"Oh," I said, my voice conveying my disappointment. I sighed and began wondering just how I should go about contacting the Joe I was looking for. My orders said I was to report to Captain Bransten immediately upon arrival. I figured the hell with Captain Bransten. I outranked him anyway, and there wasn't much he could do if I decided to stop for a drink first.
"Where's the Officer's Club?" I asked the Venusian.
"Are you buying information or are you just curious?"
"Can you take me there?" I asked.
"Sure thing, Toots." He picked up my bags and started walking up a heavily overgrown path. We'd probably walked for about ten minutes when he dropped my bags and said, "There it is."
The Officer's Club was a plasteel hut with window shields that protected it from the heat of the sun. It didn't look too comfortable but I really wanted that drink. I reached into my tunic and slipped the native thirty solars.
He stared at the credits curiously and then shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well, you're new here. We'll let it go."
He took off then, while I stared after him, wondering just what he'd meant. Had I tipped him too little?
I shrugged and looked over at the Officer's Club. From the outside it looked as hot as hell.
On the inside it was about two degrees short of that mark. I began to curse Walsh for taking me away from my nice soft job in Space II.