The satellite-keeper's daughter

By MARK REINSBERG
It isn't advisable to get that gleam in your eye when you're out in space. It can lead to complications....
Chicago's own Mark Reinsberg, associated with Shasta Publishers, the SF house, there, makes a first appearance in these pages with this quiet little story of a susceptible trucker—galactic style—who once swore by Mattapenny's otherwise so dependable GALACTIC GUIDEBOOK.
Sex and space don't mix. And Mattapenny's Galactic Guidebook can't be trusted.
If you doubt either proposition, ask Bill Brack. It's hard to tell what he thought about women, but all space truckers used to look upon Mattapenny's little red book as a sort of interstellar Bible.
Looking for a planet to stop over at? they'd say. Place to get good meals? Decent room for the night? You can't go wrong with Mattapenny!
Brack did.
You see, the Galactic Guidebook lists Corbie as one of the five small fuel stations sharing the outer-most orbit of the Dryodean planetary system. The latest edition still gives Hotel Eros two asterisks.
Now, two asterisks ( ) is supposed to mean Plain but fairly comfortable .
Sure, says Brack, the hotel may lack an up-to-date Dreamawake or a Time-conditioner, but at least you expect your room to have a Vibrobath and controllable gravity.
None of this at the Hotel Eros. Brack shakes his head complainingly. You sleep in a primitive 7/8G-bed. You wash yourself with old-fashioned magnetic water. And oxygen service costs 10% extra.
Some people ask: Then why in the world did you stay there?