Get Off the Unicorn

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Book: Read Get Off the Unicorn for Free Online
Authors: Anne McCaffrey
hand rose smoothly to clasp hers, lightly, warmly, leaving her with the essential cool-green-comfortable-security that was the physical/mental double-touch of him.
    Then, with a one-sided smile, he bowed to indicate he was flattered but allowed a recollection of her as a nude baby on a bath towel to cross his public mind.
    She made a face at him, and substituted Larak’s son. Afra blandly put “her” back on the towel beside her nephew.
    â€œAll right,” she laughed, “I’ll behave.”
    â€œAbout time,” he said with an affable grin, and looked beyond her to their surroundings.
    He had seen Auriga in others’ mind-eyes but the amber sunlight was easier on his eyes than Earth’s bright yellow, so that Auriga was not a dark world to him, but a restful one. The sweet-scented breeze sweeping down from the high snowy mountain range was lightly moist and the atmosphere had a high oxygen content, exhilarating him.
    â€œIt’s a lovely world you have here, Damia.”
    She smiled up at him, her blue eyes brilliant under the fringes of long black lashes.
    â€œIt’s a lovely young vigorous world. Come see where I live,” and she led the way from the landing stage to her dwelling.
    The house perched on the high plateau above the noisy metropolis that was Auriga’s major city, and Damia’s Sector Headquarters. Its randomly sprawling newness had a vitality which the planned order of Earth lacked. Afra found the sight stimulating.
    â€œIt is, isn’t it?” Damia agreed, following his surface thought. Then she directed his mind to her day’s discovery, giving the experience exactly as it had happened to her. “And the touch is unlike anything I’ve ever met.”
    â€œYou certainly didn’t expect it to be familiar, did you?” Afra asked in dry amusement.
    â€œJust because they come from another galaxy doesn’t mean they
can’t
be humanoid,” she replied.
    Afra snorted in disgust and went into her main living room.
    â€œI’ll fix your favorite protein,” she volunteered in one of her mercurial shifts.
    â€œOh, don’t go to any trouble for me.”
    â€œNo trouble at all.” Mischievously, she allowed him to see her reaching for supplies from his home world light-years away.
    â€œAlways the thoughtful hostess,” he said, graciously inclining his head. “Have you estimated the alien’s arrival?”
    â€œI’ll know better when I’ve had a chance to judge their relative speed,” she said. “A day or two would give me some idea.”
    He watched her at the homey duties. Like most T-1s, she enjoyed manual work and performed the daily housekeeping herself, without relying on mechanical services most households considered necessities. In a few minutes she set before him a perfectly cooked attractively served meal which he greeted perfunctorily.
    â€œCan’t I ever impress you?” she asked, half wistful, half sharp.
    â€œWhy should you want to?” he asked, affecting mild surprise. “I knew you from your first incoherent thought.”
    â€œFamiliarity breeds contempt, huh?”
    â€œContempt, no. Understanding, yes. Particularly at our levels. And, of course, confusion, wherever you are,” Afra replied. “Very good, just the way I like it,” he added appreciatively, indicating his dinner.
    Damia made a face at him across the table, and with a deliberate disregard for T- manners, reached a portion of the sauce-steeped meat into her mouth without spilling a drop. When Afra continued to ignore her, she sighed and picked up her fork.
    â€œShall I take over the regular workload, Damia, and leave you free for surveillance?”
    â€œWe don’t have a heavy traffic right now. It’s between harvests in this system, and manufacturing is slow for the next few months. The usual amount of tourists, though.”
    â€œHow have you covered your

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