"Luck?" Travis fumed, "what luck?"
"Look, Trav, what else could you call it? You fall in a sewer, you come up with Isaac Newton and a gorgeous doll. It's uncanny, that's what it is, uncanny."
Travis lapsed into wordless musing on Navel, planets, people.
Come to think of it, he thought, it is uncanny.
At that moment there was a pounding on the lock. Travis quickly shooed Navel and Lappy into hiding, then cautiously went to the door. He relaxed. It was Ed Horton.
"I saw you come back, Trav. Mighty glad. But I knew you'd make it. Old Pat Travis always comes through. Aint that right, Pat?"
He tottered in the doorway. Travis caught the sweet scent of strong brew. He stepped forward to help him but Horton stood up grandly, waving him away. His mouth creased in an amiable grin.
"Diomed," he announced proudly, "is a nine planet system."
After which he fell backwards out of the door.
Trav ran to the door, stared down into the dark. Horton sat upright at the foot of the ladder.