Harry Harrison: Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers

She wriggled her hips deliciously and licked her full, moist lips while staring sensually from below half-lowered lids.

"Me or the CIA . . . ?"

"Grr," he growled, pulling her unresisting body to his, his clawed fingers sinking deep into her fulsome rump. "A gold ring in my ear and more hair than you ever saw before."

"And you won't mind if I join fem lib and picket segregated male toilets and things? I've had about enough of the second-class citizen get-your-ass-back-into-the-kitchen you-poor-little-thing around here."

"Put that ring in my nose for all I care, honey. I am yours for life."

"That is very sweet of you to say, and I won't forget it, but will keep it sort of fifty-fifty if we can. And what about you guys?" she asked, turning to the other pair of unabashed lovers.

"Back to school," they said together, then burst out laughing.

"I have a couple of more degrees I need," Jerry said,

"and I want to try out for the debating team."

"I have some more credits I need," Chuck added, "and I do really want to try out for the shot put. Can we room together, Jerry, honey?"

"Sure – I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Do you realize," John mused, looking at the flames of the burning 747 that were beginning to die down, "that it is as though it never happened."

"As though it were all a dream," Sally added

"But it really happened," Jerry told them. "But it must be our secret. We can tell no one, or they would think us mad. We'll have to tell them that the ship crashed on takeoff."

"If the insurance won't cover a new plane, why, Dad will pay for it," Chuck said assuredly.

"Our secret," they said together, and joined hands, one over the other.

And then the Great Adventure really was over, and hand in hand, the two happy couples walked away across the dark field, walking into the future, heads high, knowing that they had been tried in the furnace of life and had emerged triumphant and well tempered to face anything that that future held in store.