Dokka had dragged Tall-Lady, the telepath out onto the roof, next to the shuttle. He was appalled at her seeming mental condition. She had been alway slow and measured in movement, weighed down by her hard years of life. Now she practically skipped and fidgeted like a star-struck middle-schooler. He grabbed her elbow and said, "Whoa! That's far enough. I need to talk to ...you." He drew to an awkward silence as she whirled to face him, her face just inches from his own. She whispered in her voice, "Dowan touch me unless oo mean id!" He was shocked to hear her say ANYTHING, since she had been born without vocal chords, much less being able to understand most of what she said. He gasped out, "YOU can talk?! You can talk! My ,god!" She drew down to look him in the eye, at a very uncomfortable distance, and whispered, " At's nawt all I can do!" Dokka stepped back in surprise and asked sternly, "Tall-Lady! Are you trying to approach me for SEX?" She blinked, and said in her regular electronically reproduced voice, "Sex? Of course. I mean of course NOT! No. Definitely NOT. Never. No way. Unless you want to. I mean NO. Why? Do want to do it? I mean....well....you ARE cute! Well, Maybe. With my new shapelier body, am I sexy?" Tall-Lady blushed for a moment and put a finger in her mouth and fidgeted around, like a flirty mid-schooler on the playground. Dokka said in a too loud voice, "GOOD GOD, WOMAN! We're not having sex on the landing pad!" Neblae had missed most of the conversation, coming from Jahntu's borrowed shuttle with one of the Crystal Rectifiers and a tool kit for working on plasma-linkages. She had swallowed wrong and sputtered when Dokka made his out-burst. Tall-lady froze in embarrassment, and Dokka looked glared at Neblae. She froze up and scuffed her feet and rolled her eyes, trying to close her mouth. She stammered out, "Oh ignore me! Just passing through with a plasma fitting for the experimental MMI set-up in the Nedjer class shuttle. Jahntu, the minotaur, will be here with the other two in just a moment." She started pushing the trolley again when Dokka addressed her ,"Ahrini, when you have a moment, we need to talk." She momentarily had forgotten she was under an assumed name, to finish the dead woman's work, and froze up. She thought how to respond and said cautiously, "Ahhhh, alright, Captain Tkarro. At your leisure?" "Very well. Dismissed." He sounded abrupt, so she couldn't help but grin and hurry to the ramp of the shuttle to get away. She sweated from her nerves, but stifled her giggles. --TO BE CONTINUED!--