He was looking intently at the fine wood grain in the oak table penetrated here and there by the vicious impact of a knife’s tip. “So what will it...be Marshal?” John looked up, but not far. Dusty was barely five-foot tall. Rumor had it that he had once worked in a famous circus from Kansas. He had been the guy shot out of the cannon: the “human cannonball”. Something had happened otherwise how had he ended up in this god-forsaken dustbowl of a town? Common opinion had it that being shot out of a. People back home didn't quite think about how much more organizational talent and resources are needed to keep a ship running that has more than three times the crew of an NX class. Thank god for Terval. He's really been a great help. When Trip and I shuffle home after a double shift, he just soldiers on organizing the masses. I doubt he has slept more than two or three times since we've been underway. That would explain Amanda's foul mood.I can't believe you told Malcolm that we know about. She needed to get clean as well so she got the bath down off the wall. Afterlooking at it for several minutes while she stroked her bushy moustache sheput it back on its nail and went outside to the water barrel instead. Shewashed her face and hands there. That would have to do. It was a chilly dayand she didn't fancy going to all that trouble again to have a lukewarmbath.When she was changed she walked sown into the village whistling a tune shemust have heard from somewhere, though she. We met just before noon, went shopping and sightseeing, and I bought her a memento of the occasion to remind her of that day. We talked for almost the entire day and went to bed that night like we were an old married couple. I tried to prolong the lovemaking but she wanted me inside her very quickly, so I obliged. It happened again, as it always had in the past, and I was done almost before it started. Then, of all the unbelievable things, after all the years apart we just cuddled and went to.