Sitting on the sofa in their quarters, Felicia looked halfway between intrigued and alarmed.
“A plan for contacting the humanoids?” she asked.
Too excited to sit down, Brad paced across the room as he said, “Yes. Kosoff wants me to work out how and when we send people down to the surface of Gamma.”
“And actually meet the aliens.”
“Right.”
Felicia’s light gray eyes looked troubled. “What does Dr. Littlejohn think about this?”
“I spent the whole afternoon with him. He thinks it’s a great opportunity for me.” Then Brad added, “And a big responsibility.”
“Yes. A big responsibility.”
Grinning, Brad told her, “Littlejohn joked that I’ll probably take over chairmanship of the anthropology department, sooner or later.”
Felicia ignored that. She asked, “You’re not going down there yourself, are you?”
And Brad thought he understood what was troubling her. He went to the sofa and sat down beside her. “I might. I might have to.”
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”
He shrugged. “A little, I suppose. I’d probably have to wear some sort of protective clothing. Like a space suit or something.”
“The aliens … they might be afraid of strangers. Hostile.”
Brad laughed. “We’ve been watching them for just about a year now and we haven’t seen any aggressive behavior at all. They’re peaceful, nonviolent.”
“But they’ve never seen any strangers, have they?”
“No, I guess not.”
“They might be frightened by having strangers suddenly drop in on them.”
“I’ll have to factor that into the plan,” Brad said easily. Getting up from the sofa, he held both his hands out to Felicia. “Come on, I’m taking you out to dinner.”
She let him pull her to her feet. “I’ve got to change. I’m not dressed for a night out.”
* * *
The Crystal Palace was barely half full, but Brad recognized Larry Untermeyer sitting at a table with an older-looking woman. Untermeyer spotted Brad and waved him over to their table.
“Hi, you two,” Larry said as they approached. “Come on and join us, we just sat down ourselves.” Turning to his companion, he introduced her: “This is Latifa Valente, geophysics.”
“Tifa,” the woman said with a gracious smile.
She appeared to be almost middle-aged, although with rejuvenation therapies, Brad thought she might be anywhere from forty to ninety. Dark hair falling straight to her shoulders, longish face with strong cheekbones and strikingly deep violet eyes, slim figure.
As Felicia and Brad sat at the two unoccupied chairs at the table, Larry explained, “Tifa’s the daughter of an Italian geologist and an Iranian chemist, so naturally she went into geophysics.”
Brad introduced Felicia and himself.
“You’re the fellow who’s going to draw up the plan for contacting the Gammans,” said Tifa.
Brad felt his brows hike up in surprise.
Larry chuckled at him. “Hey, it’s all over the ship. You’re big news, Beanpole. Kosoff’s anointed one.”
A serving robot trundled up to their table. “Would you like something to drink?”
“Just give us two more glasses,” said Larry. As the robot pulled two wineglasses from its interior, Untermeyer tapped a fingernail against the bottle of red wine already on the table. “You’ll like it.”
“It’s an Italian wine,” said Tifa. “Valpolicella.”
“Reconstituted,” Larry added.
He poured a little for Felicia, explaining, “They have to make new wine in the chem lab. The ship couldn’t carry enough to last the whole five years.”
“It’s not bad,” Felicia said.
Brad said, “I’ll try a little.”
“You?” Untermeyer feigned shock. “The lime juice guy?”
With what he hoped was a diffident shrug, Brad said, “I’m celebrating.”
Grinning as he poured, Larry said to Felicia, “You’re civilizing him.”
“She’s curing my allergies,” said Brad.
They ordered dinners from the patient robot, then Larry said, “So how’d you wangle the big job? The whole ship is buzzing about it.”
“I was just as surprised as you were,” Brad admitted.
Tifa said, “I’ll be glad to help you with anything you need to know about the conditions on Gamma’s surface.”
With a nod, Brad replied, “Thanks. There’s a lot I need to learn.”
“Don’t we all,” said Untermeyer, with some fervor.
* * *
That night, as Felicia and Brad prepared for bed, she asked him, “What did you think of Tifa?”
“She seems all right. If she can put up with Larry, she must be pretty nice. Motherly type, I guess.” He headed for the lavatory. “It was good of her to volunteer to help me.”
“Yes,” Felicia said, drawing out the word as if she didn’t really mean it.
Brad picked up on it. “But?”
“You’re going to be a very popular guy, you know.”
“Me?”
“The word’s going through the ship that you’re Kosoff’s fair-haired boy. Lots of people are going to want to get on your good side.”
Brad turned at the door to the lavatory and went back to Felicia. “Are you jealous?”
“Should I be?” But she was smiling, obviously teasing him.
Brad sat beside her. “You’re the only woman in the world for me, Felicia. The only woman in all the worlds.”
She nestled her head on his chest, murmuring, “I know, darling. But just be careful. Not everyone who offers to help you is going to be your friend, you know.”