'

There was a pause.

'Mr Hendry,' asked Kin, 'did I say anything there about nuclear-disarmament dinosaurs?'

'No, but--'

'We build worlds, we don't just terraform planets. Robots could do that. We build places where the imagination of human beings can find an anchor. We don't bugger about planting funny fossils. Remember the Spindles. Supposing the colonists here turn out like them? Your fossil would kill them, blow their minds. Docked three months' labour. You too, Miss Plante, and I don't even want to know for what reasons you were helping this nitwit. You may go.'

She switched off the recorder.

'Where are you going? Sit down. All that was for the benefit of the tape. Sit down, you look dreadful.'

He was no fool. She saw the embryo hope in his eyes. Best to scotch that now.

'I meant it about the sentence. Three months' enforced vacation. It's on the tape, so you won't talk me out of it. Not,' she added, 'that you could.'

'But we'll have finished this job by then,' he said, genuinely hurt.

Kin shrugged. 'There'll be others. Don't look so worried. You wouldn't be human if you didn't yield to temptation. If you feel bad, ask Joel Chenge about the boots he tried to lay down in a coal seam. They didn't ruin his career.'

'And what did you do, Mizz?'

'Hmm?' The boy was looking at her sidelong.

'You sort of give the impression I've done something everyone else has done. Did you do it too?'

Kin drummed her fingers on the desk. 'Built a mountain range in the shape of my initials,' she said.

'Whee! '

'They had to rerun almost half a strip. Nearly got fired.'