Valor At Vauzlee Read Free Page B

the bored expressions in evidence, it appeared they had been waiting for some time.
    "It looks like we're not going to get seated early," Zane lamented. "In fact, we'll probably have to wait for quite a while beyond our reservation time. Would you like to go elsewhere?"
    "Where else would we go?"
    "I'll find out," he said as he extended a finger towards the Space Command ring on his right hand. When an officer touches his or her ring, it signals the station's computer to establish a voice transmission carrier wave. "Commander Jerrod Tomlins," he said, looking at Jenetta. After another several seconds, he said, "Jer, do me a favor. Check the current availability of seating at restaurants on the concourse."
    "He's checking," Zane said to Jenetta, then, "Yeah, that's great. Thanks, Jer. Talk to you later. Spence out."
    To Jenetta, he said, "Constantine's, the Greek restaurant just down the concourse, is seating patrons immediately. The food's not quite as good as Gregory's, but they give you a good meal for your credits."
    Jenetta thought for a second before responding. "Let's wait for a few minutes and see how the queue moves here. It's not our reservation time yet."
    "Okay."
    "You employ your cranial transducer for personal use?"
    "Not for extended communications, but in certain instances, like finding sustenance, no one is going to fault you. The computer will break in to report the fact if another caller is attempting to contact you, and priority messages will always override any call."
    Jenetta nodded. "When my CT was implanted at the Academy, I was told never to use it except for important Space Command business."
    "Yes, I know, but that's just to keep twelve-hundred plus kids from overtaxing the system at the Academy. They also have to monitor the communications there pretty closely to ensure that no one uses it for cheating on exams."
    "Tell me about it! During my freshman year they caught two students from my dorm. They were summoned to the commandant's office, and we never saw them again. A store's clerk came to pack up their things because they had been sent home immediately; with emphasis on the immediately. We heard later that the pair had initiated a carrier before entering the test center, and were in constant communication during an exam, passing answers back and forth in Morse code by lightly tapping a pencil behind their left ear, where the CT would pick up the sounds."
    Jenetta had been studying the interior décor of the restaurant as they stood talking in the foyer, and was musing about the effect of furnishings on the appetite when Gregory spotted them and hurried over. The short, dark-haired restaurateur was always on the alert for the presence of important visitors in his reception area, and at all times kept one or more tables in reserved status so that important persons, even those without the foresight to make reservations, would not have to be turned away.
    "Commander Carver, congratulations on your promotion," Gregory said effusively as he approached Jenetta and Zane. "I just heard about it this afternoon. I was hoping that you'd come in tonight to celebrate, but I wasn't aware that you would be in Commander Spence's party. Come in, please, I have your table all ready for you."
    "Thank you, Gregory," she said as they followed him to an empty table with a reserved sign.
    "Here you are, Commanders," Gregory said, as he picked up the reserved sign and slipped it beneath his arm. "Your waiter will be with you in just a minute. Enjoy your meal."
    They both thanked him and Gregory quickly hurried off to greet someone else as Zane seated Jenetta.
    "Gregory always seems to know what the grapevine is saying, even before the grapevine is saying it," Zane said, as he sat down. "If he knows about your promotion, then I guess it's official."
    Jenetta looked at him uneasily. "You didn't believe me when I told you?"
    A pained expression immediately shrouded Zane's face, and he said ruefully, "Yes, I did. I'm sorry.