He said: "Damn!"
"They—they can't get at us in here," Tabak asked, "can they?"
He shook his head. "We're safe enough as long as we stay inside. We could fly away, I suppose, but as soon as we came back they'd pick us up again. And I haven't enough fuel to waste any of it."
The Caligan girl brightened.
"At least we're giving Reiloc and Lete a better chance to get through. We've drawn off all the birds for miles around."
Jupiter nodded, broke open his pack. Tabak's blue eyes were alive with curiosity as she watched him feed the radioactive tentacle into the fuel hoppers, reset the alarms and check the instruments.
Tabak poked into every corner of the ship, "Oh-ed" and "ah-ed" with delight. She wanted to know about everything. But before Jupiter could tell her she would say, "This is Briggs' cabin, isn't it?" Or, "This is the galley," and laugh at his expression.
"Jupiter," she said soberly, with one of her quick shifts of mood. "Are—are you very fond of Lete?"
He raised his sandy eyebrows. "What made you ask that?"
"I don't want to see you hurt, Jupiter." Tabak grew more and more confused under his level stare. "You don't know the Kagans. They—they're promiscuous like animals. Lete would never understand your morals. She couldn't—"