IMAGE OF SPLENDOR
 

 By LU KELLA
 
 From Venus to Earth, and all the way between, it was a hell of a world for men ... and Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly particularly.
 
 
 [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Summer 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
 
 
 
 The intercom roared fit to blow O'Rielly back to Venus. "Burner Four!"
 
 "On my way, sir!"
 
 At the first flash of red on the bank of meters Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly had slammed the safety helmet on his head; he was already throwing open the lock to the burner room. The hot, throbbing rumble whipped around him and near crushed his breath away. Power! Power of the universe trapped here and ready to destroy its captors given one chance! Swiftly O'Rielly unlocked the controls and reset them. The throbbing rumble changed tone.
 
 Old Callahan's voice crackled now through the helmet's ear contact.
"Well, Mr. O'Rielly?"
 
 "Fusion control two points low, sir."
 
 O'Rielly wondered had Callahan passed out, was so long before the old Burner Chief demanded hoarsely, "Didn't you lock them controls before blast-off?"
 
 "If every control hadn't been locked in correct setting," O'Rielly answered from his own angry bewilderment, "the error would have registered before blast-off—wouldn't it, sir?"
 
 "So a control reset itself in flight, hey?"
 
 "I don't know yet, sir."
 
 "Well, Mr. O'Rielly, you better know before we orbit Earth!"
 
 The icy knot in O'Rielly's stomach jerked tighter. A dozen burners on this ship; why did something crazy have to happen to O'Rielly's? In a hundred years, so the instructors—brisk females all—had told O'Rielly in pre-flight school, no control had ever been known to slip. But one had moved here. Not enough to cause serious trouble this far out from Earth. On blast-down, though, with one jet below peak, the uneven thrust could throw the ship, crash it, the whole lovely thing and all aboard gone in a churning cloud.
 
 Sweat pouring off him, O'Rielly prowled around his burner. Design of the thing had been bossed by dames of course; what on Earth wasn't any more? Anyway, nobody could get to a burner except through its watch room. Anyone entered or left there, a bell clanged, lights flashed and a meter registered beside the Burnerman's bunk and on the Burner Chief's console up in the flight room full of beautifully efficient officers. Ever since Venus blast-off O'Rielly had been in Four's watch room. Nobody had passed through. O'Rielly knew it. Callahan knew it. By now the Old Woman herself, Captain Millicent Hatwoody, had probably inquired what was in charge of Burner Four.
 
 Well, ma'am, O'Rielly searched every cranny where even a three-tailed mouse of Venus could have stowed away. His first flight, and O'Rielly saw himself washed out, busted to sweeper on the blast-off stands of some God-forsaken satellite. He staggered back into his watch room. And his brain was suddenly taken apart and slapped together again. Felt that way.
 
 She was sitting on his bunk. No three-tailed mouse. No Old Woman either. Oh, she was a female human, though, this creature at which O'Rielly stood gaping. Yes, ma'am!
 
 "I was in your burner room." Her voice matched the rest of her, a blend of loveliness unlike anything outside a guy's most secret dreams. "I couldn't stand the heat any longer and I couldn't open that big door. So I moved one of your controls a tiny bit. All the noise in there, naturally you couldn't hear me walk out while your back was turned resetting the control."
 
 

 
 O'Rielly suddenly felt like turning her over his knee and whaling her until she couldn't sit for a year. This, mind you, he felt in an age where no Earth guy for a thousand years had dared raise so much as a breath against woman's supremacy in all matters. That male character trait, however, did not seem to be the overpowering reason why O'Rielly, instead of laying violent hands upon this one's person, heard himself saying in sympathetic outrage, "A shame you had to go to all that bother to get out here!"
 
 "You're so kind. But I'm afraid I became rather sticky and smelly in there."
 
 "They ought to cool the air in there with perfume! I'll drop a suggestion in the Old Woman's box first chance I get."
 
 "You're so thoughtful. And do you have bathing facilities?"
 
 "That door right there. Oh, let me open it for you!"
 
 "You're so sweet." Her big dark eyes glowed with such pure innocence that O'Rielly could have torn down the universe and rebuilt it just for her.
 
 Yes, ma'am, O'Rielly was floating on a pink cloud with heavenly music in his head. Never felt so fine before. Except on the Venus layover when he'd been roped into a dice game with a bunch of Venus lads who had a jug to cheer one's parting with one's money.
 
 A bell suddenly clanged fit to wake the dead while the overhead lights flashed wildly. Only the watch room door. Only Callahan here now. Old buzzard had a drooped nose like a pick, chin like a shovel.
 
 When he talked he was like digging a hole in front of himself. "Well, what about that control?"
 
 "What control?"
 
 "Your fusion control that got itself two points low!"
 
 "Oh, that little thing."
 
 Callahan said something through his teeth, then studied O'Rielly sharply. "Hey, you been wetting your whistle on that Venus vino again? Lemme smell your breath! Bah. Loaded yourself full of chlorophyll again probably. All right, stand aside whilst I see your burner."
 
 "Charmed to, Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly said while bowing gracefully.
 
 "Higher than a swacked skunk's tail again," Callahan muttered, then snapped back over his shoulder, "Use your shower!"
 
 O'Rielly stood considering his shower door. Somehow he doubted that Burner Chief Terrence Callahan's mood, or Captain Millicent Hatwoody's, would be improved by knowledge of she who was in O'Rielly's shower now. Not that the dear stowaway was less than charming. Quite the contrary. Oh, very quite!
 
 "You rockhead!" Only Callahan back from the burner. "Didn't I tell you to shower the stink off yourself? Old Woman's taking a Venus bigwig on tour the ship. Old Woman catches you like you been rassling skunks she'll peel both our hides off. Not to mention what she'll do anyway about your fusion control!"
 
 "Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly responded courteously, "I have been thinking."
 
 "With what? Never mind, just keep on trying whilst I have a shower for myself here." Wherewith Callahan reached hand for O'Rielly's shower door.
 
 "Venus dames," O'Rielly said dreamily, "don't boss anything, do they?"
 
 Callahan yelped like he'd been bit in the pants by a big Jupiter ant.
"O'Rielly! You trying to get both of us condemned to a Uranus moon?" Callahan also shot a wild look to the intercom switch. It was in OFF position; the flight room full of fancy gold-lace petticoats could not have overheard from here. Nevertheless Callahan's eyes rolled like the devil was behind him with the fork ready. "O'Rielly, open your big ears whilst for your own good and mine I speak of certain matters.
 
