Fair and Warmer Page 4

of view was becoming lessabstract.

  He observed that, upon his disintegrating the sheath, the noise wasthere again, issuing rapidly from her mouth, and lacking in detailedsemantic significance. It was very curious, he thought, watching therapid rise and fall of her pink-tipped breasts. He could not determinewhether the signal indicated terror or fury.

  She solved the problem for him by grasping a small metal object from therack beside her and throwing it at him. He deflected it to the floor asit left her hand.

  "What," he asked politely, "is disturbing you so?" He liked the angrysparkle of her eyes.

  "You," she snapped. "Keep away from me."

  "I don't understand," he replied, moving closer and reaching out hishand to obtain a tactile sensation of her lovely hair texture. The womancompressed her red lips firmly and stood there, uneasily watching himout of the corner of her eyes as he gently stroked her head.

  "Do all females of your race look nice like you?"

  She nodded cautiously and said, "More or less."

  "Very curious."

  A sly expression came to her eyes then and she smiled radiantly. "Look,"she said, "would you do me a favor?"

  "Of course," Tensor murmured with unaccustomed eagerness. This was avery interesting experience, even though he was constantly having toreinforce and add to the chemical shift in his body in order to holddown the possibility of fatigue. He could not recall ever beforepermitting such an unusual somatic state.

  She gestured guilelessly toward the panel. "Would you help me repair myradio?"

  "Radio?" Tensor echoed vacantly, gazing at the place indicated.

  "Yes. I--er, have to report to my superiors that I may not be able toreturn, even tonight." Again she smiled dazzlingly and with devastatingeffect on Tensor.

  "I'd be glad to," he said agreeably. "But I don't know anything aboutmechanical things. Couldn't you just tell me where your superiors areand let me teleport there? I'd let them know and come right back."

  "Oh no," she replied quickly. She frowned a little wistfully. "No," sherepeated, "they wouldn't like that. They never like anything easy. Andbesides--" again the smile "--I might not be here when you return, youknow!"

  "Oh?" Tensor said, puzzled that she knew that he might be concerned overher absence. Possibly she had some power of direct communication afterall.

  "It's just those cables that you destroyed over the panel," she told himin a softly cajoling voice. "I have some spares in the locker, and ifyou would help me replace them, it would be fine."

  Tensor floated over and peered into the stumps, examining thecomposition and structure. He nodded and reconstructed them instantly.

  She was obviously delighted and said, "I wondered if you could do that.May I use the radio now?"

  Tensor stared at the whiteness of her teeth contrasting pleasingly withthe redness of her lips. "Go right ahead," he murmured. He decided hehad better leave soon.

  He watched as the brilliant spots of color glowed and shifted. She spokeand the panel issued its response. "Control to Scout Three. Whathappened there a while ago?"

  "This is urgent," she said. "Is the Captain there?"

  After a noisy hesitation, the panel replied. "This is Commander Carson.What's up out there?"

  "Listen carefully," she said. "I have an alien with me on the ship. He'salready learned English perfectly. He is only slightly telepathic, sofar as I am concerned, but he has great telekinetic powers."

  "We were afraid of that. Is he dangerous?"

  "Well--he killed Lieutenant Anderson. Completely annihilated her with asimple act of will." She glanced at the bewildered expression onTensor's face, and favored him with a quick little smile. "He isextremely powerful. He would be a very good friend."

  Tensor broke in asking, "What is all this talk now? I do not understandthe purpose of it."

  "Don't you worry," she murmured softly, reaching up and patting him onthe knee. "Just have patience."

  The panel rasped at them. "I see. Do you know if there are many ofthem?"

  "He told me it was between thirty and a hundred, but nobody knows forsure. Presumably they don't have very much communication with eachother."

  "Ah," rasped the panel in a satisfied tone. "Just a minute. I'll get adirective from the Captain for you."

  Tensor nodded slightly as he said, "Oh, I see. That is your Council youare talking to."

  "Uh huh," she replied, dodging the hand that sought her hair again. Shesmiled coyly. "Now just wait. I want to hear what my superiors say." Shepushed at him playfully, her smile growing strained as she desperatelytried to kill time.

  Tensor was amused. Yes, he decided, it was time to go. He was not at allsure that he wanted to go, but he felt that it was wise. He had never inhis life engaged in such lengthy and violent exercise and was alarmed atthe thought of the fatigue pains he would have when he restored hisbalance to a civilized neutral again.

  The panel rasped noisily at them.

  "Captain Jonas," it said, speaking in a different accent this time."There's a war going on and we can't take any chances on how the alienswill feel about it. We have a fix on you and I'm sending a flight ofhoming missiles. Nuclear warheads."

  She stiffened as she heard the sentence, her red lips drawn back fromtightly clenched teeth. In a faint voice, she said, "I--I guess thereisn't much I can do about it, is there?"

  "Can you keep him there and busy so that he won't notice the missilescoming?"

  She gave a short, brittle laugh. "Yes sir. I feel fairly sure I can keephim interested for--" she glanced speculatively at Tensor "--a half hourat least. Probably much longer."

  "It'll only be fifteen minutes," the panel rasped. "We'll deal with theothers as we find them. You will be decorated for this service, eventhough you are only a civilian. Posthumously, of course."

  The panel was silent.

  "Oh sure," she said in a deadly quiet voice. "I'm glad to beappreciated."

  Tensor was puzzled. The conversation did not appear to make a great dealof sense to him. He hovered over the panel and gazed at it curiously.

  "Just another superior," she told him. "It seems that practicallyeverybody is my superior or was." She sighed and looked down at herself,wistfully thinking that it was a shame to have to waste all thecarefully nurtured loveliness that she knew she was.

  She looked up at Tensor, who had lost interest in the panel and wasbusily examining the outside in a viewscope.

  "Come here, big boy," she said quickly. When he turned to face her, sheadded, "keep your attention over here."

  With an agreeable smile, he floated to her and, in obedience to herdirections, lifted her into his arms. She put her lips to his, her handsgently caressing his cheek.

  It was a shock. Tensor let out his pent-up breath explosively and ranhis tongue over his lips, tasting the mixture of saliva and lipstick.What should have been moderately repulsive to him had been transformedby the chemical sympathy in his veins into something quite overwhelming.His eyes were bright and eager.

  "It's a dirty trick and I feel like a jerk," she whispered sadly to him."But what else can I do?"

  "I beg your pardon?" Tensor murmured happily. "I do not understand you."

  "Oh well," she breathed softly, smiling a crooked little smile. "Neitherone of us will ever know when it happens. A pity to spoil it so soon,though."

  In his unaccustomed confusion, Tensor could not follow her thought, buthe could grasp the immediate situation. He grinned and nuzzled heraffectionately, and decided to stay a while longer.

  * * * * *

  Curl was floating langorously in his comfortable focus, eyes half closedand glazed, mouth droolingly limp and hands carelessly askew. He formedhis hyperimage to appear erect and neat--and with a politely interestedexpression--while he idly contemplated the telepathic picture beingprojected into his own mind.

  "I see you've recovered," he said. "Splendid."

  "Yes, but what an ordeal," Tensor replied. His image took on
theappearance of a relieved smile. "If it ever happens again--I don'tknow."

  "It was that bad?" Curl showed suitable lazy civilized sympathy. "I wasafraid. All that teleporting of yourself and things."

  "It took me almost ten minutes to recover from it," Tensor said grimly.

  "Tsk tsk. That's a lot of lactic acid to locate and destroy. But theCouncil will appreciate it, even if Prime did complain, poor fellow."

  "Well, I promised to