"That's my business. I'm a specialist in Earth cultures. Section 7-Y, Social Technics. Where is your home?"
She was friendly, almost too much so. Price was wary now, his mind shaking off the lethargy of the shock.
"Nevada."
She wrote on the clipboard, some kind of shorthand. "I have not been that far west. What is Nevada like?"
He told her, leaving out any mention of cities. The aerodyne raced forward, and he watched the controls avidly. So simple. So beautifully, functionally simple. His fingers twitched with eagerness.
"You have flown a great deal?"
"My father taught me." Careful, Price thought. These people are probably no brighter or shrewder than my own, but they're better able to investigate and check on things. "Tell me, what's it like on Vrain Four?"
"We eat and sleep, make love and die," she said, "very much like you. The sky is very beautiful at night. The stars are close and burning, not cold and far-away like yours." She paused.
"Where did your father learn to fly?"