 "Thousand years ago, it was, the first flight reached Venus. Guys got one look at them dames. Had to bring some home or bust. So then everybody on Earth got a look, mostly by TV only of course. That did it. Every guy on Earth began blowing his fuse over them dames. Give up the shirt off his back, last buck in the bank, his own Earth dame or family—everything.
 
 "Well, that's when Earth dames took over like armies of wild cats with knots in their tails. Before the guys who'd brought the Venus dames to Earth could say anything they was taken apart too small to pick up with a blotter. Earth dames wound up by flying the Venus ones back where they come from and serving notice if one ever set foot on Earth again there wouldn't be enough left of Venus to find with an electron microscope.
 
 

 
 "Venus boys rared up and served notice that if Earth ever got any funny notions, right away there wouldn't be enough Earth left to hide in an atom's eyebrow. Touchy as hornets on a hot griddle, them Venus guys. Crazier than bed bugs about war. Could smell a loose dollar a million light years away too. Finagled around until they finally cooked up a deal.
 
 "No Venus dames allowed within fifty miles of their port. Earth guys stay inside the high-voltage fence. Any dame caught trying to leave Venus thrown to the tigers for supper. Same for any Earth guy caught around a Venus dame. In return, Earth could buy practically everything at bargain basement prices."
 
 "Oh, I was shown the history films in pre-flight," O'Rielly said, still dreamily. "But not a peek of any Venus dame."
 
 "Pray heaven you'll never lay eyes on one nor have one get within ten foot of you! Even though you'd know she'd be your damnation wouldn't make a whit difference—you'd still act sappier than thirty-seven angels flying on vino." Callahan suddenly stared at O'Rielly. "Holy hollering saints!"
 
 "Now, now, Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly responded with an airy laugh. "No Earth guy for a hundred twenty-five years been near one and lived to tell it, has he?"
 
 "So the whispers run," Callahan murmured with a queer flame dancing into his eyes. "So the old whispers still run."
 
 "Never a name, though. Never how it was done." O'Rielly snorted.
"Probably just a goofy tale set loose by some old space bum."
 
 "Oh?" Callahan bristled up like a bad name had been bandied about.
"Seen them ditty bags Venus bigwigs have, ain't you? Some big enough to stuff a cow in. Notice how nobody ever dares question a bigwig's bags, even through customs? Just run 'em through the big Geiger that tells whether there's any fusionable junk inside. Well, our boy got himself one of them bags, stuffed himself inside and joined a bigwig's pile of
'em.
 
 "Didn't pull it whilst on the Venus port during a layover either, when a crew check would of turned him up missing. Pulled it on vacation. Started on the Earth end. Made himself a pair of beards to paste on his ears of course. Wove Jupiter wiggle worms in to keep the beards moving. Wasn't like the real thing, but good enough to flimflam Venus guys."
 
 With suddenly enlivened interest O'Rielly looked at Callahan. "Hey, how come you know so much?"
 
 "Hah? What?" Callahan blinked like waking from a trance; even groaned to himself, something that sounded like, "Blabbering like I'd had a nip myself—or one of them dillies was radiating nearby." Then Callahan glared fit to drill holes in O'Rielly's head. "Look! I was a full Burnerman before you was born. Been flying the spaces hundred twenty-five years now. Had more chances to hear more—just hear more, you hear! Only tried to clear your mind about Venus dames so you could put your brain on your control mess. So now put it! If you ain't high on vino and ain't been made nuts by a Venus dame, what answer do we feed the Old Woman?"
 
 "Search me," Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly responded cheerfully.
 
 "Of all the loony apprentices I ever had to answer the Old Woman for! Awp, lemme out where I can think of something to save me own neck at least!"
 
 Was all O'Rielly could do to keep from rolling on the deck with glee. Old Callahan had been flimflammed for fair! The dear little stowaway was saved! And O'Rielly would now think of grand ways to save her lovely neck and his own forever.
 
 O'Rielly's shower door, however, opened abruptly. O'Rielly had not opened it. O'Rielly, however, suffered a cruel stab of dismay. Surely his dear stowaway had been listening through the door. Why didn't she have brains enough to stay hid until Callahan was gone!
 
 At sight of her, of course, Callahan's eyes near popped from his old head. "Berta!"
 
 "Oh, I'm Trillium," she assured Callahan sweetly. "But Grandmamma's name is Berta and people say I'm just like she was a hundred and twenty-five years ago."
 
 

 
 "Hah? What?" Callahan blinked like his brain had been taken apart and was being slapped together again. "O'Rielly! Awp, you angel-faced pirate, couldn't you hide her somewheres better than that? Shut up, you don't have to explain to me, but God help the whole universe if we don't flimflam the Old Woman!" With which ominous remark, rendered in a zesty devil-may-care manner, however, Callahan threw himself into O'Rielly's shower.
 
 O'Rielly stood looking thoughtfully at lovely, womanly, exquisite Trillium. Just like that, O'Rielly felt as sparkling of mind as a spiral nebula. "My locker!" he crowed with inspiration and yanked open the doors under his bunk. He glimpsed a black ditty bag, also the cap and coverall uniform of a baggage boy.
 
 "I threw them in there before you came on duty before blast-off," Trillium explained. "I knew the burner room would be warm."
 
 Trillium—with her shape—passing as a boy hustling bags through this ship. O'Rielly chortled as he tucked her under his bunk. "Now don't you worry about another thing!"
 
 "Oh, I'm not," she assured him happily. "Everything is going just the way Grandmamma knew it would!"
 
 O'Rielly's shower opened and Callahan, glowing like a young bucko, bounced onto the bunk. "Well, did you hide her good this time? No, don't tell me! I want to be surprised if the Old Woman ever finds her."
 
 "If what old woman finds whom?" a voice like thin ice crackling wanted to know.
 
 The watch room's door had opened. Wouldn't think the Old Woman was a day over seventy-five, let alone near two hundred. Cut of her uniform probably lent a helping hand or three to the young snap of her figure. Frosty blue of fancy hair-do, she was, though, and icy of eye as she looked at O'Rielly and Callahan still lolling on the bunk.
 
