Babel-17 Read Online Free PDF

to Caesar some day, I show you."
    "When I go, you go, Lome."
    A needle leer. "Go, go, you say. I got go now. Bye-bye, lady Captain"—he bowed and touched his head in salute—"Captain Wong." And was gone.
    "You shouldn't be afraid of him," Rydra told the Officer.
    "But he's—" During his search for a word, he wondered. How did she know? "Where in five hells did he come from?"
    "He's an Earthman. Though I believe he was born en route from Arcturus to one of the Centauris. His mother was a Slug. I think, if he wasn't lying about that too. Lome tells tall tales.”
    "You mean all that getup is cosmeti surgery?"
    "Um-hm." Rydra started down the stairs.
    "But why the devil do they do that to themselves? They're all so weird- That's why decent people won't have anything to do with them."
    "Sailors used to get tattoos. Besides, Lome has nothing else to do. I doubt he's had a pilot's job in forty years."
    "He's not a good pilot? What was all that about the Caesar nebula?"
    "I'm sure he knows it. But he's at least a hundred and twenty years old. After eighty, your reflexes start to go, and that's the end of a pilot's career. He just shuttle-bums from port city to port city, knows every- thing that happens to everybody, stays good for gossip and advice."
    They entered the cafe on a ramp that swerved above me heads of the customers drinking at bar and table thirty feet below. Above and to the side of them, a fifty-foot sphere hovered like smoke, under spotlights. Rydra looked from the globe to the Customs Officer. "They haven't started the games yet."
    "Is this where they hold those fights?"
    "That's right."
    "But that's supposed to be illegal!"
    "Never passed the bill. After they debated, it got shelved."
    "Oh."
    As they descended among the jovial transport workers, the Officer blinked. Most were ordinary men and women, but the results of cosmetic surgery were numerous enough to keep his eyes leaping. "I've never been in a place like this before!" he whispered. Amphibians or reptilian creatures argued and laughed with griffins and metallic-skinned sphinxes.
    "Leave your clothing here?" smiled the check girl. Her naked skin was candy green, her immense coil piled like pink cotton. Her breasts, navel, and lips flashed.
    “I don't believe so," the Customs Officer said quickly.
    "At least take your shoes and shirt off," Rydra said, slipping off her blouse. "People will think you're strange." She bent, rose and handed her sandals over the counter. She had begun to unbuckle her waist cinch when she caught his desperate look, smiled, and fastened the buckle again.
    Carefully he removed jacket, vest, shirt, and undershirt. He was about to untie his shoes when someone grabbed his arm. "Hey, Customs!"
    He stood up before a huge, naked man with a frown on his pocked face like a burst in rotten rind. His only ornaments were mechanical beetle lights that swarmed in patterns over his chest, shoulders, legs and arms.
    "Eh, pardon me?"
    "What you doing here. Customs?"
    "Sir, I am not bothering you."
    "And I'm not bothering you. Have a drink, Customs. I'm being friendly."
    "Thank you very much, but I'd rather—"
    "I'm being friendly. You're not. If you're not gonna be friendly. Customs, I'm not gonna be friendly either."
    "Well, I'm with some—" He looked helplessly at Rydra.
    “Come on. Then you both have a drink. On me. Real friendly, damn it." His other hand fell toward Rydra's shoulder, but she caught his wrist. The fingers opened from the many-scaled stellarimeter grafted onto his palm. "Navigator?"
    He nodded, and she let the hand go, which landed.
    "Why are you so 'friendly' tonight?"
    The intoxicated man shook his head. His hair was knotted in a stubby black braid over his left ear. "I'm just friendly with Customs here. I like you."
    "Thanks. Buy us that drink and I'll buy you one back."
    As he nodded heavily, his green eyes narrowed. He reached between her breasts and fingered up the gold disk that hung from the chain around her neck.