"You will not!"
"Exactly how, pater dear, do you propose to stop me?"
The governor looked as if he were about to have a stroke. Then he swung around, stamped from the fo'cs'le.
It struck Joel as a shade overdrawn. As if Priscilla inadvertently had been about to let something slip, and they'd staged this impromptu fight to cover up.
He heard the commandant say, "Sorry, Priscilla, but I'm due on the bridge."
Priscilla gave Joel a last searching look. Her green eyes sparkled. "I'll see you at the slave block in Eden," she said as she preceded the commandant through the door.
As soon as the guards had withdrawn, Nick Thorp gave a low whistle.
Joel was still furious. "What was she driving at? Why the devil did she pick me out?" He noticed that Professor Liedl was regarding him with a frown. Tamis, too, was watching him, a speculative expression on her elfin piquant features.
Thorp shrugged. "That's hard to tell. She's got a reputation from one end of Asgard to the other. There's even been talk that she's a mutant."
"Mutant." Joel frowned. She certainly hadn't bred true to type. The standard Terran female had light brown skin, black hair and gray eyes. But hers were green—like cat eyes. Like his own eyes!