Her was a green. So was her halter. So were her tight short-shorts, her lipstick, and the on her finger-and toe-nails. As she into the Main of the starship, by the other girl, she a at the black-haired, powerfully-built man seated at the instrument-banked console.
Blocked.
Then at the other, man who was to his from the pilot's seat. His was down; he was a pleasant, if to newcomers.
She to her and spoke aloud. "So these are the system's best." The was and sneer. "Not much to choose between, I'd say ... 'port me a tenth-piece, Clee? Heads, I take the tow-head."
She the coin dexterously. "Heads it is, Lola, so I Jim—James James James the Ninth himself. You have the of with Clee—or should I say His Learnedness Right the Honorable Director Doctor Cleander Simmsworth Garlock, Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Science, Prime Operator, President and First Fellow of the Galaxian Society, First Fellow of the Gunther Society, Fellow of the Institute of Paraphysics, of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, of the College of Mathematics, of the Congress of Psionicists, and of all the other top-bracket brain-gangs you of? Also, for your information, his men have him a of degrees—P.D.Q. and S.O.B."
The big psionicist's of saturnine, almost had not changed; his voice came and cold. "The less you say, Doctor Bellamy, the better. Obstinate, swell-headed give me an pain. Pitching your over all the in space got you aboard, but it won't you a thing from here on. And for your information, Doctor Bellamy, one more like that and I take you over my and your fanny."
"Try it, you big, clumsy, muscle-bound gorilla!" she jeered. "That I want to see! Any time you want to arms at the elbows, just try it!"
"Now's as good a time as any. I like your spirit, babe, but I can't say a thing for your judgment." He got up and started toward her, but non-combatants came between.
"Jet back, Clee!" James protested, hands against the man's chest. "What the of is that to put on?" And, simultaneously:
"Belle! Shame on you! Picking a already, and with nobody how many people looking on! You know as well as I do that we may have to the of our together, so act like beings—please—both of you! And don't...."
"Nobody's this but us," Garlock interrupted. "When there started using her I cut the gun."
"That's what you think," James said sharply, "but Fatso and his number one girl friend are in on the tight beam."
"Oh?" Garlock toward the dark and three-dimensional instrument. The of a bossy-looking woman was already bright.
"Garlock! How you try to cut Chancellor Ferber off?" she demanded. Her voice was deep-pitched, with authority. "Here you are, sir."
The woman's to one and a man's appeared—a to in full the "Fatso."
"'Fatso', eh?" Chancellor Ferber snarled. Pale from the face. "That you one thousand credits, James."
"How much will this cost me, Fatso?" Garlock asked.
"Five thousand—and, since nobody can call me that deliberately, three and for three years. Make a note, Miss Foster."
"Noted, sir."
"Still sure we aren't going anywhere," Garlock said. "What a brain!"
"Sure I'm sure!" Ferber gloated. "In a of hours I'm going to your in as junk. In the meantime, you like it or not, I'm going to watch your while you push all those and nothing happens."
"The trouble with you, Fatso," Garlock said dispassionately, as he opened a and took out a pair of pliers, "is that all your is in your and none in your brain. There are a of things—including a of tests—you know nothing about. How much will you see after I've cut one wire?"
"You wouldn't dare!" the man shouted. "I'd fire you—blacklist you all over the sys...."
Voice and images died away and Garlock to the two in the Main. He to smile, but his did not weaken.
"You've got a point there, Lola," he said, going on as though Ferber's had not occurred. "Not that I either Belle or myself. If anything was calculated to drive a man nuts, this was. As the only female Prime in the system, Belle should have been in automatically—she had no competition. And to with three brain the other place you, Lola, and the other three female Ops in the age group.
"But no. Ferber and the of the Board—stupidity alles!—think all us Ops and Primes are and that the ship will lift. So they a Grand Circus of it. But they succeeded in one thing—with such so I'm more and more to the idea of our not back—at least, for a long, long time."
"Why, they said we had a very good chance...." Lola began.
"Yeah, and they said a of than that one. Have you read any of my papers?"
"I'm sorry. I'm not a mathematician."
"Our motion will be purely at random. If it isn't, I'll eat this whole ship. We won't until Jim and I work out something to us with. But they must be no end, outside, what the score is, so I'm to call it a draw—temporarily—and let 'em in again. How about it, Belle?"
"A it is—temporarily." Neither, however, offered to shake hands.
"Smile pretty, everybody," Garlock said, and pressed a stud.
"... the matter? What's the matter? Oh...." the voice of the System's came in. "Power failure already?"
