plausible reason but pass that information on.”