it!" Belle went on, still unable to talk. "Think of Clee, Lola. Six two--over two hundred--hard as nails--a perfect hunk of hard red meat--telling this whole damn cockeyed region of space that he's impotent, too! And with a perfectly straight face! And it ties in so beautifully with his making no response, yes or no, when she propositioned him. The poor, innocent, impotent lamb just simply didn't have even the faintest inkling of what she meant! Oh, my....""Listen--listen--listen!" James managed finally to break in. "Not that I want to be promiscuous, but...."
"There, there, my precious little impotent tomcat," Belle soothed him aloud, between giggles and snorts. "Us Earth-girls will take care of our lover-boys, see if we don't. You won't need any nasty little...." Belle could not hold the pose, but went off again into whoops of laughter. "What a brain you've got, Lola! I thought I could imagine anything, but to make these two guys of ours--the two absolute tops of the whole Solar System--it's a stroke of genius...."
"Shut up, will you, you human hyena, and listen!" James roared aloud. "There ought to be some better way than that."
12
"Better? Than sheer perfection?" Belle was still laughing but could now talk coherently.
"If you can think of another way, Jim, the meeting is still open." Garlock was wiping his eyes. "But it'll have to be a dilly. I'm not exactly enamored of Lola's idea, either, but as the answer it's one hundred percent to as many decimal places as you want to take time to write zeroes."
There was more talk, but no improvement could be made upon Lola's idea.
"Well, we've got until morning," Garlock said, finally. "If anybody comes up with anything by then, let me know. If not, it goes into effect the minute we open the locks. The meeting is adjourned."
Belle and James left the room; and, a few minutes later, Garlock went out. Lola followed him into his room and closed the door be-hind her. She sat down on the edge of a chair, lighted a cigarette, and began to smoke in short, nervous puffs. She opened her mouth to say something, but shut it without making a sound.
"You're afraid 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 never ... I mean, I haven't had very much experience."
"You needn't be afraid of me at all. I'm not going to pair with you."
"You're not?" Her mouth dropped open and the cigarette fell out of it. She took a few seconds to recover it. "Why not? Don't you think I could do a good enough job?"
She stood up and stretched, to show her splendid figure to its best advantage.
Garlock laughed. "Nothing like that, Lola; you have plenty of sex appeal. It's just that I don't like the conditions. I never have paired. I never have had much to do with women, and that little has been urbane, logical, and strictly en passant; on the level of mutual physical desire. Thus, I have never taken a virgin. Pairing with one is very definitely not my idea of urbanity and there's altogether too much obligation to suit me. For all of which good reasons I am not going to pair with you, now or ever."
"How do you know whether I'm a virgin or not? You've never read me that deep. Nobody can. Not even you, unless I let you." "Reading isn't necessary--you flaunt it like a banner."
"I don't know what you mean.... I certainly don't do it intentionally. But I ought to pair with you, Clee!" Lola had lost all of her nervousness, most of her fear. "It's part of the job I was chosen for. If I'd known, I'd've gone out and got some experience. Really I would have."
"I believe that. I think you would have been silly enough to have done just that. And you have a very high regard for your virginity, too, don't you?"
"Well, I ... I used to. But we'd better go ahead with it. I've got to." "No such thing. Permissible, but not obligatory."
"But it was assumed. As a matter of course. Anyway ... well, when that girl started making passes at you, I thought you could have just as much fun, or even more--she's charming; a real darling, isn't she?--without pairing with me, and then I had to open my big mouth and be the one to keep you from playing games with anyone except me, and I certainly am not going to let you suffer...."
"Bunk!" Garlock snorted. "Sheer flapdoodle! Pure psychological prop-wash, started and maintained by men who are either too weak to direct and control their drives or who haven't any real work to occupy their minds. It applies to many men, of course, possibly to most. It does not, however, apply to all, and, it lacks one whole hell of a lot of applying to me. Does that make you feel better?"
"Oh, it does ... it does. Thanks, Clee. You know, I like you, a lot."
13
"Do you? Kiss me."
She did so.
"See?"
"You tricked me!"
"I did not. I want you to see the truth and face it. Your idealism is admirable, permanent, and shatter-proof; but your starry-eyed schoolgirl's mawkishness is none of the three. You'll have to grow up, some day. In my opinion, forcing yourself to give up one of your hardest-held ideals--virginity--merely because of the utter bilge that those idiot head-shrinkers stuffed you with, is sheer, plain idiocy. I suppose that makes you like me even less, but I'm laying 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 tremendous force. I didn't know men felt that way. But no matter what my feeling for you really is, I'm really grateful to you for the reprieve ... and you know, Clee, I'm pretty sure you're going to get us back 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 because you'd rather 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 buttons it up, Brownie, except for one thing. To Jim and Belle and everyone else, we're paired."
"Of course. Urbanity, as well as to present a united front to any and all worlds." "Check. So watch your shield."
"I always do. That stuff is 'way, 'way down. I'm awfully glad you called me 'Brownie,' Clee. I didn't think you ever would." "I didn't expect to--but I never talked to a woman this way before, either. Maybe it had a mellowing effect."
"You don't need mellowing--I do like you a lot, just exactly as you are."
"If true, I'm very glad of it. But don't strain yourself; and I mean that literally, not as sarcasm." "I know. I'm not straining a bit, and this'll prove it."
She kissed him again, and this time it was a production.
"That was an eminently convincing demonstration, Brownie, but don't do it too often."
"I won't." She laughed, gayly and happily. "If there's any next time, you'll have to kiss me first."
She paused and sobered. "But remember. If you should change your mind, any time you really want to ... to kiss me, come right in. I
won't be as silly and nervous and afraid as I was just now. That's a promise. Good night, Clee." "Good night, Brownie."
CHAPTER 2
Next morning,
