Buck's best friend is Louisa "Lou" Dem Five, the asteroid-born madam of the Velvet Fist bordello. Lou is a former agent of the Planetary Temperance League, but finds her current profession more to her liking, and has successfully tempted several of her fellow agents to work for her. Her human-variant alteration gives her voluntary control over glands in her body that exude an intensely-powerful pheromone that can entice anyone (at least, anyone with a healthy sex drive). Lou has employed Buck on several occasions, usually surprised that he prefers payment in cash instead of "trade." Buck's response is generally that she is "too small", a reference to the fact that Hoffmanites are so large, heavy, and strong, once joking that they could have a go if she gained about 400 pounds.