Federation law, you
know. And seeing Manon's so close to becoming open Federation territory,
we haven't tried to enforce minor Precol regulations much lately."

"Well--" Trigger began. He was still smiling. "Have you been doing it?"
she inquired suspiciously.

"Swimming in the raw? Certainly. Depends on the company. If you weren't
such a little prude, I'd have suggested it tonight. Want to try it
later?"

Trigger colored. Prude again, she thought. "Nope," she said. "There are
limits."

He patted her cheek. "On you it would look cute."

She shook her head, aware of a small fluster of guilt. There had been
considerably less actual coverage in the Beldon costume than there was
in the minute two-piece counterpart to Brule's silver trunks she wore at
the moment. She'd have to tell Brule about the Beldon stunt, since it
was more than likely he'd hear about it from others--Nelauk Pluly, for
one.

But not now. Things were getting just a little delicate along that line
at the moment.

"Leave us change the subject, pig," she said cheerfully. "Tell me what
else you've been doing besides acquiring a gorgeous tan."

A couple of hours later, things began to get delicate again. Same
subject. Trigger had been somewhat startled at the spaceport when Brule
told her he had shifted his living quarters to a Center apartment, and
that a large number of Precol's executives were taking similar
liberties. Holati's stand-in, Acting Commissioner Chelly, apparently
hadn't been too successful at keeping up personnel discipline.

She hadn't said anything. It was true that Manon was still a precolonial
planet only as a technicality. They didn't know quite as much about it
as they had to know before it could be officially released for
unrestricted settling, but by now there was considerable excuse for
loosening up on many of the early precautionary measures. For one thing,
there were just so many Hub people around nowadays that it would have
been a practical impossibility to enforce all Precol rules.

What bothered her mainly about the business of Brule's Center apartment
was that it might make the end of the evening less pleasant than she
wanted it to be. Brule had become the least bit swacked. Not at all
offensively, but he tended to get pretty ambitious then. And during the
past few hours she'd noticed that something had changed in his attitude
toward her. He'd always been confident of himself when it came to women,
so it wasn't that.