Subspace Survivors | Page 4

as psychic as
I am, you'd've jumped clear out into subspace when a perfectly strange
girl attacked you."
"How do you know so much about me?"
"I made it a point to. One of the juniors told me you're the only virgin
officer in all space."
"That was Eddie Thompson."
"Uh-huh." She nodded brightly.
"Well, is that bad?"
"Anything else but. That is, he thought it was terrible--outrageous--a
betrayal of the whole officer caste--but to me it makes everything just
absolutely perfect."
"Me, too. How soon can we get married?"

"I'd say right now, except...." She caught her lower lip between her
teeth and thought. "No, no 'except'. Right now, or as soon as you can.
You can't, without resigning, can you? They'd fire you?"
"Don't worry about that," he grinned. "My record is good enough, I
think, to get a good ground job. Even if they fire me for not waiting
until we ground, there's lots of jobs. I can support you, sweetheart."
"Oh, I know you can. I wasn't thinking of that. You wouldn't like a
ground job."
"What difference does that make?" he asked, in honest surprise. "A
man grows up. I couldn't have you with me in space, and I'd like that a
lot less. No, I'm done with space, as of now. But what was that 'except'
business?"
* * * * *
"I thought at first I'd tell my parents first--they're both aboard--but I
decided not to. She'd scream bloody murder and he'd roar like a lion
and none of it would make me change my mind, so we'll get married
first."
He looked at her questioningly; she shrugged and went on: "We aren't
what you'd call a happy family. She's been trying to make me marry an
old goat of a prince and I finally told her to go roll her hoop--to get a
divorce and marry the foul old beast herself. And to consolidate two
empires, he's been wanting me to marry a multi-billionaire--who is also
a louse and a crumb and a heel. Last week he insisted on it and I blew
up like an atomic bomb. I told him if I got married a thousand times I'd
pick every one of my husbands myself, without the least bit of help
from either him or her. I'd keep on finding oil and stuff for him, I said,
but that was all...."
"Oil!" Deston exclaimed, involuntarily, as everything fell into place in
his mind. The way she walked; poetry in motion ... the oil-witch ... two
empires ... more millions than he had dimes.... "Oh, you're Barbara
Warner, then."

"Why, of course; but my friends call me 'Bobby'. Didn't you--but of
course you didn't--you never read passenger lists. If you did, you'd've
got a tingle, too."
"I got plenty of tingle without reading, believe me. However, I never
expected to----"
"Don't say it, dear!" She got up and took both his hands in hers. "I
know how you feel. I don't like to let you ruin your career, either, but
nothing can separate us, now that we've found each other. So I'll tell
you this." Her eyes looked steadily into his. "If it bothers you the least
bit, later on, I'll give every dollar I own to some foundation or other, I
swear it."
He laughed shamefacedly as he took her in his arms. "Since that's the
way you look at it, it won't bother me a bit."
"Uh-huh, you do mean it." She snuggled her head down into the curve
of his neck. "I can tell."
"I know you can, sweetheart." Then he had another thought, and with
strong, deft fingers he explored the muscles of her arms and back. "But
those acrobatics in plus gee--and you're trained down as hard and fine
as I am, and it's my business to be--how come?"
"I majored in Physical Education and I love it. And I'm a Newmartian,
you know, so I teach a few courses----"
"Newmartian? I've heard--but you aren't a colonial; you're as Terran as
I am."
"By blood, yes; but I was born on Newmars. Our actual and legal
residence has always been there. The tax situation, you know."
"I don't know, no. Taxes don't bother me much. But go ahead. You
teach a few courses. In?"
"Oh, bars, trapeze, ground-and-lofty tumbling, acrobatics, aerialistics,

high-wire, muscle-control, judo--all that kind of thing."
"Ouch! So if you ever happen to accidentally get mad at me you'll tie
me right up into a pretzel?"
"I doubt it; very seriously. I've tossed lots of two-hundred-pounders
around, of course, but they were not space officers." She laughed
unaffectedly as she tested his musculature much more professionally
and much more thoroughly than he had tested hers. "Definitely I
couldn't. A good big man can always take a good little