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newly appointed Admiral Coromell.
"There she is," a familiar voice boomed as she stepped into the room. "I told
you there couldn't be two Lunzies. Uncommon name.
Uncommon woman to go with it." Retired Admiral Coromell stood up from a chair
before the honeywood desk in the square office and took her hand. "How do you
do. Doctor? It's a pleasure to see you, though I'm surprised to see you so
soon."
Lunzie greeted him with pleasure. "I'm happy to see you looking so well, sir.
I hadn't had a chance to give you a final checkup before they told me you'd
gone."
The old man smiled. "Well, well. But you surely didn't chase me all the way
here to listen to my heart, did you? I've never met a more conscientious
doctor." He did look better than he had when Lunzie saw him last, recently
recovered from cold sleep, but she longed to run a scanner over him. She
didn't like the look of his skin tone.
The deep lines of his face had sunken, and something about his eyes worried
her. He was over a hundred years old which shouldn't be a worry when human
beings averaged 120 Standard years. Still, he had been through additional
strain lately that had no doubt affected his constitution. His outlook was
good, and that ought to help him prolong his life.
"I think she came to see me. Father."
The man behind the desk rose and came around to offer her a hand in welcome.
His hair was thick and curly like his father's, but it was honey brown instead
of white. Under pale brown brows, his
eyes, of the same piercing blue as the senior Coromell's, bored into her as if
they would read her thoughts. Lunzie felt a little overwhelmed by the
intensity.
He was so tall that she had to crane her head back to maintain eye contact
with him.
"You certainly do tend to inspire loyalty, Lunzie," the Admiral's son said in
a gentle version of his father's boom. He was a very attractive man, exuding a
powerful personality which Lunzie recognized as well suited to a position of
authority in the
Intelligence Service. "Your friend Teodor Janos was prepared to turn the
galaxy inside out to find you. He certainly is proficient at computerised
research. If it were not for him, I wouldn't have had half the evidence I
needed to convince the Fleet to commission a ship for the search, even with my
own father one of the missing.
It's nice to finally meet you. How do you do?"
"Very well. Admiral," Lunzie replied, flattered. "Er, I'm sorry. That's going
to become confusing, since both of you have the same name, and the same rank."
The old man beamed at both of them. "Isn't he a fine fellow? When
I went away, he was just a lad with his new captain's bars. I arrived two days
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ago and they were making him an admiral. I couldn't be more proud."
The young admiral smiled down at her. "As far as I'm concerned, there's only
one Admiral Coromell," and he gestured to his father.
"Between us, Lunzie, my name will be sufficient."
Lunzie was dismayed with herself as she returned his smile.
Hadn't she just vowed not to let anyone affect her so strongly?
With the painful breakup with Tee so fresh in her mind? Certainly
Coromell was handsome and she couldn't deny the charm nor the intelligence she
sensed behind it. How dare she melt? She had only just met the man. Abruptly,
she recovered herself and recalled her mission.
"I've got a message for you, er, Coromell. From Captain Aelock of the
Ban Sidhe
."
"Yes? I've only just spoken with him via secure-channel FTL
comlink. He said nothing about sending you or a message."
Lunzie launched into an explanation, describing the aborted dinner date, the
murder of Aelock's contact and the attempted murder of the two of them. "He
gave me this cube," she finished, holding out the ceramic block, "and told me
to tell you, 'It's Ambrosia.' "
"Great heavens," Coromell said, amazed, taking the block from her. "How in the
galaxy did you get it here without incident?"
The old Admiral let out a hearty laugh. "The same way she travelled with me,
I'll wager," he suggested, shrewdly. "As an anonymous doctor on a nondescript
vessel. Am I not correct? You needn't look so surprised, my dear. I was once
head of Fleet
Intelligence myself. It was an obvious ploy."
Coromell shook his head, wonderingly. "I could use you in our operations on a
regular basis, Lunzie."
"It wasn't my idea. Aelock suggested it," Lunzie protested.
"Ah, yes, but he didn't carry it out. You did. And no one suspected that you
were a courier with top secret information in your rucksack
- this!" Coromell shook the cube. He spun and punched a control on the panel
atop his desk. "Ensign; please tell Crypotography I
want them standing by."
"Aye, aye, sir," the receptionist's voice filtered out of a hidden speaker.
"We'll get on this right away. Thank you, Lunzie." Coromell ushered her and
his father out. "I'm sorry, but I've got to keep this information among as few
ears as possible."
"Well, well," said the Admiral to an equally surprised Lunzie as they found
themselves in the corridor. "May I offer you some lunch, my dear? What d'you
say? We can talk about old times. I saw the most curious thing the other day,
something I haven't seen in years: a Carmen Miranda film. In two-D."
Lunzie passed a few pleasant days in Tau Ceti, visiting places she'd known
when she stayed there. It was still an attractive place.
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A shame, on the whole, that there hadn't been a job here for her seventy-four
years ago. The weather was pleasant and sunny, except for a brief rainshower
early in the afternoon. By the hemispheric calendar, it was the beginning of
spring. The medical center in which she worked had expanded, adding on a
nursing school and a fine hospital. None of the people she'd known were still
there. Flatteringly enough, the administrator looked up her records and
offered her a position in the psychoneurology department.
"Since Tau Ceti became the administrative center for the FSP, we've seen a
large influx of cases of space-induced trauma," he explained. "Nearly a third
of Fleet personnel end up in cryogenic sleep for one reason or another. With
your history and training, you would be the de facto expert on cold sleep. We
would be delighted if you would join the staff."
Tempted, Lunzie promised she'd think it over.
She also interviewed with the shipping companies who were based on Tau Ceti
for another position as a ship's medic. To her dismay, a few of them took one
look at the notation in her records indicating that she'd been in two space
wrecks and instantly showed her the door. Others were more cordial and less
superstitious. Those promised to let her know the next time they had need of
her services. Three who had ships leaving within the next month were willing
to sign her on.
She spent some time with old Admiral Coromell, talking about old times. She
also found it affected her profoundly to be in a familiar venue in which no
one remembered many of the events that she did. To her, less than four years
had passed since she had left
Fiona there. The Admiral was the only other one who recalled events of that
era and he shared her feelings of isolation.
Two weeks later, Coromell himself stopped by to see her at the guest house
where she had taken a room.
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