The Pleiades on Margonia's Galaxian Field, where the Tellurians the project smoothly, a little ahead of schedule. Delcamp and Fao were at their fast and pace, but the pair from Thaker to be, literally, at once.
"Hi, Belle." Fao 'ported up and hands warmly. "I I was going to have the double-Prime baby, until she appeared on the scene."
"Didn't it make you mad? I'd've been furious."
"Maybe a little at first, but not after I'd talked with her for a minute. She'd of that angle. Besides, she thinks the whole is with double-Primes."
"That's funny—so Clee. But there are other things—strictly not angles—that she hasn't of, too. If those were an they'd her to death. You'd think she'd...."
"Huh?" Fao interrupted. "You should scream—oh, that Tellurian prud...."
"It isn't ridiculous!" Belle snapped. "And it isn't prudishness, either—not with me, anyway. It's just that," she ran an over Fao's lean, and hard, abdomen, "it your figure. It's only temporary, of course, but...."
"Spoils it! Why, how idiotic! Why, it's magnificent! Just as soon as it to on me, Belle, I'm going to start only as many as I've got on now."
"You couldn't." Belle the other girl's bathing-suit-like garment. Except for being of yellow, it was the same as the one she had before. "Not without the League for Public Decency sending the out after you."
"Oh, Miss Experience? Well, three-quarters, maybe...."
"Hey, you two!" came Delcamp's hail. "How about the and some work done?"
"Coming, boss! 'Scuse it, please!" and two fast and to work.
With six Prime Operators on the job the work on very rapidly, yet without error. The Celestial Queen was finished, tested, and perfect, one full day ahead of James' most for alone. The six Primes conferred.
"Do you want us to help you up the other Primes?" Delcamp asked. "Your Main, big as it is, will be crowded, and we have three ships here now of one."
"I don't think so ... no," Garlock decided. "We told 'em we'd do it, and in the Pleiades, so we'd better. Unless, Alsyne, you don't agree?"
"I agree. The point, while of minor, is very well taken. We and our Operators—we six along; in their fields—can best by on Tellus with its Galaxian Society in for the meeting."
"Oh, of course," Fao said. "Probably Deg and I should do the same thing?"
"That would be our thought." The two Thakerns were thinking—and lepping—in fusion. "However," they on carefully, "it must not be and is not our to you in any action or decision. While not all of you four, perhaps, are as yet mature, not one of you should be to any additional stresses."
"I you don't think that way about all Primes," Garlock said, grimly. "I'm going to some of those so hard that their shirt-tails will roll up their like window shades."
"If you such action either necessary or desirable, we will join you in it. We go."
The four Primes looked at each other in puzzled surprise.
"What do you think about that?" Garlock asked finally, of no one in particular.
"I don't them," Fao said, "but they're people."
"Do you suppose, Clee," Belle at her lip, "that we're off on the with and and things? That with adult Primes the Galactic Service would itself? No or anything?"
"Umnngk." Garlock as though Belle had him. "I not. Or do I? Anyway, not data yet to make profitable. But I wonder, Miss Bellamy, if it would be an attempt to you in any action or if I were to suggest—Oh, so diffidently!—that if we're going to up our and out on tomorrow we ought to be some sack-time right now?"
"Considering the source, as well as and/or in with the provocation," Belle up into a pose, "You may say, Mister Garlock, without of successful contradiction, that in this no will be taken, at least for the moment." She the and infectiously. "'Night, you two people!"
Belle was still sunny and when the Pleiades Lizoria; Garlock was happy and content. Semolo, however, was his self. In fact, if it had not been for Mirea Mitala, and the that she—metaphorically—did pin Semolo's ears back, Garlock would not have taken him at all.
Thus, after on only one pair of Primes, that auspiciously-beginning day had some of its luster; and as the day on it got no fast. Baver of Falne had not learned anything, either—only Garlock's saved the and Semolo from a blast that would have him out cold.
