"You sound bitter."
"I'm not, though. Not really." For the first time, the girl smiled and fully faced Ross. "You see, I like piping, just for its own sake. And now that it's past, it doesn't matter too much about the other, the disappointment."
"The disappointment—?" Ross encouraged.
"Of finding I couldn't make a career of piping." Veta laughed wryly. "First I tried in Porforio, then Idacta, then even Brenskaala, on Callisto. Only there still weren't enough people who wanted to hear me play, so when my money ran out—I didn't have too much to start with; just what I'd inherited when my father was killed in a thermal—why, when it was gone, I took a job in a traveling show, charming gulfers."
Ross stared. "Charming gulfers—?"
"That's right." Veta laughed. "I don't know what the right name for them is, but they have them on some of the asteroids and they call them engulfers—gulfers for short. They look like worn-out rubber rugs, but if they get the chance they'll wrap themselves round you and digest you alive with their juices."
"Go on."
Veta shivered. "They're awfully dangerous, really. They kill lots of people in the Belt. But they happen to like vocorn music too; they'll even move in rhythm to it. So in this show, I played my pipe to charm them."
"It sounds fascinating," Ross observed dryly.
"Believe me, it wasn't." The girl shivered again. "But it was the best I could do till I met Mr. Mawson."