stubble. Yellow-brown skin tones, brown eyes with no perceptible slant, changed his image considerably.
The changes in Teela were equally drastic. Her hair was dark and wavy now, tied back from her face. Her skin was nordic-pale. Her oval face was dominated by big brown eyes and a small, serious mouth; her nose was almost unnoticeable. In the sleeping field she floated like oil on water, utterly relaxed.
"But you've never even been as far as the Moon."
She nodded.
"And I'm not the world's greatest lover. You told me that yourself."
She nodded again. There was no reticence in Teela Brown. In two days and nights she had not lied, nor shaded the truth, nor so much as dodged a question. Louis would have known. She had told him of her first two loves: the one who had lost interest in her after half a year, the other, a cousin, who had been offered a chance to emigrate to Mount Lookitthat. Louis had told her little of his own experience, and she had seemed to accept his reticence. But she had none. And she asked the damndest questions.
"Then why me?" he asked.
"I don't know," she confessed. "Could it be the charisma? You're a hero, you know."
He was the only living man to have made first contact with an alien species. Would he ever live down the Trinoc episode?
He made one more try. "Look, I know the world's greatest lover. Friend of mine. It's his hobby. He writes books about it. He's got doctorates in physiology and psychology. For the past hundred and thirty years he's been --"
Teela had her hands over her ears. "Don't" she said. "Don't."
"I just don't want you to get killed somewhere. You're too young."
She wore the puzzled look, that puzzled look, the one that meant hed used proper Interworld words in a nonsense sequence. Whiplash of the heart? Killed somewhere? Louis sighed within himself. "Sleeproom nodes merge," he said, and something happened to the sleeper field. The two regions of stable equilibrium, the anomalies which kept Louis and Teela from falling out of the field, moved together and merged into one. Louis and Teela followed, sliding "downhill" until they bumped and clung.
"I really was sleepy, Louis. But never mind ..."
"Think about privacy before you drift away to dreamland. Spacecraft tend to be cramped."
"You mean we couldn't make love? Tanj, Louis, I don't care if they watch. They're aliens."
"I care."
She gave him that puzzled look. "Suppose they weren't aliens. Then would you object?"
"Yes, unless we knew them very well. Does that make me out of date?"
"A little."
"Remember that friend I mentioned? The world's greatest lover? Well, he had a colleague," said Louis, "and she taught me some things he was teaching her. You need gravity for this," he added. "Sleeproom field off." Weight returned.
"You're trying to change the subject," said Teela.
"Yes. I give up."
"Okay, but just keep one thing in mind. One thing. Your puppeteer friend might have wanted four species instead of three. You could just as easily be holding a Trinoc instead of me."
"Horrible thought. Now, we do this in three stages, starting with straddle position ... "
"What's straddle position?"
"I'll show you ..."
By morning Louis was glad enough that they would be traveling together. When his doubts returned it was too late. It had already been too late for some considerable time.
***
The Outsiders were traders in information. They bought high and they sold high, but what they bought once they sold again and again, for their trading ground was the entire galactic whorl. In the banks of human space their credit was virtually unlimited.
Presumably they had evolved on some cold, light moon of a gas giant; some world very like Nereid, Neptune's larger moon. Now they lived in the gaps between the stars, in city-sized ships whose sophistication varied enormously, from photon sails to engines theoretically impossible to human science. Where a planetary system held potential customers, and where such a system included a
The changes in Teela were equally drastic. Her hair was dark and wavy now, tied back from her face. Her skin was nordic-pale. Her oval face was dominated by big brown eyes and a small, serious mouth; her nose was almost unnoticeable. In the sleeping field she floated like oil on water, utterly relaxed.
"But you've never even been as far as the Moon."
She nodded.
"And I'm not the world's greatest lover. You told me that yourself."
She nodded again. There was no reticence in Teela Brown. In two days and nights she had not lied, nor shaded the truth, nor so much as dodged a question. Louis would have known. She had told him of her first two loves: the one who had lost interest in her after half a year, the other, a cousin, who had been offered a chance to emigrate to Mount Lookitthat. Louis had told her little of his own experience, and she had seemed to accept his reticence. But she had none. And she asked the damndest questions.
"Then why me?" he asked.
"I don't know," she confessed. "Could it be the charisma? You're a hero, you know."
He was the only living man to have made first contact with an alien species. Would he ever live down the Trinoc episode?
He made one more try. "Look, I know the world's greatest lover. Friend of mine. It's his hobby. He writes books about it. He's got doctorates in physiology and psychology. For the past hundred and thirty years he's been --"
Teela had her hands over her ears. "Don't" she said. "Don't."
"I just don't want you to get killed somewhere. You're too young."
She wore the puzzled look, that puzzled look, the one that meant hed used proper Interworld words in a nonsense sequence. Whiplash of the heart? Killed somewhere? Louis sighed within himself. "Sleeproom nodes merge," he said, and something happened to the sleeper field. The two regions of stable equilibrium, the anomalies which kept Louis and Teela from falling out of the field, moved together and merged into one. Louis and Teela followed, sliding "downhill" until they bumped and clung.
"I really was sleepy, Louis. But never mind ..."
"Think about privacy before you drift away to dreamland. Spacecraft tend to be cramped."
"You mean we couldn't make love? Tanj, Louis, I don't care if they watch. They're aliens."
"I care."
She gave him that puzzled look. "Suppose they weren't aliens. Then would you object?"
"Yes, unless we knew them very well. Does that make me out of date?"
"A little."
"Remember that friend I mentioned? The world's greatest lover? Well, he had a colleague," said Louis, "and she taught me some things he was teaching her. You need gravity for this," he added. "Sleeproom field off." Weight returned.
"You're trying to change the subject," said Teela.
"Yes. I give up."
"Okay, but just keep one thing in mind. One thing. Your puppeteer friend might have wanted four species instead of three. You could just as easily be holding a Trinoc instead of me."
"Horrible thought. Now, we do this in three stages, starting with straddle position ... "
"What's straddle position?"
"I'll show you ..."
By morning Louis was glad enough that they would be traveling together. When his doubts returned it was too late. It had already been too late for some considerable time.
***
The Outsiders were traders in information. They bought high and they sold high, but what they bought once they sold again and again, for their trading ground was the entire galactic whorl. In the banks of human space their credit was virtually unlimited.
Presumably they had evolved on some cold, light moon of a gas giant; some world very like Nereid, Neptune's larger moon. Now they lived in the gaps between the stars, in city-sized ships whose sophistication varied enormously, from photon sails to engines theoretically impossible to human science. Where a planetary system held potential customers, and where such a system included a
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