 O'Rielly starts to talk about "venus dames" unprompted and acting strangely. Why?
The intercom roared fit to blow O'Rielly back to Venus. A dozen burners on this ship; why did something crazy have to happen to O'Rielly's? Ever since Venus blast-off O'Rielly had been in Four's watch room. Well, ma'am, O'Rielly searched every cranny where even a three-tailed mouse of Venus could have stowed away. Yes, ma'am, O'Rielly was floating on a pink cloud with heavenly music in his head. 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. 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. "Venus dames," O'Rielly said dreamily, "don't boss anything, do they?" "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. "No Venus dames allowed within fifty miles of their port. Any dame caught trying to leave Venus thrown to the tigers for supper. Same for any Earth guy caught around a Venus dame.
 It's the effect that Venus women have on Earth men. The woman's presence changes his focus.
 He's out of sorts from working on the controls. The heat got to him.  He's had an experience with them in the past, and wants to discuss is with Callahan.  It's the effect that Venus women have on Earth men. The woman's presence changes his focus.  He's embarrassed about the controls malfunction and is trying to change the subject