Luna Escapade Read online

get you in any trouble, for onething. At least, let me get out of sight now. Maybe you'll change yourmind before we land."

  He looked at her, and the anxiety seemed real enough. Knowing he wasonly letting her postpone the unpleasantness but reluctant to make herface it, he shrugged.

  "All right, then! Go somewhere and wipe that stuff off your face. Butstop dreaming!"

  He waited until she had disappeared into one or another of the tinycompartments behind the control room, then sent out his call to theLunar settlement.

  The problem did not affect his landing; in fact, he did better thanusual. His stubby but deft fingers lacked their ordinary tendency totighten up, now that part of his mind was rehearsing the best way toexplain the presence of an unauthorized passenger.

  In the end, when he had the rocket parked neatly on the extremities ofits fins less than a quarter of a mile from one of the port domes, hehad not yet made up his mind.

  "Nice landing, Pete," the ground observer told him. "Buy you a drinklater?"

  "Uh ... yeah, sure!" Dudley answered. "Say, is Jack Fisher anywherearound?"

  "Jack? No, I guess he's gone bottom level. We're having 'night' justnow, you know. Why? What do you want a cop for?"

  Suddenly, it was too difficult.

  _If she could hide as long as she did, she could have done it all theway_, he told himself.

  "Oh, don't wake him up if he's asleep," he said hastily. "I just thoughtI'd have dinner with him sometime before I leave."

  He waited sullenly while the great self-propelled machines glided outover the smooth floor of the crater toward the ship, despising himselffor giving in.

  _Well, I just won't know anything about her_, he decided. _Let her haveher little fling on Luna! It won't last long._

  He closed the key that would guard against accidental activation of thecontrols and, enjoying the ability to walk even at one-sixth his normalweight, went about securing loose objects. When the space-suited figuresoutside signaled, he was ready for the tilt.

  Once under the dome, he strode out through the airlock as if innocent ofany thought but getting breakfast. He exchanged greetings with some ofthe tow crew, turned over his manifesto to the yawning checker who methim, and headed for the entrance of the tunnel to the main part of thesettlement.

  Only when he had chosen a monorail car and started off along the tunneltoward the underground city a mile away did he let himself wonder aboutKathi Foster.

  "Her problem now," he muttered, but he felt a little sorry for herdespite his view that she needed to grow up.

  Later in the "day," he reported to transportation headquarters.

  "Hiya, Pete!" grinned Les Snowdon, chief of the section. "All set forthe Ruby Planet?"

  Dudley grimaced. "I suppose so," he said. "Left my locker mostly packed,except for what I'll need for a couple of days. When do we go out andwho's the crew?"

  "Jarkowski, Campiglia, and Wells. You have three days to make merry andone to sober up."

  "I sober fast," said Dudley.

  Snowdon shook his head in mock admiration. "Nevertheless," he said, "thephysical will be on the fourth morning from now. Don't get in any fightsover on Level C--or if you do, let the girl do the punching for you! Abroken finger, my boy, and you'll ruin the whole Martian schedule!"

  "Ah, go on!" Dudley grinned, moving toward the door. "They can alwaysstick you in there, and make you earn your pay again."

  "They're still paying me for the things I did in the old days," retortedSnowdon. "Until I get caught up, I'm satisfied to keep a little gravityunder my butt. Oh ... by the way, your pal Jack Fisher left a call foryou. Something about dinner tonight."

  Dudley thanked him and went off to contact Fisher. Then he returned tothe pilots' quarters for a shower and strolled along the corridors ofthe underground city to a lunch-room. Food and water were rationed onLuna, but not nearly as tightly as they would be for him during the nextthree months.

  That night, he joined Fisher and his wife for dinner at The View,Ericsson's chief center of escape from the drabness of Lunar life. Itwas the only restaurant, according to the boast of its staff, where onecould actually dine under the stars.

  "Sometimes I wish that dome wasn't so transparent," said Fisher. "Sitdown, the girls will be back in a minute."

