Marlene was breathless and gasping. ‘Erythro knows the knowledge is here, but it doesn't have human experience, human science, human ways of thinking. It doesn't understand.’

‘The knowledge is in the minds present here?’

‘Yes, Uncle Siever.’

‘Can't it probe the minds?’

‘It would hurt them. It can probe my mind without hurting it.’

‘I should hope so,’ said Genarr, ‘but do you have the knowledge?’

‘No, of course not. But it can use my mind as a probe for the others here. Yours. My father's. All.’

‘Is that safe?’

‘Erythro thinks it is, but - oh, Uncle Siever, I'm afraid.’

‘Surely this is madness,’ whispered Wu, and Genarr quickly put a finger to his lips.

Fisher was on his feet. ‘Marlene, you mustn't-’

Genarr waved him back furiously. ‘There's nothing you can do, Crile. There are billions of human beings at risk - we keep on saying it over and over again - and the organism must be allowed to do what it can. Marlene.’

Marlene's eyes had turned upward. She seemed to be in a trance. ‘Uncle Siever,’ she whispered. ‘Hold me.’

Half-stumbling, half-falling, she moved toward Genarr, who seized her and held her tightly. ‘Marlene- Relax- It will be all right-’ He sat down carefully in his chair, still holding her rigid body.

It was like a silent explosion of light that obliterated the world. Nothing existed beyond itself.

Genarr was not even conscious of being Genarr. The self did not exist either. Only a luminous interconnecting fog of great complexity existed, one that was expanding and separating into threads that took on the same great complexity even as they separated.

A whirling and a receding and then an expansion as it approached again. On and on, hypnotically, like something that had always existed and would always exist, without end.

Falling endlessly into an opening that widened as it approached without ever getting wider. Continuing change without alteration. Little puffs unfolding into new complexity.

On and on. No sound. No sensation. Not even vision. A consciousness of something that had the properties of light without being light. It was the mind becoming aware of itself.

And then, painfully - if there had been such a thing as pain in the Universe - and with a sob - if there had been such a thing as a sound in the Universe - it began to dim and turn and spin, faster and faster, into a point of light that flashed and was gone.

93

The Universe was obtrusive in its existence.

Wu stretched and said, ‘Did anyone else experience that?’

Fisher nodded.

Leverett said, ‘Well, I'm a believer. If it's madness, we're all mad together.’

But Genarr was still holding Marlene, bending over her painfully. She was breathing raggedly.

‘Marlene. Marlene.’

Fisher had struggled to his feet. ‘Is she all right?’

‘I can't say,’ muttered Genarr. ‘She's alive, but that's not enough.’

Her eyes opened. She was staring at Genarr, her eyes empty, unfocused.

‘Marlene,’ whispered Genarr in despair.

‘Uncle Siever,’ whispered Marlene in return.

Genarr let himself breathe. At least she had recognized him.

‘Don't move,’ he said. ‘Wait till it's over.’

‘It is over. I'm so glad it's over.’

‘But are you all right?’

She paused, then said, ‘Yes, I feel all right, Erythro says I'm all right.’

Wu said, ‘Did you find this hidden knowledge we're supposed to have?’

‘Yes, Dr Wu. I did.’ She passed a hand over her damp brow. ‘It was you, actually, who had it.’

‘I?’ said Wu vehemently. ‘What was it?’

‘I don't understand it,’ said Marlene. ‘You will, maybe, if I describe it.’

‘Describe what?’

‘Something that's gravity pushing things away instead of pulling them toward.’

‘Gravitational repulsion, yes,’ said Wu. ‘It's part of superluminal flight.’ He drew a deep breath and his body straightened. ‘It's a discovery I made.’

‘Well then,’ said Marlene, ‘if you pass close by Nemesis in superluminal flight, there's gravitational repulsion. The faster you move, the more the repulsion.’

‘Yes, the ship would be pushed away.’

‘Wouldn't Nemesis be pushed in the opposite direction?’

‘Yes, in inverse ratio of mass, but Nemesis' move would be immeasurably small.’

‘But what if it were repeated over and over for hundreds of years?’

‘Nemesis' movement would still be very small.’

‘But its path would be slightly changed and over the light-years the distance would mount up and Nemesis mightpass Earth just far enough away so that Earth would be spared.’

Wu said, ‘Well-’

Leverett said, ‘Could something of the sort be worked out?’

‘We could try. An asteroid, passing by at ordinary speeds, shifting into hyperspace for a trillionth of a second and back at ordinary speed a million miles out. Asteroids in orbit around Nemesis always moving into hyperspace on thesameside.’ For a moment, he was lost in thought. Then, defensively, ‘I would surely have thought of this on my own, given a little time.’

