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as part of a gentleman’s game, a passage of arms in a knight’s spring jousts.
    We roared into Kent in mid-afternnon. Kent was a sleepy village that might have been teleported whole from Old Earth’s past. A few scruffy Guards represented the present. They looked like locals combining military responsibilities with their normal routine.
    “You know the address, I could drop you off, Lieutenant.”
    “That’s all right. They said ask the Guards. Somebody will pick me up. Right here is fine. Thanks for the lift.”
    “Suit yourself.” He gave me a long look after I dropped into the unpaved street. “Lieutenant.... You’ve got balls. Climbers. Good luck.” He slammed the hatch and lurched away. The last I saw, he was a streak heading toward Turbeyville like a moth to flame.
    Good luck, he said. Like I’d damned well need it. Well, good luck to you too, courier. May you become wealthy on the Canaan run.
    That was when I started wondering if maybe I hadn’t wangled my way into a hexenkessel.
    I spoke with a Guards woman. She made a call. Ten minutes later a woman eased a strange, rattling contraption up to me. It was a locally produced vehicle of venerable years, propelled by internal combustion. My nose couldn’t decide if the fuel was alcohol or of petroleum derivation. We’d used both in the floater.
    “Jump in, Lieutenant. I’m Marie. He was taking a shower, so I came. Be a nice surprise.”
    “Didn’t they tell him I was coming?”
    “He wasn’t expecting you till tomorrow.”
    It took ten minutes to reach the house among the trees. Pines, I think they were. Imported and gene-spliced with something local so they could slide into the ecology. Marie never shut up, and never said a word that interested me. She must have decided I was a sullen, sour old fart.
    My friend wasn’t surprised. He ambushed me at the door, enveloped me in a huge bear hug. “Back in harness, eh? And looking good, too. See they bumped you to Lieutenant.” He didn’t mention my leg. He sensed that that was verboten.
    I’m touchy about the injury. It destroyed my career.
    “Boat get in early?”
    “I don’t know. The courier always went full out. Maybe so.”
    “Little private business on the side?” He grinned. He was older than I remembered him, and older than I expected. The grin took off ten years. “So let’s have a drink and confound Marie with lies about Academy.”
    He meant what he said, and yet... There was a hollowness to his words, as though he had to strain to put them together in the acceptable forms. He acted like a man who’d been out of circulation so long he’d forgotten his social devices. I found that intriguing.
    I grew more intrigued during the following few days. I was soon aware that an old friend had become a stranger, that this man only wore the weathered husk of the friend I’d known in Academy. And he realized that he had few points of congruency left with me. Those were a sad few days. We tried hard, and the harder we tried the more obvious it became. was his homeworld. He’d requested duty there. His request had been granted, with an assignment to Climbers. He’d been home for slightly under two years, done seven Climber missions, and now had his own ship. He’d been executive officer aboard an attack destroyer before his transfer. He’d worked his way back up.
    He wouldn’t talk about that side of his life, and that disturbed me. He was never a talker but had always been willing to share his experiences if you asked the right questions. Now there were no right questions. He wanted to pretend that his military life didn’t exist.
    Just a few short years since we’d last met. And in the interim they’d peeled his skin and stuffed somebody else inside.
    He and Marie fought like animals. I could detect no positive feelings between them. She’d screech and yell and throw things almost every time the both of them were out of sight. As if I had no ears. As if my not seeing kept it from