Adventure stories; Science fiction; Sex role -- Fiction
"Astrology?" screamed the Martian. "You are an--an--_astrologer_?"
"Vy, of course. I thought you vere too, but it seems like you Solarians
are more backvard than I supposed. Shall I cast your horoscope?"
"Astrology," groaned Urushkidan. He looked ill.
"Well," said Ray helplessly, "I guess it's up to you to pilot us back,
Dyann."
"Vy, sure." She jumped into the pilot seat. "Anchors aveigh."
"Brought home by an astrologer," groaned Urushkidan. "Te ignominy of it
all."
* * * * *
Ray started the new engine. They could accelerate all the way back and
use the brake to stop almost instantly--it shouldn't take long. "All
set," he called, and the rising note of power thrummed behind his words.
"Giddap!" yelled Dyann. She swung the ship around and slammed the main
drive switch home.
Ray looked out at the weirdly distorted heavens. "There should be some
way to compensate for that aberration," he murmured. "A viewplate
using photocells, with the electron beam control-fields hooked into
the drive circuit--sure. Simple." He floated back to the lab and
began assembling scattered apparatus. In a few hours he emerged
with a gadget as uncouth as the engine itself but there was a set
of three telescreens which gave clear views in three directions.
Dyann smiled and pointed to one of them. "See, now Avalla--the
Victorious-warrior-returnin-from-battle-vith-captive-man-slung-across-her-saddle-bow--is
taking shape," she said.
"That," said Ray, "is Ursa Major. You Varannians have a fantastic
imagination."
A blue-white giant of a sun flamed ahead, prominences seething millions
of miles into space. Dyann's eyes sparkled and she applied a sideways
vector to the star drive. "Yippee!" she howled.
"Hey!" screamed the Earthman.
They whizzed past the star, playing tag with the reaching flames while
Dyann roared out a Centaurian battle chant. Ray's subconscious mind
spewed forth every prayer he had even known.
"Okay, ve are past it," said Dyann.
"Don't do such things!" he said weakly.
"Darlin," said the girl, "I think we should spend our honeymoon flyin'
through space like this."
The stars blurred past. The Galaxy's conquerors looked at the splendor
of open space and ate cold beans out of a can.
"I think," said Dyann thoughtfully, "ve should go first to Varann."
"Alpha Centauri?" asked Urushkidan. "Nonsense. We are going back at
once to Uttu and cibilised society."
"Ve may need help at Sol," said the girl. "Ve have been gone--how
long--about two veeks? Much could have happened in that time."
"But--but--it's not practical," objected Ray.
Dyann grinned cheerfully. "And how vill you stop me?"
"Varann--oh, well, I've always wanted to see it anyway."
The Centaurian began casting about, steering by the aspect of the sky.
Before many hours, she was slanting in toward a double star with a dim
red dwarf in the background. "This is it," she said. "This is it."
"Okay," answered Ray. "Now tell me how you find a planet."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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