"No," Garlock replied. "I we had a of minutes of coming, if you can the meaning of the word. Now all four of us tell who is or au or good-bye, it may turn out to be." He for the switch.
"Wait a minute!" the demanded. "Leave it on until the last poss...." His voice off sharply.
"Turn it on!" Belle ordered.
"Nix."
"Scared?" she sneered.
"You it, bird-brain. I'm purple. So would you be, if you had three brain in that glory-hound's of yours. Get set, everybody, and we'll take off."
"Stop it, of you!" Lola exclaimed. "Where do you want us to sit, and do we down?"
"You here; Belle at that plate Jim. Yes, down. There won't be any shock, and we should land right up, but there's no in taking chances. Sure your stuff's all aboard?"
"Yes, it's in our rooms."
The four themselves; the two men checked, for the time, their instruments. The pilot his scanner. The ship effortlessly, noiselessly. Through the atmosphere; through and the stratosphere. It stopped.
"Ready, Clee?" James his lips.
"As as I will be, I guess. Shoot!"
The pilot's right hand, outstretched, moved toward a red on his ... ... stopped. He into his at the Earth so below.
"Hit it, Jim!" Garlock snapped. "Hit it, for sake, we all our nerve!"
James at the button, and in the very of contact—instantaneously; without a of time-lapse—their familiar disappeared. Or, rather, and without any of motion, of displacement, or of the passage of any time whatsoever, the them was no longer their familiar Earth. The plates no familiar patterns of bodies. The brightly-shining sun was very not their familiar Sol.
"Well—we ... but not to Alpha Centauri, not much to our surprise." James twice; then on, speaking almost now that the attempt had been and had failed. "So now it's up to you, Clee, as Director of Project Gunther and captain of the good ship Pleiades, to the more-or-less simple—more, I hope—job of us to Tellus."
Science, physical and paraphysical, had done its best. Gunther's Theorems, which the and to the of distance, had been studied, tested, and to the full. So had the Psionic Corollaries; which, while not having the of laws, do allow of the and of the for any of the Gunther Effect.
The of the Pleiades had been difficult in the extreme; its almost impossible. While it was a that any man of the would already be a of the Galaxian Society, the three and eight were screened, by psionicist, to select the two and most of their breed.
These two, Garlock and James, were of of, and under iron-clad to, Solar System Enterprises, Inc., the only able and to attempt the of the starship.
Alonzo P. Ferber, Chancellor of SSE, however, would not a tenth-piece of the company's money on such a bird-brained scheme. Himself a Gunther First, he that Firsts were in in Gunther ability; that these self-styled "Operators" and "Prime Operators" were either or self-deluded crackpots. Since he not that so-called "Operator Field," no such thing did or exist. No Gunther ever, possibly, work.
He did Garlock and James to the Galaxians, but that was as as he would go. For salaries and for labor, for and material, for and for errors; the Society paid and paid and paid.
Thus the Pleiades had cost the Galaxian Society almost a thousand credits.
Garlock and James had on the ship since its inception. They were to be of the crew; for over a year it had been taken for that would be its only crew.
As the Pleiades completion, however, it and that the displacement-control presented an unsolved, and possibly an insoluble, problem. It was that, when the Gunther on, the ship would be to some in space having the Gunther by that particular field. One analysis that the ship would shift into the nearest an Earth-type planet; which was to be Alpha Centauri and which was close to Sol so that would be and the return to Earth a matter.
Since the Gunther Effect did in distance, however, another group of mathematicians, by Garlock and James, proved with equal that the point of was no more likely to be any one Gunther point than any other one of the of of points the length, breadth, and of our entire normal space-time continuum.
The two men would go anyway, of course. Carefully-calculated would make them go. It was neither necessary desirable, however, for them to go alone.
Wherefore the and were again; this time to select two women—the two most highly-gifted in the eighteen-to-twenty-five age group. Thus, if the Pleiades returned to Earth, well and good. If she did not, the four would found, upon some far-off world, a much than the of Earth; since eighty-three of Earth's had than Four.
This search, with its and publicity, was so planned and that two did not arrive at the until a fifteen minutes the time of take-off. Thus it no the liked the men or not, or versa; or or not any of them wanted to make the trip. Pressures were such that each of them had to go, he or she wanted to or not.
"Cut the rope, Jim, and let the old drop," Garlock said. "Not too close. Before we make any of we'll have to do some organizing. These instruments," he at his console, "show that ours is the only Operator Field in this whole region of space. Hence, there are no Operators and no Primes. That means that from now until we to Tellus...."