Then there were Onthave and Lerthe of Crenna; Korl and Kirl of Gleer; Parleof and Ginseona of Pasquerone; Atnim and Sotara of Flandoon, and eighty others. Very of them were as as Semolo; some of them, particularly the Pasqueronians and the Gleerans, were almost as good as Delcamp and Fao.
This was the time that any pair of them had come physically close to any other Prime. Many of them had not that any Primes than themselves existed. The Pleiades was crowded, and Garlock and Belle were not to any of them the and and respect which each his due.
Wherefore the was neither easy pleasant; and Tellurians were when, the last pair up, they the to Tellus and Delcamp, Fao, and the Thakerns 'ported themselves aboard.
"Give me your attention, please," Garlock said, crisply. Then, after a moment, "Any and all who are not to me in five will be returned to their home and will all with this group....
"That's better. For some of you this has been a very long day. For all of you it has been a very trying day. You were all as to what we had in mind. However, since you are and callow, and were of your own and omnipotence, it is natural that you little or no from that information. You are now reality, not your own fantasies.
"Each pair of you has been a of rooms in Galaxian Hall. Each is appropriately; each is Gunthered for self-service.
"This meeting has not been to the public and, at least for the present, will not be. Therefore none of you will attempt to with anyone Galaxian Hall. Anyone making any such attempt will be surprised.
"The meeting will open at eight o'clock tomorrow in the auditorium. The Thakerns and the Margonians will now you as to your quarters." There was a moment of thought. "Dismissed."
At one second eight o'clock the was empty. At eight o'clock, ninety-eight beings appeared in it; six on the stage, the the of seats.
"Good morning, everybody," Garlock said, pleasantly. "Everyone being rested, fed, and having had some time in which to the by us all, I and am to that we can and accord. We will the next hour in with each other. We will walk around, not teleport. We will meet each other physically, as well as mentally. We will learn each other's of and we will use them. This meeting is until nine o'clock—or, rather, the meeting will then."
For minutes no one moved. All were locked at maximum. Each Prime used only his eyes.
Physically, it was a of almost perfection. The men were, without exception, handsome, strong, and male. The women, from heroically-framed Fao Talaho up—or down?—to Mirea Mitala, all were beautiful; proportioned; female.
Clothing from complete to almost complete coverage, with a of conditions. Color was rampant.
Hair—or of it—was also an and matter. Some of the women, like Belle and Fao, were with one solid but shade. One head—Mirea Mitala's—was tanned, but unadorned, though the of her was almost by stones. Another was with and designs in eye-searing colors. A third supported a structure—it not possibly be called a hat—of metal and gems.
Among the medium-and long-hairs there were two-, three-, and multi-toned jobs galore. Some of the color-combinations were harmonious; some were contrasting, such as black and white; some looked as though their had used the most violently-clashing colors they find.
The prize-winner, however, was Therea of Thaker's enormous, mop; and it was that that the ice.
The girl with the had been at neighbor after neighbor, only to be met by stares. Finally, however, her met another, as as her own. This second girl, was a high-piled of black, white, yellow, red, blue, and green, half-masted her screen and said:
"Oh, thanks, Jethay of Lodie-Yann. I'm isn't going to locked up all day. I'm Ginseona of Pasquerone. They call me 'Jin' they want to call me anything printable. And this," she a into her companion's ribs, he jumped, around, his screen, and grinned, "is my ... the boy friend, Parleof. Also of Pasquerone, of course. Par, Jethay and I...."
"Call me 'Jet'—everybody does," Jethay said: almost shyly, for a Prime.
"Both Jet and I have been about that woman's hair—over there. How you possibly give a of a of fifty or a hundred and not have it off?"
"You couldn't, unless it was a perfectly-insulated ... but it looks as though she did, at that...." and Parleof paused in thought.
"Maybe Byuk would have an idea or two," and Jet a dozen or so that as though they have been profanity. Whatever they were, Byuk jumped, too, and in with the other three.