 Her voice was an iceberg exploding. "At attention!"
 
 Never in his right mind would any crewman dare fail to come stiffly erect the instant the Old Woman appeared. Behind her stood a colorfully robed specimen of Venus man. Handsome as the devil himself. Fit to snap lesser men in two with his highly bejeweled hands. Fuzzy beards trailed from his ears and kept twitching lazily as he sneered at the spectacle of two men meekly acknowledging the superiority of a woman.
 
 She was fit to put frost on a hydrogen burner. "Mr. Callahan, I asked you a question, did I not?"
 
 "Believe you did, ma'am," Callahan responded cheerfully. "And the answer is, ma'am, that Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly and me was discussing—ah—matrimony, ma'am. Mr. Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly here is considering it, ma'am."
 
 Wasn't too bad a fib. The more O'Rielly thought of Trillium, the more ideas he got of doing things he'd never dreamt of before in his life. Yes, ma'am!
 
 "Wasting your time talking nonsense!" Old Woman's look was fit to freeze O'Rielly's brain, then she gave Callahan the look. "I sent you down here to find the answer to that fusion control slippage!"
 
 "Oh, you'll have the best answer you ever heard of before long, ma'am!" Callahan assured her heartily. "The subject of nonsense—I mean, women—merely chanced to arise whilst we was scientifically analyzing the control phenomenon, ma'am. Naturally I offered this innocent young Burnerman the benefit of me long years of experience. Why," Callahan said with a jaunty laugh, "dames mean nothing to me. Indeed 'twouldn't bother me none if there wasn't one of the things left in the world! Present company excepted, of course," Callahan hastened to say with a courtly bow.
 
 "Stay at attention!" Old Woman sniffed the air near Callahan's face, then in O'Rielly's vicinity. "Smothered it with chlorophyll probably," she muttered through her teeth, "if it is that vino." Something horrible as a plague flickered in her eyes, then the old ice was there again. "Apprentice Burnerman, don't you know what your shower is for? Then use it! Mr. Callahan, remain at attention while I inspect this burner!" She tendered a cool glance at the Venus bigwig. "Care to join me, Your Excellency?"
 
 "May as well." His Excellency glanced at O'Rielly and Callahan much as he might at a couple of worms. Could bet your last old sox no female ever told any Venus man what to do.
 
 The shower units were equipped so no Burnerman need be more than two steps from his responsibility. To keep the Old Woman from possibly blowing her gaskets completely, O'Rielly simply stepped in, shut the door, flipped a switch and tingled as he was electronically cleansed of person and clothes. By time he finished, the Old Woman and His Excellency were already coming out of the burner room, dripping with sweat.
 
 Old Woman opened the shower with her customary commanding air. "You first, Your Excellency."
 
 "My dear Captain," His Excellency replied like a smoothly drawn dagger,
"always the lesser gender enjoys precedence."
 
 No Earth dame ever admitted any guy was even equal to any female. Old Woman, a prime symbol of her gender's superiority, whipped a razor edge onto her own words. "Facilities of the Captain's quarters are more satisfactory."
 
 "No more so than those of the Ambassadorial Suite."
 
 

 
 Seeming to grind her teeth, the Old O Woman turned abruptly to leave O'Rielly's watch room. Was all O'Rielly could do to keep from busting out laughing for joy.
 
 Old Woman had been flimflammed for fair! Dear Trillium was saved! And betwixt O'Rielly's grand brain and Callahan's great experience she'd be happy forever.
 
 A fine loud "thump," however, was now heard. Old Woman whirled back and yanked open the doors under O'Rielly's bunk.
 
 "Of all the sappy hiding places!" Callahan yelped, in surprise of course.
 
 "Trillium?" His Excellency bellowed as if stung by one of the sabre-tailed hornets of his native planet. "Trillium!"
 
 "Trillium," O'Rielly pleaded in loving anguish, "why do you have to keep coming out of hiding just when nobody's going to find you?"
 
 Her eyes merely became deep pools in which O'Rielly would have gladly drowned himself if he could.
 
 

 
 "There are rewards," the Old Woman said with the deadly coldness of outer space, "for Earthmen found in a Venus woman's company, and for her leaving her planet."
 
 "Shut up!" His Excellency's ear beards were standing straight out sideways. "I'll handle this!"
 
 "May I remind His Excellency," the Old Woman snapped, "that I represent Earth and her dominion of space gained by right of original flight!"
 
 "May I remind the Captain," His Excellency declared fit to be heard back to his planet, "that I am the Personal Ambassador of the President of Venus and this thing can mean war!"
 
 "Yes! War in which people will actually die!" As His Excellency paled at that grisly remark, the Old Woman spoke through her teeth at O'Rielly, Callahan and Trillium. "All right, come along!"
 
 O'Rielly joined the death march gladly. He felt the way Callahan looked: ready to wrap his arms around Trillium's brave loveliness and protect it to his last breath of life.
 
 Old Woman led the way to her office. Jabbed some buttons on her desk. Panels on opposite walls lit up.
 
 "Presidents of Earth and Venus, please," the Old Woman stated evenly.
"Interplanetary emergency."
 
 Highly groomed flunkies appeared on the panels and were impersonally pleasant.
 
 "Madame President's office. She is in a Cabinet meeting."
 
 "Mr. President's office. He is in personal command of our glorious war efforts."
 
 Old Woman sighed through her teeth. "Venus woman aboard this ship. Stowaway. Rattle that around your belfries."
 
 The flunkies' faces went slack with shock, then were replaced by a blizzard of scrambled faces and torrents of incoherent voices.
 
 Finally on the Earth panel appeared the famous classic features. "The facts, if you please, Captain Hatwoody."
 
 The Venus panel finally held steady on universally notorious features, that were as fierce as an eagle's, in a fancy war helmet. "Trillium! My own granddaughter? Impossible! Dimdooly," Mr. President roared at his Excellency, "what's this nonsense?"
 
 "Some loud creature is interfering," Madame President snapped with annoyance.
 
 "Blasted fools still have the circuits crossed," Mr. President swore.
"Some silly female cackling now!"
 
 The parties in the panels saw each other now. Each one's left hand on a desk moved toward a big red button marked, ROCKETS.
 
 "So," Mr. President said evenly. "Another violation by your Earthmen."
 