"If we to Tellus," Belle corrected, sweetly.
"Until we to Tellus there will be no Gunthering this ship...."
"What?" Belle in again. "Have you your mind?"
"There will be little if any lepping, and nothing else at all. At the table, if we want sugar, we will for it or have it passed. We will up things, such as cigarettes, with our fingers. We will and use them. When we go from place to place, we will walk. Is that clear?"
"You to be talking English," Belle sneered, "but the don't make sense."
"I didn't think you were that stupid." Eyes locked and held. Then Garlock savagely. "Okay. You tell her, Lola, in of as as possible."
"Why, to used to it, of course," Lola explained, while Belle at Garlock in anger. "So as not to anything we don't have to."
"Thank you, Miss Montandon, you may go to the of the class. All two. That should make it clear, to Miss Bellamy."
"You ... you beast!" Belle a tight-beamed thought. "I was so in my life!"
"You asked for it. Keep on for it and you'll keep on it." Then, aloud, to all three, "In emergencies, of course, anything goes. We will now with business." He paused, then on, bitingly, "If possible."
"One minute, please!" Belle snapped. "Just why, Captain Garlock, are you on communication, when is so much and better? It's stupid—reactionary. Don't you lep?"
"With Jim, on business, yes; with women, no more than I have to. What I think is nobody's but mine."
"What a way to a ship! Or a project!"
"Running this project is my business, not yours; and if there's any one thing in the entire it not need, it's a female exhibitionist. Besides your to be one of the Eves in case of Ultimate Contingency...." he off and at her, his traveling slowly, dissectingly, from her to the of her hair-do.
"Forty-two, twenty, forty?" he sneered.
"You me." Her was an almost force; her voice was fury.
"Thirty-nine, twenty-two, thirty-five. Five seven. One thirty-five. If any of it's any of your business, which it isn't. You should be and ability, not statistics."
"Brains? You? No, I'll take that back. As a Prime, you have got a brain—one that works. What do you think you're good for on this project? What can you do?"
"I can do anything any man can do, and do it better!"
"Okay. Compute a Gunther that will put us two hundred thousand directly above the of that mountain."
"That isn't fair—not that I from you—and you know it. That doesn't take either or ability...."
"Oh, no?"
"No. Merely that you know I haven't had. Give me a five-tape on it and I'll come closer than either you or James; for a hundred a shot."
"I'll do just that. Something you are to know, then. How would you go about making contact?"
"Well, I wouldn't do it the way you would—by the native I saw, my on his face, and 'Bow down, you stupid, beasts, and me, the Supreme God of the Macrocosmic Universe'!"
"Try again, Belle, that one missed me by...."
"Hold it, of you!" James in. "What the are you trying to prove? How about out this cat-and-dog act and some work done?"
"You've got a point there," Garlock admitted, his by a visible effort. "Sorry, Jim. Belle, what were you for?"
"To you." She, too, her down. "To learn about Project Gunther. I have a whole box of in my room, Gunther and first-contact techniques. I'm to study them all my on-watch time unless you other duties."
"No what your may be, you'll have to have time to study. If you don't what you want in your own tapes—and you won't, since Ferber and his Miss Foster ran the selections—use our library. It's good—designed to on our civilization. Miss Montandon? No, that's silly, the way we're fixed. Lola?"
"I'm to learn how to be Doctor James'...."
"Jim, please, Lola," James said. "And call him Clee."
"I'd like that." She winningly. "And my friends call me 'Brownie'."
"I see why they would. It like a of lacquer."
It did. Her was a dark, brown, as were her eyebrows. Her were brown. Her skin, too—her dark red left little to the imagination—was a rich and brown. Originally dark, it had been to a more-than-fashionable of color by sun-bathing and by practically-naked sports. A of than the green-haired girl, she too had a to make any drool.
"I'm to be Dr. Jim's assistant. I have a thousand tapes, more or less, to study, too. It'll be a while, I'm afraid, I can be of much use, but I'll do the best I can."
"If we had Alpha Centauri that would have been good, but as we are, it isn't." Garlock in thought, his black almost meeting above his finely-chiseled nose. "Since neither Jim I need an any more than we need tails, it was designed to give you girls something to do. But out here, lost, there's work for a dozen and there are only four of us. So we shouldn't effort. Right? You first, Belle."
"Are you me or telling me?" she asked. "And that's a question. Don't read anything into it that isn't there. With your attitude, I want information."
"I am you," he replied, carefully. "For your information, when I know what should be done, I give orders. When I don't know, as now, I ask advice. If I like it, I it. Fair enough?"