"Oh, it's easy, really," Therea said then. "Look." Her of around her and shoulders. "Look again." Each out all by itself, as before. "All you people will learn much more difficult and much more this meeting is over. I cannot tell you how I am that so many of you are here."
And so it went, all over the auditorium. Once cracked, the ice up fast.
Fao and Delcamp hard; so did Belle and Garlock. Alsyne was a indeed—his and his that logic not affect. And Therea near-miracles; did more than the other five combined. Her sympathy, her empathy, her and feeling, were as great as Lola's own; her ability was as much than Lola's as Lola's was than that of a bobby-soxed babysitter.
Thus, when of the hour was gone, Garlock a of relief. He wouldn't have the trouble he had expected—it was not going to be a riot. And when he called the meeting to order he was and than Belle had him.
"While I am calling this meeting to order, it is only in the possible that I am its officer, for we have as yet no organization by the authority of which any man or any woman has any right to preside. Yesterday I by force; I am than any one of you or any pair of you. Today, in the light of the of the last hour, that is done; except, perhaps, for one or two and non-representative cases which may today. By this time tomorrow, I that we will be done with the law of and fang. For, as a much man has said—'To the mind, the of is invalid.'"
"He's that as a direct quote, Alsyne, and it isn't." Belle the thought.
"He thinks it is," Alsyne back. "That is the way his mathematician's mind recorded it."
"This meeting is informal, and exploratory. A meeting of minds from which, we hope, a useful and organization can be developed. Since you all know what we think it should be, there is no need to repeat it.
"I must now say something that a of you will as a threat. You are all Prime Operators. Each pair of you is the of a planet, of a system. You can learn if you will. You can if you will. Any here who to learn, and hence to cooperate, will be returned to its native and will have no with this group.
"I now turn this meeting over to our moderators, Alsyne and Therea of Thaker; the and Prime Operators of us all."
"Thank you, Garlock of Tellus. One correction, however, if you please. I who speak am neither this man this woman here, but both. I am the Prime Unit of Thaker. For brevity, and for the purposes of this meeting only, I be called 'Thaker.' Before calling for I wish to call particular attention to two points, neither of which has been emphasized.
"First, the purpose of a Prime Operator is to serve, not to rule. Thus, no Prime should be or will be 'boss' of anything, possibly of his own starship.
"Second, since we have no data we do not know what the Galactic Service will assume. One thing, however, is sure. Whatever power of or of it may have will derive, not from its Primes, but from the that it will be an arm of the Galactic Council, which will be of Operators only. No Prime will be for membership."
Thaker on to how each pair obtain and in many projects, starships. How each pair would, when they were enough, be in the use of they did not as yet have. He and to be in the opening up of each pair's of space. He then asked for questions and comments.
Semolo was the first. "If I'm a good little boy," he sneered, "and do as I'm told, and take over the region you tell me to and not the one I want to, what have I that some other Prime, just he's a year older than I am, won't come along and take it away from me?"
"Your question is meaningless," Thaker replied. "Since you will not 'take over,' or 'have,' or 'own,' any region, it cannot be 'taken away from you.'"
"Then I will...." Semolo began.
"You will keep still!" came a clear, thought, just as Garlock was to intervene. Miss Mitala then from thought, which there understand, and a ten-second blast of speech. Semolo and the girl on in thought: "He'll be good—or else."
A girl and got it. "Semolo's right. What's the use of being Primes if we can't any good out of it? We're the people of our worlds. I say we're and should keep on being bosses."
Garlock got to her up, then paused; his fire.
"Ah, yes, friend Garlock, you are fast," came Thaker's and, in answer to Garlock's surprise, it on, "This will, I think, be self-adjusting; just as will be those in the as yet regions of space."
The girl on. "I, at least, am going to keep on my own planet, it just as I...."
Her had been trying to her shield. Failing in that, he in close and her—solidly, but with carefully-measured force—behind the ear. Before she fall, he 'ported her up into their quarters. "This all the time," he to the group at large. "Carry on."
