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whim, he found a sheet of sensitized plastic used in passive detection
of ionized particles and set a small piece of it adrift. He steered the
grape in pursuit of the target, and zapped it repeatedly. Each shock
left a black mark on the sensitized sheet.
Within two hours, Hussein had finished inventing killer-grape
combat, soon to become one of the most popular diversions aboard
the Dreamer. The object was to mark a small target on your
opponent's killer-grape before he marked yours.
It was popular, at least, until a year later, when somebody figured
out that Erica Thompson had never been properly graped. After that
episode, all killer-grapes were confiscated and locked in her lab, and
strict controls were put on the supply of high-voltage inverters.
From the Confessions:
At my new job at SPOL, my duties were to complete a project
begun by my predecessor, who had been dismissed over some
nameless scandal. Whatever his faults, he was a meticulous
professional, and my work was straightforward. The project was a
specialized spectrometer designed to resolve certain fine lines of
stellar emissions. On the surface, the assignment was mundane, but I
knew, even then, that it held potential for the study of certain
important astrophysical phenomena likely to involve travel to other
stars.
Upon completing the project, I was promoted to team leader, and
was assigned a small staff to utilize the new instrument. I needed a
technical writer, and one was quickly found for me. I knew
something was afoot when Zeid showed up to fill the position.
Zeid had been at the station for about a month when his reader
broke down. I lent him mine, not remembering that I had several
crystals in the case with it. When I stopped by his berth to retrieve it
later that day, I found him in rakatin. I was embarrassed, not having
prayed myself in over a year. I admired him for doing what was right
even when there was nobody around to know.
Since his arrival I had noticed that he had cheered up
considerably, so his depression over our last mission was evidently
behind him. Neither of us knew what our next mission was to be, but
we couldn't imagine better circumstances for training.
At the moment, though, some of the old blue aura hung around
him. "How are you?" I asked, a little less casually than the usual
habitual question.
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