He looked at Marcia, commented: "You look better than you did on the ship."
Marcia looked at him, her lips quivering, her eyes brimming with tears:
"Oh, Sean," she said. "What kind of hellish world is this?" Then she threw herself into Sean's arms, her breasts heaving, sobs like tiny pin cushions tearing at her throat.
Awkwardly, Sean patted her shoulder. "Easy, Marcia, easy."
Shel Lur came back in again. Without emotion, she looked at Marcia clasped in Sean's arms, said tonelessly:
"Good. You will not run away again."
Marcia turned her head to stare at the Krak woman. Sean's eyes were thoughtful.
Sean McKenna awoke suddenly, jarred from sleep by an almost tangible thought. Half-awake, the fingers of his mind reached into his dream and tried to form it into wakeful reality.
Almost, he thought bitterly. I almost had it. He'd been dreaming about his attempts to destroy a Krak, living it over again, and for a single fleeting moment, he would have sworn he found the chink in the Krak armor of invulnerability. Then it was gone.