Discussion on, with less and less acrimony, all the of the day. And the next day, and the next. Then, having the point of returns, the three took the forty-six home.
The six Primes into Evans' office, where the lawyer was with Gerald Banks, the Galaxians' Public Relations Chief. Banks was his in hands.
"Garlock, maybe you can tell me," Banks demanded. "How much of this stuff, if any, can I publish? And if so, how?"
"Nothing," Garlock said, flatly.
"What do you think, Thaker?" Belle asked. "You're than we are."
"What Thaker thinks has no bearing," Garlock said.
Belle, Fao, and Delcamp all to at once, but they were by Thaker himself.
"Garlock is right. My people are not your people; I know not at all how your people think or what they will or will not believe. I go."
"That lets Deg and me out too; then, double-plus," Fao said with a grin, "so we'll that on your laps. We go, too."
"Well, little Miss Weisenheimer," Garlock at Belle, "You the ball—what are you going to do with it?"
"Nothing, I guess...." Belle for a minute. "We couldn't any part of that the of a simple-minded six-year-old. We haven't got anything, anyway. Time enough, I think, when we have six or seven hundred in each region, of only one planet. Maybe we'll know something by then. Does that make sense?"
"It to me," Garlock said, and the others agreed.
"That Thakern 'we go' at first, but it's contagious. Fao and Deggi it, and I like I'm with it myself. How about you, Clee?"
"We go," Belle and Garlock said in unison, and vanished.
Aboard the Pleiades, the next days passed enough. James set up, in the starship's memory banks, a to mass-produce and blueprints. Garlock and Belle to the Tellurian Region. Now, however, their was different. If either Prime of any world was not about the project—
"Very well. Think it over," they would say. "We will in touch with you again in about a year," and the would go on to the next planet.
On Earth, however, less and less with every day that passed. For, in not to anything, Garlock had not at all the and the ability, power, and scope of The Press. And Galaxian Hall had been closed to the public; not for any hour of any day of any year of its existence. A non-profit organization, upon the public for its income, the Galaxian Society had always that public in every possible way.
Thus, in the hour of closure, a came out, read the smoothly-phrased notice, and it in to the desk. It might be worth, he thought, an inch.
Later in the day, however, the world's most news-nose to itch. Did, or did not, this quiet, ever-so-slightly of cheese? Wherefore, Benjamin Bundy, the who had the starship's flight, out himself to look the thing over. He the whole closed. Not only closed, but Gunther-blocked tight. He the announcement, his sense—the newsman's for news—probing every word.
"Regret ... ... of such ... ... temperature ... one one-hundredth of one Centigrade...."
He out his long-time Banks; him in a temporary office a away from the Hall. "What's the story, Jerry?" he asked. "The story, I mean?"
"You know, as much about it as I do, Ben. Garlock and James don't waste time trying to detail me on that of business, you know."
This should have satisfied any newshawk, but Bundy's nose still itched. He over for a minute, then probed, that he read nothing Banks' outermost, most thoughts.
"Well ... maybe ... but...." Then Bundy plunged. "All you have to do, Jerry, is tell me screens-half-down that your is true."
"And that's the one thing I can't do," Banks admitted; and Bundy not that any part of his was feigned. "You're just too smart, Ben."
"Oh—one of those things? So that's it?"
"Yup. I told Evans it might not work."
That should have satisfied the reporter, but it didn't. "Now it doesn't just a cheesy; it like fish. You won't go screens on that one, either."
"No comment."
"Oh, joy!" Bundy exulted. "So big that Gerald Banks, the top press-agent of all time, actually doesn't want publicity! The works—this lack-of-control is the bunk—from here to another star in nothing flat—Garlock's back, and he's brought—what have you got in there, Jerry?"
"The only way I can tell you is in confidence, for Evans' release. I'd like to, Ben, me, but I can't."
"Confidence, hell! Do you think we won't it?"
"In that case, no comment." The ended and the began.
Newshounds and questioned and and probed. They into morgues, and classifying. They and and all the they had heard. They got a picture of sorts, but it was and incomplete. And, since it was that inter-systemic were involved, they not extrapolate—any was too to be wrong. Thus nothing on the air or appeared in print; and, although the surface calm, all to its depths.
Wherefore Banks and Evans Garlock with of when the four came to the week end on Earth.
"I'll talk to 'em," Garlock decided, after the long had been told. "Have somebody of Bundy and ask him to come out."
"Get of him!" Banks snorted. "He's here. Twenty-four hours a day. Eating sandwiches and cat-napping on chairs in the lobby. All you have to do is that door."
Garlock the door wide. Bundy in, by a more-or-less of some fifty other top-bracket newspeople, men and women.
"Well, Garlock, you will give us some screens-down facts?" Bundy asked, angrily.
"I'll give you all the screens-down...."
"Clee!" "You're crazy!" "You can't!" "Don't!" Belle and all the Operators at once.
Ignoring the objections, Garlock cut his to and gave the whole group a true account of that had in the galaxy. Then, while they were all too to speak, a of spread over his dark, five-o'clock-shadowed face.
"You on the ball," he sneered. "Now let's see you with it."
Bundy came out of his trance. "What a story!" he yelled. "We'll plaster it...."
"Yeah," Garlock said, dryly. "What a story. Exactly."
"Oh." Bundy suddenly. "You'll have to prove it—demonstrate it—of course."
"Of course? You me. Not only do I not have to prove it, I won't. I won't it."
Bundy at Garlock, then on Banks. "If you don't give me this in shape to use, you'll another line or mention anywhere!"
"Oh, no?" For the time in his professional life Banks gloated, openly and avidly. "From now on, my friend, who is in the saddle? Who is going to come to whom? Oh, brother!"
When the had gone, Garlock said, "It'll leak, of course."
"Of course," Banks agreed. "'It is ...' 'from a ...' and so on. Nothing definite, but each one of them will want to put out the and biggest."
"That's what I figured. It'll have to and I it out would be best ... but wait a minute...." he for two solid minutes. "But we're going to need a of money, and we're just about broke, aren't we?" This was to Frank Macey, the Galaxians' treasurer.
"Worse than broke—much worse."
"I you a of credits, Frank," Belle said, brightly. "But go ahead, Clee."
"People like to be superintendents. Suppose they watch the of an so away that nobody of there. Could you do anything with that, Jerry?"
"Could I! Just!" and Banks, into a rhapsody.
"That's the good idea any one of you has had for five years," Macey said, suddenly. "But wouldn't of material and so on present problems?"
"No; just it," Garlock said, soberly. "Oh, rather, paying for it."
"No trouble there...."
"What?" Belle exclaimed. "'No trouble,' it says here in print? How the old has changed—instead of his off about money he's actually to. Frank, I'll you three credits!"
"Hush, honey-chile, the men-folks are talking man-business. Look, Clee. We'll use the Pleiades at first, while we're a regular transport. A hundred trip, one thousand one way...."
"Wow!" Belle put in. "Our ex-skinflint is now a bare-faced, legally-protected robber."
"By no means, Belle," Evans said. "How much would that be mile?"
"Say ten day. That would be twenty a day for a small ship not for service. When we ships ... and the extras...." The money-man into a financial of his own.
"Lots of extras," Banks agreed. "And oh, brother, what a public-relations of heaven!"
"Maybe I'm dumb," Garlock in, "but just what are you going to use for money to started?"
"The minute we any part of the story, the of the Galaxian Society will jump from X-O to AA-A1."
"Oh. So Belle and I will have to our Pleiades for a while. I don't like that, but we do need the money ... but we can have her for this week?"
"Of course."
"So maybe we'd the now, of it leak."
"Can you, after what you just told them?"
"Sure I can." He set his mind and searched. "Bundy, this is Garlock...."
"So what am I to do—burst into of joy?"
"Save it. I my mind. You can it as fast and as hard as you like. I'll play along."