 "By your granddaughter, at least," Madame President replied coolly.
 
 "An innocent child," Mr. President snapped, "obviously kidnapped by those two idiotic Earthmen there!"
 
 "Oh, no, Grandpapa," Trillium said swiftly; "I stole away all by myself, and Mr. O'Rielly and Callahan have been very helpful."
 
 "Impossible!" Grandpapa President's ear beards stood near straight up as he roared, "You couldn't have stolen away by yourself! Trillium, tell the truth!"
 
 "Very well. Grandmamma told me how."
 
 

 
 "Obviously Trillium's poor little brain has been drugged," His Excellency Dimdooly declared. "Grandmamma Berta wouldn't know the first thing about such things!"
 
 "Impossible!" Grandpapa President agreed. "I've been married to her for a hundred and twenty-four and a half years and she's the finest rattle-brain I ever knew!"
 
 "She learned," Trillium stated emphatically, "a hundred and twenty-five years ago."
 
 "Hundred twenty-five," Grandpapa president growled like a boiling volcano. "The year some Earthman.... Never did catch the devil.... Berta? Impossible!"
 
 Madame President's shapely finger now rested full on the button that could launch the fleets of war rockets that had been pre-aimed for a thousand years. "I'm afraid your Ambassador is unwelcome now," Madame President stated coolly. "Your granddaughter's actions have every mark of an invasion tactic by your government."
 
 "What do you mean, her actions?" Grandpapa President's finger now lay poised on the button that had been waiting a thousand years to blow Earth out of the universe. "My grandchild was kidnapped by men under your official command! Weren't you, Trillium dear?"
 
 "No. One of us stowing away was the only way we Venus women could bring our cause to the attention of Earth's President. If Earth will only stop buying from Venus, you won't have any money to squander on your wars any longer no matter what happens to we revolutionaries!"
 
 "Revolutionaries? Such claptrap! And what's wrong with my wars? People have to have something to keep their minds off their troubles! Nobody around here gets hurt. Oh, maybe a few scratches here and there. But nobody on Venus dies from the things any more."
 
 "But Venus men are so excited all the time about going to war they haven't time for us women. That's why we always radiated such a fatal attraction for Earthmen. We want to be loved! We want our own men home doing useful work!"
 
 "Well, they do come home and do useful work! Couple weeks every ten months. Proven to be a highly efficient arrangement."
 
 "More boys to run off to your old wars and more girls to stay home and be lonely!"
 
 "Now you just listen to me, Trillium!" Grandpapa President was all Venus manhood laying down the law. "That's the way things have been on Venus for ten thousand years and all the women in the universe can't change it!"
 
 "I have been in constant contact with my Cabinet during these conversations," Madame President said crisply. "Earth is terminating all trade agreements with Venus as of this instant."
 
 "What?" Grandpapa's beards near pulled his ears off. "It's not legal! You can't get away with this!"
 
 "Take your finger off that trigger, boy!" a heavenly voice similar to Trillium's advised from the Venus panel.
 
 Whereupon Grandpapa glared to one side. "Berta! What are you doing here? I am deciding matters of the gravest interplanetary nature!"
 
 "Were." Features more beautifully mature than Trillium's crowded onto the panel too. "From now on I'm doing the deciding."
 
 "Nonsense! You're only my wife!"
 
 "And new President of Venus, elected by unanimous vote of all women."
 
 "Impossible! The men run Venus! Nobody's turning this planet into another Earth where a man can't even sneeze unless some woman says so!"
 
 "Take him away, girls," Berta ordered coolly, whereupon her spouse was yanked from view.
 
 His bellows, however, could be heard yet. "Unhand me, you fool creatures! Guards! Guards!"
 
 "Save your breath," Berta advised him. "And while you're in the cooler, enjoy this latest batch of surrender communiques. We women are in control everywhere now."
 
 "Dimmy," Trillium was saying firmly to His Excellency, "you have beat around the bush with me long enough. Now say it!"
 
 

 
 Dimdooly—the mighty, the lordly, who had sneered at the sight of mere Earthmen kowtowing to a mere woman—swelled up fit to blow his gaskets, then all the gas went out of him. His ear beards, however, still had enough zip left to flutter like butterflies. "Yes, Trillium dear. I love only you. Please marry me at your earliest convenience."
 
 "Well, Grandmamma," Trillium said with a highly self-satisfied air, "it works. And just like you said, Earthmen meant nothing once I knew we Venus women had our own men in our power."
 
 "Those crewmen there," Grandmamma President said, "seem to be proof enough that we Venus women no longer radiate any threat to Earth's tranquility."
 
 Yes, ma'am, O'Rielly sure felt like proof of something all of a sudden. Worse than the hangover from that crap game with Venus vino. He looked away from Trillium and took a look at Callahan. Old guy looked away from Grandmamma President like he was packing the second biggest headache in history.
 
 "Hmmmm, yes," Madame President of Earth observed. "Reactions agree perfectly with the psychoanalytical research project we have been conducting on the subject of the Venus female influence. Madame President of Venus, congratulations on your victory!
 
 "Long may the superior sex reign on Venus too! We shall be delighted to receive an Ambassadoress to discuss a new trade treaty at your earliest convenience."
 
 "Thank you for cancelling the old trade agreements at the psychological moment," Grandmamma President said cordially. "What with the communications mixup, we managed to have the scenes on these panels broadcast throughout all Venus. When the rug went out from under the top man, the tide really turned in our favor. Now, Trillium, you take over Dimmy's credentials."
 
 "The Ambassadorial Suite, too," Madame President of Earth said graciously. "Anything else now, Berta?"
 
 "I should like," Grandmamma President Berta said charmingly, "that Mr. O'Rielly and Mr. Callahan be suitably rewarded for assisting our revolution better than they knew."
 
 "Of course," Madame President of Earth was delighted to oblige. "No doubt Captain Hatwoody knows what reward would satisfy their needs best."
 
 The Madame Presidents switched to a private circuit, Trillium dragged Dimdooly off somewhere and the Old Woman eyed O'Rielly and Callahan. Especially she eyed Callahan, like running chilled drills through his old conniving brain. "I award the pair of you five minutes leisure before returning to your stations."
 