"Fair enough. We're to need any number of specialists."
"Lola?"
"Of we shouldn't duplicate. What shall I study?"
"That's what we must out. We can't do it exactly, of course; all we can do now is to set up a scheme. Jim's job is the only one that's definite. He'll have to work full time on configurations. If we he'll have to add their star-charts to his own. That three of us to do all the other work of a survey. Ideally, we would all the that would be of use in us to Tellus, but since we don't know what those are.... Found out anything yet, Jim?"
"A little. Tellus-type planet, so. Oceans and continents. Lots of inhabitants—farms, villages, all of cities. Not close to say definitely, but to be humanoid, if not human."
"Hold her here. Besides astronomy, which is all yours, what do we need most?"
"We should have to and inhabitants, so as to a space-trend if there is any. I'd say the most ones would be geology, stratigraphy, paleontology, oceanography, xenology, anthropology, ethnology, biology, botany, and at least some ecology."
"That's about the list I was of. But there are only three of us. The you mention number much more."
"Each of you will have to be a of in one, then. I'd say the best would be planetology, xenology, and anthropology—each, of course, all out of shape to of related and non-related specialties."
"Good enough. Xenology, of course, is mine. Contacts, liaison, politics, correlation, and so on, as well as studying the non-human life forms—including as many animals and plants as possible. I'll make a at it. Now, Belle, since you're a Prime and Lola's an Operator, you the next job. Planetography."
"Why not?" Belle and to act as one of the party. "All I know about it is a idea of what the word means, but I'll start studying as soon as we away."
"Thanks. That to you, Lola. Besides, that's your line, isn't it?"
"Yes. Sociological Anthropology. I have my M.S. in it, and am—was, I mean—working for my Ph.D. But as Jim said, it isn't only the one specialty. You want me, I take it, to races, too?"
"Check. You and Jim both, then, will know what you're doing, while Belle and I are trying to play ours by ear."
"Where do we the line and non-human?"
"In case of we'll confer. That it as much as we can, I think. Take us down, Jim—and be on your to take action fast."
The ship toward an just a large city. Fifty thousand—forty thousand—thirty thousand feet.
"Calling spaceship—you must be a spaceship, in of your tremendous, hitherto-considered-impossible mass—" a on all four Tellurian minds, "do you read me?"
"I read you clearly. This is the Tellurian Pleiades, Captain Garlock commanding, permission to land and as to landing conventions." He did not have to tell James to stop the ship; James had already done so.
"I was about to ask you to position; I thank you for having done so. Hold for and type-test, please. We will not blast unless you fire first. A minutes, please."
A group of twelve took off and with speed. They off a thousand the Pleiades and a circle. Up and into the ring thus there a large, clumsy-looking helicopter.
"We have no record of any named 'Tellus'; of any such ship as yours. Of such and with no visible or means of support or of propulsion. Not from this part of the galaxy, ... it be that travel is actually possible? But me, Captain Garlock, none of that is any of my business; which is to or not you four Tellurian beings are with, and thus to, our of Hodell ... but you do not to have a testing-box aboard."
"No, sir; only our own tri-di and teevee."
"You must be by means of a box. I will to your level and one across to you. It is self-powered and automatic."
"You needn't rise, sir. Just the box out of your 'copter into the air. We'll take it from there." Then, to James, "Take it, Jim."
"Oh? You can large against much gravity?" The was all attention. "I have not that such power existed. I will with interest."
"I have it," James said. "Here it is."
"Thank you, sir," Garlock said to the alien. Then, to Lola: "You've been reading these—these Hodellians?"
"The officer in the and those in the fighters, yes. Most of them are Gunther Firsts."
"Good girl. The set's to life—watch it."
The of the being clear upon the screen; visible from the up. While humanoid, the was very from being human. He—at least, it had nipples—had and four arms. His skin was a blue. His ears were black, long, and dirigible. His eyes, a red in color, were large and vertically-slitted, like a cat's. He had no at all. His nose was large and Roman; his was square, almost jutting; his bright-yellow teeth were clean and sharp.
After a minute of study the said: "Although your is so that nothing like it is on record, you four are and, if of type, acceptable. Are there any other beings with you?"
"Excepting micro-organisms, none."
"Such life is of no importance. Approach, please, one of you, and with a hand the metal knob."
With a little trepidation, Garlock did so. He no at the contact.
"All four of you are and we accept you. This is in the extreme, as you are the beings of record who higher than what you call Gunther Two ... or Gunther Second?"
