The surgeons had changed his metabolism in that respect, too, making him able to feel sexual desires for Terran females. The theory was that no one would expect a disguised alien to engage in romantic affairs with Terrans; it would be a form of camouflage. "Excuse me!" Harris and the female Terran said simultaneously. His training reminded him that simultaneous outbursts were cause for laughter on Earth. He laughed. So did she. Then she said, "I guess I didn't see you. I was hurrying along the corridor and I wasn't looking." "The fault was mine," Harris insisted. _Terran males are obstinately chivalrous_, he had been told. "I opened my door and just charged out blind. I'm sorry." She was tall, nearly his height, with soft, lustrous yellow hair and clear pink skin. She wore a black body-tight sheath that left her shoulders and the upper hemispheres of her breasts uncovered. Harris found her attractive. Wonderingly he thought, _Now I know they've changed me. She has hair on her scalp and enormous bulging breasts and yet I feel desire for her._ She said, "It's my fault and it's your fault. That's the way most collisions are caused. Let's not argue about that. My name is Beth Baldwin." "Major Abner Harris." "Major?" "Interstellar Development Corps." "Oh," she said. "Just arrived on Earth?" He nodded. "I'm on vacation. My last hop was Alpheratz IV." He smiled and said, "It's silly to stand out here in the hall discussing things. I was on my way down below to get something to eat. How about joining me?" She looked doubtful for a moment, but only for a moment. She brightened. "I'm game." * * * * * They took the gravshaft down and ate in the third-level restaurant, an automated affair with individual conveyor-belts bringing food to each table. Part of his hypnotic training had been intended to see him through situations such as this, and so he ordered a dinner for two, complete with wine, without a hitch. She did not seem shy. She told him that she was employed on Rigel XII, and had come to Earth on a business trip; she had arrived only the day before. She was twenty-nine, unmarried, a native-born Earther like himself, who had been living in the Rigel system the past four years. "And now tell me about you," she said, reaching for the wine decanter. "There isn't much to tell. I'm a fairly stodgy career man in the IDC, age forty-two, and this is the first day I've spent on Earth in ten years." "It must feel strange." "It does." "How long is your vacation?" He shrugged. "Six to eight months. I can have more if I really want it. When do you go back to Rigel?" She smiled strangely at him. "I may not go back at all. Depends on whether I can find what I'm looking for on Earth." "And what are you looking for?" She grinned. "My business," she said. "Sorry." "Never mind the apologies. Let's have some more wine."