It was less than an hour later when Manning Draco's ship, the Alpha Actuary, blasted off from the main Nyork spaceport. As soon as he was clear of Terra's atmosphere, he fed the position of Canopus I into the automatic pilot and gave up the controls. It was 650 lightyears to Canopus—just far enough to be a pretty dull trip ordinarily, but Manning didn't expect it to be this time.

It could never be said that he was one to waste valuable time. He had barely put the ship on automatic control when he was showing the blonde the special features on the Alpha Actuary. She seemed to be properly impressed by the miniature computer, the audio-reader, the demagnetizer, the geoscope, the impulse-translator, and the robosmith. Manning used the latter to make her a pair of gold earrings.

"Thank you, Manning," she said. She gave him a half-veiled glance that seemed all promise. "I never knew Terrans were so nice."

"This is only the beginning, baby," Manning said. "Since we're soon going to start fooling the natives into thinking we're man and wife, don't you think we might get in a little practice first? You could start by showing your gratitude in a more tangible form."

She laughed, a soft musical sound that made Manning's skin feel prickly. It hardly sounded as if he were being repulsed, so he stepped toward her.

He reached out with his arms and at the same time bent to meet her lips. It seemed to him that she swayed to meet him. Then, just before he touched her, something struck him; it jarred his whole body, tore at his nerves until they were ragged. He staggered away and the jarring stopped. His teeth still hurt, however, until he realized that his jaws were clenched.

"What in space was that?" he demanded.

The blonde smiled, but there was something close to disappointment in her eyes. It encouraged Manning to try again.

Once again he got within an inch of her, so close that he could feel the warmth from her skin and his senses were drunk with her perfume, before the giant invisible hand picked him up and shook him until his teeth rattled. It took all of his strength to pull away, but he succeeded just before he was about to black out. His head ached as he backed away.

"What—what happened?" he asked as soon as he could.

This time the blonde laughed. "I'm sorry," she said, and she seemed 

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