Free Flinx in Flux by Alan Dean Foster

back against his pillow. “If you say so. Nobody’s after
me.”
    “That’s right,” she murmured thoughtfully. “Nobody is after you. Do you think you can help me get away from here? Away from this town? What’s the name of this place, anyway?”
    “Mimmisompo. You didn’t come through here?”
    “No. I was on a big skimmer, for a long time.” She frowned. “Alaspinport, I think. They brought me down drugged, and we got right in the skimmer. I was pretty much out of it except when they brought me around to answer questions. I’ll explain everything I can, tell you all I can remember, but later. Right now a hot bath would be just about the most wonderful thing imaginable.”
    “Then go ahead and indulge. I’ll keep an eye on the door.”
    She took a step toward him, then hesitated. “Nice to have a friend here.” A quick turn and she was through the holo that closed off the bathroom from the rest of the apartment.
    Her passage automatically turned off the image, and she did not bother to reset it, her mind on nothing but the bath. Moments later the sound of running water reached him. Hands behind his head, he lay back on the bed and contemplated the ceiling. Strange. One would have thought she had had enough of water in the river. The peculiar regard women held for hot water was something he did not understand.
    By rolling over and stretching ever so slightly he could see her sitting on the edge of the diamond-shaped tub. She was lightly sponging herself. It was hard to estimate another’s inhibitions without first knowing her world of origin, social status, and religious inclinations. She looked up suddenly and saw him watching her, and she smiled. Not invitingly but not mockingly, either. Simply a pleasant, relaxed smile.
    Knowing that did not keep him from turning away in embarrassment. Then he was angry at himself for doing so. Pip looked up curiously while Scrap explored the pile of blankets where Clarity had slept. The flying snake reacted to his every emotion, not only those that were threatening.
    Clarity Held rose from the bath and begin drying herself. This time it was not necessary for him to stretch to enjoy the view. This time he deliberately did not turn away.
    “That was heavenly!” Apparently the society in which she had been raised did not recognize the nudity taboo, a historical development on an as yet unknown world for which he was very grateful. She sang to herself in a voice that was only slightly off key, then put the towel aside without a suggestion of shyness and began to remove her clothes from the room’s autolaundry.
    I have talked to the wise men of Commonwealth, Flinx mused. I have spoken with captains of industry and of alien warships. I have made contact when no one else was able with an artificial intelligence thousands of years old and kept my composure in the face of evils both human and otherwise. So why the hell can’t I have a sensible conversation with a single member of the opposite sex of my own race without bumbling and stumbling over every word?
    He had heard about verbal seduction but had not the slightest idea where to begin. He wanted more than anything else to ingratiate himself so powerfully that she would forget about his age and start thinking of him as a man. He wanted to persuade her, to reassure her, to dazzle her with his resourcefulness and brilliance, to defuse her fears and activate her senses.
    What he said was, “Bath make you feel better?”
    “Immensely, thanks.” She was drying her hair now, fluffing out the blond brush, the single flanking pigtail bobbing like a cat’s toy behind her ear. He wondered who had performed the spectrum shift that had given her turquoise eyes. Surely that color could not be natural.
    “If you plan on doing any more traveling around here, we’ll have to find you some more appropriate clothing.”
    “Don’t worry. The only environments I want to experience between here and the shuttleport are humanxmade. I’m