A Matter of Oaths Read Online Free Page B

swabbed them gently. His hands were shaking.
    “ My neck-contact
will need cleaning, ” he apologized.
    Joshim took the bottle of cleaner from him. Rafe unfastened
the band at his throat and put that with the others. He tipped his head forward
and pulled the curly strands of grey and brown hair out of the way.
    “ Nice contact, ” Joshim commented. “ You didn ’ t have many
problems growing your web in. ”
    “ I don ’ t remember, sir, ” Rafe said, sharp with embarrassment. It was one thing to ask a
web-mate to clean your neck-contact for you, another to ask a strange Webmaster.
He flinched as Joshim applied the cleaner and pulled away after a few seconds.
    “ Yes, that should
be clean enough. ” Joshim closed the
bottle and replaced it on the ledge. “ What
system of signals are you happiest with? Bhattya uses extended tens, but that ’ s
peculiar to patrolships. ”
    Rafe frowned, then shook his head decisively. “ The condition I ’ m in, standard fives may be beyond me, sir. ” He grinned, but it was obviously forced.
    “ Standard fives,
then. ” Joshim gestured for Rafe to
lie down on the couch. “ Hook in, and
I ’ ll run a calibration sequence for
you. ”
    “ Thank you, sir. ”
    Rafe strapped the signal-contacts into place on his wrists,
face-to-face with his own contacts. He adjusted them slightly to get the
position right and checked his judgement by the readout on the monitor screen
beside the couch. Lying down, he twisted comfortably onto his side before
strapping the control-contact into place at the back of his neck. The accurate
positioning of that was more critical and took longer, but eventually he was
satisfied.
    “ Ready, sir. ”
    Joshim triggered the standard calibration sequence and
watched the readouts with interest. Reflex speed and extension at the top end
of the spectrum; range and control less good, but that would be the result of
the web-cramp. Nodding his satisfaction, he made a few adjustments to the
settings of Rafe ’ s links.
    “ We have two hours
before anybody else needs the web, ” he remarked. “ I ’ ll signal when your time ’ s
up. ”
    As Joshim hooked himself into the web, the configuration
displayed on the monitor beside his couch changed to show the new key-position
and his links activated automatically, the contacts warming invitingly. He
opened the paths from the web to his brain and closed the non-essential paths from
brain to body, leaving himself a view of the monitor and his speech and
hearing.
    “ Ready for
activation, Rafe? ” he called, when he
had reached his compromise between the demands of caution and the space that
Rafe would need to stretch away his cramp, and imposed the corresponding limits
on the web.
    “ Ready, sir. ”
    Rafe had obviously been alert for the moment that his
contacts became active. He surged into the web eagerly, extending until he
reached the edges of the space available and holding himself there for long
seconds of clear relief before pulling back and moderating his strength. The
monitor showed that there had been more overlap between body control and web
control during that surge than was wise, but less than Joshim had anticipated.
He relaxed into passivity, content that any danger to Rafe and to the web was
over in those initial uncontrolled moments, and settled himself more
comfortably on his couch to observe.
    Rafe was already working each of his circuits individually,
methodically stretching the cramps out of his nerves. After thirty minutes of
precise level and range control exercises, he moved onto pairs and higher
combinations, working up to the complete sequence of Senior qualifiers. He ran
through those twice, once with his eyes open to monitor his performance.
    [Good] Joshim signalled as Rafe finished. [Time up.]
    There were ten minutes left of the time that he had promised
but Rafe had already pushed himself further than he ought. Without any apparent