Genarr said, ‘You may still have the credit. Marlene took it from your mind, after all.’

He looked about at the other three and said, ‘Well, gentlemen, unless something goes terribly wrong, let's forget about using Erythro as a way station, which it wouldn't allow anyway. We needn't concern ourselves with evacuating Earth - if we can learn to make full and proper use of gravitational repulsion. I think the situation has been much improved because we brought in Marlene.’

‘Uncle Siever,’ said Marlene. ‘Yes, dear.’

‘I'm so sleepy.’

Tessa Wendel looked at Crile Fisher gravely. ‘I keep saying to myself: “You're back.” Somehow I didn't think you'd be back, once it was clear you had found the Rotorians.’

‘Marlene was the first person - the very first person I found.’

He was staring at nothingness, and Wendel let him. He would have to think it through. They had enough to think about in other directions.

They were taking a Rotorian back with them: Ranay D'Aubisson, a neurophysicist. Twenty years before, she had worked in a hospital on Earth. There would be bound to be those who would remember and recognize her. There would be records that would serve to identify her. And she would be the living proof of what they had done.

Wu was a changed person, too. He was full of plans for making use of gravitational repulsion to nudge the movement of the Neighbor Star. (He called it Nemesis now, but if he could formulate a plan to move it ever so slightly, it might not be Earth's nemesis at all.)

And Wu had grown modest. He didn't want the credit for the discovery, which to Wendel seemed completely unbelievable. He said the project had been worked out in conference and he would say no more.

What's more, he was definitely planning to return to the Nemesian System - and not just to run the project. He wanted to be there. ‘If I have to walk,’ he said.

Wendel became aware that Fisher was looking at her, frowning slightly. ‘Why didn't you think I'd be back, Tessa?’

She decided to be matter-of-fact. ‘Your wife is younger than I am, Crile, and she would hold on to your daughter. I was sure of that. And, desperate as you were to have your daughter, I thought-’

‘That I would stay with Eugenia because that was the only way?’

‘Something like that.’

Fisher shook his head. ‘It wouldn't have worked out that way, no matter what. I thought she was Roseanne at first - my sister. The eyes, mostly, but there was a Roseanne look about her in other ways, too. But she was far more than Roseanne. Tessa, she wasn't human, isn't human, I'll explain later. I-’ He shook his head.

‘Never mind, Crile,’ said Wendel. ‘Explain whenever you please.’

‘It hasn't been a total loss. I've seen her. She's alive. She's well. And in the end I guess I didn't want more. Somehow, after my - experience, Marlene became - just Marlene. For the rest of my life, Tessa, you are all I want.’

‘Making the best of it, Crile?’

‘A very good best it is, Tessa. I'll be formally divorced. We'll be formally married. I will leave Rotor and Nemesis to Wu, and you and I can stay on Earth, or on any Settlement you wish. We'll each have good pensions, and we can leave the Galaxy and its problems to others. We've done enough, Tessa. That is, if that's what you wish, too.’

‘I can hardly wait, Crile.’

An hour later, they were still holding each other.

95

Eugenia Insigna said, ‘I'm so glad I wasn't there. I keep thinking about it. Poor Marlene. She must have been so afraid.’

‘Yes, she was. But she did it, made it possible to save Earth. Even Pitt can do nothing about it now. In a sense, his whole life work has been made useless. Not only is there no purpose to his whole project of secretly building up a new civilization, but he has to help supervise the project for the salvation of the Earth. He has to. Rotor is no longer hidden. It can be reached at any time, and every bit of humanity, on and off Earth, will turn against us if we don't rejoin the human race. It couldn't have happened without Marlene.’

Insigna wasn't thinking of the greater significances.

She said, ‘But when she was frightened, really frightened, it was to you she turned, not to Crile.’

‘Yes.’

‘And you held her, not Crile.’

‘Yes, but Eugenia, don't make anything mystical out of it. She knew me, but she didn't know Crile.’

‘You're bound to explain it very sensibly, Siever. That's you. But I'm glad it was you she turned to. He didn't deserve her.’

‘Fair enough. He didn't deserve her. But, now - please, Eugenia, let go. Crile is leaving. He'll never be back. He's seen his daughter. He's watched her provide a way to save Earth. I don't begrudge him that, and you shouldn't either. So, if you don't mind, I am changing the subject. Do you know that Ranay D'Aubisson is leaving with them?’

‘Yes. Everyone is talking about it. I won't miss her somehow. I never thought she was very sympathetic to Marlene.’

‘Neither were you at times, Eugenia. It's a great thing for Ranay. Once she realized the so-called Erythro Plague was not a useful field of study, her work here was shattered, but on Earth, she can introduce modern brain scanning and have a great professional life.’