"Either one; the terms are interchangeable."
"You have minds of and power; definitely to my own. However, there is no that physically you are perfectly with our humanity. Your blood will be of great to it. You may land. Goodbye."
"Wait, please. How about landing conventions? And visiting restrictions and so on? And may we keep this box? We will be to you something for it, if we have anything you would like to have?"
"Ah, I should have that your would be different from ours. Since you have been and accepted, there are no restrictions. You will not act against humanity's good. Land where you please, go where you please, do what you as long as you please. Take up permanent or as soon as you please. Marry if you like, or breed—your with this planet's will be fertile. Keep the box without payment. As Guardians of Humanity we Arpalones do small we can. Have I myself clear?"
"Abundantly so. Thank you, sir."
"Now I must go. Goodbye."
Garlock into his plate. The had disappeared, the was away. He his brow.
"Well, I'll be damned," he said.
When his he to the at hand. "Lola, do you check me that this is named Hodell, that it is by like us? Arpalones?"
"Exactly, they aren't 'creatures'. They are humanoids, and very people."
"You'd think so, of ... accepted. Well, let's take of their and go down. Cut the rope, Jim."
The was very large, and was into sections, each of which was with and/or other landing to one class of craft—propellor jobs, jets, or helicopters. There were a that looked like pits.
"Where are you going to down, Jim? With the 'copters or over by the blast-pits?"
"With the 'copters, I think. Since I can place her to a of inches. I'll put her into that corner, where she'll be out of everybody's way."
"No out there," Garlock said. "But the ground good and solid."
"We'd not land on concrete," James grinned. "Unless it's we'd it. On ground, the we can do is in a or so, and that won't anything."
"Check. A to the square foot, is all. Shall we and onto our teeth?"
"Who do you think you're kidding, boss? Even though I've got to do this on manual, I won't over a half-piece on edge."
James stopped talking, out his scanner, his into it. The settled toward the corner. There was no noise, no blast, no flame, no visible or of it was that was the thousands of of the vessel's in its miles-long, almost-vertical to ground.
When the Pleiades ground the impact was to be felt. When she came to rest, after settling into the ground her "foot or so," there was no at all.
"Atmosphere, temperature, and so on, Earth-normal," Garlock said. "Just as our friend said it would be."
James the city and the field. "Our visit is kicking up a of excitement. Shall we go out?"
"Not yet!" Belle exclaimed. "I want to see how the are dressed, first."
"So do I," Lola added, "and some other besides."
Both women—Lola through her Operator's scanner; Belle by the ship's Operator Field by the power of her Prime Operator's mind—stared at the of people now to across the field.
"As an anthropologist," Lola announced, "I'm not only surprised. I am shocked, annoyed, and disgruntled. Why, they're like white Tellurian beings!"
"But look at their clothes!" Belle insisted. "They're anything and everything, from to coveralls!"
"Yes, but notice." This was the scientist speaking now. "Breasts and loins, covered. Faces, uncovered. Heads and and hands, either or covered. Ditto for up to there, backs, arms, necks and to here, and clear to there. We'll not any by going out as we are. Not you, Belle. You first, Chief. Yours the high of setting foot—the biggest we've got, too—on soil."
"To with that. We'll go out together."
"Wait a minute," Lola on. "There's a funny-looking just through the gate. The Press. Three men and two women. Two cameras, one walkie-talkie, and two microphones. The in the shirt is a at lepping. Class Three, at least—possibly a Two."
"How about screens to lep, boss?" Belle suggested. "Faster. We may need it."
"Check. I'm too to record, anyway—I'll this up tonight," and flew.
"Check me, Jim," Garlock flashed. "Telepathy, very good. On Gunther, the guy was right—no at all of any First activity, and very Seconds."
"Check," James agreed.
"And Lola, those 'Guardians' out there. I they were the same as the Arpalone we talked to. They aren't. Not telepathic. Same color scheme, is all."
"Right. Much more brutish. Much cranium. Long, teeth. Carnivorous. I'll call them just 'guardians' until we out what they are."
The press car and the Tellurians disembarked—and, or not, it was Belle's green that touched ground. There was a of thought, worse, even, than voices in case, in being so much faster. The reporters, all of them, wanted to know at once. How, what, where, when, and why. Also who. And all about Tellus and the Tellurian system. How did the visitors like Hodell? And all about Belle's green hair. And the were of film, from all possible angles.
