"Yes, I did. I don't suppose it should surprise me to find that rebels are human beings, too."
"Merely a matter of a difference in orientation. And a question for you to consider is, which orientation actually is correct?"
Maya did not like the direction the conversation was taking. She was relieved by the appearance of the waiter with their meals of thick, steaming steaks, with all the necessary trimmings.
"It will be a long time before we can be served anything like this by teleportation," she said, laughing. "But, Mr. Kensington—"
"Dark, if you don't mind."
"Very well. Dark, you say that you drove here from Mars City. How did you avoid the copter patrols that were out trying to intercept the escaping rebels?"
"As a matter of fact, I didn't, and that's a very peculiar thing," he said thoughtfully. "One of them got me just outside Mars City and blasted the dome of my groundcar."
"I noticed you were wearing a marsuit when you registered here, and Gren said you were having the dome repaired."
"That's what's peculiar about it. I wasn't wearing the marsuit when the copter broke my dome. I didn't have any protection at all. The groundcar went off the road and overturned. I don't know how long I was unconscious, but it was evidently long enough for the copter to look me over, decide I was dead, and move on out of sight. What I can't understand is why I didn't asphyxiate."
"You mean that you were protected by no oxygen equipment at all?"