|
||||
|
||||
|
The picture changed. Now it showed the Clementine lady leaning against a white wall, talking into the phone. She had a bag besides her.
"Look, C, I just don't think we'll get any results from this. I know some of the others have said he's moved without instruction but I haven't seen it. I just don't think anything is there. Okay. Okay. Right. Look, I'll try if you're, but I really doubt it. Fine. See you later." she hung up then walked into a room nearby. The room, like everything else there, was gleaming white. The same child was there, just a little bit older, sitting at a table that had nothing on it. She walked over and put a sheet of paper in front of them then took a kid's painting set out of the bag, opening it up and started pouring out the colours into their small pots. The little boy blinked then reached out his hand as she started pouring out the orange paint. Clementine jerked and split the paint down her coat. She cursed, wiping at it with her hands, only making the stain worse. "Oh for God's sake," she muttered. She dabbed at it with her sleeve then looked up to see the kid staring at her curiously. "It's.... It's paint. Orange paint." she said, feeling foolish for even trying to explain anything to him. He looked confused. She rubbed some of the orange and the red paint between her fingers, holding them out to him. "See? Paint. Two different colours of it. You use it to make drawings. That's what I want you to do. Pick any colour you want. This is orange, this is red. That's blue, green and yellow in those pots." The little boy just stared. She sighed and stuck her finger in the paint and daubed it on the paper, leaving a orange spot, then tapped him on the forehead, leaving a spot of paint. and smiled. “There, like that.” He put his hands to his forehead, smearing the paint onto his hands. He looked at them in awe then smeared it on her face in return. He laughed suddenly. Clementine looked visibly shocked. If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.
-Isaac Asimov |
|
||||
|
Star was struggling with Azhdeha. He was singleminded about going after and killing Orange, and she knew that she could not stop him from much longer.
Azhdeha looked at Star impassively. "There is no point in delaying like this. I will go after the traitor and lay his bones in the dust." Star replied, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice, "We have to wait til Dale and Jadzia are finished with their search of his room. There might be important information there that we need." "I won't wait forever. A traitor deserves death, as painful and drawn out as I can make it." ![]() |