"Hold it!" Garlock a blast of that "silenced" almost the whole field. "We will have order, please. Lola Montandon, our anthropologist, will take charge. Keep it orderly, Lola, if you have to of them off the field. I'm going over to Administration and check in. One of you reporters can come with me, if you like."
The man in the shirt got his in first. As the two men walked away together, Garlock noted that the man was in a Second—his of lucid, did not at all with the of speech going into his portable recorder. Garlock also noticed that in any group of more than a dozen people there was always at least one guardian. They paid no attention to the people, who in turn them completely. Garlock briefly. Guardians? The Arpalones, out in space, yes. But these creatures, and on the ground? The Arpalones were non-human people. These were—what?
At the door of the Field Office the reporter, after Garlock over to a beautiful, leggy, breasty, receptionist-usherette, away.
He a at her mind and stiffened. How a Two—a high Two, at that—be as an usher? And with her clear to the floor? He probed—and saw.
"Lola!" He a tight-beamed thought. "You aren't out anything about our sexual customs, family life, and so on."
"Of not. We must know their first."
"Good girl. Keep your up."
"Oh, we're so to see you, Captain Garlock, sir!" The blonde, who was little more than the cigarette girls in Venusberg's Cartier Room, his left hand in of hers and it longer than was necessary. Her smile, her laughing eyes, her white teeth, the many of her skin, and her mind; all of welcome.
"Captain Garlock, sir, Governor Atterlin has been most to see you since you were detected. This way, please, sir." She turned, her against his leg in the process, and him by the hand along a hallway. Her flowed. "I have been, too, sir, and I'm to see you close up, and I to see a more of you. You're a surprise, sir; I've a man like you before. I don't think Hodell saw a man like you before, sir. With such a mind and yet so big and and well-built and and clean-looking and blackish. You're wonderful, Captain Garlock, sir. You'll be here a long time, I hope? Here we are, sir."
She opened a door, walked across the room, sat in an chair, and her meticulously. Then, still happily, she with and mind Garlock's every move.
Garlock had been reading Governor Atterlin; why it was the who was in that office of the port manager. He that Atterlin had been reading him—as much as he had allowed. They had already many things, and were still discussing.
The room was much more like a library than an office. The governor, a middle-aged, red-headed man a to portliness, had been seated in a chair a screen, but got up to shake hands.
"Welcome, friend Captain Garlock. Now, to continue. As to exchange. Many ships visiting us have nothing we need or can use. For such, all services are free—or rather, are paid by the city. Our is upon platinum, but gold, silver, and copper are valuable. Certain jewels, also...."
"That's enough. We will pay our way—we have of metal. What are your of value for the four here on Hodell?"
"Today's are...." He at a screen, and his over the keys of a computer his chair. "One weight of is equal in value to seven point three four six...."
"Decimals are not necessary, sir."
"Seven plus, then, of gold. One of gold to eleven of silver. One of to four of copper."
"Thank you. We'll use platinum. I'll some tomorrow and it for your currency. Shall I it here, or to a bank in the city?"
"Either. Or we can have an visit your ship."
"That would be yet. Have them about five thousand tanes. Thank you very much, Governor Atterlin, and good to you, sir."
"And good to you, sir. Until tomorrow, then."
Garlock to leave.
"Oh, may I go with you to your ship, sir, to take just a little look at it?" the girl asked, winningly.
"Of course, Grand Lady Neldine, I'd like to have your company."
She his and it against her breast. Then, taking his hand, she walked—almost skipped—along him. "And I want to see Pilot James close up, too, sir—he's not nearly as as you are, sir—and I wonder why Planetographer Bellamy's is green? Very striking, of course, sir, but I don't think I'd for it much on me—unless you'd think I should, sir?"
Belle knew, of course, that they were coming; and Garlock that Belle's were very much on the rise. She not read him, very superficially, but she was reading the girl like a book and was not anything she read. Wherefore, when Garlock and his the great spaceship—
"How come you up that little man-eating shark?" she sent, venomously, on a tight band.
"It wasn't a case of her up." Garlock grinned. "I haven't been able to any way of her off. First Contact, you know."
"She wants too much Contact for a First—I'll her off, if she is one of the class on this world...." Belle her Garlock his reprimand. "I shouldn't have said that, Clee, of course." She laughed lightly. "It was just the shock; there wasn't anything in any of my First Contact what to do about and girls who try to our men. She doesn't know, though, of course, that she's to be a bug-eyed and not at all. Won't Xenology be in for a when we check in? Wow!"
"You can play that in spades, sister." And for the of the day Belle played the role of perfect hostess.
It was full dark the Hodellians be to the Pleiades and the were closed.
