Second stage Lensman by Edward Elmer Smith Page B

carefully, "is solid chrome-tungsten-molybdenum steel.
    The lock can't be picked. There are only two keys to it in existence, and here they are.
    There's a bolt, too, that's proof against anything short of a five-hundred-ton hydraulic
    jack, or an atomic-hydrogen cutting torch. Here's a full-coverage screen, and a twenty-
    foot spy-ray block. There is your stuff out of the speedster. If you want help, or anything
    to eat or drink, or anything else that can be expected aboard a ship like this, there's the
    communicator. QX?
         "Then you really mean it? That I . . . that you . . . I mean . . ."
         "Absolutely," he assured her. "Just that You are completely the master of your
    destiny, the captain of your soul. Good-night."
         "Good-night, Kinnison. Good-night, and th . . . thanks." The girl threw herself face
    downward upon the bed in a storm of sobs.
         Nevertheless, as Kinnison started back toward his own cabin, he heard the
    massive bolt click into its socket and felt the blocking screens go on.
     
    CHAPTER 5
    . . Illona of Lonabar
     
         Twelve or fourteen hours later, after the Aldebaranian girl had had her breakfast,
    Kinnison went to her cabin.
         "Hi, Cutie, you look better. By the way, what's your name, so we'll know what to
    call you?"
         "Illona,"
         "Illona what?"
         "No what—just Illona, that's all."
         "How do they tell you from other Illonas, then?"
         "Oh, you mean my registry number. In the Aldebaranian language there are not
    the symbols—it would have to be The Illona who is the daughter of Porlakent the potter
    who lives in the house of the wheel upon the road of. . .'"
         "Hold everything—well call you Illona Porter." He eyed her keenly. "I thought your
    Aldebaranian wasn't so hot— didn't seem possible that I could have got that rusty. You
    haven't been on Aldebaran II for a long time, have you?"
         "No, we moved to Lonabar when I was about six."
         "Lonabar? Never heard of it—I'll check up on it later. Your stuff was all here,
    wasn't it? Did any of the red-headed person's things get mixed in?"
         "Things?" She giggled sunnily, then sobered in quick embarrassment "She didn't
    carry any. They're horrid, I think —positively indecent—to run around that way."
         "Hm . . . m. Glad you brought the point up. You've got to put on some clothes
    aboard this ship, you know."
         "Me?" she demanded. "Why, I'm fully dressed . . ." She paused, then shrank
    together visibly. "Oh! Tellurians—I remember, all those coverings! You mean, then . . .
    you think I'm shameless and indecent too?"
         "No. Not at all—yet." At his obvious sincerity Illona unfolded again. "Most of
    us—especially the officers—have been on so many different planets, had dealings with
    so many different types and kinds of entities, that we're used to anything. When we visit
    a planet that goes naked, we do also, as a matter of course; when we hit one that
    muffles up to the smothering point we do that, too. 'When in Rome, be a Roman candle',
    you know. The point is that we're at home here, you're the visitor. It's all a matter of
    convention, of course; but a rather important one. Don't you think so?"
         "Covering up, certainly. Uncovering is different. They told me to be sure to, but I
    simply can't. I tried it back there, but I felt naked!"
         "QX—we'll have the tailor make you a dress or two. Some of the boys haven't
    been around very much, and you'd look pretty bare to them. Everything you've got on,
    jewelry and all, wouldn't make a Tellurian sun-suit, you know."
         "Then have them hurry up the dress, please. But this isn't jewelry, it is . . ."
         "Jet back, beautiful. I know gold, and platinum, and . . ."
         "The metal is expensive, yes," Illona conceded. "These alone," she tapped one of
    the delicate shields, "cost five days of work. But base metal stains the skin