 "Oh, well," O'Rielly muttered, once he and Callahan were safely beyond earshot, "could have been rewarded worse, I suppose."
 
 "What you expect for being flimflammed by a foreign dame, the rings of Saturn? Lucky we ain't programmed to be hung, shot and thrown to the crows for breakfast." Callahan's old pick-and-shovel face wore a little grin like the cat that nobody could prove ate the canary.
 
 "You—I mean, that Earth guy a hundred twenty-five years ago," O'Rielly said in sudden thought. "If Venus dames wanted to be loved so bad, why did Trillium's Grandmamma let him go?"
 
 "Venus guys wasn't so busy playing war all the time," Callahan mumbled, like to himself, "they'd of found out the answer centuries ago. Yep, guess our boy was the only guy on Earth or Venus to find out and live. Dames bossing both planets now, though, his old secret won't be one much longer. Venus dames could of let it out centuries ago themselves but didn't, just to spite Earth probably. Later, was part of organizing to take over Venus, I guess."
 
 O'Rielly still had memories of the way he had felt about Trillium before her revolution. "All right, Callahan, why did 'our boy' leave Grandmamma?"
 
 "Yes, ma'am," Callahan sighed like he hadn't heard a word O'Rielly said, "you could sweet-talk 'em, kiss 'em and hold 'em tighter'n Billy-be-damned. And that's all."
 
 "I'm not sure," O'Rielly said, "what you mean by, 'that's all.'"
 
 "Anybody ever seen anybody but a Venus guy come built with ear beards? Course not."
 
 "But I thought our boy was wearing the best fakes ever."
 
 "Ain't nothing can match the natural growed-on variety, no, ma'am. Venus guy kisses a Venus dame, his beards grabs her roundst the ears."
 
 "So what?"
 
 "Tickles 'em, boy, tickles 'em!"
What is the plot of the story?
8
5d3bde27efb84c909397d15ea035bcd0
O’Rielly is an apprentice maintaining Burner Four during his first flight on a spaceship traveling between Venus and Earth. The story begins when his supervisor, Burner Chief Callahan, alerts O’Rielly that one of the controls on his burner has slipped, so he sets about resetting the controls to prevent the ship from crashing when it starts its descent toward Earth. He searches his watch room and around the burner looking for a mouse or anyone who might have moved the control. He thinks about Captain Millicent Hatwoody, the ship’s commander nicknamed “Old Woman”, and worries she will exile him to a distant moon if she discovers the issue. During his search, he discovers a stowaway Venusian woman named Trillium on his bunk bed, and she tells him she had moved the control in order to escape the burner room where she was hiding. O’Rielly is struck by her beauty and allows her to shower in his bathroom. While she is showering, Callahan to interrogate O’Rielly and instructs him to take a shower because Captain Hatwoody is bringing a guest to tour the facilities. He reminds O’Rielly of the history of the Earth women’s supremacy over men, which began as a response to the Earth men’s infatuation with Venusian women. When they established dominance, the Earth women returned the Venusian women to their planet. Consequently, the Venusian men warned of war if any Earth men attempted to contact Venusian women. For their part, Venusian women would be killed if they tried to leave. To soften the threat, Venus agreed to let Earth purchase products at a lower cost. O’Rielly reminds Callahan that no Earth man has seen a Venusian woman in 125 years, and Callahan tells the story—an Earth man disguised himself as a Venusian in order to visit his love, a Venusian woman named Berta. When Trillium returns, she reveals that she is Berta’s granddaughter. She hides again before Captain Hatwoody arrives. The captain and her guest, a Venusian ambassador named Dimdooly, investigate the burner, and their interactions reveal conflicting attitudes towards gender superiority on Earth versus Venus. As they leave, Trillium reveals herself, and Dimdooly recognizes her as the Venusian president’s granddaughter. Captain Hatwoody then calls the presidents of both planets, who begin to blame each other and threaten war. Trillium explains that it was Berta, the president’s wife, who taught her how to stowaway, as she had done so herself 125 years prior. She reveals her purpose for stowing away was to draw attention to her revolutionary vision—to convince Earth to stop purchasing products from Venus, thus stopping their cash flow to fund wars. She explains the wars distract Venusian men, and that is why the women are attracted to Earth men. While the president balks, his wife orders him to step aside as she has been elected new President of Venus, and the Venusian women are taking over. Trillium is rewarded with Dimdooly’s ambassadorship, and Callahan and O’Rielly are sent back to work. 
10
6a93bfad19fc47c0b3be67cc7dd530fc
O’Rielly is an Apprentice Burnerman in charge of the burners of the craft. He is surprised when one of them has a fusion control two points low in flight since he thought he had set everything correctly prior to takeoff.

He discovers a female from Venus stowing away on the ship. O’Rielly does not view women of power with respect, but he treats this woman differently and is attracted to her. There is a gender-based arrangement where women from Venus are no longer allowed on Earth, so her presence is highly illegal.

Callahan (O’Rielly’s superior) comes into the room and discovers the woman from Venus, thinking she is named Berta. Berta was the grandmother of the stowaway, who is actually named Trillium. She hides under the bed in the room, just as the Captain and Ambassador step in to see what is the problem with the burner. They look at the burner personally, and then discover Trillium before leaving the room.

Captain calls an interplanetary emergency and both the President of Earth and of Venus are brought into conference call. Trillium is the granddaughter of the President of Venus. The President of Venus has been married to Trillium’s grandmother (Berta) for 124.5 years. The President of Venus tries to convince Trillium that people from Earth stole her away, but Trillium is clear that she learned from Berta (his wife) how to execute her plan. Trillium was raising awareness to Earth to stop trade with Venus to stop funding their wars.

The President of Earth cancels all trade with Venus. Berta becomes the new President of Venus through a unanimous vote. There are only females on the planet to vote, as all Venus men are at war for 10 months at a time with only 2 weeks home inbetween. Her husband is furious and does not believe women should hold power.

Ambassador Dimdooly proposes marriage to Trillium aboard the spaceship. The President of Earth welcomes the idea of a female ambassador travelling Earth to create a new trade treaty. Trillium is given the role of the new Personal Ambassador in Dimdooly’s place.

The Captain is tasked with giving O’Rielly and Callahan a suitable reward for “aiding in the revolution”. She chooses five minutes of leisure before they must return to their duties.

