"Darling. You said you weren"t going to fight with me any more.
Okay--I"m not going to try any more to lick you until after I"ve licked myself. I"m tuned--you may fire when ready, Gridley."
They fired--and hit the mark dead center. Top-lofty and arrogant and belligerent as ever, the Lizorian Prime took the call. "I thought all the time you wanted something. Well, I neither want nor need...."
"Cut it, you unlicked cub, until you can begin to use that half-liter of golop you call a brain," Garlock said, harshly. "We"re just trying out a new ultra-communicator. Thanks for your help."
On the fourth day they worked eleven planets; the fifth day saw the forty-sixth planet done and the immediate job finished. All during supper, it was very evident that Belle had something on her mind.
After eating, she went out into the Main and slumped down on a davenport. Garlock followed her. A cigarette leaped out of a closed box and into place between her lips. It came alight. She smoked it slowly, without relish; almost as though she did not know that she was smoking.
"Might as well get it out of your system, Belle," Garlock said aloud.
"What are you thinking about at the moment?"
Belle exhaled; the half-smoked b.u.t.t vanished. "At the moment I was thinking about Gunther blocks. Specifically, their total inability to cope with that new Prime probe of yours." She stared at him, narrow-eyed. "It goes through them just like nothing at all." She paused; eyed him questioningly.
"No comment."
"And yet you gave it to me. Freely, of your own accord. Even before I needed it. Why?"
"Still no comment."
"You"d better comment, Buster, before I blow my top."
"There is such a thing as urbanity."
"I"ve heard of it, yes; even though you never did believe I ever had any. You _talk_ a good game of urbanity, but your brand of it would never carry you _that_ far...."
She paused. He remained silent. She went on.
"Of course, it does put a lot of pressure on me to develop myself."
"I"m glad you used the word "develop" instead of "treat.""
"Oh, sometimes--at rare intervals--I"m not exactly dumb. But you knew--you _must_ have known--what a horrible risk you took in making me as tremendously powerful as you are."
"Some, perhaps, but very definitely less risky than not doing it."
"Getting information out of you is harder than pulling teeth. Clee Garlock, I want you to tell me _why!_"
"Very well." Garlock"s jaw set. "You"ve had it in mind all along that this is some kind of a lark; that you and I are Gunther Tops of the universe. Or did that belief weaken a bit when we met Baver 14WD27?"
"Well, perhaps--a little. However, the probability is becoming greater with every planet we visit. After all, _some_ race has to be tops. Why _shouldn"t_ it be us?"
"_What_ a logic--excuse me, skip it...."
"Oh, you really _meant_ it when you said you weren"t going to fight with me any more?"
"I"m going to try not to. Now, remembering that I don"t consider your premise valid, just suppose that when we visit some planet some day, you get your mind burned out and I don"t--solely because I had something I could have given you and wouldn"t. What then?"
"Oh. I thought that was what you ... but suppose I can"t...."
"We won"t suppose anything of the kind. But that wasn"t all that was on your mind. Nor most."
"How true. Those Primes. The women. Honestly, Clee, I never saw--never imagined--such a bunch of exhibitionistic, obstreperous, obnoxious, swell-headed, hussies in my whole life. And every day it was borne in on me more and more that I was--am--exactly like the rest of them."
Garlock was wise enough to say nothing, and Belle went on: "I"ve been talking a good game of licking myself, but this time I"m going to _do_ it."
She jumped up and doubled her fists. "If you can do it, I can," she declared. "Like the ancient ballad--"Anything you can do I can do better."" She tried to be jaunty, but the jauntiness did not ring quite true.
"That"s an unfortunate quotation, I"m afraid. The trouble is, I haven"t."
"Huh? Don"t be an idiot, Clee. You certainly have--what else do _you_ suppose put me so far down into the dumps?"
"In that case, you _certainly_ will. So come on up out of the dumps."
"Wilco--and I certainly will. But for a woman who has been talking so big, I feel low in my mind. A good-night kiss, Clee, darling? Just one--and just a little one, at that?"
"Sweetheart!"
There were more than one, and none of them was little. Eventually, however, the two stood, arms still around each other, in the corridor between their doors.
"But kissing"s as far as it goes, isn"t it," Belle said. The remark was not a question; nor was it quite a statement.
"That"s right."
"So good night, darling."
"Good night, ace."
And when they next saw each other, at the breakfast table, Belle was apparently her usual dauntless self.
"Hi, darling--sit down," she said, gaily. "Your breakfast is on the table. Bacon, eggs, toast, strawberry jam, and a liter of coffee."
"Nice! Thanks, ace."
They ate in silence for a few minutes; then her hand crept tentatively across the table. He pressed it warmly. "You look a million, Belle. Out of the dumps?"
"Pretty much--in most ways. One way, though, I"m in deeper than ever.
You see, I know exactly what you did to Fao Talaho; and why neither you or anybody else could do it to me. Or if they could, what would happen if they did."
"I was hoping you would. I couldn"t very well tell you, before, but...."
"Of course not. I see that."
"... the fact is that Fao, and all the others we"ve met, are young enough, unformed enough--plastic enough--yes, d.a.m.n it, _weak_ enough--to bend. But you are tremendously strong, and twelve Rockwell numbers harder than a diamond. You wouldn"t bend. If enough stress could be applied--and that"s decidedly questionable--you wouldn"t bend. You"d break, and I can"t figure it. You"re a little older, of course, but not enough to...."