“They are living creatures,” Wunderly said. “I’m convinced of it.”

Urbain nodded as he smoothed his hair with an automatic gesture. “Too big a leap, Nadia. The particles are dynamic, yes, that much is obvious. But alive? We have much work to do before we can state unequivocally that they are living entities.”

Wunderly grinned at him. He said we, she thought. He’s on my side now.

“Already many academics have spoken against your interpretation,” Urbain pointed out. “They refuse to believe the ring particles are alive.”

“Then we’ll have to get the evidence to convince them,” said Wunderly.

“That will be your task,” Urbain said. “Myself, I will return to Earth on the ship that brings in the other scientists.”

Wunderly was shocked. “Return to Earth! But—”

“I have thought it all out very carefully,” Urbain said, with a finger upraised for emphasis. “You need a champion back on Earth, someone who can present your evidence and argue your case against the skeptics.”

“But I thought you’d stay here.”

“And play second fiddle to the newcomers?” Urbain forced a smile, and she could see there was pain behind it. “No, I return to Earth. I have never been any good at pushing my own career, but I believe I can be ferocious defending yours. For you, and your ring creatures, I will be a tiger!”

Wunderly didn’t know what to say. Every young scientist with an unorthodox new idea needs a champion, she knew. Even Darwin needed Huxley.

“Besides,” Urbain went on, “my wife is on Earth. In Paris, I believe. Perhaps… perhaps I can impress her enough to come back to me.”

“I’m sure you could,” Wunderly said gently.

“So the decision is made. I return to Earth. You will be in charge of all work on the rings.”

“In charge…?”

He smiled widely. “I have given you a promotion. The team coming in from Earth has only three researchers interested in the rings, and they are all junior to you, still graduate students. I have named you as chief of the ring dynamics study. They will work for you.”

It was all Wunderly could do to refrain from hugging the man.

Holly flexed the fingers of her right hand, holding the hand up before her eyes as she sat in the hospital bed.

“Good as new, almost,” she said.

Cardenas smiled satisfiedly. “Give it a few days. Even nanomachines need some time to put everything right.”

Gaeta was sitting beside Cardenas, the two of them perched on little plastic chairs, close enough to touch each other.

“I’m gonna use nanos the next time I go into the rings,” he said.

“Even Urbain is losing his fear of nanomachines,” Cardenas said. “He came into my lab this morning and didn’t flinch once!”

All three of them laughed.

Then Holly grew more sober. “Manny, I want to thank you for saving my life. Kananga was going to kill me.”

His face hardened. “I let him off too easy. Back in the barrio we would’ve done to him just what he did to you and Raoul. And then dropped him on the freeway from an overpass.”

“You guys talkin’ about me?”

Tavalera wheeled himself into Holly’s room and pulled to a stop on the other side of her bed.

“I was going to come in to look you over,” Cardenas said. “How are your lungs?”

“Okay, I guess. The medics examined me this morning. They looked kinda surprised I’m healin’ so fast.”

“Rebuilding your lung tissue is going to take several days,” Cardenas warned. “The ribs were easier.”

Tavalera nodded. “It’s funny. I think I can almost feel these little bugs workin’ inside me.”

“That’s your imagination.”

“I must have a good imagination,” he said.

“Raoul,” said Holly, “you were really wonderful, trying to protect me.”

His face reddened. “I didn’t do you much good, though.”

“You tried,” said Holly. “When I needed help the most you were there trying.”

“And I got a body full of nanobugs to show for it.”

Cardenas caught his meaning. “Don’t worry, I’ll start flushing them out of your system in a few days. You’ll be able to go back home. You won’t have any trace of nanomachines in you by the time you get back to Earth.”

“You’re gonna hafta to go back by yourself, amigo,” said Gaeta. “I’m staying here permanently.” And he slid an arm around Cardenas’s shoulders.

Holly saw the light in Cardenas’s eyes. “But what about your technicians?” she asked. “Will they stay, too?”

With a shake of his head, Gaeta said, “Naw. Fritz wants to go back to Earth and find a new pendejo to make into a media star. But I’m keepin’ the suit. That baby is mine.”

Tavalera looked pensive. “I been thinkin’ about that too.”

“About what?” Holly asked.

“Stayin’ here.”

“You have?” Holly asked, her eyes widening.

“Yeah. Sort of. I mean … it ain’t so bad here. In this habitat, y’know. I was wondering, Dr. C, could I keep on workin’ in your lab? As your assistant?”

Cardenas answered immediately, “I need your help, Raoul. I was wondering what I would do after you left.”

“I wanna stay,” Tavalera said, glancing at Holly.

She held out her hand to him. As he took it in his, she warned, “Not too tight, Raoul. It’s still kind of tender.”

He grinned and let her hand rest atop his.

Cardenas got to her feet. “I’ve got work to do. I’ll drop in on you two later this afternoon. Come on, Manny.”

Gaeta leaned back in the creaking little chair. “I’ve got no place to go. I’m retired, right?”

Cardenas grabbed him by the collar. “Come on, Manny. I’ll find something for you to do.”

He let her haul him to his feet. “Well, if you put it that way…”

They left. Holly lay back in the bed. Tavalera still clasped her hand lightly in his.

“You’re not staying because of me, are you?” she asked him.

“No, not—” He stopped himself. “Yeah, I am. I really am staying because of you,” he said, almost belligerently. “That’s the truth.”

Holly smiled at him. “Good. That’s what I wanted to hear.”

He grinned back at her.

Holly called out. “Phone! Connect me with Pancho Lane, at Astro Corporation Headquarters in Selene.”

Tavalera let go of her hand and started to back his wheelchair away from the bed.

“Don’t go away, Raoul,” Holly said. “I want my sister to meet you.”

Professor Wilmot sat in his favorite chair, gently swirling the whisky in the glass he held in his right hand. Although his eyes were focused on the report he was dictating, he was actually staring far beyond the words hovering in mid-air before him, looking with his mind’s eye into the events of the past few days and trying to foresee the shape of the events to come.

For a long while he sat there, alone, slowly swishing the whisky, wondering what he should say to his superiors back on Earth, how he should explain what had gone wrong with the grand experiment.

“Actually,” he said at last, “nothing has really gone wrong. This experiment was intended to test the ability of a self-contained community to survive and develop a viable social system of its own. Unfortunately, the social system they began to develop was definitely not the type that we expected or desired. It was based on violence and deception, and it would have led to a rather harsh, restrictive authoritarian regime. On the other hand, such systems are inherently unstable, as the events of the past few days have proven.”

He sat in silent thought for long moments. Then, taking a sip of his whisky, he continued, “We are now entering a new phase of the experiment, an attempt to develop a working democratic government. The question is, are the people of this community too lazy, too selfish to work at governing themselves? Are they nothing more than spoiled children who need an authoritarian government to run things for them? Only time will tell.”