The Duke of Uranium

She was tall and slender, and at least one of her ancestors must have been a gracile, for her muscles had the flat, long, strong, chiseled look of that breed, and she always moved from her center, with smooth power, like a natural athlete. She tan-patterned her light coffee skin, so that her face and body were marked with a deep brown tiger stripe; she had deep blue eyes and flame-red hair. Her white onepiece coverall, short-legged and short-sleeved, fit her loosely enough to be modest but did not hide the fineness of her body; like everything else about her, it was perfectly chosen and singing-on right for her. Duj and Myx gave no signs that they were ever going to stop. Sesh shrugged. Loudly, she said, "Ahem, I say, ahem. Myx, let's tell the boys what we came here for." "I think my boy has a pretty clear idea," she said, sitting back. She was a tiny young woman, with thick, full, black hair, green eyes with blue starring, and pale skin spattered with small freckles. The violet clingsheath she wore fit high on her thigh and she had tugged it higher on one side.

She put on her little puckish smile-the one that had lured Jak, a few times, into things that truly made him appreciate Sesh's tolerance-and said, "Well, we came here to check up on you, and to cheer you up. Once you access your own scores, they become public domain, so we found out what happened to you. Then we called the monitors on your purses, and we saw what your moods were like, and here we are, the Sunshine Squad, to cheer you up."

Duj was obviously precessed. "I thought you and I agreed we wouldn't monitor moods through the purses—" "That's what we agreed," Myx said, "and we did switch off the monitors on each other's emotions. You seemed to want to do that and it made you so happy when I agreed."

"But then you switched on again!" "Well, of course. Just because I could make you happy by switching it off, didn't mean I was going to leave it switched off. I wanted to dak what you were feeling. I just didn't want you to dak what I was feeling. That's important to a demmy, Dujy. I'd think you'd know that by now." To avoid looking at him, she made a show of fixing her lipstick.

Sesh sighed. "Duj, if you ever want to be treated as nicely as you deserve, just let me know, and I'll find you someone who will think the world of you and treat you accordingly."

"Mom's already married," he said, gloomily. "So if you two are here to cheer us up, you must have done all right yourselves."

Sesh raised her shoulders and lowered them, a shrug made into a dance, calling attention to her long, beautiful neck. "Myx sailed right through. I told you I didn't feel very much like I did a singing-on job, right after the test. As it happens, I didn't make it-in fact I bombed out. So that's the score for our little crowd-three losers and one winner."

Myxenna spread her hands, as if she were looking for some way to apologize for her success. "I'm still kind of baffled, myself. Toktru, I thought the test was way too hard and I didn't think I did very well. But apparently I guessed right an awful lot of times, or just dakked the overall rhythm somehow, because I got 9241."

"9241 is brilliant," Jak said, swallowing envy as fast as he could. Dujuv nodded. "So you're in for the PSA, and I guess that means eventually you'll be Prime Minister Myx..."