As knife-twisting, it came off very satisfactorily. Nelva's face went white as if he'd slapped it. Her eyes turned blank, hurt-emptied.
Inside, Dane cringed a little. Of a sudden he felt cheap, ashamed he'd resorted to such pettiness even in anger. Miserably, he turned to the viewer and rotated its field, searching the void about him.
But before he could so much as complete the circuit, the proximity magnetron's gong tolled brassily. Whipping round the viewer's field in the indicated direction, Dane discovered the cylindrical bulk of a cargo ship wheeling towards the carrier. While he watched, the pickup bay's gate slid back. Receiver racks swung out and clamped onto the smaller craft, then retracted once more, lifting the carrier into the yawning bay as the gate slid closed.
Dane ran his tongue along lips gone suddenly dry.
But now it was too late to turn back. Pushing up from his seat, he stepped quickly across to Nelva.
Something in his gaze must have warned her. Eyes wide with panic, she tried to jump up and scramble clear.
Timing his blow with cool deliberation, Dane drove a hard right to the point of her jaw.
The girl's head snapped back. She crumpled with an unhinged limpness that almost made Dane ill.