9
97db776f57a04d6b84147d5141024a23
The story takes place aboard a spaceship, at a distant point in the future when women rule Earth, men rule Venus, and the two planets have a tenuous relationship based on old economic treaties, restrictions, and fears they have about one another. Apprentice Burnerman O’Rielly can’t figure out how one of the burners he was in charge of on a spaceship had a control slip, until he discovers that it was caused by a stowaway: a beautiful woman from Venus, who has a strange and powerful effect on O’Rielly. 

He tries to keep her hidden but she is discovered by his superior, Callahan, who seems to know a lot about the last Earth man to stow away to Venus 125 years ago, and who mistakes the stowaway, Trillium, for her own grandmother, Berta. Trillium seems to want to be found, and is soon revealed to the ship’s Captain, Millicent Hatwoody, and an ambassador from Venus, Dimdooly. Hatwoody alerts the presidents of both Earth and Venus to the situation, and they disagree about what has happened and whose fault it is. The president of Earth thinks Trillium stowing away on an Earth vessel is tantamount to an act of war, while the president of Venus (Trillium’s grandfather) thinks she must have been kidnapped by the Earth men on the ship.

Trillium clarifies that she intentionally stowed away, with help from her grandmother, Berta, in order to ask the president of Earth to stop buying anything from Venus. The women of Venus want the men to stop leaving to fight in wars that the male-dominated government make up reasons to start just to keep the men occupied, and they want Earth to stop funding the wars. As her grandfather is telling Trillium that things are going to stay as they are, the Earth president says she has dissolved all trade with Venus, and Berta enters her husband’s office and announces that the women of Venus have unanimously voted for Berta to take over the presidency and women to unseat the men from power. She has her female enforcers remove her husband. 

On the spaceship, Dimdooly tells Trillium that he loves her and proposes. She is then given his ambassadorship. O’Rielly and Callahan, heavily implied to be the man who stowed away to Venus 125 years ago and met Berta, are no longer under the Venus woman trance, and now the men of Venus are. As the presidents of Venus and Earth congratulate and thank each other, Berta asks that O’Rielly and Callahan be rewarded for accidentally helping with their plan. Captain Hatwoody awards them each five minutes of leisure time, and Callahan thinks they’re lucky to be alive. 

As the story ends, O’Rielly gets Callahan to tell him why the women of Venus didn’t keep him there if they were lonely, and Callahan reveals that because he didn’t have the “earth beards” that men of Venus have to clutch and tickle the women’s ears, he wasn’t of much use to them. 

2
d8b5da85f26d4a0b8b78baa6a108dc9a
Apprentice Burnerman O’Rielly discovers that one of the burners he is responsible for has been reset, but he can’t figure out how that happened since no one has passed through his room outside the burner room to get to it. When he returns to his watch room, a beautiful woman from Venus is on his bunk. She explains that she changed the setting because she was in the burner room and couldn’t open the door when it grew too warm for her. 

O’Rielly’s superior, Chief Callahan, arrives to see what caused the problem. Callahan discovers the woman from Venus. He reminds O’Rielly that the first flight from Earth to Venus was made one thousand years ago, and the men from Earth immediately fell in love with the women from Venus and brought some of them back to Earth. Women on Earth were angered by the Earthmen’s behaviors and took over the control of Earth. They took the Venus women back to Venus and warned that there would be a war if any of them came back to Earth. The last time an Earthman was near a Venus woman was 125 years ago when he stuffed himself into a luggage bag and made himself a pair of fake ear beards with worms in them to make them move so he could pass himself off as a Venus man. 

The girl from Venus steps out of the shower, and Callahan calls her “Berta,” but she says her name is “Trillium” and that her grandmother’s name is Berta. Trillium is said to look just as Berta did 125 years ago. O’Rielly hides Trillium under his cot just before Captain Hatwoody enters to check on the burner problem. She is also escorting the Dimdooly, the Personal Assistant of the President of Venus, on a ship tour. Just as the Ambassador and Hatwoody are leaving, Trillium makes a loud bump, and they discover her. The Ambassador is certain she has been kidnapped, but Trillium explains that she stowed away.

Hatwoody takes everyone to her office where she calls the presidents of both Earth and Venus. The president of Venus is Trillium’s grandfather. He says she couldn’t have stolen away on her own and demands the truth, so she explains that her grandmother, his wife, told her how to do it. Trillium explains she stowed away to bring the cause of the Venus women to Earth’s attention. She wants Earth to stop trading with Venus so that Venus won’t have the money to keep sending its men to wars for all but two weeks every year. The Venus president’s wife interrupts and declares she’s taking over the presidency; she orders her women to take her husband away and appoints Trillium her new ambassador. O’Rielly realizes Callahan was the last Earthman to meet a Venus woman in person and was the one who tried to stow away to Venus. He was caught because his fake ear beards didn’t grab hold of Berta’s ears like real ones do.

Describe the setting of the story.
8
5d3bde27efb84c909397d15ea035bcd0
The story takes place on a spaceship that shuttles between Earth and Venus. The ship is commanded by Captain Hatwoody, a stern woman who represents the matriarchy that has taken over Earth. The majority of the story’s narrative happens in Apprentice Burnerman O’Rielly’s watch room. This is a simple room equipped with a bunk bed and bathing facilities, which includes a shower. From this room, he is able to maintain careful stewardship of Burner Four, which helps power the ship. When Callahan notifies O’Rielly that one of his controls has slipped, O’Rielly investigates the burner to find the culprit of the situation. After he discovers Trillium, she uses his bathing facilities to wash herself of the stink from the burner room where she was stowing away. After Callahan enters the watch room and learns of Trillium’s presence, he encourages her to hide again because of Captain Hatwoody’s impending visit. She hides beneath O’Rielly’s bunk. After Captain Hatwoody and her guest, Ambassador Dimdooly, stumble upon Trillium, the captain demands that they all follow her to her office. In her office, she convenes a conference with the presidents of Earth and Venus. After Berta—Trillium’s grandmother, the wife of the current Venusian president, and Callahan’s former love interest—reveals herself as the new ruler of Venus, O’Rielly and Callahan are given a five-minute break and sent back to their former duties managing the burners below.
10
6a93bfad19fc47c0b3be67cc7dd530fc
The story takes place on a spacecraft led by the female Captain Hatwoody. The main settings are in O’Rielly’s bunk room, shower, burner room four, and the command center of the craft. It is described as quite a large ship with many rooms and crew. The craft is on a mission to deliver the Personal Ambassador to the President of Venus to Earth from the planet of Venus. The spacecraft is in transit during the story, and there are no settings on either of the planets themselves, only the ship.

