THE PREACHERS DAUGHTER

with the operations of the CAT garage, and Basel worked on clearing all the storage out of the Level-4 observation dome. They had agreed to turn the entire top Level into a combined observation

Eliana stretched and thought for a moment. "I feel like being a listener now." "All right. Let's see, my life history, where to begin... I was born in Baalbek, near the west coast of North America. My parents are double-shifters and just moved there before I was born, so I spent my whole childhood there. I moved to Aleppo in 9555 when I turned 21. I registered for double shifts too, so Aleppo's been my township residence ever since. Been spending a lot of field time at Cairo of course. I haven't been back home in over a year." "Aleppo and Baalbek huh? So you grew up with the photonics Guild. No wonder you're so good with holograms." Basel stiffened and looked a little nervous. "What do you mean?" Eliana paused for a moment and finally said, "Basel, don't worry. I'm just trying to show you one of the warts on my soul. Did you have anything to do with the Aleppo octopus prank of 9566?" "How..." he whispered, "did you ever know?" "Your body reaction when I casually mentioned it. I read your guilt." Eliana sighed. "I'm a trained Priestess Basel. That means I hold a doctoral license for reading and counseling people's emotions. I'm not bringing this up to embarrass you, and I have no intention of ever mentioning this to anyone. I just want you to understand the warts on my soul. Most men would find my reading ability to be a very ugly wart for a wife to have." "Be afraid of it you mean?" "Not just fear. Resentment and hatred. People don't like having their emotions read and understood so clearly. All my defenses are down Basel. I'm not going to hide anything from you. I can't bear to." Basel stared at Eliana until he saw her lip quiver. He reached over and held her hand. "I understand what you're saying. My precious Eli. I still see only beauty." "My love," whispered Eliana in return. "And I've never called anyone that before. I've been an awkward duck in dating my whole life." "So have I. Maybe that's why this mallard finds your tail feathers so attractive." She sm