"Where is she, Mr. Correy?" I asked quietly.
"In my quarters, under guard. It was my watch below, as you know, sir.
I entered my stateroom, figuring on catching forty winks, and there
she was, seated in my big chair, smiling at me.
"Well, for a second I couldn't speak. I just stared at her, and she
kept smiling back at me. 'What are you doing here?' I managed to ask
her, at last. 'Do you know where you are?'
"'I'll talk to your commanding officer,' she told me, cool as you
please. 'Will you bring him, please?'
"'You'll see him plenty soon enough,' I snapped at her, getting over
my surprise somewhat by that time. I called in a couple of men to keep
her from getting into mischief, and reported to you. What are your
orders, sir?"
I hesitated a second, wondering. From Correy's account, she must be a
rather remarkable person.
"Bring her up here, if you will, Mr. Correy. I'd like to see her
before we put her in the brig." The brig, I might explain, was a small
room well forward, where members of the crew were confined for
discipline.
"Right, sir!" It seemed to me that there was a peculiar twinkle in
Correy's eyes as he went out, and I wondered about it while we waited
for him to return with the prisoner.
"What an infernal nuisance, sir!" complained Hendricks, looking up
from his glowing charts. "We'll be the laughing-stock of the Service
if this leaks out!"
"_When_ it leaks out," I corrected him glumly. I'd already thought of
the unpleasant outcome he mentioned. "I'll have to report it, of
course, and the whole Service will know about it. We'll just have to
grin and make the most of it, I guess." There was still another
possibility which I didn't mention: the silver-sleeves at Base would
very likely call me on the carpet for permitting such a thing to
happen. A commander was supposed to be responsible for everything that
happened; no excuses available in the Service as it was in those days.
* * * * *
I scowled forbiddingly as I heard Correy open the door; at least I
could make her very sorry she had selected the _Ertak_ for her
adventure. I am afraid, however, that it was a startled, rather than a
scowling face to which she lifted her eyes.
"This is the stowaway, sir," said Correy briskly, closing the door. He
was watching my face, and I saw, now, the reason for the twinkle in
his eye when I mentioned placing the stowaway in the brig.
The woman was startlingly beautiful; one of the most beautiful women I
have ever seen, and I have roamed the outer limits of space, and seen
the women of many worlds. Hendricks, standing behind me, gasped
audibly as his eyes fell upon her.
The stowaway was regally tall and exquisitely modeled. Her hair was
the color of pale morning sunlight on Earth; her eyes an amazing blue,
the equal of which I have never seen.
She was beautiful, but not coldly so. Despite her imperious bearing,
there was something seductive about the soft curves of her beautiful
body; something to rouse the pulses of a man in the langour of her
intensely blue eyes, and the full, sensuous lips, scarlet as a smear
of fresh blood.
"So this is the stowaway," I said, trying to keep my voice coolly
indifferent. "What is your name?"
"I should prefer," she replied, speaking the universal language with a
sibilant accent that was very fascinating, "to speak with you
privately."
"You will speak with me," I informed her crisply, "in the presence of
these officers. I repeat: what is your name?"
She smiled faintly, her eyes compelling mine.
"I am called Liane," she said. "Chief Priestess of the Flame. Mother
of Life. Giver of Death. I believe my name and position are not
unknown to you, Commander Hanson?"
* * * * *
Known to me? If Base was not in error--and for all their faults, the
silver-sleeves are seldom wrong in matters of this sort--this woman
was the reason for our present mission.
"They are known to me," I admitted. "They do not explain, however,
your presence here."
"And yet they should," protested Liane gently. "I was taken from my
own people by those who had no right to command me. I was subjected to
the indignity of questioning by many men. I have merely taken the
simplest and quickest way of returning to my own people."
"You know, then, our destination?"
"I was informed of that by those who questioned me," nodded Liane.
"Then, since I had been assured I was an honored guest, and no
prisoner, I secreted myself aboard the ship, hiding in a small room
nearly filled with what I took to be spare parts. I had provisions,
and a few personal belongings. When I felt sufficient time had elapsed
to make a return improbable, I donned attire more fitting than the
masculine workman's guise in which I had secreted myself, and--I
believe you are acquainted with the remaining facts."
"I am. I will consider your case and advise you later. Mr. Correy,
will you conduct the stowaway to my quarters and place her under
guard? Return when you have attended to this matter, and ask Mr.
Kincaide to do likewise."
"To your quarters, you said, sir?" asked Correy, his eyes very
serious, but not sufficiently so to entirely disguise the twinkle in
their depths. "Not to the brig?"