He spoke very carefully, each word clipped and offended.

His deep voice was rusty, as if he wasn't truly awake yet, and the single word clipped with irritation.

"We shall leave on the morn," he advised, his words clipped.

"Just up one side of the street and down the other," she said, her words clipped.

"You got that right, if nothing else," Jim said, his voice cool and his words clipped.

"She won't ride," he said, the words clipped and uneven.

"I do too," Geordi said from behind him, words clipped and businesslike.

The words clipped forth: "I finished the chromosome analysis some time ago.

'You use a knife well,' he said, the words clipped by the suffocating pounding of his heart.

"You can have it," she said, her words clipped.