No, the belter's attack had not caused those symptoms. They were products of what had happened after the attack. They were brought on by the man's sudden and mysterious disappearance, produced when Susan's normally rational mind slammed up hard against the cold wall of something she simply could not understand.

She struggled with that for a few seconds, pushing against the wall, testing it, trying to break through into understanding. But she could not. And she realized she would not be able to function properly until she got beyond it.

There were questions she should be asking, certain steps she knew she should be taking. But those questions simply would not form, and the steps refused to fall into any sort of logical order. And, to make matters worse, the cobweb remnants of last night's nightmare pressed in on her thoughts-long past emotions and conversations, long dead faces-and her body began to tremble.

A multi-colored snowflake pattern suddenly blossomed in her mind. At first it remained confined to a small, isolated corner, but quickly spread to fill her entire consciousness. Within seconds she began mouthing guttural monotonal syllables in a language she did not understand.

Along with her subtle ability to predict danger in the immediate future, the pattern and the chant had mysteriously appeared ten years ago, while she recuperated in the hospital after the Aldebaran incident. Although she did not know precisely what the pattern and the chant were, they did seem to work. Somehow, they came to her aid when they were needed most, keeping her anxiety in check during times of stress.

She had never told her doctors-not anyone-about either the pattern and the chant, or her strange prescient ability. She did not dare.

The fog lifted from her thoughts as quickly as it had come, and within seconds she was filled with calm confidence where an instant before there had been uncertainty and fear. At the same time, both the pain in her head and the dizziness disappeared, and her body ceased its tremors.