9
97db776f57a04d6b84147d5141024a23
The setting of the story includes multiple areas of a spaceship, including one of its burner rooms, the watch room, bunk, locker, and shower of O’Rielly, and Captain Hatwoody’s office. The ship is in outer space, approaching but not yet within Earth’s orbit. Several other locations are described, either involving characters who are communicating remotely (the presidents of Earth and Venus talking to Captain Hatwoody from their offices on their respective planets via video panels), or describing past events (Callahan describing his adventures stowing away while on vacation and traveling to Venus). Several past events are also discussed that include Earth, Venus, and/or spacecrafts. The story is set over 1,000 years in the future. 

2
d8b5da85f26d4a0b8b78baa6a108dc9a
The story is set on an Earth spaceship in the future one thousand years after Earth completed its first successful flight to Venus. It specifically starts in Burnerman O’Rielly’s watch room outside burner room number four for which he is responsible. The ship is returning to Earth, and burner number four has a fusion control reading that is two points low. This can cause the ship to crash on landing. The ship has futuristic features including an electronic shower that can cleanse a person and his clothes in a matter of minutes and video conference calls. On the initial flight from Earth to Venus, the Earthmen discovered the beauty of the Venus women and immediately fell in love with them. They took some Venus women back to Earth, and men there abandoned everything, even their wives and families, to try to be with the Venus women. Earth women were angry at how the men acted and took control of the planet; they also sent all the Venus women back to their home planet. Now Earth and Venus trade with each other, but Earthmen and Venus women are not allowed to be together because doing so can spark a war between the two planets. Earth has a female president, and women hold all the positions of authority over men. Venus has a male president who is very traditional and does not agree with the women of Venus that their men need to be home for more than two weeks every year and spend the rest of their time fighting in wars. Venus men look down on Earthmen for being subservient to women.
What is the relationship between Callahan and Berta throughout the story?
8
5d3bde27efb84c909397d15ea035bcd0
Callahan is Burner Chief on the ship and has been flying as a professional Burnerman for 125 years. Berta is the first lady of Venus, and the grandmother of Trillium. When O’Rielly is trying to hide Trillium in his shower, Callahan tells the story of when women first took control of Earth: They were not pleased that Earth men were so entranced by Venusian women, and so they took over leadership of the planet and sent all Venusian women back to their own planet. Likewise, Venusian men banned Earth men from interacting with Venusian women under threat of war. This led to an agreement where Earth and Venus could conduct trade together for cheaper prices. Callahan suggests that he was the last man to touch a Venusian woman, and he did so by hiding himself inside a large bag and sneaking through customs disguised as a Venusian man with a long, fake beard. The woman he was sneaking in to see turned out to be Berta, and Callahan says she ultimately rejected him because she could tell his beard was fake, and Venusian women loved to be tickled by real beards. 

10
6a93bfad19fc47c0b3be67cc7dd530fc
Callahan is a Burner Chief mechanic on the spaceship and has been working in space for 125 years. Berta is the grandmother of Trillium, the female stowaway from Venus. Berta stowed away on a spaceship 125 years ago.

Callahan thinks that Trillium is Berta when he first catches her in O’Rielly’s bunk room. Callahan appears to have had a history with Berta 125 years ago when she stowed away aboard a spaceship. 

Callahan and Berta do not interact often in the story, but Callahan is eager to be present when she is discovered by the Captain and to know how the situation will play out given that women from Venus are not allowed to travel to Earth.

9
97db776f57a04d6b84147d5141024a23
Callahan is an older officer aboard the ship, and Berta is an older woman of Venus, married to its longtime ruler. As Callahan references the tale of the Earth man who stowed away to Venus 125 years ago, it becomes clearer and clearer that he is likely the man in question. When he first sees Trillium, he mistakes her for Berta, and she says that she is her granddaughter but looks like Berta did 125 years earlier. It later turns out that Berta coached Trillium to use Callahan’s stowaway method (hiding in a ditty bag) for their plan. Though Callahan was as taken with Berta as O’Rielly is with Trillium, at the conclusion of the story we learn that Callahan was sent away from Venus due to his lack of ear beards, and resultant inability to tickle women’s ears. However, he always remembers Berta and assists her granddaughter, and after Berta is elected president she asks that he be rewarded for this. 

2
d8b5da85f26d4a0b8b78baa6a108dc9a
Callahan is the Earthman who is the last known man to interact with a Venus woman 125 years ago, and Berta is the Venus woman he fell for. He tells O’Rielly that the last Earth guy who tried to stay with a Venus woman hid in a large luggage bag to be shipped to Venus and attached to himself a pair of fake ear beards with Jupiter wiggle worms in them to make the beards move. At the time of the story, Callahan is O’Rielly’s commanding officer who catches O’Rielly with a Venus woman on the ship. When he sees the Venus woman, he calls her Berta, but Trillium explains that her grandmother is named Berta, and everyone says she looks just like her grandmother did 125 years ago. Callahan tries to prevent Captain Hatwoody from discovering Trillium is there; when she does make the discovery and contacts the presidents of Earth and Venus, the president of Venus confirms that Trillium is his granddaughter. Trillium reveals that her grandmother, Berta, explained to her how to stow away on the ship and that her grandmother was the Venus woman that the Earthman 125 years ago was trying to see. As the video conference continues, Berta enters the room where the president of Venus is and announces that she has been elected president of Venus by all the women on Venus and is replacing him. She also says that Callahan and O’Rielly are proof that Venus women are no longer a threat to Earth’s peace, and she asks the Earth president to reward them for their assistance in Venus’s revolution. Callahan reveals to O’Rielly that his disguise was discovered because his ear beards didn’t reach out and grab Berta around the ears when he kissed her.
What was Trillium’s plan as a stowaway on the ship?
8
5d3bde27efb84c909397d15ea035bcd0
Trillium is the granddaughter of the President of Venus and his wife, Berta. One-hundred twenty-five years ago, Berta learned from Callahan’s example how to stowaway and break the rules devised between the two planets. She taught her granddaughter how to do the same, so Trillium took this knowledge to implement her own plan. Trillium represents the women of Venus, who are tired of the lack of attention they receive from Venusian men; the men are far more interested in war and harbor misogynistic attitudes towards women. Likewise, the women rulers of Earth treat men as their inferiors as a result of their lust for Venusian women. When Trillium is discovered, this triggers a meeting between the two presidents of Earth and Venus, and the president of Earth announces that her presence on the ship signifies a breach in their rules. Therefore, the special arrangement between the two planets is ended, and Earth no longer recognizes Dimdooly’s ambassadorship. As the Venusian president resists, he also learns that his wife Berta has been elected the new President of Venus, and that women will now take over just as they did on Earth. She orders her husband to be taken away. After Dimdooly loses his position, he announces his love for Trillium, which confirms her plan to regain the amorous attentions of Venusian men has worked. As a reward for her role in the revolution, Trillium receives Dimdooly’s ambassadorship.

