45

'I'm sorry,' said Siever Genarr, looking down his long nose at mother and daughter with an expression that seemed to beg their pardon even without his words. 'I had told Marlene that this job was not a very busy one and then almost immediately thereafter we had a kind of minicrisis with our power supply and I found I had to delay this conference of ours. The crisis is over, however, and wasn't much to begin with, now that we can view it in hindsight. Am I forgiven?'

'Of course, Siever,' said Eugenia Insigna. She was clearly restless. 'I won't say it's been an easy three days, though. I feel that every hour we stay here increases Marlene's danger.'

Marlene said, 'I don't fear Erythro at all, Uncle Siever.'

Insigna said, 'And I don't think Pitt can do anything against us on Rotor. He knows that, or he wouldn't have sent us here.'

Genarr said, 'And I will try to play the honest broker and satisfy you both. Whatever Pitt can or cannot do openly, there is a great deal he can do indirectly, so it's dangerous, Eugenia, for you to let your fear of Erythro lead you to underestimate Pitt's resolve and ingenuity. To begin with, if you return to Rotor, you will be doing so against his emergency ruling and he can imprison you or send you into exile on New Rotor or even send you back here.

'As for Erythro, we don't dare underestimate the danger of the Plague either, even though it seems to have died out in its virulent early form. I am as reluctant to risk Marlene as you are, Eugenia.'

And Marlene whispered in exasperation, 'There's no risk.'

Insigna said, 'Siever, I don't think we should carry on this discussion of Marlene in her presence.'

'You're wrong. I want to do it in her presence. I suspect that she knows better than either of us what she ought to do. She is the caretaker of that mind of hers and it is our job to interfere with her as little as possible.'

Insigna made an inarticulate sound in her throat, but Genarr went on, a quality of remorselessness entering his voice: 'I want her in this discussion because I want her input. I want her opinion.'

Insigna said, 'But you know her opinion. She wants to go out there, and you're saying that we must let her do what she wants to do because she is somehow magical.'

'No-one said a word about magical, or about simply letting her go out. I would like to suggest we experiment, with all due precautions.'

'In what way?'

'To begin with, I would like a brain scan.' He turned to Marlene. 'Do you understand, Marlene, that that's necessary? Do you have any objections?'

Marlene frowned slightly. 'I've had brain scans. Everyone has had brain scans. They don't let you start school without a brain scan. Any time you have a complete medical examination-'

'I know,' said Genarr gently. 'I haven't completely wasted these last three days. I have here' - and his hand came to rest on a stack of computer strips at the left end of his desk - 'the computerization of every single brain scan you've ever had.'

'But you're not telling everything, Uncle Siever,' said Marlene calmly.

'Ah,' said Insigna with a touch of triumph. 'What is he hiding, Marlene?'

'He's a little nervous about me. He doesn't entirely believe my feeling that I'm safe. He's uncertain.'

Genarr said, 'How can that be, Marlene? I feel quite certain about your safety.'

But Marlene said with a glow of sudden enlightenment, 'I think that's why you waited three days, Uncle Siever. You argued yourself into being certain so that I wouldn't see your uncertainty. But it didn't work. I can still see it.'

Genarr said, 'If that shows, Marlene, then it's only because I value you so highly that I find even the slightest risk unpleasant.'

Insigna said angrily, 'If you find even the slightest risk unpleasant, how do you suppose I feel, as a mother? So in your uncertainty, you obtain brain scans, violating Marlene's medical privacy.'

'I had to find out. And I did. They're insufficient.'

'Insufficient in what way?'

'In the early days of the Dome, when the Plague struck again and again, one of our concerns was to devise a more detailed brain scanner and a more efficiently programmed computer to interpret the data. This has never been transferred to Rotor. Pitt's exaggerated desire to hide the Plague led him to resist the sudden appearance of an improved brain scanner on Rotor. It might have given rise to inconvenient questions and rumors. Ridiculous, to my way of thinking, but in this, as in many other things, Pitt had his way. Therefore, Marlene, you have never been properly brain scanned and I want you to have one on our device.'

