ng as naked as
the Soldiers', probably starting when the Spiders canceled all cosmic
leaves twenty sleeps back.

Sid shot Beau his look of command, rapped out, "I'll handle this, you
whoreson firebrand," and turned to the Minor Maintainer. I noticed that
the telltale on the Major was glowing a reassuring red again, and I
found a moment to thank Mamma Devi that the Door was shut.

Maud was jumping up and down, cheering I don't know which--nor did she,
I bet--and the New Girl was white and I saw that the sabers were working
more businesslike. Erich's flicked, flicked, flicked again and came away
from the blond lad's cheek spilling a couple of red drops. The blond lad
lunged fiercely, Erich jumped back, and the next moment they were both
floating helplessly in the air, twisting like they had cramps.

I realized quick enough that Sid had shut off gravity in the Door and
Stores sectors of the Place, leaving the rest of us firm on our feet in
the Refresher and Surgery sectors. The Place has sectional gravity to
suit our Extraterrestrial buddies--those crazy ETs sometimes come
whooping in for recuperation in very mixed batches.

From his central position, Sid called out, kindly enough but taking no
nonsense, "All right, lads, you've had your fun. Now sheathe those
swords."

For a second or so, the two black hussars drifted and contorted. Erich
laughed harshly and neatly obeyed--the commandant is used to free fall.
The blond lad stopped writhing, hesitated while he glared upside down at
Erich and managed to get his saber into its scabbard, although he turned
a slow somersault doing it. Then Sid switched on their gravity, slow
enough so they wouldn't get sprained landing.

* * * * *

Erich laughed, lightly this time, and stepped out briskly toward us. He
stopped to clap the New Boy firmly on the shoulder and look him in the
face.

"So, now you get a good scar," he said.

The other didn't pull away, but he didn't look up and Erich came on. Sid
was hurrying toward the New Boy, and as he passed Erich, he wagged a
finger at him and gayly said, "You rogue." Next thing I was giving Erich
my "Man, you're home" hug and he was kissing me and cracking my ribs and
saying, "_Liebchen! Doppchen!_"--which was fine with me because I do
love him and I'm a good lover and as much a Doubleganger as he is.

We had just pulled back from each other to get a breath--his blue eyes
looked so sweet in his worn f