  Dudley eyed him affectionately. Fisher was head of the settlement'ssmall police force, but managed to look more like the proprietor of oneof the several bars that flourished in the levels of the city just underthe restaurant. He was heavy enough to look less than his six feet, andhis face was as square as the rest of him. Dark hair retreatedreluctantly from his forehead, and the blue eyes set peering above hispudgy cheeks were shrewd.

  "Girls?" asked Dudley.

  "We brought along a new arrival to keep you company," said Fisher. "Sheworks in one of the film libraries or something like that."

  _Which means that's as good an excuse as any for having her atEricsson_, thought Dudley. _Anyway, I'm glad Jack is the sort to berealistic about things like bars and other ... recreation. There'd bemore guys turning a little variable from too much time in space withoutsome outlet._

  "Here she comes with Myra," said his host. "Name's Eileen."

  Dudley smiled at Mrs. Fisher and was introduced to the red-haired girlwith her. Eileen eyed him speculatively, then donned her best air offriendliness. The evening passed rapidly.

  For the next few days, besides seeing the Fishers and looking up the menwho were to be his crew, Dudley spent a lot of time with Eileen. Thereseemed to be little difficulty about her getting time off from whateverher official duties were. She showed him all the bars and movie theatresand other amusements that the underground city could boast, and Dudleymade the most of them in spite of his recent visit to Terra. On theMars-bound rocket, they would be lucky, if allowed one deck of cards andhalf a dozen books for the entertainment of the four of them.

  It was on the "evening" of his third day that the specter haunting theback of his mind pushed forward to confront him. He had listened forgossip, but there had been no word of the discovery of an unauthorizedarrival. Then, as he was taking Eileen to her underground apartment, heheard his name called.

  There she was, with an escort of three young men he guessed to beoperators of the machinery that still drilled out new corridors in therock around the city. Somehow she had exchanged the black slack suit fora bright red dress that was even more daring than Eileen's. In theregulated temperature, clothing was generally light, but Dudley's firstthought was that this was overdoing a good thing.

  "May I have a word with you, Dudley?" Kathi asked, coming across thecorridor while her young men waited with shifting feet and displeasedlooks.

  Dudley glanced helplessly at Eileen, wondering about an introduction. Hehad never bothered to learn her last name, and he had no idea of whatname Kathi was using. The redhead had pity on him.

  "My door's only a few yards down," she said. "I'll wait."

  She swept Kathi with a glance of amused confidence and walked away. Itseemed to Dudley that she made sure the three young men followed herwith their eyes; but then he was kicking off for Mars within twenty-fourhours, so he could hardly object to that.

  "Have you changed your mind?" demanded Kathi with a fierce eagerness.

  "Not so loud!" hushed Dudley. "About what? And how did you get thatrig?"

  Had he been less dismayed at her presence, he might have remarked thatthe tight dress only emphasized her immaturity, but she gave him no timeto say more.

  "About Mars, Dudley. Can't you take me? I'm afraid those illegitimateblood-suckers are going to send after me. They could sniff out which waya nickel rolled in a coal-bin."

  "Aren't you just a shade young for that kind of talk?"

  "I guess I'm a little frightened," she admitted.

  "You frighten me, too," he retorted. "How are you ... I mean, what doyou--?"

  She tossed her blonde hair.

  "There are ways to get along here, I found out. I didn't get arrestedthis
time, did I? So why can't you take a chance with me to Mars?"

  "Take an eclipse on that," said Dudley with a flat sweep of his hand."It's just out of the question. For one thing, there are four of usgoing, and you can't hide for the whole trip without _somebody_ catchingon."

  "All right," she said quietly. "Why not?"

  "What do you mean, 'Why not?'"

  "I'm willing to earn my passage. What if there _are_ four of you?"

  For a long moment, Dudley discovered things about himself, with thesudden realization that the idea appealed to some