Marlene shrank back, 'No.'

A look of hope crossed Insigna's face. 'Why not, Marlene?'

'Because when Uncle Siever said that - he was suddenly much more uncertain.'

Genarr said, 'No, that's not-' He stopped himself, lifted his arms, and let them drop helplessly. 'Why do I bother? Marlene, dear, if I seemed suddenly concerned, it's because we need as detailed a brain scan as possible to serve as a standard of mental normality. Then, if you are exposed to Erythro and suffer even the slightest mental distortion as a result, it can be detected by brain scan even when no-one can tell by simply looking at you or talking to you. Well, as soon as I mention a detailed brain scan, I think of the possibility of detecting an otherwise indetectable mental change - and the thought itself sparks an automatic concern. That's what you detect. Come, Marlene, how much uncertainty do you detect? Be quantitative.'

But Marlene said, 'Not much, but it's there. The trouble is, I can only tell you're uncertain. I can't tell why. Maybe this special brain scan is dangerous.'

'How can it be? It has been used so - Marlene, you know Erythro won't hurt you. Don't you also know that the brain scan won't hurt you?'

'No, I don't.'

'Do you know that it will hurt you?'

A pause and then Marlene said reluctantly, 'No.'

'But how can you be sure about Erythro and not sure about the brain scan?'

'I don't know. I just know that Erythro won't hurt me, but I don't know that the brain scan won't. Or will.'

A smile crossed Genarr's face. It did not take unusual abilities to see that he was enormously relieved.

Marlene said, 'Why does that make you feel good, Uncle Siever?'

Genarr said, 'Because if you were making up your intuitional feelings - out of a desire to be important, or out of general romanticism, or out of some sort of self-delusion - you would apply it to everything. But you don't. You pick and choose. Some things you know and some things you don't know. That makes me far more inclined to believe you when you claim to be sure Erythro won't hurt you and I no longer in the least fear that the brain scan will reveal anything disturbing.'

Marlene turned to her mother. 'He's right, Mother. He feels much better and so I feel much better. It's so obvious. Can't you see it, too?'

'It doesn't matter what I see,' said Insigna. 'I don't feel better.'

'Oh, Mother,' murmured Marlene. Then, more loudly to Genarr, 'I'll take the scan.'

46

'This is not surprising,' murmured Siever Genarr.

He was watching the computer graphics in their intricate, almost floral patterns, as they moved slowly in and out in false color. Eugenia Insigna, at his side, stared at it keenly, but understood nothing.

'What is not surprising, Siever?' she asked.

'I can't tell you properly because I don't have their jargon down pat. And if Ranay D'Aubisson, who's our local guru on this, were to explain it, neither you nor I would understand her. However, she did point this out to me-'

'It looks like a snail shell.'

'The color makes it stand out. It's a measure of complexity rather than a direct indication of physical form, Ranay says. This part is atypical. We don't find it in brains generally.'

Insigna's lip trembled. 'You mean she's already affected?'

'No, of course not. I said atypical, not abnormal. Surely I don't have to explain that to an experienced scientific observer. You'll have to admit that Marlene is different. In a way, I'm glad that the snail shell is there. If her brain were completely typical, we'd have to wonder why she seems to be what she is; where the perceptivity is coming from. Is she cleverly faking it, or are we fools?'

'But how do you know it isn't something - something-'

'Diseased? How can that be? We have all of the brain scans collected over her lifetime from infancy. That atypicality was always there.'

'It was never reported to me. No-one ever remarked on it.'

