he felt that it was wise. He had never in
his life engaged in such lengthy and violent exercise and was alarmed at
the thought of the fatigue pains he would have when he restored his
balance 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 aliens
will feel about it. We have a fix on you and I'm sending a flight of
homing missiles. Nuclear warheads."

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

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

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

"It'll only be fifteen minutes," the panel rasped. "We'll deal with the
others as we find them. You will be decorated for this service, even
though 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 be
appreciated."

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

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

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

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

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

It was a shock. Tensor let out his pent-up breath explosively and ran
his tongue over his lips, tasting the mixture of saliva and lipstick.
What should have been moderately repulsive to him had been transformed
by 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 e