"I don't believe this," he said at last.

Jarmi burst out laughing. Laneff couldn't supply more than a smile and an explanation to Azevedo.

"Laneff, do you realize that the best minds of Rathor have been trying to do this"—he pointed to the results of her gas chromatography—"for centuries!"

"The gas chromatograph hasn't been around that long," said Jarmi.

"Well," he amended, so facilely that Laneff was instantly certain that Rathor had the instrument long before the rest of the modern world, "I mean trying to analyze moondrop."

"There's a lot of stuff in this mixture that I don't know anything about," answered Laneff. "But I've been analyzing the vile mixtures my synthesis produces for years, and I've invented a few kinds of column packs to handle it!"

"You don't seem to realize what this implies," said Azevedo.

"If it's true," said Laneff, depressed, "it means that I murdered Digen Farris. With an overdose of kerduvon!" She was wishing more frantically than ever that Shanlun was back. He and Mairis were the only ones who could say for sure if that was the case.

Azevedo brought his fields back into the channeling mode by some dissolving sort of effect. Softly, he said, "It also means that you've synthesized moondrop—something long thought impossible. In fact, it was once a religious premise!"

"It isn't really moondrop," argued Laneff, somewhat horrified. "I told you there's a lot of odd organics in the natural stuff. I've got one of the active ingredients!"

"Two," returned Azevedo. "There're two isomers."

"But nobody knows what the other does!" replied Laneff.

"Your K/A has two known properties," he said. "It stops selyn flow in placentas. And it mitigates the transfer abort reflex. Kerduvon has several other properties, some of which may be attributable to the other isomer."

"What properties?" asked Jarmi.

Azevedo merely said, "Why don't you synthesize some of the other isomer, and let's run a few quick tests on it. Then we'llcompare it to the known properties of moondrop."

Shanlun had said she could disjunct using kerduvon, but not until after the baby was born. Kerduvon is an abortifacient and a disjunctant. Could it be that K/A is the abortifacient and K/Bis the disjunctive agent?

Unbidden, a feeling she'd had while making love with Shanlun came back to her—the feeling that she was Gen. It had been a feeling of wholeness that went beyond Sime and Gen. Everything in the universe was a component of something larger.

With a blinding insight that shook her to the core she knew beyond all reason that K/B had to be natural to the Gen metabolism, as K/A was to the Sime. If K/A fit into receptors on the selyn-transport nerves, then perhaps K/B tied into the central nervous system of the Gen—perhaps the brain surface receptors. The state of junctedness might cause irreparable imbalance in that complex biochemistry, causing the producers of the substances to atrophy. And that's why people die in disjunction as adults?

"Laneff," said Jarmi, perhaps for the tenth time. "You can't stand there slack-jawed all night. Tell us what you're thinking."

Azevedo's hand came to her arm, cradling the tentacles gently. "First, let's get some dinner into her."

Laneff went without protest, lost in thought. Interrogated over the meal, she said, "I'm just feeling so stupid. This has been staring me in the face for years. I couldn't see it!"

"But you didn't know anything about moondrop. You didn't know that your compound actually occurs in nature!"

"Well, it—or something awfully like it—occurs in the Sime body! You know we produce within ourselves all the pharmacopoeia we really require. Kerduvon isn't so much a drug as it is a vitamin! Maybe there are even traces of it in trin tea!" She held up her glass to look at it.

"You're exaggerating," said Jarmi. "This is going to be decades in the researching stage." She shoved her chair closer to Laneff. "She's in need, can't you zlin? Laneff, you'll have the strength to deal with this in a few days, when we've had our transfer."

"A week, you mean," said Laneff, realizing that she'd never discussed the problem of transfer with Jarmi. Time goes so fast!

Azevedo leaned across the table. "Not quite a week. Laneff, you're deeper into need than mere passage of time would indicate. Your transfer should be moved up a few days. Don't let depression swallow you whole. It's just part of life. Take it in stride."

Laneff zlinned the old channel next to Desha, who was for him a not-quite-adequate-but-best-there-was Donor. Azevedo knew whereof he spoke. But are Jarmi and I even that closely matched?

Without being asked, Azevedo zlinned Laneff and Jarmi, comparing, and pronounced, "Jarmi's selyn production is increasing slightly. She'll be ready for you when you are for her. But"—he probed them seriously—"Jarmi, you do realize that this may in fact be the last transfer you'll have with Laneff until after the baby is born? Your capacity is just not going to match hers when that channel fetus starts to draw selyn in earnest."

"I understand," replied Jarmi gravely.

"Azevedo," said Laneff, hesitant. He brought his attention to her, and she had to just blurt it out. "Maybe it'd be better if you give me transfer this time, too?"

"Laneff!" cried Jarmi, and the bereft tone sliced through Laneff’s heart.

Azevedo, studying her, zlinned Desha. "Are you still Tecton enough to accept a channel's judgment?"

"Yes."

"I think you'll do better on Gen transfer this time. And of all our bens, Jarmi really is your best match here. Her willingness is also a big factor in that. Now, it is up to you, Laneff. I know Tecton renSimes aren't trained to make these decisions for themselves, so I will advise; but here, it is ultimately up to you. At least it is until Shanlun gets back with your physician."

She studied Azevedo and Desha, seeing channel and Companion, but not the eager harmony Shanlun's nager made with Azevedo's. And even she could see his need now, the graven lines carved deeper around his eyes, the weary shuffle to his stride, the pallor that occasionally underlay his leathery tan. He just doesn't feel up to me, she concluded.

Later, when they were alone, Jarmi said, "I thought you were completely post after our transfer; I thought you were satisfied."

The tremulous fear of rejection in the Gen made Laneff reach out to her. "Oh, Jarmi, you were marvelous. I was as post as ever I've been!"

"But?"

"But," admitted Laneff. "But. It wasn't—exactly—what I'm going to be craving in a transfer."

"You mean—I didn't get the right tone of killbliss?"

How can I discuss this with a Gen! "Well—yes."

"Don't worry! I told you it takes practice. I'll learn. But you've got to be honest with me. I thought I had it right; you didn't let me know—"

"I'm sorry. . . '

Jarmi took Laneff’s hands, letting her fingertips rest near the wrist orifices. "This time we'll get it right!"

With Shanlun gone and Azevedo declining, it was Laneff’s best course. At least I know this time that I won't kill her!

For the next few days, they labored to clean up the lab and set up the new work. Laneff ran several large batches of K/B, having to purify it several times of the K/A that came with it. She couldn't seem to twist her mind around into the reversal of the formulas. But

she was determined to have enough of it on hand after her transfer to launch right into the new work.

This could be the big breakthrough! In the back of her mind was the nascent idea that she might separate the selyn-flow inhibitor, which was probably responsible for the abortifacient effect, from the disjunctive agent. It was the abortifacient, she was sure, that was what she was using to detect Sime fetuses. The Rathor statistics showed that kerduvon caused abortion in just the right proportions for it to be aborting Sime fetuses, the ones dependent on selyn from the mother. Her test would take a tissue specimen from the placenta and check its selyn conductivity with and without K/A. In Sime fetuses, the conductivity would drop markedly under K/A—and thus, K/A introduced into the womb would have killed the fetus!