'Of course not. Those early brain scans were the usual fairly primitive type and it wouldn't show, at least not so that it would hit you in the face. But, once we have this proper brain scan and can see the detail clearly, we can go back to the early ones and make it out. Ranay has already done so. I tell you, Eugenia, this advanced brain scanning technique ought to be standard on Rotor. Pitt's suppression of it is one of his most foolish moves. It's expensive, of course.'

'I'll pay,' murmured Insigna.

'Don't be silly. I'm putting this one on the Dome budget. After all, this may be helpful in solving the Plague mystery. At least, that's what I'll claim if it's ever questioned. Well, there you are. Marlene's brain is recorded in greater complexity than ever before. If she should be even slightly affected, it will show on the screen.'

'You have no idea how frightening this is,' said Insigna.

'I don't blame you, you know. But she is so confident that I can't help going along with her. I'm convinced that this solid sense of security has meaning behind it.'

'How can it?'

Genarr pointed to the snail shell. 'You don't have that, and I don't have it, so neither of us is in a position to tell where and how she gets her sense of security. But she has it, so we must let her out on the surface.'

'Why must we risk her? Can you possibly explain to me why we must risk her?'

'Two reasons. First, she does seem determined, and I have the feeling that she'll get whatever she's determined to get - sooner or later. In that case, we might as well be cheerful about it and send her off, since we won't be able to stop her for very long. Secondly, it's possible we'll learn something about the Plague as a result. What that might be, I can't say, but anything, however small, that will yield additional information concerning the Plague is worth a great deal.'

'Not my daughter's mind.'

'It won't come to that. For one thing, even though I have faith in Marlene and believe there's no risk, I will do what I can to minimize it for your sake. In the first place, we'll not let her out on to the surface itself for a while. I may take her out on a flight over Erythro, for instance. She'll see lakes and plains, hills, canyons. We might even go as far as the edge of the sea. It all has a stark beauty - I saw it once - but it is barren. There is no life anywhere that she can see - only the prokaryotes in the water, which are invisible, of course. It's possible that the uniform barrenness may repel her and she may lose interest in the outside altogether.

'If, however, she is still keen on going out, on feeling the soil of Erythro under her feet, we will see to it that she wears an E-suit.'

'What is an E-suit?'

'An Erythro-suit. It's a straightforward affair - like a spacesuit, except that it doesn't have to hold in air pressure against a vacuum. It's an impermeable combination of plastic and textile that's very light and doesn't impede motion. The helmet with its infrared shielding is somewhat more substantial and there is an artificial air supply and ventilation. What it amounts to is that the person in an E-suit is not subjected to the Erythro environment. And on top of that, there'll be someone with her.'

'Who? I would trust no-one with her but myself.'

Genarr smiled. 'I couldn't imagine a less suitable companion. You know nothing about Erythro, really, and you're frightened of it. I wouldn't dare let you out there. Look, the only person we can trust is not you, but me.'

'You?' Insigna stared at him, open-mouthed.

'Why not? No-one here knows Erythro better than I do, and if Marlene is immune to the Plague, so am I. In ten years on Erythro, I haven't been affected in the slightest. What's more, I can fly an aircraft, which means we won't need a pilot. And then, too, if I go out with Marlene, I can watch her closely. If she does anything abnormal, no matter how slightly, I'll have her back in the Dome and under the brain scan faster than light.'

'By which time, of course, it will be too late.'

'No. Not necessarily. You mustn't look upon the Plague as an all-or-nothing matter. There have been light cases, even very light cases, and people who are lightly affected can live reasonably normal lives. Nothing will happen to her. I'm sure of it.'

Insigna sat in her chair, silent, seeming somehow small and defenseless.

Genarr impulsively placed his arm around her. 'Come, Eugenia, forget this for a week. I promise she'll not go out for at least a week - longer than that if I can weaken her resolve by showing her Erythro from the air. And during the flight she will be enclosed in the aircraft and will be as safe there as she is here. As for right now, I'll tell you what - you're an astronomer, aren't you?'

She looked at him and said, wanly, 'You know I am.'