"I have one hundred seventy-eight invitations," Lola reported then. "All of us, and collectively, have been to eat everything, in town. To see in a dozen different and eighteen night spots. To all night in twenty-one different places, from to soup-and-fish. I was about it, of course—just off we were from our belts from our long, hard trip. My thought, of course, is that we'd eat our own food and take it slowly at first. Check, Clee?"
"On the beam, center. And you weren't much, either. I as though I'd done a day's work. After supper there's a thing I've got to discuss with all three of you."
Supper was soon over. Then:
"We've got to make a decision," Garlock began, abruptly. "Grand Lady Neldine—that title isn't exact, but close—wondered why I didn't respond at all, either way. However, she didn't make a point of it, and I let her wonder; but we'll have to decide by tomorrow what to do, and it'll have to be airtight. These Hodellians Jim and me to as many as possible of their highest-rated we leave. By their Code it's mandatory, since we can't the that we much higher than they do—their is only Grade Two by our standards—and all the up-grade themselves with the highest-grade new blood they can find. Ordinarily, they'd you two girls to by your of the top men of the planet; but they know you wouldn't and don't you to. But how in all can Jim and I to them up without out the they know?"
There was a minute of silence. "We can't," James said then. A to spread over his face. "It might not be too an idea, at that, come to think of it. That of fire they out for you would be a blue-ribbon dish in anybody's cook-book. And Grand Lady Lemphi—" He the of two and them in the air. "Strictly Big League Material; in letters."
"Is that nice, you back-alley tomcat?" Belle asked, plaintively; then paused in and on slowly, "I won't to like it, but I won't do any public about it."
"Any would say you'll have to," Lola without hesitation. "I don't like it, either. I think it's horrible; but it's excellent and we cannot and must not systems-wide mores."
"You're all missing the point!" Garlock snapped. He got up, his hands into his pockets, and to the floor. "I didn't think any one of you was that stupid! If that was all there were to it we'd do it as a of course. But think, it! There's nothing higher than Gunther Two in the of this planet. Telepathy is the only ESP they have. High Gunther of the brain. It's through genes, which are dominant, cumulative, and self-multiplying by interaction. Jim and I more, stronger, and higher Gunther than any other two men to live. Can we—dare we—plant such where none have been before?"
Two full minutes of silence.
"That one has got a in it," James said, unhelpfully.
Three minutes more of silence.
"It's up to you, Lola," Garlock said then. "It's your field."
"I was of that. There's a way. Personally, I like it less than the other, but it's the only one I've been able to think up. First, are you sure that our refusal—Belle's and mine, I mean—to will be with them?"
"Positive."
"Then the whole from which we come will have to be monogamous, in the narrowest, most of the term. No whatever. Adultery, anything illicit, has always been not only unimaginable, but in impossible. We pair—or marry, or they do here—once only. For life. Desire and can only the pair; it. Like eagles. If a man's wife dies, even, he all and all potency. That would make it physically for you two to the Hodellian Code. You'd be with any your mates—Belle and me."
"That will work," Belle said. "How it will work!" She paused. Then, suddenly, she whistled; the loud, full-bodied, ear-piercing, tongue-and-teeth which so master. Her and she to laugh with glee. "But do you know what you've done, Lola?"
"Nothing, to a solution. What's so about that?"
"You're wonderful, Lola—simply priceless! You've something brand-new to science—an tomcat! And the more I think about it...." Belle was and with laughter. She not possibly talk, but her on, "I just love you all to pieces! An tomcat, and he'll have to true to me—Oh, this is killing me—I'll live through it!"
"It put us on the spot—especially Jim," came Garlock's thought.
He, too, to laugh; and Lola, as soon as she stopped about the thing only as a problem in anthropology, joined in. James, however, did not think it was very funny.
"And that's less than of it!" Belle on, still unable to talk. "Think of Clee, Lola. Six two—over two hundred—hard as nails—a perfect of hard red meat—telling this whole region of space that he's impotent, too! And with a perfectly face! And it in so with his making no response, yes or no, when she him. The poor, innocent, just didn't have the of what she meant! Oh, my...."
"Listen—listen—listen!" James managed to in. "Not that I want to be promiscuous, but...."
"There, there, my little tomcat," Belle him aloud, and snorts. "Us Earth-girls will take of our lover-boys, see if we don't. You won't need any little...." Belle not the pose, but off again into of laughter. "What a brain you've got, Lola! I I anything, but to make these two of ours—the two of the whole Solar System—it's a of genius...."
