At D deck they left the car. Alicia looked at Norman.
"If you're lonesome tonight, I'm off duty at Seventeen-hundred." Before he could answer the doors slid shut.
"What did you do to her?" growled Koal. "I bring the earrings and she propositions you."
Norman grinned, preened himself. Alicia, he decided, was a remarkably pretty girl, intelligent, too.
"Here's your apartment," Koal interrupted his thoughts. They had stopped before a door which bore the numeral 234 in brass. "I'm two-forty-eight. If you want anything, step down the hall and knock." He started off, paused. "Meals are served three times a day in the dining room on A deck, or you can prepare your own food in your rooms. I think you'll find everything necessary in the kitchen. If not, call the steward."
Norman went inside, glanced around curiously. An entrance hall led him into a sumptuous living-room. A compact kitchen, which did everything mechanically but digest your food, opened from a dinette. Behind the front rooms lay three spacious bedrooms, which gave onto a balcony. He opened the glass doors, passed out into the sunshine.
Building number F12 was on the outskirts of Behrl, and a jungle of riotous vegetation met his eye. The horizon curved up like a bowl before disappearing in rosy mists.
Here on the inside of Neptune the sun always hung straight overhead. A land of high noon, he thought. The sun beat down on his head. He wondered what kind of phenomenon it was, possibly a ball of liquid fire slowly burning itself out. The resultant high percentage of carbon dioxide in the air might account for the evolution of plants into reasoning creatures rather than mammals.
He returned to the kitchen. The cabinets were stocked with food and he prepared a cold lunch, ate it hungrily. A feeling of contentment stole over him.
He returned to the bedrooms, chose the largest one, stripped and showered and flung himself into the bed. He was immediately asleep.