"I wonder if I am as well qualified as you think? No—don't interrupt—I find the natives of Darkover distasteful, even the humans. As for the trailmen—"
(I was getting mad and impatient. I whispered to Forth in the darkness, "Shut the damn film off! You couldn't send that guy on an errand like that! I'd rather—"
(Forth snapped, "Shut up and listen!"
(I shut up and the film continued to repeat.)
Jay Allison was not acting. He was pained and disgusted. Forth wouldn't let him finish his explanation of why he had refused even to teach in the Medical college established for Darkovans by the Terran empire. He interrupted, and he sounded irritated.
"We know all that. It evidently never occurred to you, Jay, that it's an inconvenience to us—that all this vital knowledge should lie, purely by accident, in the hands of the one man who's too damned stubborn to use it?"
Jay didn't move an eyelash, where I would have squirmed, "I have always been aware of that, Doctor."
Forth drew a long breath. "I'll concede you're not suitable at the moment, Jay. But what do you know of applied psychodynamics?"
"Very little, I'm sorry to say." Allison didn't sound sorry, though. He sounded bored to death with the whole conversation.