"You could do that?"
With a shrug he replied, "Rank hath its privileges." They stood silently next to each other in the lonely vacuum of the roiled bare lunar plain for several long moments. In his earphones Kinsman could hear Diane's breathing.
"You'd let me stay permanently?" "If you want to." "With my daughter?"
Neat's daughter, he thought. "Yes, sure. Why not?" "I . . ." Diane's voice almost broke. "Chet, that's really ... I can't ... I just don't know what to say." "You don't have to say anything." "But it's such a commitment. I don't know if—" He cut in, "There's no strings, Diane. I can extend your tour indefinitely. You can have your daughter sent up. She'll be a helluva lot safer here than in Arizona, with all those airbases and hydroelectric dams. But nobody's going to force you to stay in Selene. If things don't work out the way you want, you can always go back Earthside." If there's an Earth to return to, he added silently.
"No strings," she repeated. Her voice sounded doubtful, wary.
"Come on, we ought to get back," he told her. To himself he said, No strings. No commitments. Not on either one of us. Not now. Maybe someday, but not now.
She paced alongside him as they headed across the uneven ground. After several minutes' silence, Diane said, "You're held in very high esteem around here, you know."
"Am I?"
"From what I hear, you're a very dashing and romantic figure."
"Sure I am."
"You are," Diane insisted. "Women talk. You can have your pick of the women here, and you often do."
"Well . . ."
"But no lasting relationships. Nothing permanent. Noth- ing even long-term."
"Dammitall, Diane. this is getting ridiculous."
"Is it?" Her voice sounded very serious. "I think it's important. I'm trying to understand you, Chet. And myself. I 324 never could figure you out, not from the first time we met, back in Berkeley."
He forced a laugh. "And I sure as hell have never been able to figure you out." Then he said very seriously, "But I've never been able to get you out of my mind, either. Not since that first time in Berkeley."
They walked in silence for a few more moments. "So how about dinner tonight?" Kinsman asked. She hesitated long enough to let him know that she considered it very carefully. "I'm afraid I've already made a date with Harry Pierce. He asked me this morning."
"Your section supervisor? You're going to have dinner with your boss?"
"Does that shock you?" she teased.
"Remember, kid, Selene is a very small town."
