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shoulder at her parents.
    See? She expects you to renege, Damia. Smile, wave, encourage her!
    She doesn’t really need encouragement,
Damia replied, still dour, but she smiled and waved vigorously. She held her breath as the sled rose without a hitch on its air cushion. Laria turned it competently and Damia began to relax a little. Especially when Afra chuckled teasingly in her ear.
    We can’t stand here watching,
Afra added and gently propelled her back toward the Tower.
And don’t peek!
At that admonition, Damia had to laugh because he had caught her tendril of thought reaching out to maintain a very light contact with Laria’s mind.
We’ve got those first drones to despatch and I want your entire attention on that transfer, my little love!
    Afra was right about keeping her mind on the work at hand, Damia knew. Not the big daddies yet but some very heavy mothers. The mining industry was determined to deliver on time and this first shipment was an earnest of that intention.
    The generators were already at peak when Aurigaen Prime and her T-2 mate took their Tower positions. Damia contacted David of Betelgeuse who gave her a cheerful greeting.
    I understand we’re back to big daddies soon in this rearmament,
David said.
    Is it advisable,
Damia replied cautiously,
to bandy about such terms?
    Who’d be able to hear us, Damia?
    Here you are then, David!
With the skill and easeof long practice, Damia caught the generators at peak and teleported the ore drones from the mineyards directly to David who would shift them to the refinery awaiting the metal.
    Motherhood certainly hasn’t slowed you down, has it?
    Why should it?
    Catch you later!
    Catch, you’d better!
was Damia’s response and then Keylarion sent her up an urgent incoming load.
    In the rhythm of work, Damia forgot about her daughter’s first major driving experience.
    *   *   *
    Laria found the drive exhilarating, only minimally conscious of her passengers, or even her brother who shared the front seat.
    It was one thing to teleport herself, which she had done often enough to make it routine, and quite another to be
driving
others in a mechanical apparatus: even if she knew all Tower vehicles were maintained at top efficiency. The sled was dead easy to manage with a yoke for steering and pedals for speed and braking. Even if the power, for some unforeseen reason, went off and the air cushion failed, her reflexes were fast enough to switch to kinetic mode and avoid a hard or abrupt landing. Her father had drilled her on such emergency measures—even before he had allowed her any solo time in one of the smaller sleds.
    The most important aspect was that neither of her parents were “peeking.” She, on the other hand, could tell they were both involved in Tower work. They really were allowing her to exercise independentaction. Which she felt to be appropriate since she was so nearly sixteen, and then would be considered “of age.”
    The ’Dini village had been constructed on the far side of the city, where the land sloped up to the western plateau. It had been a consolidated effort: Flk and Trp had overseen the project, with some assistance from their Human colleagues and more from the ’Dini professionals in various skills. Once the materials had been assembled, the entire population of Aurigae City had devoted three days to the building of the village, complete with hibernatory, medical and recreational facilities from the ’Dini-originated designs. The plans had drawn admiring support from the Human construction crew, who had passed on their enthusiasm to the whole community. The result was a village of high standard and every comfort that ’Dinis would find on their home worlds.
    Laria had a little flurry of nerves as she approached the village vehicle park because ’Dinis were flitting about in the air, using the personal flying equipment they had brought with them,