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at the object in his hand, unable to believe what he was seeing. He picked up the package of preserved vegetarian meals he’d wasted valuable time purchasing on the way back to the ship and broke into a run.
    Severance Pay sat in heavy shadow on the landing field, giving no hint that all was pain and chaos aboard. The Screamer put out no audible sound. When Severance punched the remote to open the hatch, he found that it hadn’t been locked. Had Cidra left the ship after all? The knowledge infuriated him, but he found himself praying that she had. If she was still on board when the Screamer had activated, she would be limp, quivering marshjelly by now. He knew what the Screamer could do to the most hardened of Wolves. He couldn’t bring himself to imagine what it would do to someone who was almost a Harmonic in so many ways.
    Damning everything and everyone around him, Severance used the Screamer’s remote to cancel the defense system. But he knew that if Cidra was inside, the damage had been done. He leapt aboard, his eyes sweeping the ominously still cabin.
    For an instant he couldn’t see his passenger. She wasn’t on her bunk and she wasn’t lying on the floor. He saw the prone bodies of two men near the open cargo bay before he realized that Cidra was slumped on his bunk.
    “Damn it to a renegade’s hell. Cidra. Cidra.” He crouched beside the berth, searching for her throat pulse. It beat far too rapidly beneath his fingers. The stiffness in her body alarmed him more than anything else. She should be unconscious by now. Even a minute of the Screamer’s effects was sufficient to knock most people out. Yet the tension in her body indicated that on some level she was still aware, still trying to fight the nerve-jamming impulses even though they had ceased. He began stroking her, petting her as if she were a wild creature he was trying to soothe and tame. There was no quick remedy for the Screamer’s damage. It took time to recover. Victims knocked unconscious generally awoke a long time later with a headache that could only be described as violent.
    “Cidra, can you hear me? It’s over. Listen to me. It’s over. Let go, lady. Let go.”
    Severance caught a brief movement out of the corner of his eye. He glanced toward the cargo bay and saw Fred release the leg on which he had been gnawing. The rockrug flowed toward his master. “What the hell happened in here?” Severance asked softly, wishing the rockrug could answer.
    Fred hummed a little in response and undulated up into the bunk to settle on Cidra’s stomach. Then he began shifting his pliable body in a rhythm that didn’t take him anywhere but seemed to emulate the stroking movements Severance’s hands were making.
    “It’s all right, Cidra. It’s all over. Can you hear me? All over. You’re safe now.”
    Very slowly some of the unnatural tension seemed to seep from her body. Beneath his hand Severance could feel the gradual unknowing of the muscles in her arms. Her head began to move restlessly. He kept talking to her, muttering meaningless words of comfort. Even though he knew there was no instant cure for the Screamer’s results, Severance decided to get Cidra to the nearest med facility. If nothing else, they could tranquilize her into unconsciousness.
    Her lashes lifted just as he started to get to his feet. Instantly he knelt again beside the bunk.
    “Cidra?”
    She seemed to have trouble focusing on him, but at last she realized who was beside her. Her lips moved, shaping soundless words. She touched her tongue to the dry surfaces and tried again.
    “Is the castle… safe?”
    “Everything’s safe, Cidra. Don’t try to talk. Just try to sleep. It’s the only way out of this. Try to sleep.”
    “I know you left Fred in command,” she whispered, “but they were going to shoot him. There wasn’t anybody left… except me.”
    Relief poured through Severance as he realized that she was starting to breathe normally. It didn’t look