And then, of course, there's no further need of their wistful, coaxing aura.
After that they hate everybody, being newlyweds and not wanting to be disturbed, so of course they radiate an exactly opposite aura that guarantees them the privacy their joint little heart craves. Nothing can come near enough to interrupt them without becoming so rabidly angry that it has to rush off somewhere else looking for something to fight. But you see how it goes.
"And from the row going on in the Argonaut," I finished, "I'd say that Joey and Cora are definitely on their honeymoon."
"You mean they'll be like that always?" Cheryl asked, wide-eyed. "That no one can go near them without flying into a rage?"
"Not always," I said glumly. "Just for five years. After that they divide by fission into a dozen or so baby smileys, and after that the rat-race starts over again. The progeny will be worth plenty, but who's going to stand guard over that amalgamated little demon while it broadcasts hate and damnation in every direction? I won't, and there's not a homo in the System that would take the job for love or--"
The answer hit me like a thumb in the eye, bang in the middle of a sentence.
"Captain Giles," I said. "I've a suggestion that...."
The Captain got it on first bounce. For the first time in history he laughed without benefit of smiley.
It worked out neatly enough, at that. An Areopolitan court decreed that Shanig, being bound by the requirements of Martian law to expiate his crimes with as little expense to the polity as possible, should spend the five years of his sentence guarding Joey-Cora in a force-wall detention area to be set up in Syrtis Major. By the time his term ended my combination smiley would have fissioned, Shanig would have paid his debt to society and my investment would have paid dividends.
It could have been worse. For the time being I was out some forty thousand credits, but I managed to salvage enough for a moderate celebration by contracting with the government to furnish _khiff_ roots from Mimas to keep Shanig from going berserk under Joey-Cora's influence.
The arrangement wasn't too hard on Shanig, even. The worst of it would be the isolation--that, and the packs of Syrtis Major jackals that would crowd around the force-wall at night and howl for his blood.