The audio signal, shrill and insistent and sounding somehow as unhuman as the voices of the Senyans, came piercingly through the speaker. Susan gasped. "Wherever they're taking us--they're not going to kill us, are they?" "I think they want to question us. I think some dirty work is going on, one of those million-credit-swindle things you hear about once in a while, and I think your father is right up to his neck in it. If I'm right, that's the chief reason you were brought along." "I think you're a dirty low down liar," she said, in a voice he could hardly hear. The signal continued to squeal. Durham moved to the bunk. "Slide over." "No." But she did not fight him when he pushed himself in beside her and took her in his arms. "The haughty Miss Hawtree," he said, and smiled. "You're a mess. Hair in your eyes. Make-up all smeared. Tears dripping off the end of your nose." The light dimmed, became strange and eerie. "They could have made this damned bunk a little wider." "It doesn't matter. After a trip like this, I won't have any reputation left, anyway. Nobody would believe me on oath." The fabric of the ship shifted, strained, slipped, moved. The fabric of Durham's body did likewise. He set his teeth and said, "Don't worry, dear. I can always ask the captain to marry us." By the time the audio-signal shrilled again, heralding a return to solar system speeds and space, it seemed that ages had passed. * * * * * They did not talk about marriage now, even in jest. They hated each other. "Cabin fever," they had said politely for a while, making excuses. But they did not bother with excuses any more. They just had simply and quietly loathed each other, as the long, timeless time went by. Pity, too, thought Durham, looking at Susan where she lay in the bunk. She's really a handsome wench, even without all the makeup and the hairdo and those incredible undergarments that women use, as though they were semi-liquescent. Just lying there in her slip now, she looks younger, gentler, nice and soft, as though she'd be pleasant to hold in your arms again if you had the strength and the oxygen and if you didn't hate her so. "Lloyd?" "Huh?" "How long before we land?" "How should I know?" "Well, you could find out." "You find out. You can yell as loud as I can. Louder." "I'll yell," said Susan ominously. "The second I get out of here, I'll yell so loud the whole galaxy will hear me." "I should think they've already heard you clear out to Andromeda." The lights dimmed. The peculiar noises and wrenchings that went with coming out of overdrive began. Durham braced himself. "It's too bad you reformed," said Susan. "You used to be amusing company, at least. Now you're sour and bad tempered. You're also--"