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"Just hold on a minute. Who " "He's a policeman, Alan," Rat said softly. "Don't make trouble. Do as he says." Throttling his sudden anger, Alan nodded curtly at the officer and stepped off the walkway. He was an outsider here, and knew he couldn't expect the sort of warm fellowship that existed aboard the ship. This was a city. A crowded, uncomfortable Earther city.
Five minutes after I set foot on the Earther side of the river I was beaten up and robbed by a gang of roving kids. It was a real fine start." He signalled the waiter for another drink. "I guess I must have drifted around the city for two weeks or more before the police found me and picked me up for vagrancy.
"What do you think of our little paradise?" Quantrell asked sarcastically. "Certainly puts the Earther cities to shame." He pointed out across the river, where the tall, glistening buildings of the adjoining Earther city shone in the morning sunlight. "Have you ever been out there?" Alan asked. "No," Quantrell said in a tight voice.
He turned and saw the other spaceman still rooted to the ground, gazing up at the vast Earther city as if in narcoshock. "It's big," Quantrell murmured. "Too big." "Kevin! What's wrong?" "Leave him alone," Rat whispered. "I have a hunch he won't be going with you." Alan watched in astonishment as Quantrell took two steps hesitantly backward away from the bridge, then a third.
They made a good team. But that was finished, now. Steve would be a stranger to him aboard the Valhalla an older, perhaps wiser man, with nine solid years of tough Earther life behind him. He would not be able to help but regard Alan as a kid, a greenhorn; it was natural. They would never be comfortable in each other's presence, with the old easy familiarity that was so close to telepathy.
The game offered perfect escape from the harsh realities of Earther existence. "Six hundred twelve sigma five." Again Alan recompensated. His nerves tingled; he felt he must be close to victory. All thought of what he had come here for slipped away; Steve was forgotten. Only the flashing board counted, only the game. Five more numbers went by.
"We go down to the foot of this street, turn right into Carhill Boulevard, head down the main drive toward the bridge. The Earther city is on the other side of the river." "You better be right." They made it at a fairly good clip through the sleepy Enclave, passing rapidly through the old, dry, dusty streets. Finally they came to the end of the street and rounded the corner onto Carhill Boulevard.
I'll get the Cavour drive someday, Alan thought suddenly. And I'll be getting it for him as well as me. The bizarre buildings of the Enclave loomed up before him. Behind them, just visible in the purplish twilight haze, were the tips of the shining towers of the Earther city outside. Somewhere out there, probably, was Steve. I'll find him too, Alan thought firmly.
The lanky, pudgy-faced First Officer hardly noticed as Alan stepped up beside him. "Art?" Kandin turned and went pale. "Oh Alan. Where in blazes have you been the last two days?" "Out in the Earther city. Did my father make much of a fuss?" The First Officer shook his head. "He kept saying you just went out to see the sights, that you hadn't really jumped ship.
And they would miss him back at the Enclave unless Captain Donnell had discovered that Alan had gone into the Earther city, in which case he wouldn't be missed at all. Alan remembered sharply the way the Captain had calmly blotted the name of his son Steve from the Valhalla's roster as if Steve had never existed. "Are we going to go over to the Atlas now?" Hawkes shook his head.
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