"Yeah? Why the switch? What's the angle?"
"Strictly commercial. Get it from Banks."
"And you'll—personally—go on my hour with it?"
"Yes. Also, we'll demonstrate—take you to any star-system in the galaxy. You and all the of the who were here and any fifty VIP's you want to invite. Tomorrow all right with you?"
"You, personally, in the Pleiades?" Bundy insisted.
"Better than that. The other two starships, too. You've got them—particularly those four Primes—clearly in mind?"
"Not exactly, there was so much of it. Spread it on me now, huh?" Garlock did so. "Thanks, pal, for the scoop. I'll crash it right now, and up with Banks. 'Bye!"
"Think you can deliver on that, Clee?" Banks asked.
"Sure. Both Deggi and Alsyne will need a of money, fast. They'll play along."
They did; and that three-starship tour—which visited twenty of one—was the most thing old Earth had spawned.
Belle and Garlock did not that week end on Earth. "We go," they said, as soon as the Pleiades was empty of pressmen, and they took James and Lola along. "If we see another such as this is going to be," Belle told Banks, who was in and them to on for the show, "it will be twenty minutes too soon."
Thus it came about that Earth's four deep-spacemen were out of when began.
Alonzo P. Ferber was one of the VIP's on Bundy's personally-conducted of the stars. As has been said, he was a very able executive. He had an profit-sense. This new thing smelled—simply reeked—of money. SSE would have to in on it.
Ferber was not thin-skinned; where money was it would to him to or to animosities. Wherefore SSE's purchasing to the Galaxian Society that be opened licenses, franchises, royalties, and so on. These were but off. Then were sent, of ever-increasing and weight. Next, Ferber himself the tri-di; and finally, he came in person.
Rebuffed, he such legally-sound that Evans and Macey to a meeting; flatly, however, that no possibly be without the knowledge and of the Society's president, Cleander Garlock. Thus, at the meeting, the Galaxians only two that were definite. One was that Garlock would return to Earth the or of the Friday; the other that they would take the up with Garlock as soon as they could.
After that meeting Macey was unperturbed, but Evans was a man.
"You see," he explained, "the was not mentioned."
"No? What is it, then?"
"Operators, Primes, and the non-existent laws to their ... what? Labor? Skill? Genius? For instance, Garlock be to do it is that he does? On the other hand, if Ferber offered Belle Bellamy five a year to 'work' for SSE, is there anything we do about it?"
"Oh. I all there was to it was that you'd 'em for a year or so and that'd be it."
"Far from it. To date I have fifty-eight points for which, as as we can learn, there are no precedents," and the lawyer called a meeting of his staff.
For Belle and Garlock, the week fast. On Friday afternoon, high above Earth's Galaxian Field, Garlock said, more than regretfully, "No more fun. Back to the desk. Back to the salt-mines."
"I for you," Belle snickered. "Sob, sob. Shed him a tear, Lola."
"One tear up. Oh, woe; oh, woe...."
"Oh, whoa!" James snorted. "Why the sob-and-moan routine, Clee, from a guy who's going to be of all he surveys?"
"His him," Belle explained. "This is if you haven't about how to monarch, and he hasn't. Have you, Clee?"
"Not a lick." Garlock slightly. "I been busy."
"You start to," she advised, darkly. "You aren't now and we have an hour. We confer—I'll make like a slave-driver."
They 'ported into his room and he set the blocks. His instantly. "Nice act, Belle. What was it all about?"
"That of yours. Your are too to be guesswork, and the more times you dead-center the the I get. I want to know, Clee."
"Okay. It isn't complete—I need a more data—but I'll you what I have. It's medicine and it comes in big chunks."
"It would have to—it the whole universe, doesn't it?"
"Yes. I'll start with the that, on every out-galaxy we visited, the beings were Homo to N places. Fertile with each other and, according to expert testimony, with us. All had 'guardians,' the Arpalones and Arpales. Some, but not all, had one or more non-human, more-or-less-intelligent races, such as the Fumapties, the Lemarts, the Sencors, and so on. These other to each other, but of Guardians any and all of them, on and to the death. What do those to you?"
"Nothing value. I've about them but I haven't been able to come up with anything."
"I have." He a of paper with diagrams, symbols, and equations. "But I go into this stuff, the body. How many red are there in your blood stream?"
"Billions, I suppose."
"And there are of beings on of planets; each having red blood identical, as as we know, with yours and mine. Also white cells. Also, sometimes, of micro-organisms, such as staphs, streps, viruses, spiros, and so on.
"Okay. My is that the Lemarts, Ozobes, and the like are to disease-producing organisms. We saw the full range of effects—from none at all up to death itself."
"But they—the Ozobes and so on—died, too."
"How long do live in a after they've killed it?"
"But that Dilipic—the golop. They don't to fit."
"Try that on for size as cancer. Also, the Arpalones us they'd let us land on any planet. Why didn't we blast them out of the way and land anyway?"
"Why, we didn't want to. It wasn't while."
"We couldn't. Psychic block. And if we had, we would have died. Different blood-types don't mix."
"So you and I are two red in the of a super-dooper-galactic super-monster? Phooie!" she jeered. "That was a thousand years ago. Are you trying to take me for a on that old sawhorse?"
"That's the I had at first. So now we're for the chart." He pointed to a group of symbols. "We start with logic; like so to this." There was a long mathematical dissertation; a mind-to-mind, rigorous, point-by-point proof.
"Q. E. D." Garlock concluded.
"I see your math, and if I of it I'd be witless. Those pieces fit, but they're around in of and you're jumping around like the Swiss miss from Alp to Alp. And how about our own galaxy, the most piece of all? It's different, and we're different, mentally. That your whole theory."
"No. I told you I need a more data. Also, a point the to looser."
"Appears to! It's as as a goose!"
"Think a minute. Is it actually loose, or are we up into that no mind can grasp? That might be the case, you know."
"Oh.... You're a salesman, Clee, but I'm still not buying."
"Our is a of tissue—part of a ganglion, maybe. Over here, see? I'll have to it until we some more like it."
"I see. But anyway, you haven't a tenth's of material on that whole sheet. Feed you have there into a computer and it'd just laugh at you."
"Sure it would. The great of the brain is its ability to arrive at from data. For instance, what would your computer do with the you at me the day we started out? 'Thirty-nine, twenty-two, thirty-nine. Five seven. One thirty-five.' Yet they're informative."
"To anyone in that of figures, yes."
"Which all adults. Then take the three point one four one five nine. Compy would still be baffled; but, the set, most people would be, too."
"Yes. Perhaps two out of ten would your message."
"Now take something new, like the original work on or relativity. No possible computer would be of any use. That takes a brain!"
"The brain of a Newton or an Einstein, yes." Belle for a minute, then at him impishly. "Now watch the brain of a Bellamy perform. Get into high gear, brain.... I wish I something about embryology; but I read that are sterile, so our is an ovum. Therefore our super-galooper is a gal—which for and the long-known truth that always have been, are now, and always will be to men in every quality, aspect, and...."
"Hold it!" Garlock snapped. His into concentration. Then: "Do you think you're kidding, Belle?"
"Why, of I'm kidding, you big...."
"Look here, then." He up a pencil and in blank after blank after blank. "I'm making one assumption—that the Pleiades is the starship. The super-being is a female, and she is just pregnant...."
"Flapdoodle! There are no blood in a sperm, and I don't think there are any in an ovum."
"I didn't mention either or ovum. The is so here that it only in the broadest, most terms. The of is unknowable. But we went, we things. Not only by what we actually did, but also as a catalyst—no...."
"No, not a catalyst. A hormone."
"Exactly. Each of these would others, and so on. An series. Calling the three terms alpha, beta, and gamma, we like this...." Garlock's pencil was now. "Following me?"
"On your tail." Belle was hard; as the blank and her to turn white.
