31

Eugenia Insigna smiled at Genarr over dessert. 'You seem to lead a pleasant life here.'

Genarr smiled, too. 'Pleasant enough, but claustrophobic. We live on a huge world, but I'm bounded by the Dome. The people here tend to be ingrown. When I do meet someone interesting, they leave in a couple of months, at most. Generally, the people here in the Dome bore me most of the time, though probably not as much as I bore them. That's why the arrival of you and your daughter would have been a holovision item, even if you were anyone else. Of course, since it's you-'

'Flatterer,' said Insigna sadly.

Genarr cleared his throat. 'Marlene warned me, for my own good, you understand, that you have not quite gotten over-'

But Insigna overrode him suddenly. 'I can't say I've noticed any holovision attention.'

Genarr gave up. He said, 'Just a manner of speaking. We're planning a little party tomorrow evening, and you'll then be formally introduced and everyone will get a chance to know you.'

'And discuss my appearance, and choice of costume, and chew over whatever is known about me.'

'I'm sure of it. But Marlene will be invited, too, and that means, I suppose, that you will know a great deal more about all of us than we will about you. Your information will be more reliable, too.'

Insigna looked uneasy, 'Did Marlene act up?'

'You mean, did she read my body language? Yes, ma'am.'

'I told her not to.'

'I don't think she can help it.'

'You're right. She can't. But I told her not to tell you about it. I take it she did tell you.'

'Oh yes. I ordered her to do so. Actually, I commanded her to do so in my role as Commander.'

'Well, I'm sorry. It can be so annoying.'

'But it wasn't. Not to me. Eugenia, please understand this. I like your daughter. I like her very much. I have the idea that she has had a miserable life being someone who knows too much and whom no-one likes. That she has turned out full of what you referred to as the unlovable virtues is little short of a miracle.'

'I warn you. She'll tire you out. And she's only fifteen.'

Genarr said, 'There's some law, I think, that prevents mothers from ever remembering when they themselves were fifteen. She casually mentioned a boy, and you may know that the pangs of unrequited love hurt as deeply at fifteen as at twenty-five, maybe even more so. Though your teenage years may well have been sunny ones, considering your appearance. Remember, too, that Marlene is in a particularly bad position. She knows she's plain and she knows she's intelligent. She feels that intelligence should much more than make up for lack of beauty and she also knows that it doesn't, so she rages helplessly and knows that that does no good either.'

'Well, Siever,' said Insigna, trying to sound light, 'you're quite the psychologist.'

'No, not at all. It's just this one thing I understand. I've been through it myself.'

'Oh-' Insigna seemed at a loss.

'It's all right, Eugenia. I have no intention of being sorry for myself, and I wasn't trying to lure you into sympathy for a poor, broken soul - because I'm not. I'm forty-nine, not fifteen, and I've made my peace with myself. Had I been handsome and stupid when I was fifteen, or twenty-one, as, at that time in life, I wished I had been, I would undoubtedly now no longer be handsome - but I'd still be stupid. So, in the long run, I've won out, and so, I'm positive, will Marlene - if there is a long run.'

'And what do you mean by that, Siever?'

'Marlene tells me that she talked to our good friend Pitt, and that she deliberately antagonized him in order to make him willing to send you to Erythro because that meant getting rid of her, too.'

'I don't approve of that,' said Eugenia. 'I don't mean about manipulating Pitt, because I don't think Pitt is that easy to manipulate. I mean trying to do it. Marlene is getting to the point where she thinks she can pull puppet strings, and this may get her into serious trouble.'

'Eugenia, I do not wish to frighten you, but I think Marlene is in serious trouble right now. At least, it may be Pitt's hope that she will be.'

'Now, Siever, that's impossible. Pitt may be opinionated and overbearing, but there's nothing vicious about him. He's not going to strike out at a teenage girl just because she played foolish games with him.'

The dinner was over, but the lights were still somewhat lowered in Genarr's rather elegant quarters, and Insigna reacted with a slight frown as Genarr leaned over to close the contact that activated the shield. 'Secrets, Siever?' she said with a forced laugh. 'Yes, as a matter of fact, Eugenia. I'm going to have to play the psychologist again. You don't know Pitt as I do. I've competed with him, and that's why I'm out here. He wanted to get rid of me. In my case, however, separation is enough. It may not be enough in Marlene's case.'

Another forced laugh. 'Come, Siever. What are you saying?'

'Listen, and you'll understand. Pitt is secretive. He has a fixed aversion to anyone knowing what he intends. It gives him a sense of power to be moving down a hidden road and dragging others, all unwitting, with him.'

'You may be right. He kept Nemesis secret, and forced the secrecy on me, too.'

'He's got many secrets, more than you and I know, I'm sure. But here's Marlene, to whom a person's hidden motives and thoughts are as clear as day. No-one likes that - Pitt, least of all. So he's sent her out here - and you, too, since he couldn't send her without you.'

'All right. What of that?'

'You don't suppose he wants her back, do you? Ever?'

'That's paranoid, Siever. You can't really believe Pitt would intend to keep her in permanent exile.'

'He can, in one way. You see, Eugenia, you don't know the early history of the Dome as I do, and as Pitt does, and as hardly anyone else does. You know Pitt's penchant for secrecy and it works here, too. You have to understand why we remain in the Dome and make no effort to colonize Erythro.'

