"You see, I'm seeking to understand--and it would be a contribution to social science if you'd help me find out--just why you teenagers are striking out at each other, scorning adult society, rejecting the opposite sex. And equally interesting to me is the subtle change that takes place each time a--" I cut him short. "Look, Professor Worth. You said you haven't been matrixed. Then this is no place for you to set up shop. Because war is our way of life, and someone is liable to kill you just for the fun of it. Bad situation for a man like yourself who can only afford to die once." I strode to the door. "Ginger, escort the professor to his ship." It was a good thing we got rid of him then. Minutes later, our instruments detected ships within a quarter of a million miles, and the alert was sounded. Shortly afterwards, we made positive identification: the Io gang! Naomi and I quarreled for a second over strategy. Should we split up, each leader piloting her own ship and responsible for half the fleet? Or should the two of us occupy one ship? I insisted on the latter, and when Naomi disagreed I knocked her unconscious with the butt of my whip and dragged her into my own Spacer coupe. Ordnance had worked fast. It was fully equipped for battle. I ordered our entire fleet into attack formation. Together we zoomed up to meet the oncoming enemy, ninety of our spaceships to a hundred and ten of theirs. I rocketed out in front of my fleet. The boys had begun firing. Their missiles exploded in space like brilliant fireworks, multicolored bursts on all sides of us. I signalled my girls to commence firing, launching our first missile at point-blank thousand-mile range. It scored a direct hit, exploding an Io ship to comet dust. I felt serenely happy. I wanted to share my feeling of triumph with Naomi who still lay unconscious on the cabin floor. "Hey, girl, wake up! We're in combat!" She stirred, started to regain her senses. Her eyes fluttered. Just as they opened our ship exploded to oblivion. * * * * * This was familiar, this coming out of sleep with infinitely tender caresses of light, in a vacuum tube the exact shape of your naked body, a tube that dissolved at the exact instant of awakening into a warm epidermal glow, while the bee-like humming faded into silence and only the barest trace of hyacinth scent lingered in the nostrils. It had happened before. How many times? Once? Twice? Three times? All my limbs felt supremely relaxed as after sedation. All my thoughts were clear and calm as a hidden spring on a wooded hillside. Earth summer. Timeless. Abruptly the marble slab felt cold against my back and the spell was broken. I sat up too suddenly, for a monitor voice said, reassuringly: