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ties, worlds
for trading," a sly smile, "and gambling halls for cheating." This
brought the smile Yu Abiru longed to see to his lips. "And when I return
here, I will find you, and you me. And the lessons will resume."
"Lady," he whispered, his voice colored with urgency as the bay door
rolled back, presenting the lonely and silent corridor to him. "I'm
yours."
"I know," Yu Abiru replied and touched his face, his brow. Yu Abiru turned
then, and walked back into Yu's ship. The entrance slid open, and she
turned back to see him standing in the airlock bay entrace, framed by
the door, holding the collar in his hands.
"Five months," Yu Abiru repeated.
"Five months." And the entrance closed over her, cutting Yu's off
from him with a pain that was nearly concrete in its intensity. He
stepped back from the airlock as the door rolled back into place with
formidable solidity. He heard the faint clicks of the safeties
loosing, then the rumble of Yu's engines. As he watched, the Ariad
shot away from the docking ring, its aft end glowing with the power
of Yu's warp drive. He would have stood there longer, watching until
her glowing ship, Yu's presence, was gone from the sky, but his duty
to the station, his job, was once more present in his mind. Checking
a chrono set into the wall, he saw that h
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