"I could explore," Ven offered.
"I was about to suggest that," I said. "After all, the atmosphere is
breathable although somewhat rich in oxygen, and the gravity is not too
severe. It would be best to wait until dark before starting out. There
may be danger. After all, this is an alien world, and Authority knows
what's out there."
Her antennae dropped, her aura dimmed to gray and her integument turned
a greenish black. "It doesn't sound pleasant," she said.
* * * * *
The sun dipped below the horizon with an indecently gaudy display of
color. After the last shades of violet had faded, I opened the airlock
and watched Ven, a darker blot in the darkness of the night, slip away
into the shadows.
She went unarmed. I wanted her to take a blaster, but she refused,
saying that she had never fired one, wouldn't know what to do with
one--and that its weight would hold her back. I didn't like it. But I
was unable to go with her, and it was better that she did as she wished
at this time.
I sat for a while in the entrance port watching the slow wheel of the
stars across the heavens, and for a moment I wished that I were a
female with the rugged physique to withstand this gravity. As it was,
the beauty of the night was lost on me. I breathed uncomfortably as the
pressure crushed my body and made every joint and muscle ache. Males,
I reflected gloomily, weren't what they were in the old days. Too much
emphasis on mind, and not enough on body, had made us a sex of physical
weaklings.
I wondered bitterly if a brain was as worthwhile as the Council
insisted.
The next few hours were miserable. I worried about Ven, imagining a
number of unpleasant things which might have happened to her. I dragged
myself into the control room and fiddled with the scanners, trying the
infra and ultra bands as well as the normal visible spectrum in the
hopes of seeing something. And just as I was beginning to feel the
twinges of genuine fear, I heard Ven.