Question of Comfort by Les Collins (white hot kiss .TXT) π
Mel said something indistinguishable--I'd caught him on a bite of steak.
Hazel, belligerent, demanded: "Are you asking us to resign?"
Apparently I wasn't. So they stuck, and another crisis was met. Unfortunately, by then, I'd forgotten the shock and warning I got from the cat.
* * * * *
Things moved swiftly, more easily. The GG took over, becoming, in effect, my staff. They'd become more: five different extensions of me, each capable of acting correctly. As a team, they meshed beautifully.
Too beautifully, at one point. Dex and Hazel were seeing eye-to-eye, even in the dark, and I worried about the effect on the others. I might as well have worried about the effect of a light bulb on the sun. They married or some such, refused time off, and the GG functioned, if anything, better. It was almost indecent the way the five got along together.
A new problem arose: temperature. We weren't repr
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"No." My voice was weak, "Need it. Oxidizing agent for the sulfur."
"Harry's dead," Hazel frowned. "When we came in, you'd broken his neck, were crooning to yourself."
So I had been crooning the Song of Eternity? "I'm a"βI felt sillyβ"a cop on a mission. I waited until whichever of you it was settled down here. That one had to be the criminal, to be done away with."
"Dex and I got rid of the body," Mel said. "No need to worry unless ... unless you've read my stories. Perhaps you are the criminal. I'll be watching."
"No proof, of course ... Do you believe I'm the criminal?"
Mel smiled. "No, but I'll watch anyway."
"More closely than tonight, I hope," Hazel said acidly. "If it hadn't been for her...."
I saw Frank, and was ashamed of my suspicions. She was silent, looking concerned. They all did, and I was warmed. Because, despite discomfort, they worried about me, an alien, a stranger. "Better leave. Heat's getting you."
Dex asked, "When are you going back?"
I shrugged. "Never. The ship is in the Gulf of California ... Harry did that."
"What about our company? We can research anti-gravity. You might reach home yet."
I shook my head. "Said I was a policeman. I don't know very muchβ"
"Perfectly normal!" Mel said before Hazel shooshed him.
Dex was insistent: "Any cop knows at least something about his motorcycle. Was I right about the superconductor?"
"Yes. Now, get out of here, idiots, before there's no one left to form the company!"
Hazel, perspiring freely, red hair shimmering, kissed me. "We figured you out real, real early. We aren't ever wrong, and I'm glad we stayed with you, Mr. Venus." She laughed joyously, "First time I've ever kissed a Venusian!"
Frank, head close to mine, said softly, "I'm terribly sorry I said those things, but you had to believe I was angry, so I could call the othersβ"
"And I did everything possible to get you out...."
We were silent; then I said what I'd been fighting not to, for so long. "Frank ... Francis?"
She understood, and stared horrified at me. I'd lost. Bowed my head, feeling like the damned fool I was.
She looked around the room. "It's so strange!"
"And with ingrained racial conditioning, you couldn't respond to a thin, sallow alien."
"I don't know," she said hesitantly.
"I do!" Mel said. "The oldest story in science fiction; it's true; I can't write it."
"Why not?"
"No editor in right or wrong mind would buy the beautiful Earth damsel, after whom lusts the Monster from Venusβ"
Frank snapped: "He isn't a monster! And his manners are better than many writers' I could name ..."
Her voice trailed off with awareness of Mel's tiny smileβa smile that widened. He pulled her toward the door. "What a story! We'll hold the wedding in a Turkish Bath."
Alone, I sighed, comfortable again after three years. I was grateful to the GG, and would do anything, within limits, for them. Yet, my newly adopted planet needed protection. Babes in the woods, they'd be torn to pieces outside.
Fortunately, the GG didn't know my meaning of "policeman", my home's highest order of intellect. I'd assure the group finally getting anti-gravity and use of planetary lines of force. But not the hyperspace drive, not for a good long while.
I certainly couldn't destroy the GG's confidence. I couldn't hurt them. They were so sure about meβso sure they were never wrong. How could I explain I'd been looking for a decent, habitable planet like Venus to discharge my captive, that I was from another galaxy?
THE END
This etext was produced from Amazing Science Fiction Stories March 1959. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.
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