'You explained. The character of the light-'

'That is the official explanation, Eugenia. Accept the light; it is something we can grow accustomed to. Consider what else we have: a world with a normal gravity, a breathable atmosphere, a pleasant temperature range, weather cycles reminiscent of Earth, no life-forms above the prokaryote stage, and with those prokaryotes not infectious in any way. Yet we make no move to colonize the world, even in a limited fashion.'

'Well, then, why not?'

'In the early days of the Dome, people went out freely to explore outside. They took no special precautions, breathed the air, drank the water.'

'Yes?'

'And some of them fell ill. Mentally. Permanently. Not violently insane, but - divorced from reality. Some have improved with time, but none, as far as I know, has recovered completely. It is, apparently, not contagious, and they are taken care of on Rotor - quietly.'

Eugenia frowned. 'Are you making this up, Siever? I haven't heard a word of it.'

'I remind you again of Pitt's penchant for secrecy. This was not something you had a need to know. It was not your department. It was something I had a need to know because I was sent here to deal with it. If I failed, we might have had to abandon Erythro altogether, and a pall of fear and discontent would have fallen over us all.' He fell silent for a moment, then said, 'I shouldn't be telling you this. I am, in a sense, violating my oath of office. Still, for Marlene's sake-'

A look of deepest apprehension crossed Eugenia's face. 'What are you saying? That Pitt-'

'I'm saying that Pitt may have thought that Marlene might come down with what we called "Erythrotic Plague." It wouldn't kill her. It wouldn't even make her ill in the ordinary sense, but it would sufficiently disorder her brain to put her peculiar gift out of action, perhaps, and that is what Pitt would want.'

'But that is horrible, Siever. Unthinkable. To subject a child-'

'I'm not saying it will happen, Eugenia. What Pitt wants is not necessarily what Pitt will get. Once I got here, I introduced drastic methods of protection. We don't go out in the open, except in the equivalent of protective suits, and we don't stay out longer than need be. The filtration procedures of the Dome have been improved, too. Since I instituted those measures, we've only had two cases, both rather light.'

'But what causes it, Siever?'

Genarr laughed briefly but not lightly. 'We don't know. That's the worst of it. We can't sharpen our defenses any further. Careful experiments indicate that there is nothing in either air or water that would seem to account for it. Nor in the soil - after all, we have the soil here in the Dome; we can't divorce ourselves from it. We have the air and water, too, properly filtered. Still, many people have breathed raw Erythrotic air and drunk raw Erythrotic water and have done so with complete impunity and no consequences.'

'Then it must be the prokaryotes.'

'It can't be. We've all ingested them or breathed them inadvertently, and we've used them in animal experiments. Nothing happens. Besides, if it were the prokaryotes, the Plague would be expected to be contagious and, as I said, it isn't. We've experimented with the radiation from Nemesis and that seems to do no harm. What's more, once - only once - someone who'd never been outside got it inside the Dome. It's a mystery.'

'You have no theories?'

'I? No. I'm just content that it has virtually stopped. Still, as long as we are so ignorant of the nature and cause of the Plague, we can never be sure that it won't start up again. There was one suggestion-'

'What was that?'

'A psychologist reported this suggestion to me and I passed it on to Pitt. He claimed that those who came down with the disorder were more imaginative than those who did not, more out of the ordinary, mentally speaking. More intelligent, more creative, more unusual. He suggested that whatever the cause, the more remarkable brains were less resistant, more easily upset.'

'Do you think that might be so?'

'I don't know. The trouble is that there is no other distinction. Both sexes were hit, roughly equally, and no clear bias as far as age, education, or gross physical characteristics could be found. Of course, the Plague victims make up a relatively small sample, so the statistics aren't compelling. Pitt thought we might go along with the out-of-the-usual bit, and, in recent years, no-one has come to Erythro who hasn't been a pretty dull clod - not intelligent, you understand, but a plodder. Like myself. I'm the ideal subject for immunity from the Plague, an ordinary brain. Right?'

'Come, Siever, you aren't-'

'On the other hand,' said Genarr, not waiting for her protest, 'I would say that Marlene's brain was remarkably out of the ordinary.'

'Oh yes,' began Eugenia. 'I see what you're getting at.'

'It's possible that when Pitt discovered that Marlene had this ability and that she was asking to go to Erythro, he saw at once that by merely acceding to her request, he might possibly get rid of a mind he instantly recognized as dangerous.'

'Obviously, then, we ought to leave - go back to Rotor.'

'Yes, but I'm quite sure Pitt can prevent that for a while. He can insist that these measurements you wish to make are vital and must be completed and you won't be able to use the Plague as an excuse. If you even try, he will have you held for mental examination. I would suggest that you complete those measurements as quickly as you can, and, as for Marlene, we will take all possible precautions. The Plague has died down, and the suggestion that out-of-the-ordinary brains are particularly vulnerable is just that, a suggestion, and no more. There's no real reason to think we can't get away with it. We can keep Marlene safe and do Pitt in the eye. You'll see.'

Insigna stared at Genarr, not quite seeing him, her stomach tying itself into a knot.