"Perhaps you two should spend some time together.  Get to know one another.  There are, after all, some more human requirements involved..."

They were standing in the hall outside the dining area.

"There's Club Noxx," Andrea said, and Naas and the doctor looked at her in mild surprise.  "It's popular with some of the younger employees and students," she explained.

"What's it like?" Naas asked.

She shrugged, avoiding his direct gaze.  "I'm not sure.  I've never been there.  I don't have a lot of time for socializing."

"Very good then," Dr Tarnovsky pronounced, without further discussion.  "You two take the evening off...and I'll get everything ready back here for tomorrow.  We should be able to use the lecture hall.  The students are back tomorrow, but my colleague, Dr Vasich, will be taking over my classes.  She'll be helping out with the experiment, too, from time to time.  She was the one that first isolated terridium."

He stood, his hands together behind his back, looking at the two younger people, and Naas got the impression that he was beaming inwardly, like a father sending his son on his first date.  To rid himself of this feeling, and break the tense silence that had descended, Naas said:

"I'll need someplace to wash up if we're...going out."

"Ah, yes."  The doctor glanced around.

Just then, as if on cue, the chauffeur reappeared from around the corner.  He had changed from his gray uniform into a casual beige suit.  He looked even more official than before.

"The transport is fueled up and parked in the sub-level, doctor, in case you need it.  I'll be going now if you don't require anything else."

"Harry, thank you.  We will be needing the transport."  He turned to Naas.  "You can use it to drive to the city.  Only be careful.  There are petro-gangs on the freeways at night.  Better take some protection."

                                                   *                    *                    *

Naas was looking up into the night sky.  There was the circle of satellites that represented the outermost barrier of Orbit.  A necklace of bright lights.  Tonight they lay just beneath and to the south of the three-quarters moon.  He felt no tug of recognition in them though.  There was no feeling of "home."  They were simply there, floating.

He had brought the transport up from the lower level and parked it just outside the building.  He was waiting for Andrea, who evidently was getting some kind of last minute instructions from Tarnovsky.  He hoped that the doctor wasn't pressing the girl too hard--this was all a bit strange.  Even Naas knew that, even with his unusually sharp sense of duty.

Sex for science.  Huh.  It was a new one on him, but he was alright with it.  He knew that he could object, could tell the doctor that he didn't feel comfortable with the situation, and return on the next flight to his boring, predictable administrative job in Orbit.  He wasn't adverse to that, either.  He found a certain satisfaction in being a piece in a much larger machine.  He was one of those officials who took his position for what it was, nothing more, nothing less, and even enjoyed it sometimes.  Still he was curious.  And besides, why not?  She was beautiful...

He felt his chin.  He had shaved and put on a new shirt, with a faint shine to it, the closest thing he had to nightclubbing clothes.  He hadn't expected to be entertained. 

A square of light appeared in the side of the building and Andrea's figure was highlighted for a moment.  Then the cool spring darkness closed in again.

"Ready?" she said as she walked up, asking the timeless, universal question of any woman who has ever kept a man waiting.  She was stunning.  She'd changed into a slinky plastic dress, which could have been made out of silk, the way she'd arranged the folds to hug the contours of her torso.

He smiled a little and held the door of the transport for her.  "You look wonderful."  He got a whiff of her perfume as she got in.  "And you smell wonderful."

"Thanks."  She arranged the dress, sitting sideways.  He shut the door and hurried around.

As they drove through the woods towards the highway leading to the city, he tried to make conversation by asking about the doctor's background, staying as far as he could from the subject of the "experiments."

"He's spent most of his time in an office actually," she said to him, crossing her arms.

"Are you cold?"  He examined the panel for the heating controls.

"No."  She sat back.  "I think his first assignment was to the outworlds, um, to Orbit that is."

He nodded.  The serpentine road unfolded, the trees making a pattern of blackish pillars as they sped by.  "So why is he in charge?  Why not Dr Vasi-- I'm sorry..."

"Vasich.  I'm not sure.  I think that she was passed over.  Politics, I suppose.  Dr Tarnovsky has been teaching at the institute for many years."

There was a moment of silence between them.  The trees thinned out and they began to see the lights of the city ahead, the brackish cloud of pollution hanging over it lit from below.

"Naas," she said finally, drawing out his name.  "Is that Dutch originally?"

He shrugged.  "I don't know.  I've never checked." 

His first name was Richard, and for a second he thought about telling her to call him that.  But he hardly ever used it.  Everyone called him by his surname and anyway, since most people were his social inferiors, even in Orbit, it was more natural.  He let it go.

                                                     *                    *                      * 

The club was in the Radial Quarter, a half-circle of protected suburbs and light industry that fit into the old upper metro section.  Naas flashed his credentials when they reached the security gate that led into the Quarter.  The guard seemed surprised to see an Orbital first-class badge, and Naas thought he might salute as he stepped back and waved them on.  

Club "nOXX"--as it was written, in white neon block-letters, on the sign--was housed in a factory, an L-shaped building, constructed of sheet-metal, with no windows or markings besides the sign.  (Naas thought the name was corny.  Ever since the population controls had been put in place, and reproducing had been outlawed except by permit, anti-sex messages had begun appearing everywhere, even in Orbit.  Thus the satire...nOXX...no hugs and kisses.  Corny.)  There was a crowd of people waiting to get in as they drove up and a valet signaled for them to stop.

"Are you alright with this?" Andrea asked suddenly.  The valet tapped on the window.

Naas looked over at her.  She didn't show any obvious signs of being nervous, but he could tell by the way her shoulders were squared, the way she was facing forward, one hand grasping at the front of her dress, that she wanted him to be alright with it.

"Yes."  He tried to sound friendly, but that didn't really seem appropriate.  "Yes, I am," he said again, warmer.

She nodded without looking at him.  "O.K.  Let's go in."

The minute they got inside, Naas was struck by the smell of the place.  It was clean.  Very clean.  He thought they must be pumping in oxygen to keep the stench of the air outside at bay. 

And then there was the music...