Next to the globe was a picture in a walnut frame. A striking, dark-haired woman smiled out from the picture and Spence realized at once where Ari had come by her good looks. But there was an unsettling quality about the picture. The woman's eyes were not focused on the camera. They held a distant, aloof look almost a vacant stare. Though the woman smiled warmly, her smile did not light up those cold, empty eyes. It was as if two separate pictures had been somehow overlapped. Two very different moods had been captured in that single photographic moment, and the effect was chilling.

Ari returned and saw him studying the picture. She placed the tray of tea things on the table, and began to pour.

"Your mother?" he asked, still looking at the photograph. "Yes," said Ari. She did not look up.

"I don't think I've ever met her. Is she here?" "No, she's not-"

"Prefers the Earth beneath her feet, is that it?"

"Mother…" Ari started, and then hesitated. She glanced at Spence and then looked away. "Mother isn't with us anymore." "I'm sorry… I didn't know." He raised his mug to his lips and sipped. "Ow!"

"Oh, careful! It's hot. I should have warned you. Did you burn yourself?"

"I'll live."

An uneasy silence settled over the room. Spence shifted nervously in his seat.

"I wanted to come up here in the worst way," said Ari after a while. "I thought it would be an adventure."

"Disappointed?" "A little."

"I know what you mean-it's like an enormous office building, only you can never go outside."

"You're right. If not for the garden, I don't know what I'd do.

Well, I'd go berserk; I know I would."

"You could leave any time you wanted, couldn't you? Why do you stay?"

"Daddy. He needs me. Besides, this being my first jump, I could never let it be said that the director's daughter couldn't even endure one tour of duty."

"You'll get used to it. Everyone does."

"Not everyone. I've already seen several who haven't. It's a frightening thing."

Spence found the conversation had wandered too close to a topic he did not wish to explore. He changed the subject. "Good tea."

"Thank you." She bent her head and sipped from her steaming mug. He watched the delicate curve of her neck and the way the light reflecting off the table filled the hollow of her throat. Her blond curls swung down as she drank and she tossed them back with an easy, practiced flip. Their eyes met. Spence looked away.

"I should be going. I have to get back to work. I sat around in sick bay a little longer than I should have, I think."

"Very well, but you must promise to come again. Soon."

"I will." He rose to his feet and headed for the door.

Ari followed him and said as the panel slid open, "Spence, I almost forgot. We're having a function here tomorrow evening- I mean, second shift. You're invited."

"I am? Since when?"

"Since right now. I'm inviting you. It's just a few of the faculty and research people. Daddy thinks it's a good idea for the two groups to mix. You'll fit right in."

"I don't know. I'll think about it." He stepped through the portal.

"Please come. I'll expect you-" The sliding panel cut her short and Spence headed back to the lab.

He thrust his hands deep into the side pockets of his jumpsuit and ambled along with his head down. Soon he was lost in thought over his inexplicable behavior in the cargo bay. Assuming that the physician was right-and there was no reason to doubt him-what had he been doing down there? Why couldn't he remember?

I'm cracking up. I am losing my mind.

9

… ARE YOU RELAXED, SPENCER?" "Yes."

"I am going to give you a new suggestion. Are you ready?" "Yes. "

"I want you to think about the color blue. Do you under stand? Think of all the things that are blue and that suggest the color blue to you. The color blue, Spencer. Blue." …

THE WIND HAD RISEN out of the east and Spence turned his face into it. It blew cold and the sky above glowered down in a fierce blue-black rage. Close by he heard the chop of water as waves dashed themselves against rocks in the shallows. He turned to the sound and saw the ocean stretching out to the horizon, blue under the dark blue clouds.

He looked into the clear blue water and saw small silver-blue fish darting by in schools, speeding like tiny rockets away into deeper space. Suddenly Spence was with them. He felt himself sinking into the water as around him the fish flashed through the blue half-light of their frigid world. He could see their silver sides zig-zagging off into the murky distance. He could see their large, round eyes staring at him as they fled.

Down and down he sank. Slowly-like a coin spinning over and over to rest finally upon the silt at the ocean's bottom. He felt the ocean floor rise up beneath his feet, and as he touched down he realized he was not in the water at all. He raised his eyes and saw that he had dropped into an enormous cavern whose high vaulted roof arched away into blue shadows.

Curiously formed projections sprouted from the floor and dangled from the ceiling. These were translucent and faintly luminous, glowing with a cool greenish-blue inner light. He walked a few hesitant steps among them as among the timbers of a silent forest, his footsteps echoing back to him from the dark depths of the cave.

He became aware of another sound which seemed to come humming up from beneath the floor, through his feet and into his bones, a grinding sound which grew louder as he descended deeper into the tunnel.

Spence walked among the glowing stalagmites following the sound. Soon he heard a rhythmic thrumming as if the Earth were churning, grinding the great stone roots of the mountains to dust. The sound grew until it filled the cavern: he walked on as if drawn to its source. His stomach vibrated with the rumble and he smelled a sharp, bitter scent in the dank air of the cave.

Far ahead he saw a pulsing blue light illuminating a far wall of the cave. He felt something gritty on his lips. He raised a hand to his face and saw that it was covered with a fine blue powder. The grit fell down upon him in a gentle rain, drifting like fine snow, covering his clothing and hair.

Then he was standing on the brink of a vast chasm which split the cavern floor. The rumble had grown to thunder, deafening him as raking light flashed blue lightning around him. The gritty powder rose like smoke from a pit as he gazed into the chasm.

Something was moving in the churning depths of the holeas if some enormous beast were thrashing out its life in agony. In the darkness he made out a roiling black mass heaving and subsiding, groaning and shuddering amidst the roar.

Now jagged flashes of blue lightning tore through the darkness, illuminating the pit. Clinging to the rocks he lowered himself to peer over the edge deep into the chaos below. In the piercing glare of the lightning bolts he saw strange shapes tumbling and tumbling, grinding against one another, crushing each other and sending up an endless cloud of powdery blue grit like a velvet mist.

Another flash peeled away the darkness and he saw clearly into the tumbling mass below. Some of the shapes were elongated and curved, others round and bulky as boulders, still others long and thin. In that instant he realized what it was that filled the huge stone caldron: bones. The gigantic bones of prehistoric monsters whirled below him in perpetual motion-a disjointed dance macabre.

In that instant of recognition he felt his grip on the rocks give way and he fell. He twisted in the air and his hands clawed for a scrabbling hold on the smooth rock face, but it was too late. He plunged screaming into the grinding, churning dance of the bones. …

SPENCE CAME TO HIMSELF sitting upright on the couch. The trailing echo of his scream still rang in the darkened chamber like a fading memory. But the dream had vanished like a vapor. It was gone and he could remember nothing but the terror that had awakened him.