"Park yourself in the pilot's seat," he said. "But be careful. Broken fluorescent tubing can be dangerous."
She nodded, and picked her way through the glass to the pilot's chair. She looked up at him and said, "You don't seem to have been startled at all."
"I had a few millionths of a second to get my nerves in readiness," he said. "I saw it come down." He laughed. "Someone told me once that when a person is excited he reverts to his native tongue."
Her eyes widened and her mouth started to open, but Farradyne went on talking as though he hadn't noticed. "I didn't think your native tongue was Upper Banshee!"
Her eyes half-closed and her mouth snapped from slackness back to self-control. "What did I say?" she asked.
"It sounded like 'I am slain to pieces,' but I don't know Upper Banshee very well."
"You're making fun of me," she complained.
"No, I'm not. Anybody can be scared right out of his skin when something like that happens."
"All right," she said, and her eyes were cold. "So you're not making fun of me. You've been playing a very serious game with me, haven't you?"