You see, the Galactic Guidebook lists Corbie as one of the five small fuel stations sharing the outer-most orbit of the Dryodean planetary system. The latest edition still gives Hotel Eros two asterisks.
Now, two asterisks (**) is supposed to mean "Plain but fairly comfortable".
"Sure," says Brack, "the hotel may lack an up-to-date Dreamawake or a Time-conditioner, but at least you expect your room to have a Vibrobath and controllable gravity."
None of this at the Hotel Eros. Brack shakes his head complainingly. "You sleep in a primitive 7/8G-bed. You wash yourself with old-fashioned magnetic water. And oxygen service costs 10% extra."
Some people ask: "Then why in the world did you stay there?"
"Had to," Bill answers. "I was hauling out of Dryod-7 with a cargo of deluplasm. Damn valuable stuff, consigned to Hesdin-2. Well, I'd figured the time a little wrong, and it left me with twelve hours to kill before our convoy jumped off. And you know how it is. I was facing three weeks of interstellar rations, and I had a sudden yen for nonsynthetic food. So I looked in the guidebook, and there was Corbie...."
Brack was disappointed from the start. When he sat at a table of the hotel restaurant and studied the menu, he saw it was all synthetics.
"Blast it!" he barked into the table phone, "haven't you anything else?"
"I understand how you feel, mister." It was a live human female voice that answered, not the usual robot. "Hold on. I'll come out and see if I can help you."