Page:Fantastic Volume 08 Number 01.djvu/102

 what the spaceman had told her was true, and on the additional assumption that the impossible would be less impossible if she cooperated with it. She felt perfectly justified in what she was doing and in what she intended to do: after all, even a monster was entitled to a father, and anyway, what was going to happen had already happened weeks ago.

"Yes?" she answered, when the knock sounded on the door.

"Your luggage, my lady."

She turned off the shower and wrapped the ship’s towel she had selected earlier, around her body. Then she crossed the room and opened the door.

His eyes widened slightly at the sight of her, but his lean face remained impassive. "Set them inside, please," she said.

It was impossible for him to avoid touching her, and the contact, according to everything she had been taught, should have precipitated the first advance. It did not. He withdrew hurriedly, keeping his eyes averted.

"If you wish anything further, I'll be in my cabin," he said. He turned to go.

At first she was bewildered. Then, suddenly, she remembered that he was only a pilot, and that a lady of the stars was probably as far beyond his aspirations as she was beyond his pocketbook.

Some of her recently acquired assurance left her. "Wait," she said.

"Yes?"

"How—how long will we be in A Priori?"

"A little over four hours, ship's time."

"Is—is there any likelihood of a time storm?"

"There's always a chance of a time storm," he said. "But don't worry, my lady. If the conditions for one are present, we'll be contacted by the port authority in time to avoid it."

"But suppose something should go wrong. Suppose we weren't informed in time and did get involved in one. What would happen then?"

He raised his eyes, finally, and looked directly into hers. An expression of surprise touched his face. Presently: "As you may know, my lady," he said, "A Priori is merely the result of the separation of pure space and pure time from the thing-in-itself, or from basic reality. Once separated, pure space can be contracted to the extent where a parsec equals .59 kilometers. Usually pure time contracts accordingly, but sometimes 102