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between life and death. Cryo sleep, the temporary death, where nothing stirs, no breath, no thought— no dreams.

With Nayash, his pilot, recovering from a wounded flank, Captain Tirak had asked Kaid to help out on the bridge during takeoff. Now that they were under way, Kaid needed to check up on his people. The mess area where they were waiting was adjacent to the sick bay, but inexorably his feet led him back there. Saying he was checking up on Zashou would fool no one, least of all himself, but he had to see them once more— had to know that Carrie and Kusac were all right. He'd grown so used to their presences within his mind that their absence left him feeling unsettled. These feelings were so foreign to him that it was with relief he saw that Zashou was still asleep. It was hard enough for him to cope without having to explain it to someone else.

It was Carrie's unit he went to first. He looked through the cover, feeling instantly protective of her. She looked as if Khuushoi, Goddess of Winter, had embraced her, turning her flesh as pale as the snow on the Dzahai Mountains. Memories of taking Carrie there to visit his home sprang into his mind. It was there, once he'd fully accepted his place in their lives as their third, that he and Carrie had finally become lovers.

Through the pale cream fabric of her shift, the bloodstained dressing across her belly and side showed up starkly. Instinctively his mind reached out for hers, pushing aside the barriers behind which he'd been hiding. He could sense nothing. His hand shook slightly as his fingertips brushed the surface of the unit, caressing it as if it were her he touched. Mrowbay had spread her long blonde hair carefully on the pillow. He remembered how soft it felt, so unlike his own Sholan hair. Then he sensed the U'Churian captain watching him from the doorway.

"Mrowbay says she's stable," said Captain Tirak, "and safe. But you know that since you treated her. Excuse my curiosity, but you obviously care very deeply for her. Are you and her mate related? Brothers, perhaps? I know they're a mind-linked pair."

"Brothers. Yes," Kaid replied distractedly as a prescient fear he'd never known before swept through him. Turning to look at Tirak, he did a double take, thinking for a brief moment he saw Kusac standing there. The outward physical similarities between their species were uncanny. Pushing his fear aside with an effort, he retreated again behind his mental shields. "Her mother died in cryo when her family journeyed to their colony world."

Tirak made a sympathetic noise, his mouth creasing in a Humanlike grimace. "A tragedy, but it couldn't happen on the Profit, believe me. Any disruption of the cryo system is instantly reported by the computer. The units even have an integral backup system, capable of lifesupport in space in the event of a disaster. They can be launched automatically from the bridge, or manually from in here." He pointed to the wall behind the units.

A very Human scream, long and drawn out, sounded from outside the open door.

Gun instantly in his hand, Kaid leaped past Tirak and was in the corridor before it stopped.

"False alarm, Captain." Sheeowl's voice on the ship's comm echoed throughout the deck. "Was only Kate. She just met her first Cabbaran."

In the center of the corridor, standing almost upright on its haunches, was indeed a Cabbaran. Kaid recognized it instantly from the description Captain Kishasayzar had given them. Kate stood facing the alien, her body frozen in horror.

"We have more passengers, Annuur." Tirak spoke calmly to the Cabbaran. "Badly injured ones. That's why the change in destination."

As Annuur turned slowly to face them, Kaid understood Kate's reaction. Standing just short of four feet tall, the being before him was unlike any he'd seen before. Obviously a quadruped, and certainly vegetarian, his long, yellow incisors were just visible behind an almost prehensile upper lip. Forward facing eyes regarded him