WITH THE LIGHTNINGS(38)

Daniel touched a control on the frame of his goggles. "Emilius Hajas, Commander of the Royal Bodyguard," he said. "Who it appears is personally laying out the site of Kostroma City. How did there chance to be a Hajas in both the first and second colonies, do you suppose?"

"According to the list of crew and colonists," Adele said dryly, "Emilius Hajas was a rigger with a series of disciplinary charges pending. He apparently deserted on Kostroma."

"To the great relief of his watch commander, I shouldn't wonder," Daniel said. "A colony ship must be hell on crew discipline. A training ship's bad enough, full of recruits who don't know one hand from the other."

He raised his goggles again to look at her. "That's all in your little handset?" he said, nodding to the data unit on Adele's lap.

"I'm linked to the library unit," she explained. "And through that to the whole net. There's a transmission lag since signals in both directions have to go through the satellite constellation, but I'm so used to this . . ."

She smiled at the little computer. She knew the expression was warmer than anything living had seen on her face for many years.

" . . . that I almost prefer it to using the big unit directly."

A band of children in Hajas silver-and-violet followed the second float. They were graduated by height. Adele wasn't sure she'd be able to judge how old they were even with the goggles' magnification, but those in the back looked extremely small.

Each child clung to a rope twined with flowers running from front to back of the file. The last few rows were tied to the rope, not just holding it. Stern-faced adult minders in livery marched at the corners of the group, carrying batons.

"You know," said Daniel in a tone of gentle musing, "it's as well that I'm up here and not down on the street. I guess they'll be using those sticks by the end of the procession when the little tykes are tired."

"It's a charity home for orphans," Adele said, reading off her display. They'd been scheduled for earlier in the line of march; she supposed there'd been difficulty getting such small children into position. "I think that's what they are, anyway."

Daniel took off his goggles and put them in his lap. He rubbed his eyes. "Colder than space, charity can be," he said in the same soft voice.

He looked at Adele. "Well, I don't suppose it's the business of a naval officer to tell other people how to live their lives," he said.

"I don't suppose it is," Adele said mildly. She was searching files so that she had a reason to keep her eyes focused in front of her. Any data would do for the purpose.

Daniel sighed and relaxed. "Maybe Admiral Lasowski's right about my temper," he said apologetically. "Sorry."

Adele looked at the mortality statistics for inmates of the Electoral Home for Orphans and Foundlings. The information didn't surprise her—after all, why assume that aspect of Electoral whim would be better organized than the library was? It was amazing, though, that so many of the children were able to walk at all, given the rate at which inmates died after admission to the home.

"Look," Daniel said, smiling but quite clearly not looking at the procession while the orphans were still in sight. "There's parties all over the city tonight. I've made friends with a few of the Kostroman naval officers, a decent enough lot, and I've got an invitation to the Admiral's Ball."

The roof began to tremble at a very low frequency. Adele felt the vibration more as a queasiness than a sound, but the roof tiles clicked together at a gathering rate.

"Ah!" Daniel said. "That'll be the Princess Cecile lifting from the Navy Pool. Don't—"

He handed Adele his goggles again. "Here, it's best to use these if you're going to look straight at it, even this far away. They'll adjust for the glare."

He frowned and added, "I hope they're not going to overfly below three thousand meters."

Adele could hear the sound of a starship's motors through the air now. She held the goggles to her eyes, but it was gentle pressure of Daniel's hand that turned her to look south instead of west toward the Floating Harbor. A ship was rising on a plume of plasma.

"The navy uses a lagoon with a barrage across the mouth," he explained as she watched the vessel rise. It wasn't particularly large. "The navy warehouses are there too; that's where the ball tonight's going to be. Mostly the ships are in storage, but they activated the Princess Cecile for the celebration."

"I see," Adele said as she returned the goggles. The Princess Cecile had leveled out at what seemed to her a reasonable altitude and was cruising north toward the city.