Crystal Universe - [Crystal Singer 03] - Crystal Line Read Online Free Page A

Opal?”
    “Only two more.”
    Killashandra groaned.
    “Something to eat, perhaps?” Brendan suggested. “I took on all your favorite foods.”
    Killa rallied hopefully. “Yarran beer?”
    Brendan chuckled. “Would I forget
that?
”
    “Not if you’re as smart a brain as you’re supposed to be,” Lars said. Disengaging his arms, he pushed himself to the ladder. “You want anything else, Killa?” he asked as he clambered down.
    What else she wanted required two trips by Lars, but in the end they were both well supplied. Brendan had even acquired flotation trays for them to use while immersed.
    “I think this trip’ll be sheer luxury,” Killa murmured quietly to Lars.
    Brendan heard her anyway. “I’ll do my part,” he said.
    “Ah, Brendan …” she began, and was rewarded by a knowing chuckle.
    “Just tell me when I’m off-limits and I’ll chop the audio system,” the ship said.
    “Will you really?” Killa asked, trying to keep skepticism out of her tone.
    “Actually,” Brendan went on conversationally, “if I didn’t, Boira would haul off the panel and disconnect
me.
Now there’s a gal that liked her privacy …”
    “How’s she doing?” Lars asked.
    “Oh, she’s regenerating nicely.”
    The two bathers exchanged glances.
    “Do we solicitously ask what happened, or shall we keep our noses short?”
    A long silence ensued. “I won’t say she was foolish, or stupid—just very unlucky,” Brendan said with so little expression that the two would have had to be tone deaf not to appreciate how distressed he was at his partner’s injuries. “I was only just able to get her to proper medical assistance in time. It will take a while, but she will completely recover.”
    “She’s been a good partner?” Killa asked gently.
    “One of the best I’ve had.” And then his voice altered, not too brightly or lilting falsely. “One tends to nurture the good ones carefully.”
    “Even if there is only so much one can do?” Killa made it not quite statement, not quite query.
    “Exactly. Now, shall I leave you to enjoy your bath in peace?”
    Lars and Killa once again exchanged glances. Lars’s yawn was not feigned.
    “I’m going to have to get some tub-sleep,” he said. “Can you monitor this contraption so we don’t inadvertently go under?”
    “Of course.” And by Brendan’s tone, the two singers realized they had struck the right attitude with him.
    “I could probably sleep a few weeks …” Killa said.
    “At which point you’d be a wrinkled prune,” Lars replied caustically.
    “I shall not permit that desecration of your most attractive self, Killashandra Ree,” Brendan said in a flirtatious tone.
    “Now, wait a mo—” Lars yawned. “—ment, Brendan. This one’s mine, you rotten baritone.”
    Brendan chuckled, a sound that had odd resonances due to the artificial diaphragm he needed to speak or laugh.
    “Go to sleep, Lars Dahl. You’re no match for me in your present semisomnolent state.”
    Killa yawned, too, and jammed her arms deeper in the straps, tipping her head back against the padded rim of the tub. She never knew which of them fell asleep first.

“W hat a cheese hole!” Lars said in a disgusted tone.
    Killashandra said nothing. She didn’t dare express what she felt about the planet Opal. And especially about Lanzecki for taking advantage of their greed, and need to be off-planet. Only the thought that she and Lars were making eighty thousand credits for this kept her from exploding.
    Well, that and wanting to keep Brendan’s good opinion. He had turned out to be the most excellent of escorts. Not only did he sing good baritone, but he had the most astonishing repertoire of lewd and salacious, prim and proper cantatas and languishing lieder. He wasn’t as fond of opera as Killa was, but he knew all the comic operettas, musicals, lilts, pattern songs, and croons, and a selection of the best of every decade back to the beginning of taped music. He also