We keep going.
I’m a subtle lady, so I started off with jerking my chin at the ‘Anticipant’ and saying, “So. What’s her deal?”
“It’s complicated,” he said back, and the Anticipant chuckled. When I looked at her, she smilingly shook her head instead of talking. Oft sighed. “I’m sorry, Pam. I may be trying to be gnomic, but I don’t mean anything by it. Depending on what we find down there, I may not be able to tell you anything about the Anticipant at all. She’s not dangerous, if that helps.”
“I assumed she wasn’t, actually.” I frowned. “I don’t let dangerous people on my ship, unless they’re not dangerous to me.”
“Yes, but how would you know?”
I shrugged. “I’m a good judge of character?” That got me a strangled laugh from the Anticipant, but when I flashed a look at her, there was no smile this time. In fact, she was frowning, like she was trying to think of something. This time, when she shook her head, it was a lot more peremptory.
Oft noticed it, too. “Well,” he said, “now you do know at least one thing about the Anticipant. Whatever it is I’ve brought her along for, she’s obviously not perfect at it. But still very skilled!” he hastened to add, as she gave him a dirty look.
“Right,” I said as I started our descent back into the lower atmosphere. “You’ll let me know when I need to know. If I need to know. Do I want to hope that I don’t?”
“Yes.”