The girl was sitting on the bed. She was an Earthgirl, all right. She had come in a toggle-cloak of green Irwadian fur, which was folded neatly at her side on the bed. Under it she wore a daring net halter of the type then fashionable on Earth but which had not yet taken over the outworlds. It left her shoulders bare and exposed a great deal of smooth, tawny skin through the net. Her firm breasts were cupped in two solid cones of black growing out of the net. Her midriff was bare to an inch or two below the navel. Her loins were covered by an abrevitog which formed a triangle in front and, Ramsey knew, would form one in back. Her long, well-formed legs were bare down to the mid-calf boots she wore. She had a beautiful body and had dressed so Ramsey couldn’t miss [p 19] it. Her face was so provocatively beautiful that Ramsey just stood there staring at it—after he had taken in the rest of her. She wore her hair quite long. She seemed perfectly composed. In her right hand she held Ramsey’s m.g. gun, but she wasn’t pointing it at them.
She looked at the timid Vegan girl and smiled. “Oh, I am sorry, Captain Ramsey,” she said. “I couldn’t know, of course, you’d be coming home with—company.”
“It isn’t what you think it is,” Ramsey said, surprised to find himself on the defensive. “The girl’s in trouble. So’m I.”
The Earthgirl laughed. “Already? You looked the type, but I thought it would take a little time.”
“What do you want?” Ramsey said. They were speaking in English. The Vegan girl tugged at Ramsey’s arm. She wanted to get out of there and hoped Ramsey would go with her. Abruptly the Earthgirl burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Ramsey demanded.
“Your little Vegan friend. I read her mind, Ramsey. She thinks I’m your wife. She thinks I’m mad at you for bringing her home.”
“Then why don’t you talk in Coine,” Ramsey said in the interstellar language, “and make her feel better? She might as well know I never saw you before in my life.” He was annoyed.
The Vegan girl smiled timidly, taking hope.
“But you did,” the beautiful Earthgirl said. “I was on the Polaris today, Captain. You were to be the pilot, until Interstellar Transfer here on Irwadi was planetarized.”