Page:Fantastic Volume 08 Number 01.djvu/93

 retrievably throughout the space-time continuum.

Suddenly he remembered his passenger, remembered her apprehension about time storms. He hurried toward her cabin, telling himself that it was his responsibility to be with her during the danger period, that it was his duty to protect her; and all the while he told himself, he knew that he was lying in his teeth, that there was no danger—only the embarrassment of having to share one's most intimate experiences with another—and that his presence was totally uncalled for.

She opened the door at his knock. One look into her eyes told him that she had been expecting him; one glance at her magnificent body, bereft, now, even of a towel, told him that he had to have her, no matter what the cost.

She drew him into the room and closed the door, and suddenly he knew that this was no ordinary business transaction, that she wanted him as desperately, almost, as he wanted her. He tried to understand, and a glimmering of the truth touched him; then he felt the warmth of her flesh, and then the moistness of her mouth on his, and he seemed to melt, to dissolve, even as the room dissolved around him—the room and the ship and the present

"Before approving your application, I'm required to brief you," the male interviewer for Camellias, Inc., said. "We don't want any of our future ladies of the stars to look back some day and accuse us of coercing her into Camellia-activity Do you know anything about the profession at all?"

"A little," Berenice said, nervously.

"A very little, I suspect First of all, you must erase from your mind whatever detrimental associations you may have with your future calling. The ancient attitude towards prostitution still prevails on Earth, and probably will continue to prevail for centuries to come; but in space, even a common house-worker is a respected individual, while a full-fledged lady of the stars is the equivalent of a princess or a president's daughter. The 'World's Oldest Profession' has become the 'Galaxy's Noblest Profession'.

"Cosmic radiation, undistilled by the Earth's atmossphere is quite a different proposition from the distilled radiation which has bombarded mankind since birth. Pro- PASSAGE TO GOMORRAH