I
had listened to the advice of my betters. It was unthinkable, as well as
forbidden for me to do anything else. And everything I wanted to do was
against the law. I was fifteen before I learned to read--out of a book
stolen from a noble school. After that there was no turning back. By the
time I stowed aboard an off-world freighter at nineteen I must have
broken every law on the planet. Happily. Leaving home for me was just
like getting out of prison."

Meta shook her head at the thought. "I just can't imagine a place like
that. But I'm sure I wouldn't like it there."

"I'm sure you wouldn't," Jason laughed. "So once I was in space, with no
law-abiding talents or skills, I just wandered into one thing and
another. In this age of technology I was completely out of place. Oh, I
suppose I could have done well in some army, but I'm not so good at
taking orders. Whenever I gambled I did well, so little by little I just
drifted into it. People are the same everywhere, so I manage to make out
well wherever I end up."

"I know what you mean about people being alike--but they are so
_different_," she said. "I'm not being clear at all, am I? What I mean
is that at home I know what people will do and why they do it at the
same time. People on all the other planets do act alike, as you said,
yet I have very much trouble understanding why. For instance, I like to
try the local food when we set down on a planet, and if there is time I
always do. There are bars and restaurants near every spaceport so I go
there. And I always have trouble with the men. They want to buy me
drinks, hold my hand--"

"Well, a single girl in those port joints has to expect a certain amount
of interest from the men."

"Oh, I know that," she said. "What I don't understand is why they don't
listen when I tell them I am not interested and to go away. They just
laugh and pull up a chair, usually. But I have found that one thing
works wherever I am. I tell them if they don't stop bothering me I'll
break their arm."

"Does that stop them?" Jason asked.

"No, of course not. But after I break their arm they go away. And the
others don't bother me either. It's a lot of fuss to go through and the
food is usually awful."

Jason didn't laugh. Particularly when he realized that this girl _could_
break the arm of any spaceport thug in the galaxy. She was a strange
mixture of naivete and strength, unlike anyone he had ever met before.
Once again he realized th