Then a funny thing happened. The Skipper, strangely scarlet of face,
rose suddenly from Andy's side. He croaked, "You--you wouldn't like to
lay a little bet on that, Dugan?"
"Huh?" I said. "On what? I don't understand--"
The Old Man moaned softly.
"Neither do I, Dugan. But you were wrong! Slops, here, ain't no man at
all, and never was! He--_he's a girl!_"
* * * * *
Well, looking back on it now I can see how we should have realized it
from the beginning. Sure, Captain Slops was a girl! That high, mellow
voice ... the oversized uniform coat ... that prudishness which was not
prudishness at all, but understandable modesty.
Later, as we were streaking the spaceways toward our Callisto
rendezvous, the _Leo_ completely repaired, we demanded and received an
explanation. I might add that in female togs the pint-sized chef looked
just the right size, and a hundred percent O.Q.
"I didn't exactly lie about my name," she explained. "It _is_ 'Andy
Laney'--only you spell it a bit differently. I am really 'Ann
Delaney.' My father was a spaceman, so was my grandfather and my
great-grandfather. Daddy was always sorry he had a daughter instead
of a son. He wanted to see the old tradition of a 'Delaney in space'
go on. But you thick-headed males have rules against allowing women
to take to the spaceways except as passengers, so there was nothing I
could do."
"You," I told her admiringly, "did all right."
"More than all right!" acknowledged the Skipper. "If it hadn't been for
you--Don't worry, Miss Delaney. I'll see that the proper authorities
hear all about this. Only--" A crease puckered his forehead--"There's
something I ain't yet puzzled out. How come you ordered Mr. Dugan to
shoot not at, but above the ships? At the Bog? And how come the rocks
came tumbling down thataway?"
"Why," smiled Ann Delaney shyly, "it was really very simple. Heat,
Captain."
"Heat?"
"Of course. As any student of thermodynamics knows, heat has a definite
attractive force, varying directly as the difference in temperature.
Space, being a vacuum, lacks heat entirely. Its temperature is that
of Absolute Zero. Our gun emitted a heat-force equivalent to that of
ten solar degrees. Thus the radiation we discharged at the bitter
cold fragments of rock and ore comprising the Bog created a sort of
passageway, an attractive channel down which the detritus was drawn.
To state the problem more simply: have you ever watched a pot of beans
boil? A seething whirlpool is created; the beans seek the heat."
"By golly!" said O'Hara. "I think you got something there, Miss
Delaney. Why--why, that's terrific! That gives us a brand-new combat
technique for locations where there are small cosmic bodies. Wait till
the War Department hears it!"
But Ann Delaney just sniffed.
"New?" she repeated disdainfully. "New? Why, every woman cook knows
that, Captain!"
You'll find the rest in the history books. Callisto _did_ sign a
pact with us ... the Federation _did_ open a new front almost within
spitting distance of Jupiter....
We've got a better universe to live in now. For one thing, there's
peace throughout the Solar System. Because of Ann Delaney, the
government changed its ruling about women in space; you'll find 'em
everywhere, nowadays, doing everything and anything men do.
But I'm glad to say Ann isn't one of those void-vampires any more. She
and I--oh, sure! We're married now. I couldn't let a swell cook like
her get away, could I?