Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany Read Free Book Online Page A

her, now, making him laugh.
    "Yes, this is all very new to me. Doesn't the whole vagueness with which everything seems to happen get you, too?"
    Again her answer, both coaxing and witty.
    "Well, yes," he smiled. "For you I guess it wouldn't be."
    Her ease infected him; and either she reached playfully to take his hand or he amazed himself by taking hers, and the apparition as real beneath his fingers with skin as smooth as.
    "You're so forward. I mean I'm not used to young women just coming up and ... behaving like this."
    Her charming logic again explained it away, making him feel her near, nearer, nearing, and her banter made music, a phrase from.
    "Well, yes, you're discorporate, so it doesn't matter. But—"
    And her interruption was a word or a kiss or a frown or a smile, sending not humor through him now, but luminous amazement, fear, excitement; and the feel of her shape against his completely new. He fought to retain it, pattern of pressure and pressure, fading as the pressure itself faded. She was going away. She was laughing like, as though, as if. He stood, losing her laughter, replaced by whirled bewilderment in the tides of his consciousness fading—

V
    When they returned, Brass called, “Good news. We got who we wanted."
    "Crew's coming along," commented Calli.
    Rydra handed him the three index cards. "They'll report to the ship discorporate two hours before— what's wrong?"
    DaniI D.Appleby reached to take the cards. "I. . . she . . ." and couldn't say anything else.
    "Who?" Rydra asked. The concern on her face was driving away even his remaining memories, and he resented it, memories of, of.
    Calli laughed. "A succubus! While we were gone, he got hustled by a succubus^"
    "Yeah!" from Brass. "Look at him!" Ron laughed, too.
    "It was a woman ... I think. I can remember what I said—"
    "How much did she take you for?" Brass asked.
    "Take me?"
    Ron said, "I don't think he knows."
    Calli grinned at the Navigator-Three and then at the Officer. "Take a look in your billfold."
    "Huh?"
    "Take a look."
    Incredulously he reached in his pocket. The metallic envelope flipped apart in his hands. "Ten . . .twenty . . . But I had fifty in here when I left the cafe!"
    Calli slapped his thighs laughing. He loped over and encircled the Customs Officer's shoulder. "You'll end up a Transport man after that happens a couple of more times."
    "But she... I ..." The emptiness of his thefted recollections was real as any love pain. The rifled wallet seemed trivial. Tears banked his eyes. "But she was—" and confusion snarled the sentence's end.
    "What was she, friend?" Calli asked.
    "She . . . was." That was the sad entirety.
    "Since discor'oration, you can take it with you," said Brass. "They try for it with some 'retty shady methods, too. I'd be embarrassed to tell you how many times that's ha'ened to me."
    "She left you enough to get home with," Rydra said. "I'll reimburse you."
    "No, I ..."
    "Come on. Captain. He paid for it, and he got his money's worth, ay Customs?"
    Choking on the embarrassment, he nodded.
    "Then check these ratings," Rydra said. "We still have a Slug to pick up, and a Navigator-One."
    At a public phone, Rydra called back to Navy. Yes, a platoon had turned up. A Slug had been recommended along with them. "Fine," Rydra said, and handed the phone to the officer. He took the psyche-indices from the clerk and incorporated them for final integration with the Eye, Ear, and Nose cards that Rydra had given him. The Slug looked particularly favorable. "Seems to be a talented coordinator," he ventured.
    "Can't have too good a Slug. Es'ecially with a new 'latoon." Brass shook his mane. "He's got to keep those kids in line."
    "This one should do it. Highest compatibility index I've seen in a long while."
    "What's the hostility on him?" asked Calli. "Compatibility, hell! Can he give your butt a good kick when you need it?''
    The Officer shrugged. “He weighs two hundred and seventy pounds and he's only five nine. Have