Return from the Stars Read Online Free PDF Page B

all; the impression I had was of sitting on inflated cushions, and, looking down through the curved, thick surface of the seat, I could, indistinctly, see the floor.
    I had thought, upon entering, that the wall opposite the door was of glass, and that through it I was looking into another room, which contained people, as though a party were in progress there; but those people were unnaturally tall—and all at once I realized that what I had in front of me was a wall-sized television screen. The volume was off. Now, from a sitting position, I saw an enormous female face, exactly as if a dark-skinned giantess were peering through a window into the room; her lips moved, she was speaking, and gems as big as shields covered her ears, glittered like diamonds.
    I made myself comfortable in the chair. The girl, her hand on her hip—her abdomen really did look like a sculpture in azure metal—studied me carefully. She no longer appeared drunk. Perhaps it had only seemed that way to me before.
    "What's your name?" she asked.
    "Bregg. Hal Bregg. And yours?"
    "Nais. How old are you?"
    Curious manners, I thought. But, then, if that's what's done…
    "Forty—what of it?"
    "Nothing. I thought you were a hundred."
    I had to smile.
    "I can be that, if you insist." The funny thing is, it's the truth, I thought.
    "What can I give you?" she asked.
    "To drink? Nothing, thank you."
    "All right."
    She went to the wall, and it opened like a small bar. She stood in front of the opening. When she returned, she was carrying a tray with cups and two bottles. Squeezing one bottle lightly, she filled me a cup to the brim with a liquid that looked exactly like milk.
    "Thank you," I said, "not for me…"
    "But I'm not giving you anything." She was surprised.
    Seeing I had made a mistake, although I did not know what kind of mistake, I muttered under my breath and took the cup. She poured herself a drink from the second bottle. This liquid was oily, colorless, and slightly effervescent under the surface; at the same time it darkened, apparently on contact with air. She sat down and, touching the glass with her lips, casually asked:
    "Who are you?"
    "A col," I answered. I lifted my cup, as if to examine it. This milk had no smell. I did not touch it.
    "No, seriously," she said. "You thought I was sending in the dark, eh? Since when! That was only a cals. I was with a six, you see, but it got awfully bottom. The orka was no good and altogether… I was just going when you sat down."
    Some of this I could figure out: I must have sat at her table by chance, when she was not there; could she have been dancing? I maintained a tactful silence.
    "From a distance, you seemed so…" She was unable to find the word.
    "Decent?" I suggested. Her eyelids fluttered. Did she have a metallic film on them as well? No, it must have been eye shadow. She lifted her head.
    "What does that mean?"
    "Well … um … someone you could trust…"
    "You talk in a strange way. Where are you from?"
    "From far away."
    "Mars?"
    "Farther."
    "You fly?"
    "I did fly."
    "And now?"
    "Nothing. I returned."
    "But you'll fly again?"
    "I don't know. Probably not."
    The conversation had trailed off somehow. It seemed to me that the girl was beginning to regret her rash invitation, and I wanted to make things easy for her.
    "Maybe I ought to go now?" I asked. I still held my untouched drink.
    "Why?" She was surprised.
    "I thought that that would … suit you."
    "No," she said. "You're thinking—no, what for? Why don't you drink?"
    "I am."
    It was milk after all. At this time of day, in such circumstances! My surprise was such that she must have noticed it.
    "What, it's bad?"
    "It's milk," I said. I must have looked like a complete idiot.
    "What? What milk? That's brit…"
    I sighed.
    "Listen, Nais… I think I'll go now. Really. It will be better that way."
    "Then why did you drink?" she asked.
    I looked at her, silent. The language had not changed so very much, and yet I didn't understand a thing.