The girl stared at him without making a sound. Saxon realized that her eyes were amber as topaz, large and strangely lambent. Then a faint smile twitched the corners of her lips. She made no move to escape, not even to cover her breasts and shoulder.
"You!" the thought reached Saxon tinged with amusement. "It would be you who discovered me!"
She touched a tiny instrument strapped to her wrist, which Saxon noticed for the first time.
"Who are you?" he thought again, then narrowed his eyes with crazed disbelief.
He could see the bulkhead through the girl. She gave a low laugh. The flexoplas coverlet, which had lain so lightly over her lap, collapsed slowly.
The girl was gone, dissolved. Only her throaty laugh lingered in the still air.
Saxon rubbed his eyes. He felt Ileth trembling against him as if she had a chill. Setting his jaw, he stepped up to the bunk, felt the sheets. They were warm and still held the impression of the girl's body.
He straightened, realized that the tingling in his scalp had ceased. The alien telepath was gone. But where?
"Let's get the hell out of here," Ileth said vehemently.
Saxon followed her into the passage, switched off the lights, closed the door softly behind him.