10
6a93bfad19fc47c0b3be67cc7dd530fc
She wanted to bring attention to her cause as a revolutionary and explain that if Earth would stop buying things from Venus, then they would stop funding Venus’ wars like they have been for the past 10,000 years. Trillium explains that women of Venus would like the men of Venus to instead remain on the planet and do useful work. 
However, it turns out that Trillium is part of a larger plan for her grandmother to overthrow her grandfather as President of Venus, which they succeed in doing.

9
97db776f57a04d6b84147d5141024a23
Trillium’s plan, which she undertook at her grandmother’s behest and with her assistance, was to stow away on the Earth ship to draw the Earth president’s attention to her cause. Berta and Trillium want to beseech Earth’s government to stop supporting Venus’s economy and funding their constant warfare. The women of Venus want the men of Venus to spend time with them rather than constantly going into battle, and Berta and Trillium have devised a way to get Earth to cooperate in their efforts to switch control of Venus from men to women. 

2
d8b5da85f26d4a0b8b78baa6a108dc9a
Trillium plans to follow her grandmother’s plan and stow away on the ship and travel to Earth. She stows away because that is the only way that the women of Venus can get the attention of Earth’s president. She wants Earth to agree to stop trade with Venus so that Venus will no longer have the money to keep its men in wars all the time. She claims that Venus men are so excited all the time about going to war that they don’t have time for the Venus women. It is the Venus women’s desire to be loved that makes them so irresistible to Earthmen. Although the Venus government allows its men two weeks at home from war each year, the Venus women want their men for longer than that so that the men can do useful work. As a result of the stowaway incident, the president of Earth cancels all trade agreements with Venus. Once Venus women have the Venus men under their power, they no longer have any interest in Earthmen. When Trillium’s grandmother becomes president of Venus, she makes Trillium the new Ambassador to Earth.
What is the relationship between Captain Hatwoody and Ambassador Dimdooly throughout the story?
8
5d3bde27efb84c909397d15ea035bcd0
Captain Hatwoody is the commander of the ship that ferries between Earth and Venus. She is a stern, efficient Earth woman with a vocal disdain for men. Behind her back, the men of her crew refer to her as “the Old Woman.” Ambassador Dimdooly is a Venusian who works as the right-hand man of the President of Venus. Similar to Hatwoody’s disgust for men, Ambassador Dimdooly harbors a deep-seated misogyny. Both characters’ innate sexism is reflected in the social orders of their individual planets and are the result of over one-hundred years of conflict. Captain Hatwoody plays gracious host to Ambassador Dimdooly when he visits the ship, even referring to him as “Excellency.” However, their tensions are revealed when together they inspect Burner Four after visiting O’Rielly in his watch room. They each make snarky comments to each other about the inferiority of the others’ respective gender. Their attitudes are reflected later during the confrontational meeting between the presidents of Earth and Venus in Captain Hatwoody’s office. These two characters’ interactions are essential in highlighting the gender conflict that explodes at the story’s end when both Earth and Venusian women solidify their rule over their respective planets.

10
6a93bfad19fc47c0b3be67cc7dd530fc
The male staff on the ship call Captain Hatwoody “Old Woman” and she is described in language that suggests she is cold and unfeeling. This appears to be a product of their failing to recognize her power as a superior and their discomfort with having a woman in charge. 
Ambassador Dimdooly is the Personal Ambassador to the President of Venus. He speaks down to the Captain as a “lesser gender”. After the discovery of Trillium he bades to handle it himself, because he knows that she is the granddaughter of the President and that her stowing away could be cause for war.
The Captain and the Ambassador have tense interactions. The Ambassador does not think the Captain should be in a position of power as a woman and looks down upon the male staff on the ship that stand at her command. 

9
97db776f57a04d6b84147d5141024a23
The relationship between Captain Hatwoody and Ambassador Dimdooly is a tense professional relationship between two high-ranking officials from societies with disparate cultural values and gender norms. Dimdooly is from Venus, where men are in control of the government and considered the dominant sex, and Hatwoody is from Earth, where the opposite is true. Dimdooly is an Ambassador being shown around the ship of which Hatwoody is the captain. Dimdooly appears to be disgusted at the male crew members taking orders from a woman, and he and the captain disagree about who should get “precedence” in terms of who will shower first and where based on which of them has the superior status. Their interactions are characterized by an icy civility throughout the story. 
2
d8b5da85f26d4a0b8b78baa6a108dc9a
Captain Hatwoody is giving Ambassador Dimdooly a tour of Earth’s ship. When Hatwoody orders Callahan and O’Rielly to attention, Dimdooly sneers at the sight of the two men being subservient to a woman. He acts as if he would never allow a woman to tell him what to do. He also refers to Hatwoody as “the lesser gender,” which shows that he considers himself superior to women. When Trillium is discovered on board, and Hatwoody starts to handle the situation, he tells Hatwoody to “shut up” and states that he will take care of the matter since he is the “Personal Ambassador of the President of Venus” and that the incident can lead to war between the two planets. When Berta takes over the presidency for Venus, Trillium orders Dimdooly to stop beating around the bush with her and say what he means, so Dimdooly confesses he loves Trillium and asks her to marry him at her earliest convenience. Trillium then states that Earthmen have no power over Venus women when Venus women have control over their Venus men.