He woke some time later to find himself sitting at the table alone. He felt as if his bones would creak when he moved; his body in general felt dried out and his mind was dulled. But in a sense he felt better than when he had dropped off to sleep. Looking around, he saw that about half the team had left the Grotto, along with Will Nanne. John and Tonina sat with Davies and a couple of the other team members at a table down near the edge of the illusory ocean.
Hal got up to join them, changed his mind and detoured to the restroom again. There was a water fountain there, and after he had drunk what seemed like several gallons of water he felt better. He went out again, found their table and sat down with them.
"Well! Back from the dead?" said Tonina. He smiled, embarrassed.
"Come on," she said, standing up, "I'll steer you home."
"Hey, he doesn't want to go yet," protested Davies.
"I don't want to go yet," said Hal.
She stared at him.
"Well, I'm going," she said, after a moment. "I've got to get back. I missed half a shift as it is. Will one of you see him safe home and not try to kill him with drink in the meantime?"
"I'll see him back," said John.
"All right, then." She looked at Hal. "We'll see how you feel about this staying when it comes time for you to go on shift, tomorrow."
Hal felt uncomfortable; but, stubbornly, he was determined not to go. He watched her leave.
"How do you feel?" Davies asked him.
"Dry," said Hal.
"Beer," said Davies. "That's what's good for that - beer."
"Take it easy," said John.
"I'm not forcing him!" said Davies. "You know he'll feel better with some beer in him."
John sat back, and Davies coded for a beer from the table waiter.
Hal took it, feeling nowhere near as enthusiastic about it as he had felt about the beers earlier. Nonetheless, it was cold, wet and not too unpleasant to swallow. After he had gotten it down, Davies insisted that he have another.
As he drank the second one, Hal noticed that their original party had been dwindling rapidly since he had woken up. Only two others were left at another table besides Davies, John and himself; and Davies was showing signs of becoming silent and drowsy. The two others moved over to sit and talk with them for a while; and while they talked Davies dozed off in his chair. Then the others finished their drinks and headed off, on their way back to the mine and their rooms in the bunkhouse.
Hal was coming alive again, whether it was the two fresh beers or his own physical ability to bounce back. At the same time, even he could see the sense in going back to their beds, now. But instead of suggesting this, John turned back from watching the two who were just leaving as they walked from the room, then glanced at the still-slumbering Davies. He looked at Hal.
"What did happen at that Holding Station when you first got here?" he asked heavily.
"I came in and the man in charge there - his name was Jennison - " said Hal, "told me to find myself a bed. So, I went looking…"
He ran through the events at the Holding Station, step by step, exactly as they had happened. John listened, without saying anything, sitting back in his seat, one heavy hand holding his beer glass, his eyelids half down over his eyes.
"… That was it," said Hal, finally, when he had finished and John still had not said anything. "That's all there was to it. They all seemed to think I'd done something unusual in stopping that man who tried to brain me; and then word of it must have got to your mine and Will Nanne before I showed up. I didn't know then how fast word gets around here."
"It wasn't unusual?" John said, not moving, his eyelids still down over his eyes. "A grown man, big as you or bigger, heavier than you, and you just tossed him against a wall and laid him out, like that?"
"I…" Hal hesitated. "I had an… uncle who taught me a few things. I thought it was playing, mostly, when I was growing up, and I learned how to do them without really thinking. When he came at me, I just acted without thinking."
"And when you had that little go with Neif? You weren't thinking then, either?"
"I was kind of out on my feet after he hit me hard at first. Things just came to me."
"Sure," said John. "You see me?"
Hal nodded.
John reached out his hand and laid it palm-up on the table. He closed his fingers. He did not close them dramatically or with any great emotion, but the thick fingers, the wide palm, came together with an impression of power that was unmistakable.
"When I was fourteen," he said, as if talking to himself, "I was as tall as I am now. I never grew a centimeter after that. But even then I could pick up two grown men at once and carry them around."
Hal watched him across the table, unable to look away.
"When I came here…" said John, and for a moment Hal thought he had stopped talking, "when I came here, six standard years ago, I was in my twenties; and I hadn't settled down, yet. When you're like I was, then, some people can smell you, a kilometer off, and they come looking for you. I was in a Holding Station, when I first came here; and somebody had to try me and it happened. I broke his back. It was him started it, but I was the one broke his back. When I came to my first mine, my first job, they had me tabbed as somebody who was always like that - a gunfighter."
He stopped talking again. This time he did not go on.
"Is that why you took me on?" said Hal, at last.
John drew a deep breath and let it out.
"Time we were getting back," he said. "Wake him up there."
Hal got up himself, reached over and shook Davies gently by the shoulder. The other miner opened his eyes.
"Oh?" Davies said. "Time to go?"
He sat up, took hold of the edge of the table and pulled himself upright.
"I guess I'm late," said a familiar voice. Hal looked up and saw Sost standing at the end of the table. "All over, is it?"
"Sit down," said John. "We can last for one more drink."
"Not for me," said Sost. "Why don't I take you all home? Talk on the way."
"Fair enough," said John, getting to his feet. Hal also stood up. He turned and found a face with an unprepossessing smile at his elbow.
"Come back again," said the proprietor of the Grotto. "It was our pleasure to have you."
"He'll want a bill," said John. "Itemized."
"I'm afraid that'll take a few minutes…"
"It shouldn't," said John.
The proprietor went off and came back in a few seconds with a hard copy, which he handed to Hal. John took it and looked it over.
"Close enough," he said. "We'll check it, of course."
"I'm sure you'll find it the way it should be."
"Sure. See you again," said John.
He turned the hard copy back to Hal and led the way out.
"It's been a pleasure for us, serving you," said the proprietor behind them, as they went.
Outside, Sost's truck was waiting in the street before the Grotto. A Port marshal, with a green sash around his waist, was standing beside it.
"Are you the operator?" he said to Sost, as Sost started to get into the control seat. "I'll have to summon you for leaving this vehicle here."
"Send the summons to Amma Wong, then, sonny," said Sost. He looked around behind him. "Everybody in?"
John and Davies had climbed into the empty bed of the truck in back and stretched out, closing their eyes. Hal, who was beginning to feel hungry and very much awake, climbed into the other front seat beside Sost.
"Amma Wong?" the marshal was standing absolutely still, his narrow, middle-aged face blank of expression. Sost reached into an inside shirt pocket, brought out a wallet, flipped it open and showed it to the marshal, then put it away again before Hal could see what Sost had shown the man.