"I regard the last as least likely, assassination as the most likely-and none of it our business here on Tertius. There are a billion people on Secundus; let them handle it. You and I have saved the Archives and that's good; the Families maintain their continuity.

"In a few years we'll import equipment for you-or your successor-to set up the sort of computterized deal you have on Secundus. Athene can keep data in storage until we're set up. Meanwhile I'll let a message echo around the inhabited planets that the Archives are here, too. I'll also announce that this is an alternate Families' Seat where the Trustees are welcome to meet."

The computer said, "Mr. Chairman, Mr. Jones has asked if I know when you will be ready for lunch."

"Please tell him we will be there in a moment, No hurry on any of this, Justin; if you're patient, problems tend to solve themselves-and patient is all one can be when it takes years to pass a message around even among the more thickly settled planets. So wait a hundred years. One private message for you. You're one of us now? A member of this family and a father to our kids?"

"Yes. I want to be."

"You want it formal? All right, here's a short one, binding-and later you can have any ritual you want. Justin, are you our brother? Till the stars grow old and our sun grows cold? Will you fight for us, lie for us, love us-and let us love you?"

"I will!"

"That does it; Athene has it on record-open record, Athene."

"Recorded, Lazarus. Welcome to the family, Justin!"

"Thank you, Athene."

"The private message is thus, Justin. Tamara asked me to tell you-if you married us-that she is going to ask Ishtar to cancel her immunity to impregnation. She did not say that this was exclusively for you. On the contrary she told me that she hopes to have children by each of us as quickly as possible; then she would at last feel fully in the family. Nevertheless I am certain that her decision was triggered by your arrival...so the rest of us will hang back and cheer while you plant the first one-our Tammy will like that"

My eyes suddenly filled with tears, but I kept my voice steady. "Lazarus, I don't think that's what Tamara wants. I think she just wants to be fully a member of the family-and so do I!"

"Well...perhaps so. In any case Ishtar keeps the genetic answers to herself. Maybe we'll line up all the gals and see what a new rooster can do. End of restricted conference, Teena."

"Sure thing, Buddy Boy. And a hundred years from now you can line up all the men for me. Betcha I can whip 'em!"

"You probably can, dear."

VARIATIONS ON A THEME-XVI

Eros

Minerva said, "Lazarus, will you walk with me? Outside?"

"I will if you'll smile."

She smiled briefly. "None of us feels much like smiling today. But I'll try."

"Confound it, dear, you know I won't be gone any time to speak of, by this framework. Just like the calibrating hop the twins and I made."

"Yes, dear. Shall we go?"

He patted her little skirt. "Thought so. Where's your gun?"

"Must I wear it? When you are with me? I will wear it without fail...while you are gone."

"Well- Bad precedent. All right." They paused in the foyer. Minerva said, "Athene dear, please tell Tamara I'll be back in time to help with dinner."

"Sure thing, Sis. Hold it- Tammy girl says she doesn't need help, so don't hurry."

"Thanks, Sister. And thank Tammy for me." They left the house, started up a gentle bill. Presently she said, "Tomorrow.

"'Tomorrow,'" Lazarus repeated, "but don't make it sound like a dirge. I've told you all that, while this trip will be ten T-years elapsed time for me, it will be at most a few weeks for you at home-and even less for the twins. What is there to get solemn over?"

Instead of answering, she said, "How long will I live?"

"Eh? Minerva, what sort of question is that? Not too long if you neglect ordinary precautions such as going armed and staying alert. If you mean your life expectancy-well, if the geneticists know what they are talking about, you have exactly the expectancy I was born with and it doesn't matter that I'm a freak; I pass it on to you. But even if they are mistaken about that gene complex in the twelfth chromosome pair, there is no possible doubt that you are a Howard in every gene. So you're good for a couple of centuries without trying. But with a willingness to undergo rejuve every time you reach menopause, I couldn't guess how long you will last-they learn more about it every year. As long as you want to live, probably. How long is that?"

"I don't know, Lazarus."

"Then what's eating you, dear? Sorry you gave up being a computer for vulnerable flesh-and-blood?"

"Oh, no!"

Then she added, "But sometimes it hurts."

"Yes. Sometimes it does."

"Lazarus...if you are certain you are coming back why did you reorient Dora so that her affection is fixed on Lori and Lazi rather than on you?"

"Is that all that's troubling you? A routine precaution, that's all. Why did Ira make a new will when we set up our family? Why do we all have wills emplaced in Teena? My sisters will own the 'Dora' presently no matter what; they already run it. If anything did happen to me- Do you remember something you said years ago? You told Ira that you would self-destroy rather than serve another master."

"Is it likely that I would fail to carry over such a memory? That day led to this, by inevitable concatenation. Lazarus, I left behind much of my memories...but I traced and retraced in this Minerva every conversation that Minerva ever shared with you. Every word."

"Then you know why I won't risk hurting a computer who thinks she's little girl...and why I don't dare risk an emotional malfunction in a piloting computer somewhere out between the stars-when my sisters' lives depend on that computer. Minerva, I would have bonded Dora to Lori and Lazi just on Dora's account; she needs to love and be loved. But if I had neglected to do it as a safety precaution for the twins-well, a man who refuses to take his own death into account in making plans is a fool. A self-centered fool who does not love anyone."

"You are not that, Lazarus, you have never been that."

"Oh, yes, I have! It took me endless years to learn."

Again she let time pass before she spoke. "Lazarus...I have often wondered about Llita."

"'About Lilta'? Huh?"

"And about her, even more than about Llita. Do I really look like her?"

He stopped and stared at her. They were near the top of the hill now, out of sight of the house. "I don't know. How can I know? A thousand years- Memories fade and blend. I think you look like her. Yes, you do."

"Is that why you can't love me? Did I make a terrible mistake in wanting to look like her?"

"But darling...I do love you."

"You do? Lazarus, you have never shared this boon with me." Suddenly she unwrapped the little skirt, dropped it on the grass. "Look at me, Lazarus. I am not she. For your sake I wish I could be she. But I am not...and I made- I- I was a computer then and didn't know any better. I did not mean to hurt you, I did not mean to raise ghosts in your mind! Can you forgive me this?"

"Minerva! Stop, darling! There is nothing to forgive."

"Time is short, you are leaving. Can you truly forgive me? Will you put your child into me before you go?" Her eyes were welling tears, but she stared at him steadily. "I want your child, Lazarus. I will not ask twice...but I could not let you leave without asking. In my ignorance I made myself look like her-because you loved her-but you could close your eyes!"