is own story. "It
wasn't at all bad while it was going on, because I was pretty well
anesthetized from body chemicals. But the hangover was terrific."

"Yes, no doubt." Curl appeared to consider a moment before asking. "What
about this uncivilized hubbub the Prime raised that caused the council
to order him to destroy himself?"

"Oh, that. Well, just as I was about to leave, this primitive I was with
coaxed me into playing an interesting but remarkably violent sport with
her. And about the same time, it appears that her superiors, for some
unknown reason, decided to destroy her. It seems that the aliens'
Council doesn't let them take care of it themselves."

"Uh, huh. How did they accomplish it?"

"They used some nuclear breakdown devices, which I imagine serve their
primitive society quite well. The devices have appetites built into them
for a certain kind of target so they will know where to go.

"But when I agreed to play this game, I naturally set up a privacy
focus, so the ship we were in just didn't exist for the nuclear devices.
They kept on looking, though, and finally found a lot of similar ships
back at the alien's main camp. Made an awful mess out of one of the
Prime's favorite landscapes, I understand."

"Well," Curl replied engagingly, "Prime should have had better
self-control. I don't blame the Council a bit, and it does fix things up
rather nicely." His image smiled into Tensor's mind and then hesitated
as he saw the concern there. "Doesn't it?"

"Uh, yes. All except for the alien female that insists on staying with
me, now, since none of her people is left on the planet. I told her two
or three times to go ahead and destroy herself if she wanted; but she
just rumples up my hair, grins at me and says she already has." He
looked worriedly at Curl.

"Well, that's just one of those things, I guess," Curl murmured
philosophically. Sensing a local distraction approaching Tensor at that
moment, he politely withdrew from the other man's mind.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAIR AND WARMER***

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