'Then that means that you never look at the stars. Astronomers never do. They only look at their instruments. It's night over the Dome now, so let's go up to the observation deck and observe. The night is absolutely clear, and there is nothing like just looking at the stars to make one feel quiet and at peace. Trust me.'

47

It was true. Astronomers did not look at the stars. There was no need. One gave instructions to the telescopes, the cameras, and the spectroscope by way of the computer, which received instructions in the way of programming.

The instruments did the work, the analyses, the graphic simulations. The astronomer merely asked the questions, then studied the answers. For that, one didn't have to look at the stars.

But then, she thought, how does one look at stars idly? Can one when one is an astronomer? The mere sight should make one uneasy. There was work to be done, questions to be asked, mysteries to be solved, and, after a while, surely one would return to one's workshop and set some instruments in motion while one distracted one's mind by reading a novel or watching a holovision spectacle.

She muttered this to Siever Genarr, as he went about his office, checking loose ends before leaving. (He was a confirmed loose-end checker, Insigna remembered from the ancient days when they were all young. It had irritated her then, but perhaps she ought to have admired it. Siever had so many virtues, she thought, and Crile, on the other hand-)

She dragged at her thoughts mercilessly and pointed them another way.

Genarr was saying, 'Actually, I don't use the observation deck myself very often. There always seems to be something else to do. And when I do go, I almost always find myself alone up there. It will be pleasant to have company. Come!'

He led the way to a small elevator. It was the first time Insigna had been in an elevator in the Dome, and, for a fleeting moment, it was as though she were back on Rotor - except that she felt no change in pseudo-gravitation pull and did not feel herself pressed gently against one of the walls through a Coriolis effect, as she would have been on Rotor.

'Here we are,' said Genarr, and motioned to Insigna to step out. She did so, curiously, into the empty chamber, and, almost at once, shrank back. She said, 'Are we exposed?'

'Exposed?' Genarr asked, bewildered. 'Oh, you mean, are we open to Erythro's atmosphere? No, no. Have no fears about that. We are enclosed in a hemisphere of diamond-coated glass which nothing scratches. A meteorite would smash it, of course, but the skies of Erythro are virtually meteor-free. We have such glass on Rotor, you know, but' - and his voice took on a tone of pride - 'not quite this quality, and not quite this size.'

'They treat you well down here,' said Insigna, reaching out gently to touch the glass again and assure herself of its existence.

'They must, to get people to come here.' Then, reverting to the bubble, 'It rains, of course, on occasion, but it's cloudy then anyway. And once the skies clear, it dries up quickly. A residue is left behind, and during the day, a special detergent mixture cleans the bubble. Sit down, Eugenia.'

Insigna sat in a chair that was soft and comfortable and that reclined almost of its own accord, so that she found herself looking upward. She could hear another chair sigh softly as Genarr's weight pushed it backward. And then, the small night-lights, which had cast a glow sufficient to point out the presence and location of chairs and small tables in the room, went out. In the darkness of an uninhabited world, the sky, cloudless, and as dark as black velvet, burned with sparks.

Insigna gasped. She knew what the sky was like in theory. She had seen it on charts and maps, in simulations and photographs - in every shape and way except reality. She found herself not picking out the interesting objects, the puzzling items, the mysteries that demanded she get to work. She didn't look at any one object, but at the patterns they made.

In dim prehistory, she thought, it was the study of the patterns, and not of the stars themselves, that gave the ancients the constellations and the beginning of astronomy.

Genarr was right. Peace, like a fine, unfelt cobweb, settled down over her.

After a while, she said, almost sleepily, 'Thank you, Genarr.'

'For what?'

'For offering to go out with Marlene. For risking your mind for my daughter.'

'I'm not risking my mind. Nothing will happen to either of us. Besides, I have a - a fatherly feeling toward her. After all, Eugenia, we go a long way back together, you and I, and I think - have always thought - highly of you.'

