Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

"I hope so," Ava said. "If I finally get an evening of yourtime I don't want to spend it fighting."If she wanted to avoid fighting, she would have to answersome questions. "Where was that place the Cherub showed?"he asked. "It looked more like Alan's universe.""That was Trenst," she admitted. "Another city in Alan'suniverse.""What were you doing there?" he asked."We just went to lunch, you saw I had to get back.""You were dressed in native fashion.""That's there," she said."So everything that cherub showed was true?""And taken way out of context. Two different incidents, Iwent to lunch and had to get back, another time I had to bringin an AWOL crewman.""You didn't tell me about them.""They were just part of my day, you didn't tell me whenthe cherub visited you and I assure you those were muchsmaller incidents in my day than that was in yours.""But you come here a lot?" he asked."What's a lot?" she said, but continued. "If we take thetime you're in your lab on those signals, and we subtract allthe time I'm on duty, then subtract all the time I'm doingsomething with the system when I'm off duty, then subtractall the time I'm sitting on the verandah, I'd say I'm in this cityin Alan’s universe about a third of the time that's left.""It seems like that's a lot," he admitted.179