“Do we have to get undressed too?” He looked at her with amused interest.
“As spectators? No. We could, but we don’t have to. You would feel uncomfortable if you did this early in the game and you wouldn’t be a particularly inspiring sight to the rest of us—”
“You are frank!”
“Do you think it would be? Be honest. And as for myself, I have no wish to put you under a special strain in your private titillation. So we might both just as well stay clothed.”
“Will there be any objection? I mean to my being there as an Earthie of uninspirational appearance?”
“Not if I’m with you.”
“Very well, then, Selene. Is it far away?”
“We are there. Just through here.”
“Ah, then, you were planning to come here all the time.”
“I thought it might be interesting.”
“Why?”
Selene smiled suddenly. “I just thought.”
The Earthman shook his head. “I’m beginning to think you never just think. Let me guess. If I’m to stay on the Moon, I will need to exercise now and then in order to keep muscles, bones, and all my organs, perhaps, in condition.”
“Quite true. So do all of us, but immigrants from Earth in particular. The day will come when the gymnasium will be a daily grind for you.”
They stepped through a door and the Earthman stared in astonishment. “This is the first place I’ve seen that looks like Earth.”
“In what way?”
“Why it’s big. I didn’t imagine you would have such big rooms on the Moon. Desks, office machinery, women at the desks—”
“Bare-breasted women,” said Selene, gravely.
“That part isn’t Earthlike, I admit.”
“We’ve got a hold-chute, too, and an elevator for Earthies. There are many levels.… But wait.”
She approached a woman at one of the nearer desks, talking in a rapid, low voice while the Earthman stared at everything with amiable curiosity.
Selene returned. “No trouble. And it turns out we’re going to have a melee. A rather good one; I know the teams.”
“This place is very impressive. Really.”
“If you still mean its size, it’s not nearly big enough. We have three gymnasiums. This is the largest.”
“I’m somehow pleased that in the Spartan surroundings of the Moon, you can afford to waste so much room on frivolity.”
“Frivolity!” Selene sounded offended. “Why do you think this is frivolity?”
“Melees? Some sort of game?”
“You might call it a game. On Earth you can do such things for sports; ten men doing, ten thousand watching. It’s not so on the Moon; what’s frivolous for you is necessary for us.… This way; we’ll take the elevator, which means a little waiting perhaps.”
“Didn’t mean to get you angry.”
“I’m not really angry but you must be reasonable. You Earthmen have been adapted to Earth-gravity for all the three hundred million years since life crawled onto dry land. Even if you don’t exercise, you get by. We’ve had no time at all to adapt to Moon-gravity.”
“You look different enough.”
“If you’re born and reared under Moon-gravity, your bones and muscles are, naturally, slimmer and less massive than an Earthie’s would be, but that’s superficial. There isn’t a bodily function we possess, however subtle; digestion, rates of hormonal secretions; that isn’t maladjusted to gravity and that doesn’t require a deliberate regimen of exercise. If we can arrange exercise in the form of fun and games that does not make it frivolity.… Here’s the elevator.”
The Earthman hung back in momentary alarm, but Selene said, with residual impatience, as though still seething over the necessity of defense. “I suppose you’re going to tell me it looks like a wickerwork basket. Every Earthman who uses it says so. With Moon-gravity, it doesn’t have to be any more substantial.”
The elevator moved downward slowly. They were the only ones on board.
The Earthman said, “I suspect this isn’t much used.”
Selene smiled again. “You’re right. The hold-chute is much more popular, and much more fun.”
“What is it?”
“Exactly what the name implies.… Here we are. We only had to drop two levels.… It’s just a vertical tube you can drop through, with handholds. We don’t encourage Earthies to use it.”
“Too risky?”
“Not in itself. You can climb down as though it were a ladder. However, there are always youngsters swinging down at considerable speed and Earthies don’t know how to keep out of the way. Collisions are always discomforting. But you’ll get to use it in time.… In fact, what you’ll see now is a kind of large hold-chute designed for recklessness.”
She led him to a circular railing around which a number of individuals were leaning and talking. All were more or