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.I told him I’d go back down to see him.” On the other hand, keeping her mind on finding Warra had kept her mind off worrying about Liam.“But we could not proceed to the steerage level undetected without the assistance of the steward Yed.And he was otherwise engaged in duties all the day long.It is not your fault.”“But he’ll think I forgot.”“We will arrange to see Liam Tucker tomorrow.And you can explain your failure as a friend then.” She gave him a “thanks a lot” look.“Come.We’ll be the talk of the party.”“That’s what I’m afraid of,” she said.But there was nothing to do now but plunge in and make the best of it.The truth was, she still felt a little giddy from her discovery about the sickbay.And even if she had no immediate solution to her father’s whereabouts, at least this new clue gave her something concrete to hold onto.She peered into the hall full of chattering partygoers and took a deep breath.“Are my coconuts straight?”“Entirely.Let us go in.This will be… fun.” He offered her his arm.Smiling at the dolphin’s oddly comforting mimicry of human customs, Zenn put her hand on his metalloy arm and they waded into the noise and motion of the ballroom.The sight that greeted them inside the spacious hall made Zenn immediately forget about her costume.The Grand Ballroom was vast, with a tall ceiling capped by a faux stained-glass dome.The room held dozens of tables with ornate centerpieces and individual nametags for each place setting.At the far end of the hall a single long, linen-draped table sat on a raised platform.Swirling around the tables were scores of passengers in varying degrees of flamboyant disguise, all talking and laughing as they hunted for their nametags.Flower garlands and streamers hung from the ceiling.In one corner was a quartet of musicians – two human females with violins, a young Procyon male bowing a cello and a tall Sirenian coleopt, all four upper arms playing a double-necked bass viol.They were playing old-fashioned waltz music, but it was barely audible amid the guests’ talking and laughter.The sight of the coleopt brought to mind the hulking insectoid who’d confronted her down in steerage, and then made her miss Hamish and wonder how he was getting along without Liam to help out with the cloister’s never-ending list of chores.The boy, his dark hair worn long on one side in the Procyoni fashion, sparked memories of Fane Reth Fanneson, the Procyon youth who Zenn had first met several weeks ago at the cloister.Fane was an under-sacrist – a sort of chamber assistant to a starship’s Indra Groom.He was on Mars to pick up the whalehound owned by the royal family of the Leukkan Kire and transport the huge beast to its new home in one of the Kire’s planet-wide nature preserves.Zenn and Fane hadn’t exactly gotten along.They’d argued about the Procyon’s spiritual beliefs – or, as Zenn would have it, Procyon superstitions.She wondered if Fane might even be at the party but, after considering the possibility, decided it seemed unlikely.He wasn’t exactly the costume ball type.Here and there, Gliesian waiters and waitresses trotted among the partygoers, proffering trays of drinks and appetizers.Zenn took a glass of punch off one of the passing trays, and Jules helped himself to a tall mug of frothy ale.“Ahoy and avast,” he declared as he clinked his glass against Zenn’s and downed his drink with a flourish.“If you say so,” she said doubtfully, taking a sip of punch and scanning the scene.Humans and Asents of all sizes and body shapes paraded past – a Reticulan, its great bulk draped in a fairy costume complete with little wings; a colonist woman dressed as what seemed to be a zombie ballerina; another human with the uniform, helmet and muon-pick of an asteroid miner
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