“No. You would have been in charge if we had reached the Geyser Swirl, but we never did. Look, Dalton, I’m not making a power play. I’m minimizing risks. No one in his right mind sends half the total strength of an expedition on a first scouting party, and I’m agreeing on close to that. Four people go. Maybe an alien, too — we can’t control them. Pick who you like of your team, provided that it’s not you and not Rombelle. You both stay here. I’m taking your word for it that Rombelle is something special when it comes to equipment fix-up.”

“He is. That’s why the shore party needs him.”

“It’s also the reason he can’t go. Suppose there’s mechanical trouble with this ship? It looks and sounds worse every hour. How would you like the shore party to be stranded, with no Hero’s Return to come back to or to rely on for supplies?” Korin waited for Chan’s slow nod. “Then that’s the way it has to be. You’ll think we’re sending an army anyway, when you hear me talking to our crazy alien companions. I’m going to sound like rage and destruction for them. They’ll shit bricks — I mean, if any of them shits anything at all.”

After Dag Korin and Chan Dalton had left for the general’s private quarters, the remaining party broke into two groups.

Most of the members of the old team, plus Liddy, drifted off toward the rear of the ship in the direction that Dag Korin and Chan Dalton had taken. The Stellar Group aliens followed the slow-moving Angel toward the ship’s sunroom and garden. Remaining in the fire control room were only Tully O’Toole and Elke Siry.

“D’you mind if I stay? Or am I in your way?” Tully was hanging around, watching Elke and looking shaky and dejected.

“You’re not in my way unless you interfere with my work.” Elke was studying images taken by the two orbiters, selecting a few for display with increased detail. “You people really love Chan Dalton, don’t you?”

“I can’t speak for the rest, but he saved me from worse than death.” When Elke gave him a skeptical glance from the corner of one eye, he went on. “I’m talking about Paradox addiction. Do you know what that is?”

She lost interest in the displays and turned to face him.

“Not exactly. But I know something that can match it.” She pulled her high-necked white blouse all the way down to her right collarbone, to reveal ugly scar tissue in the shape of a fiery star.

“Slither!” In his astonishment Tully reached out to touch the blemish on her white skin, but she stiffened and jerked away. He sat back and shook his tousled head. “I can’t believe this. You and Slither. It’s so disgusting, and you’re so — so—”

“Pure and spotless and absolutely perfect?” Elke gave him a grim smile, revealing the prominent canines. “I suppose you’ve been reading about me in the ship’s files. You shouldn’t believe most of that. I wrote it myself. I decided what to put in — and what to leave out.”

“But Slither. How did you get hooked?”

“I was seventeen. That’s when I knew I was more intelligent than anyone in the universe. I confused that with understanding about life. I’d heard of the Slithers — we all had — but I knew they could never snare me. I was too smart for that. But I let one sit on my shoulder, and it felt wonderful …”

“And it had you. Where did it lodge?”

“Right above my liver. I guess I was lucky, in three cases out of ten it heads for the brain.”

“What saved you?”

“You mean who. General Korin served with my grandfather, out on the Perimeter. When my grandpa was dying, the General promised that when he came back to Sol he would look me up. I should have been easy to find, because I was a star researcher at the Trieste Institute for Advanced Study. And I was there — almost. General Korin tracked me down a kilometer or two away, in a Slither mating cellar. He confirmed who I was — I could still tell him my name — and he went away. He didn’t try to talk to me, didn’t ask what had happened. He came back the next day with three of his officers, bundled me up in a sheet, and shanghaied me away into space.”

Elke studied Tully’s gaunt features, then turned back to her work at the displays. “I didn’t think so at the time, but I guess I had things easy. I had the operation for Slither removal and the chemotherapy to end Slither sexual addiction. But I was on Helene, with round-the-clock nursing, not in another universe wondering if I was ever going home. But you’re improving, Tully. I see it every day. The worst is over.”

“I’d like to think you’re right, but I still dream each night. In my dream I’m sitting there with the little purple sphere in my fist, and I’m all set to touch it to my wrist. Deep inside I know that I mustn’t, that if I do it will start all over again. But I can’t stop my hand. It brings the Paradox globe closer and closer to my skin.”

“Ah, I have a dream like that.” Elke’s face took on an odd wistfulness. “I’m sitting alone, and the Slither is still inside me. It begins calling, `Go and bring me a mate. Bring us both ecstasy.’ It isn’t lying. When you and somebody else with a Slither have sex it’s too good to be true. So I start to stand up, and I’m on the way to the rendezvous point, and I have the promise of ecstasy squared. But I know it will soon lead to death.”

“That’s it! That’s it exactly. You mustn’t touch, but you want it so much. You’ve felt it, too.” Again Tully reached out toward Elke, again he pulled back when he saw her flinch.

He cursed his own lack of sensitivity. No wonder, after being a Slither slave — say something, anything. “So it was Dag Korin saved you. I’d never have guessed that.”

“Why else would I be here, on a ship lost at the end of the universe?” She would not look at him. She had focused her attention on the displays. “No, not lost in the universe. Lost in the multiverse, an infinite set of universes. I’m here for the same reason as you. You came because Chan Dalton wanted you to, I came because Dag Korin wanted me to. This turns out to be the most exciting thing that could happen to a scientist, but I didn’t know that when I agreed to come. Couldn’t you tell I was doing it for the General?”

Tully said nothing, and she looked away from the screens to stare at him. “What is it? What’s wrong now?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s a lie, Tully O’Toole. Your face usually looks white as something dredged from the seabed, and now it’s all pink. What did I say?”

“You said not a word. It’s what I thought.”

“So tell me what.”

“It’s so absurd. I thought that you were here because you were Dag Korin’s” — Tully screwed up his face — “well, this only proves what an ass I am. I thought you were Dag Korin’s mistress.”

“A woman could do worse than General Korin, a lot worse. But me, his mistress? That’s a laugh.” Elke gave a snort that sounded nothing like a laugh. “I couldn’t let him — or any man—”

Elke turned away and bent her blond head over the control board.

“I understand,” Tully said quickly. “After the Slither, any touch would be too much. But it’s all right now I know. Do you want me to go?”

“No, I’d rather that you stay. Two untouchables together. But I must keep on working.”

“Of course you must. Can I help? I once had a working brain, and a good pair of eyes.” Tully moved so that he could study the screen, being careful to keep well clear of Elke. “Do you know what you’re looking at?”

“I’m learning. This is the view from one of the orbiters, just before it stopped recording. The smooth dark area is the sea, and the Hero’s Return is about here.” She stabbed at the screen with a long, tapering index finger. “You can’t see us, of course, since we’re down deep. But the little blob you see beside the inlet is the Mood Indigo.”

“It’s not in the water. It’s on the shore.”