Paradise Planet

Hours later he awoke, and darkness had come. He lay there, trying to remember what She had been wearing, feeling a little pang of jealously that She must have a man, must be knitting that mate's child's clothing.... She had worn some kind of clinging trousers, slacks—something ... and across her perfect bosom had been crossed two wide bands of white that ended in a girdle around her small waist. Her throat and the cleft of her breasts had had a sheen like mother of pearl, and her bare arms soft and lovely as two dreams. Dreams! He cursed a little. Too many dreams had tormented him, these last starving months, eking out his dwindling food supply, waiting for something to come ... some planet to appear in the endless black void where he could set his fuel-dry ship down and rest.