One after another the usual lies he told people came to his lips, and were pushed away. Why bother lying to a girl who really didn’t care if you were serf or noble? To her there were only two kinds of people in the galaxy. Pyrrans, and the rest. For the first time since he had fled from Porgorstorsaand, he found himself telling someone the truth of his origin.
“My home planet? Just about the stuffiest, dullest, dead-end in the universe. You can’t believe the destructive decay of a planet that is mainly agrarian, caste-conscious and completely satisfied with its own boring existence. Not only is there no change-but no one wants change. My father was a farmer, so I should have been a farmer too-if I had listened to the advice of my betters. It was unthinkable, as well as forbidden for me to do anything else. And everything I wanted to do was against the law. I was fifteen before I learned to read-out of a book stolen from a noble school. After that there was no turning back. By the time I stowed away aboard an off-world freighter at nineteen I must have broken every law on the planet. Happily. Leaving home for me was just like getting out of prison.”
Mete shook her head at-the thought. “I just can’t imagine a place like that. But I’m sure I wouldn’t like it there.”
“I’m sure you wouldn’t,” Jason smiled. “So once I was in space, with no law-abiding talents or skills, I just wandered into one thing and another. In this age of technology, I was completely out of place. Oh, I
suppose I could have done well in some army, but I’m not so good at taking orders. Whenever I gambled I did well, so little by little I just drifted into it. People are the same everywhere, so I’ manage to make out. very well wherever I end up.”
“I know what you mean about people being alike, but they are so different,” she said. “I’m not being clear at all, am I? What I mean is that at home I know what people will do and why they do it at the same time. People on all the other planets do act alike, as you said, yet I have very much trouble understanding why. For instance. I like to try the local food when we set down on a planet, and if there is time I always do. There are bars and restaurants near every spaceport so I go there. And I always have trouble with the men. They want to buy me drinks, hold my hand.”
“Well a single girl in those port joints has to expect a certain amount of interest from the men.”
“Oh, I know that,” she said. “What I don’t understand is why they don’t listen when I tell them I am not interested and to go away. They just laugh and pull up a chair, usually. But I have found that one thing works wherever I am. I tell them if they don’t stop bothering me I’ll break their arm.”
“Does that stop them?” Jason asked.
“No, of course not. But after I break their arm they go away. And the others don’t bother me either. It’s a lot of fuss to go through and the food is usually awful.”
Jason didn’t laugh. Particularly when he realized that this girl could break the arm of any spaceport thug in the galaxy. She was a strange mixture of naďveté and strength, unlike anyone he had ever met before. Once again he realized that he had to visit the planet that produced people like her and Kerk.
“Tell me about Pyrrus,” he asked. “Why is it that you and Kerk assume automatically that I will drop dead as soon as I land? What is the planet like?”
All the warmth was gone from her face now. “I can’t tell you. You will have to see for yourself. I know that much after visiting some of the other worlds. Pyrrus is like nothing you galaxy people have ever experienced. You won’t really believe it until it is too late. Will you promise me something?”