rkness and the unknown. Tenderly, he encircled her floating body with
his arms and drew her close. He soothed her as one might a baby.

Slowly her eyes came back from horrific infinity. Slowly they focused on
his. And then, comprehension returned, she pressed tightly against him,
clung to him, sobbing with the remnant fear of fear remembered.

He talked to her for an hour, caressing, reassuring, until her responses
were normal beyond any doubt. Then he told her he loved her.

She raised her head from where it was burrowed against his chest.
"_Love_ me, Ken? Love _me_?"

He blinked in astonishment. "Of course I love you. It seems like I've
always loved you. I tried to tell you. I--"

But she was crying again, shaking her head a little, saying, "Ken, Ken,"
over and over.

This time he continued to hold her intimately close. "What's the matter?
Anything wrong with love?"

"But Ken--you could have any girl in the world!"

"Me? Where'd you get that idea?"

"Why, everyone knows the story of your training, and what it was for.
The swoon clubs must have sent you tons of letters!"

"I never got any."

"Censors?"

He shrugged. "Could be. I used to drive myself nuts thinking of all the
guys you must be going out with. Your story was spread around just as
much as mine."

"They picked my few escorts with care. I used to lie awake thinking of
you running around with hundreds of girls."

Ken snorted. "The army kept me too busy. I went out with a few, but I
never loved anybody but you. Hell, I'm only nineteen, you know."

She nodded, her eyes bright with happiness. She was a year younger. Then
her words came in a flood. "I couldn't believe you'd love me. They told
me I was to go with you and do anything you said--anything. No
explanation, but I knew what they meant and I agreed because you were
doing such a great thing for the world and--I wanted you too. But I
thought you'd just want me for the trip, and afterward you'd go back to
your other girls, and--"

He kissed her. Again. And again. Surely there never was, never could be,
a greater delight embracing than in the floating, heady, free fall of
null-G. Certainly the psychologists knew no other method of retaining
sanity in the cruelly endless jet pit engulfing the stars. Which was why
they had planned it that way.

* * * * *

Well out of atmosphere he began to brake skillfully, easing the craft
into an orbital arc that would late