Transmission. No time. No space. Hammen felt an overblown wave of force.
"How's that for power?" Gordus demanded.
It came as words to him, as communication between people had come to him all of his life. Deaf-mute Companions had told him communication in transmission came to them as hands and fingers feeling of words.
"You've never had a real Companion before, have you?" Gordus asked. "You've never felt real power like this before?"
"Power? I've heard members of the cargo scream as loud from terror and horror. We don't scream in transmission, Coordinator. Let the Snake sleep."
"Power," the coordinator repeated. "I always held my cargo together with power."
"When you were a Companion, the Snake wasn't as strong as it is now. Quiet, please."
Hammen felt out for his Familiar. A tail wagged somewhere. A head cocked to one side in puzzlement, concern. What wasn't a hand petted that which wasn't a head.
"Just us—just the two of us—to see after the woman," Gordus said with a leer in his voice.