"Shut up, will you, you hyena, and listen!" James aloud. "There ought to be some way than that."
"Better? Than perfection?" Belle was still laughing but now talk coherently.
"If you can think of another way, Jim, the meeting is still open." Garlock was his eyes. "But it'll have to be a dilly. I'm not of Lola's idea, either, but as the answer it's one hundred to as many places as you want to take time to zeroes."
There was more talk, but no be upon Lola's idea.
"Well, we've got until morning," Garlock said, finally. "If comes up with anything by then, let me know. If not, it goes into the minute we open the locks. The meeting is adjourned."
Belle and James left the room; and, a minutes later, Garlock out. Lola him into his room and closed the door her. She sat on the of a chair, a cigarette, and to in short, puffs. She opened her mouth to say something, but it without making a sound.
"You're of me, Lola?" he asked, quietly.
"Oh, I don't.... Well, that is...." She wouldn't lie, and she wouldn't admit the truth. "You see, I've ... I mean, I haven't had very much experience."
"You needn't be of me at all. I'm not going to pair with you."
"You're not?" Her mouth open and the cigarette out of it. She took a to it. "Why not? Don't you think I do a good job?"
She up and stretched, to her to its best advantage.
Garlock laughed. "Nothing like that, Lola; you have of appeal. It's just that I don't like the conditions. I have paired. I have had much to do with women, and that little has been urbane, logical, and en passant; on the level of physical desire. Thus, I have taken a virgin. Pairing with one is very definitely not my idea of and there's too much to me. For all of which good I am not going to pair with you, now or ever."
"How do you know I'm a or not? You've read me that deep. Nobody can. Not you, unless I let you."
"Reading isn't necessary—you it like a banner."
"I don't know what you mean.... I don't do it intentionally. But I ought to pair with you, Clee!" Lola had all of her nervousness, most of her fear. "It's part of the job I was for. If I'd known, I'd've gone out and got some experience. Really I would have."
"I that. I think you would have been to have done just that. And you have a very high for your virginity, too, don't you?"
"Well, I ... I used to. But we'd go ahead with it. I've got to."
"No such thing. Permissible, but not obligatory."
"But it was assumed. As a of course. Anyway ... well, when that girl started making at you, I you have just as much fun, or more—she's charming; a darling, isn't she?—without with me, and then I had to open my big mouth and be the one to keep you from playing with anyone me, and I am not going to let you suffer...."
"Bunk!" Garlock snorted. "Sheer flapdoodle! Pure prop-wash, started and by men who are either too weak to direct and their or who haven't any work to their minds. It to many men, of course, possibly to most. It not, however, apply to all, and, it one whole of a of to me. Does that make you better?"
"Oh, it ... it does. Thanks, Clee. You know, I like you, a lot."
"Do you? Kiss me."
She did so.
"See?"
"You me!"
"I did not. I want you to see the truth and it. Your is admirable, permanent, and shatter-proof; but your starry-eyed schoolgirl's is none of the three. You'll have to up, some day. In my opinion, to give up one of your hardest-held ideals—virginity—merely of the that those head-shrinkers you with, is sheer, plain idiocy. I that makes you like me less, but I'm it right on the line."
"No ... more. I'll argue with you, when we have time, about some of your points, but the last one—if it's valid—has force. I didn't know men that way. But no what my for you is, I'm to you for the ... and you know, Clee, I'm sure you're going to us home. If anyone can, you can."
"I'm going to try to. Even if I can't, it will be Belle, not you, that I'll take for the long pull. And not you'd have Jim—which you would, of course...."
"To be honest, I think I would."
"Certainly. He's your type. You're not mine; Belle is. Well, that it up, Brownie, for one thing. To Jim and Belle and else, we're paired."
"Of course. Urbanity, as well as to present a to any and all worlds."
"Check. So watch your shield."
"I always do. That is 'way, 'way down. I'm you called me 'Brownie,' Clee. I didn't think you would."
"I didn't to—but I talked to a woman this way before, either. Maybe it had a effect."
"You don't need mellowing—I do like you a lot, just as you are."
"If true, I'm very of it. But don't yourself; and I that literally, not as sarcasm."
"I know. I'm not a bit, and this'll prove it."
She him again, and this time it was a production.
"That was an demonstration, Brownie, but don't do it too often."
"I won't." She laughed, and happily. "If there's any next time, you'll have to me first."
She paused and sobered. "But remember. If you should your mind, any time you want to ... to me, come right in. I won't be as and and as I was just now. That's a promise. Good night, Clee."
"Good night, Brownie."
