The Broken Cycle by A. Bertram Chandler Page A

her so that she was facing him. Both of them, having removed their spacesuits, were now clad only in the long underwear. He could feel the soft pressure of her body against his, knew that she must be feeling his burgeoning hardness. He knew that she was responding, knew that it was only a matter of seconds before the longjohns would be discarded, before her morbid thoughts would be dispelled. His mouth was on hers, on her warm, moist, parted lips. His right hand, trapped between them, was yet free enough to seek and to find the tag of the fastener of her single garment, just below her throat. Just one swift tug, and . . . .

    Suddenly she broke free, using both her hands to shove him away violently. Her longjohns were open to the crotch and she hastily pulled up the fastener, having trouble with her breasts as she did so.

    "No," she said. "No!"

    "But, Una . . . ."

    "No."

    He muttered something about absurd Neo-Calvinist ideas of morality.

    She laughed bitterly. She told him, "I said that I was, once, a Neo-Calvinist. And it didn't last long. I am, still, a policewoman . . . ."

    "A woman, just as I'm a man. The qualifications, policewoman and spaceman, don't matter."

    "Let me finish, Buster. It has occurred to me, in my professional capacity, that this boat is probably well and truly bugged, that Panzen can not only hear everything we say, but see everything that we do. And after our unsuccessful attempt at escape he'll not be passing his time working out chess problems anymore." She paused for breath. "And, neither as a policewoman nor as a woman, do I feel like taking part in an exhibition fuck."

    Grimes saw her point. He would not have used those words himself, still being prone to a certain prudery in speech if not in action. Nonetheless, he did not give up easily. He said, "But Panzen's not human."

    "That makes it all the worse. To have intercourse while that artificial intelligence watches coldly, making notes probably, recording every muscular spasm, every gasp . . . No! I'd sooner do it in front of some impotent old man who would, at least, get an all too human kick out of watching us!"

    He managed a laugh. "Now I'm almost a convert to Neo-Calvinism. Being in prison is your idea of Hell, being in a state of continual frustration may well be mine . . . ." And he thought, What if there is some truth in that crazy idea of hers? What if we were killed when Delta Geminorum blew up? After all, we should have been . . . . What if this is some sort of afterlife?

    He returned to the table, poured himself another generous portion of brandy.

    She said, "That doesn't help."

    He retorted, "Doesn't it? But it does. It has just occurred to me that neither your private Hell nor mine would be provided with this quite excellent pain-deadener."

    She said, "Then I'd better have some, while it lasts."
    * * *

    Grimes was the first to awaken. He did not feel at all well. After he had done all that he had to do in the boat's toilet facilities he felt a little stronger and decided that a hair of the dog that had bitten him might be an aid to full recovery.

    The bottle on the table was empty.

    There should have been four unopened bottles remaining in the storeroom. They were gone.

Chapter 18

    She said, "I want a drink."

    He told her, "There's water, or that ersatz coffee, or that synthetic limejuice."

    She practically snarled, "I want a drink ."

    He said, "I've told you what there is."

    "Don't be a bloody wowser. I want a drink. B-R-A-N-D-Y. Drink."

    "I can spell. But there isn't any."

    She glared at him. "You don't mean to say that you, while I was sleeping . . . ?"

    "No. But he, while we were sleeping."

    "That's absurd. Whoever heard of a robot hitting the bottle?"

    He said, "Many a fanatical teetotaler has confiscated bottles and destroyed their contents."

    "So Panzen's a fanatical teetotaler? Come off it, Buster!"

    "Panzen's fanatical enough to be acting for what he conceives as our