I USED TO KNOW HIM

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

     Lors grinned and watched the big blond stride away to the elevator that

would take him down to the bar on the first level. Then he walked off in

the opposite direction, heading toward the forward end of the ship

where he would find his "future" father-in-law, Commander Ozark. Spacers,

in the gleaming halls, saluted him in the traditional manner - a hand

clasped to the hip that held their holstered auto-pistol - and it was a

good feeling. He had almost forgotten.

     The Commander's guards stopped him outside the door, but when he

explained who he was and what he wanted, they nodded in unison. One of

them pressed a button which opened the door to the vestibule outside the

Commander's office.

     Lors stepped inside and the door hummed shut behind him. The vestibule

was little more than a box-like room, containing a small visi-screen. He

pressed the small, black button at the base of the dark screen and kept

his finger on it while the lines waved.

     "First spacer Lors to see the Commander," he said, as the rotund face of

his future father-in-law waved and blurred into focus.

"Come in, Lors! Come in!" Ozark's voice was a bellow of pleasure.

     The heavy door swung open and Lors stepped into the room to click his

heels and slap his right hand against the black holster before the

Commander's desk.

     "First spacer Lors reporting, sir," he said, as Ozark got up from the

chair and came toward him.

"Lors, Lors, my son! How are you?"

     They grabbed each other by the shoulders and laughed like children.

Lors, despite his love for Margret Danson and the trouble that was

undoubtedly coming up, was happy as a Terran child at Christmas to see

the older man.

     "Lors! Let me look at you! It's been eons since Thista! Gerna's fair

dying to get her hands on you again." He winked at Lors. "And I imagine

you are, too."

"She's here?" A ray of panic touched him and he hoped that it didn't

show.

     "Not that I know of, unless a ship came in. The last I heard, she was

waiting for a ship to take her off the base on Mars. She swears she'll

get you this time, or she's going back home to find an old mush shell

gatherer."

     Lors laughed with Ozark, who released him to pull a flask of wine from

his desk. As he poured two tumblers of the milk-white wine, he winked at

the young spacer.

     "From the home planet," he grinned. "Mallowine. I'll wager you haven't