'I know,' said Insigna, feeling the stirrings of guilt. She had always known how Genarr had felt - he could never obscure it. It had inspired her with resignation before she met Crile, and with annoyance afterward.

She said, 'If I've ever hurt your feelings, Siever, I am truly sorry.'

'No need,' said Genarr softly, and there was a long silence while peace deepened, and Insigna found herself earnestly hoping that no-one would enter and break the strange spell of serenity that held her fast.

And then Genarr said, 'I have a theory as to why people don't come up to the observation deck here. Or on Rotor. Did you ever notice that the observation deck isn't used much on Rotor either?'

'Marlene liked to go there on occasion,' said Insigna. 'She told me she was usually alone up there. In the last year or so, she would tell me that she liked to watch Erythro. I should have listened more closely - paid attention-'

'Marlene is unusual. I think what gets most people and keeps them from coming up here is that.'

'What?' asked Insigna.

'That,' said Genarr. He was pointing to some spot in the sky, but in the darkness she could not see his arm. 'That very bright star; the brightest in the sky.'

'You mean the Sun - our Sun - the Sun of the Solar System.'

'Yes, I do. It's an interloper. Except for that bright star, the sky would be just about the same as the one we see from Earth. Alpha Centauri is rather out of place and Sirius is shifted slightly, but we wouldn't notice that. Barring such things, the sky you see is what the Sumerians saw five thousand years ago. All except for the Sun.'

'And you think the Sun keeps people away from the observation deck?'

'Yes, perhaps not consciously, but I think the sight of it makes them uneasy. The tendency is to think of the Sun as far, far away, unreachable, part of an altogether different Universe. Yet there it is in the sky, bright, demanding our attention, stirring up our guilt for having run away from it.'

'But then why don't the teenagers and children go to the observation deck? They know little or nothing of the Sun and the Solar System.'

'The rest of us set a negative example. When we're all gone, when there's no-one on Rotor to whom the Solar System is anything but a phrase, I think the sky will seem to belong to Rotor again, and this place will be crowded - if it still exists.'

'Do you think it won't still exist?'

'We can't foresee the future, Eugenia.'

'We seem to be flourishing and growing so far.'

'Yes, we are, but it's that bright star - the interloper - that I'm worried about.'

'Our old Sun. What can it do? It can't reach us.'

'Sure it can.' Genarr was staring at the bright star in the western sky. 'The people we've left behind on Earth and on the Settlements are bound to discover Nemesis eventually. Maybe they already have. And maybe they've worked out hyper-assistance. I'm of the opinion they must have developed hyper-assistance soon after we left. Our disappearance must have stimulated them greatly.'

'We left fourteen years ago. Why aren't they already here?'

'Perhaps they quail at the thought of a two-year flight. They know that Rotor attempted it, but they don't know that we succeeded at it. They may think that our wreckage is strewn through space all the way from the Sun to Nemesis.'

'We didn't lack the courage to attempt it.'

'Sure we did. Do you think that Rotor would have made the attempt if we hadn't had Pitt? It was Pitt who drove the rest of us, and I doubt that there's another Pitt anywhere in the Settlements, or on Earth for that matter. You know I don't like Pitt. I disapprove of his methods, of his morals, or the lack of them, of his deviousness, of his cold-blooded ability to send a girl like Marlene to what he clearly hopes will be her destruction, and yet if we go by results, he may go down in history as a great man.'

'As a great leader,' said Insigna. 'You are a great man, Siever. There's a clear difference.'

There was silence again, till Genarr said softly, 'I keep waiting for them to come here after us. That's my biggest fear, and it seems to strengthen when the interloper shines down upon me. It's fourteen years now since we left the Solar System. What have they been doing in these fourteen years? Have you ever wondered about that, Eugenia?'

'Never,' said Insigna, half-asleep. 'My worries are more immediate.'