After the warp-drive shift, Vorongil came to his cabin, this time crisp and businesslike.
"We're back in your galaxy," he said, "among the stars you know. We have no passenger space on the _Swiftwing_; we had to ship out without replacing Rugel, which means we're short two men. I've no authority to ask this of you, but--would you like your old job back for the rest of the voyage?"
Vorongil shrugged. "We've carried Mentorians as full-ranking Astrogators. There don't happen to be any on the _Swiftwing_. But there's no law about it."
Bart looked the old Lhari in the eye. "I won't accept Mentorian terms, Vorongil."
"I wouldn't ask it. You worked your way outward on this run, and the High Council didn't see fit to erase those memories or inhibit them. Why should I? Do you want it or not?"
Did he want it? Until this moment Bart had not identified the worst of his pain and defeat--to travel as a passenger, a supercargo, when he had once been part of the _Swiftwing_. Literally he ached to be back with it again. "I do, _rieko mori_."
"Very well," Vorongil rapped, "see that you turn out next watch!" He spun round and walked out. His tone was no longer gently indulgent, but sharp and distant. Bart, at first surprised, suddenly understood.
Not now a prisoner, a passenger, a guest on the _Swiftwing_. He was part of the crew again--and Vorongil was his captain.
The Lhari crew were oddly constrained at first. But Ringg was the same as always, and before long they were almost on the old terms. With every watch, it seemed, he was building a bridge between man and Lhari. They accepted him.
But for what? Something might come, in the far future, of his acceptance, but he wouldn't get the benefit of it. This would be his only voyage; after this he'd be chained again, crawling from planet to planet of a single sun. And as warp-shift followed warp-shift, the _Swiftwing_ retracing the path of her outward cruise star by star, Bart said farewell to them.
One day, at last, he stood at the viewport, watching Procyon Alpha nearing. A year ago, frightened, terribly alone, still unsteady on his new Lhari muscles and terrified by the monsters that were his shipmates, he had watched these planets spinning away. Poor old Rugel, poor old Baldy!