distinction no longer holds,
of course. On some planets the female is dominant, on some she's not.
It's generally according to the time of colonization, Smith. When was
Earth colonized?"

"It wasn't."

"What do you mean, it wasn't?"

"We were always there. We colonized the rest of the galaxy. Long ago."

The registrar clicked furiously, expressed itself still more femininely
this time. "Oh, that planet! You certainly are the first, Smith. The
very first here at the school. Room 4027, dominant companion." Neuter
voice again. "That's all, Smith of Earth. Next."

The vaguely purple-skinned man stood before the registrar, winked at the
flashing lights. "You know, now I can see what they mean when we're told
of a missing link in the chain between man and animal. Old
Earthsmith...."

"Name?" said the machine.

The man pointed at Smith, shook with silent laughter. The back of
Smith's head, which could not properly be called bald because he had
never had any hair on it, was very red.

"Name's Jorak."

"Planet?" demanded the fully neuter machine.

* * * * *

There was the red star, a monstrous blotch of crimson swollen and
brooding on the horizon and filling a quarter of the sky. There was the
fleck of white high up near the top of the red giant, its white-dwarf
companion in transit. These were the high jagged crags, falling off
suddenly to the sundered, frothy sea with its blood-red sun-track fading
to pink and finally to gray far away on either side.

Smith watched the waves break far below him, and he almost stumbled when
someone tapped his shoulder.

"That was mean of the man named Jorak." She might have been a woman of
Earth, except that she was too thin, cast in a too-delicate mould. Yet
beautiful.

Smith shrugged, felt the heat rise to his face and knew that he must
have looked like a mirror for the red sun.

"Is that really a blush, Smith? Are you blushing?"

He nodded. "I can't help it. I--"

"Don't be foolish. I don't want you to stop. I think it looks nice."

Smith rubbed his pate, watched the hot wind blow the girl's yellow hair
about her face. "They tell me my great great grandfather had a little
fringe of hair around his head. I've seen pictures."

"How nice--"

"If you're trying to make fun of me, please go away. It wasn't nice, it
was ugly. Either you have hair or you don't. The men of Earth used to
have it, long ago. The women still do."

She changed t