Riuku waited. He prodded. He understood the Restricted Area as she understood it—which was not at all. He found out some things about the 731 plugs—that a lot of them were real crummy ones the fool day shift girls had set up wrong, and besides she'd rather solder on the 717's any day. He got her talking about the weapon again, and he found out what the other girls thought about it.
Nothing.
Except where else could you get twelve-fifty an hour soldering?
She was stretched out on the couch in the restroom lobby taking a short nap—on company time, old Liverlips being tied up with the new girls down at the other end of the line—when Riuku finally managed to call Nagor again.
"Have you found out anything, Riuku?"
"Not yet."
Silence. Then: "We've lost another ship. Maybe you'd better turn her loose and come on back. It looks as if we'll have to run for it, after all."
Defeat. The long, interstellar search for another race, a race less technologically advanced than this one, and all because of a stupid Earth female.
"Not yet, Nagor," he said. "Her boy friend knows. I'll find out. I'll make her listen to him."
"Well," Nagor said doubtfully. "All right. But hurry. We haven't much time at all."