A SUDDEN SILENCE ON the part of one participant in a conversation, under these particular circumstances, meant that something unusual was coming up, and the other person was supposed to take the opportunity to brace himself for shock.
It could mean anything. In the Kerothi Space Forces, a superior informed a junior officer of the junior’s forthcoming promotion by just such tactics. But the same tactics were used when informing a person of the death of a loved one.
In fact, MacMaine was well aware that such a period of silence was de rigueur in a Kerothi court, just before sentence was pronounced, as well as a preliminary to a proposal of marriage by a Kerothi male to the light of his love.
MacMaine could do nothing but wait. It would be indelicate to speak until Tallis felt that he was
