Tessa Wendel looked at Crile Fisher gravely. ‘I keep saying to myself: “You're back.” Somehow I didn't think you'd be back, once it was clear you had found the Rotorians.’

‘Marlene was the first person - the very first person I found.’

He was staring at nothingness, and Wendel let him. He would have to think it through. They had enough to think about in other directions.

They were taking a Rotorian back with them: Ranay D'Aubisson, a neurophysicist. Twenty years before, she had worked in a hospital on Earth. There would be bound to be those who would remember and recognize her. There would be records that would serve to identify her. And she would be the living proof of what they had done.

Wu was a changed person, too. He was full of plans for making use of gravitational repulsion to nudge the movement of the Neighbor Star. (He called it Nemesis now, but if he could formulate a plan to move it ever so slightly, it might not be Earth's nemesis at all.)

And Wu had grown modest. He didn't want the credit for the discovery, which to Wendel seemed completely unbelievable. He said the project had been worked out in conference and he would say no more.

What's more, he was definitely planning to return to the Nemesian System - and not just to run the project. He wanted to be there. ‘If I have to walk,’ he said.

Wendel became aware that Fisher was looking at her, frowning slightly. ‘Why didn't you think I'd be back, Tessa?’

She decided to be matter-of-fact. ‘Your wife is younger than I am, Crile, and she would hold on to your daughter. I was sure of that. And, desperate as you were to have your daughter, I thought-’

‘That I would stay with Eugenia because that was the only way?’

‘Something like that.’

Fisher shook his head. ‘It wouldn't have worked out that way, no matter what. I thought she was Roseanne at first - my sister. The eyes, mostly, but there was a Roseanne look about her in other ways, too. But she was far more than Roseanne. Tessa, she wasn't human, isn't human, I'll explain later. I-’ He shook his head.

‘Never mind, Crile,’ said Wendel. ‘Explain whenever you please.’

‘It hasn't been a total loss. I've seen her. She's alive. She's well. And in the end I guess I didn't want more. Somehow, after my - experience, Marlene became - just Marlene. For the rest of my life, Tessa, you are all I want.’

‘Making the best of it, Crile?’

‘A very good best it is, Tessa. I'll be formally divorced. We'll be formally married. I will leave Rotor and Nemesis to Wu, and you and I can stay on Earth, or on any Settlement you wish. We'll each have good pensions, and we can leave the Galaxy and its problems to others. We've done enough, Tessa. That is, if that's what you wish, too.’

‘I can hardly wait, Crile.’

An hour later, they were still holding each other.

Eugenia Insigna said, ‘I'm so glad I wasn't there. I keep thinking about it. Poor Marlene. She must have been so afraid.’

‘Yes, she was. But she did it, made it possible to save Earth. Even Pitt can do nothing about it now. In a sense, his whole life work has been made useless. Not only is there no purpose to his whole project of secretly building up a new civilization, but he has to help supervise the project for the salvation of the Earth. He has to. Rotor is no longer hidden. It can be reached at any time, and every bit of humanity, on and off Earth, will turn against us if we don't rejoin the human race. It couldn't have happened without Marlene.’

Insigna wasn't thinking of the greater significances.

She said, ‘But when she was frightened, really frightened, it was to you she turned, not to Crile.’

‘Yes.’

‘And you held her, not Crile.’

‘Yes, but Eugenia, don't make anything mystical out of it. She knew me, but she didn't know Crile.’

‘You're bound to explain it very sensibly, Siever. That's you. But I'm glad it was you she turned to. He didn't deserve her.’

‘Fair enough. He didn't deserve her. But, now - please, Eugenia, let go. Crile is leaving. He'll never be back. He's seen his daughter. He's watched her provide a way to save Earth. I don't begrudge him that, and you shouldn't either. So, if you don't mind, I am changing the subject. Do you know that Ranay D'Aubisson is leaving with them?’

‘Yes. Everyone is talking about it. I won't miss her somehow. I never thought she was very sympathetic to Marlene.’

‘Neither were you at times, Eugenia. It's a great thing for Ranay. Once she realized the so-called Erythro Plague was not a useful field of study, her work here was shattered, but on Earth, she can introduce modern brain scanning and have a great professional life.’

‘All right. Good for her.’

‘But Wu will be back. Very bright man. It was his brain that yielded the proper finding. You know, I'm sure that when he comes back to work on the Repulsion Effect, his real desire will be to remain on Erythro. The Erythro organism has picked him as it had picked Marlene. And what's funnier still, I think it's picked Leverett, as well.’

‘What system do you suppose it uses, Siever?’

‘Do you mean why does it take Wu and not Crile? Why does it take Leverett and not me?’

‘Well, I can see that Wu must be a far more brilliant man than Crile, but, Siever, you are much better than Leverett. Not that I would have wanted to lose you.’

‘Thank you. I presume the Erythro organism has a criterion of its own. I even think I have a dim idea of what it might be.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. When my mind was being probed, it meant that through Marlene, the Erythro organism itself was entering us. I caught a glimpse of its thoughts, I imagine. Not consciously, of course, but when it was over I seemed to know things I didn't know before. Marlene has the strange talent that makes it possible for her to communicate with the organism and makes it also possible for it to use her brain as a probe for other brains, but I think that's just a practical advantage. It chose her for something far more unusual.’

‘What would that be?’

‘Imagine you're a piece of string, Eugenia. How would you feel if you suddenly and unexpectedly became aware of a piece of lace? Imagine you're a circle. How would you feel if you came across a patterned sphere? Erythro had knowledge of only one kind of mind - its own. Its mind is immensely huge, but so pedestrian. It is what it is only because it is made up of trillions of trillions of cellular units, all very loosely connected.

‘Then it came across human minds, in which the cellular units were comparatively few, but in which there were incredible numbers of interconnections - incredible complexity. Lace instead of string. It must have been overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of it. It must have found Marlene's mind to be the most beautiful of all. That was why it seized upon her. Wouldn't you - if you had a chance to acquire a real Rembrandt or a Van Gogh? That was why it protected her so avidly. Wouldn't you protect a great work of art? Yet it risked her for the sake of humanity. It was rough on Marlene, but rather noble of the organism.

‘Anyway, that is what I consider the Erythro organism to be. I consider it an art connoisseur, a collector of beautiful minds.’

Insigna laughed. ‘By that token, Wu and Leverett must have very beautiful minds.’

‘They probably do to Erythro. And it will continue collecting when scientists from Earth arrive. You know it will end by collecting a group of human beings different from the common run. The Erythro group. It may help them find new homes in space and, in the end, perhaps the Galaxy will have two kinds of worlds, worlds of Earthmen and worlds of more efficient pioneers, the true Spacers. I wonder how that would work out. Surely it would mean the future would lie with them. I regret that somehow.’

‘Don't think of that,’ said Insigna urgently. ‘Let people of the future deal with the future as it comes. Right now, you and I are human beings judging each other by human standards.’

Genarr smiled joyously, his pleasantly homely face lighting up. ‘I'm glad of that, because I find your mind beautiful, and perhaps you find mine equally beautiful.’

‘Oh, Siever, I always did. Always.’

Genarr's smile faded somewhat. ‘But there are other kinds of beauty, I know.’

‘Not for me any longer. You have all the kinds of beauty. Siever, we lost the morning, you and I. But there's still the afternoon.’

‘In that case, what more can I possibly want, Eugenia? The morning is well lost - if we can share the afternoon.’

Their hands touched.