field of the ship. Her hair had grown long during the flight and was adorned with ribbons and properly cared for every night. In another six months the locks would have to be cut, but that was a long way off so Jo enjoyed them while she could.

She didn't have much of a wardrobe, but under the circumstances she was quite pleased with her situation. She was every inch a lady from her gold sandals to the top of her hair-do, and quite a stylish one at that. The outfit that she wore was all the rage among the girls back home and Joe laughed to recall that the gossamer lingerie was actually a commercial adaptation of a material that had been initially designed for the space pilots. A simple rinse in a chemical solution and the clothing was clean, fresh and ready to wear again. Naturally, the girls at home had loved the fabric at once and his bra, panties, slip and dress were all made of it.

The computer began to output the navigational data for the next hop of the patrol and Joe revelled in the sensation that his skirt made against his stockings as he reached for the new information when sud- denly all hell broke loose!!!

The alarm systems clamored frantically indicating the approach of another ship which could only mean one thing . . . the aliens had been found. Years of training at the Academy resulted in an immediate re- flex reaction in Joe and he slammed a lever forward throwing the ship into interstellar drive. The procedure now was automatic and the hundreds of hours of practice on flight simulators was paying off. A note of regret crossed his mind as he realized that he would have to head for home to report the location of the encounter so that a massive search of the area could be started. If the enemy were located he might even be regarded as a hero.

These thoughts raced through his mind as he performed the prescribed maneuvers to insure that the aliens could not possibly follow him back to Earth. By this time, he was light years away from the point of the encounter and he brought the ship out of hyper-drive as he had done so often before. The last few steps were nearly completed and he checked them off as he did them: computer on automatic; gravity at 0.2 Earth normal; warning system in reset position; and finally, ease the lever back to conventional drive.

The stars could not yet be seen when the alarm sounded again. This had not been covered in the training as no ship could possibly follow another into and out of hyper-drive. Joe turned off the alarm

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