Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

stylized bull’s horns that went up her right forearm. Her longand thick grey hair was tied in multiple tails with jeweledbands. She had at least eight necklaces, all of them gold,some with additional beads of precious stones. Her demeanorwas serene with a hint of mistrust, but she smiled pleasantly.The sergeant told her a long, tall tale which involvedpointing to Ava with finger or chin every few sentences.Through it all the old woman solemnly shook her head. Thesergeant held up her hand with no bracelet on it. The oldwoman sighed and took Ava’s hand, gently. She gently askedher something in five or six languages.Ava wished she had access to her whole language bank,there were at least four hundred in there, but that was back onGordon’s Lamp. If this was ancient Knossos, one of the fewfacts she knew was that the Minoan language was unknownand its script had never been deciphered. “I only knowEnglish,” she said in English, “and Kassidorian,” she said inKassidorian.Her head drew back and he made a motion for her tocontinue speaking.She continued in Kassidorian since that was selected andshe still worried that Alan might somehow be involved inthis, “I’m Ava Bancour, Systems Administrator for the PanSolar League starship Gordon’s Lamp.” The old woman waslistening, first with one ear, then the other. Her eyes gazeddeep into the sky. “I seem to have become trapped in an eventhorizon while I was running from the alternate veron store405