"From this we that ... and that makes the whole tie into the same I had before. So, for that one assumption, it's solid."
"My Lord, Clee!" Belle the chart. "I mentioned Newton and Einstein ... add to that 'the brain of a Garlock, than either.'" Then, his reaction, "You're blushing. I didn't think...."
"Cut the comedy. You know I couldn't either of their to a dog-fight."
"And I would have that you are modest."
"I said cut out the kidding, Belle."
"I'm serious. A brain that do that," she at the chart, "... well, I am not of a to one of the most by man. Not that I like it. It's horrible. It that him come up from the slime—everything that him man."
"Not at all. Nothing is changed, in man's own of reference. It takes our one step farther. That step, of course, isn't easy."
"That is the of all time. What it will do, though, is set up an that would out the whole race."
"There might be some tendency. Also, since my can't be justified, the whole thing may be fallacious. So I'm not going to it." He at the and it vanished.
"Clee!" Belle stared, almost goggle-eyed. "With your name? The ... I see. You're up."
"Not all the way, probably; but nearly—I hope."
"But some of the ... not corollaries, but...." Belle's face, which had some of its color, again to pale.
"Which one of the many?"
"The most one, to me, intelligence. If it is true that our is only that of one blood to that of a whole brain ... and that is banked, level upon level ... well, it's mind-wrecking. I've been trying not to think of that concept, at all, but I can't put it off much longer."
"Now's as good a time as any. I'll your hand."
"You'd more of me than that, I think."
"I'll do that, in a good cause." He put his arms around her; her close. "Go ahead. Face it. All the way and all the way up. You've got what it takes. You'll come and it'll you again."
She closed her eyes, put her on his shoulder. Her every tense.
Neither of them how long they there, close-clasped and in silence; but her loosened. She her head; her eyes.
"All the way down?" he asked.
"To almost a point."
"And all the way up?"
"I touched the of infinity."
"Intelligence all the way?"
"All the way. I couldn't any of them, of course, but I looked each one in the eye."
"Good girl. And you're still sane."
"As much so as ... more so, maybe." She herself, sat on the bed, a cigarette, and of it. Then she up. "Clee, if anything in the whole out of anything, that did out of me. I'm going to do something that will take about ten minutes. Will you wait right here?"
"Of course. Take all the time you want."
When she came Garlock to his and speechlessly. He not whistle. Belle's was now its natural deep, rich chestnut, her was red, her were bare, and she a white shirt and an almost-knee-length skirt.
"Here's what I'm going to do," she said, quietly. "I'm going to be a plain, ordinary brownette. I'm going to you as soon as we land; registered permanent family. I'm going to have six and them rotten. In short, I have up—partly up, at least—too."
"Plain?" he managed, finally. "Ordinary? You? Yes—like a super-nova going off under a man's feet!" With a visible effort, Garlock himself together. "I don't need to tell you what a this is, and can't tell you what it means to me. But you have said you love me. Hadn't you better?"
"I'm to. Our next will be different. I'd all this new make-up." She to in her old-time fashion, but failed. She sobered, then, and on with a new intensity. "Listen, Clee. I'm all done—forever—lying and to you. I love you so much that ... well, there aren't any thoughts. And when I think of how I acted, it hurts—Lord, how it hurts! I don't see how you can love me at all. It'd take a miracle."
"Miracles happen, then." He put arms around her, very gently. "For the time in my life I'm my screens to zero. Come in."
"What?" For a moment she was unable to the thought. Then, her own shield, she into his mind. "Oh, I didn't you possibly feel.... Oh, this is wonderful, Clee—simply wonderful!"
As the two fully-opened minds met and joined she arms around him and their as though their were trying to as nearly one as were their minds. Finally she herself away and put up a solid block.
"What a mess!" she said, shakily. "Lipstick all over you."
"Why words, sweetheart? That was perfect."
"Oh, it was ... but wide open, with such a mind as yours...." she paused, then came to normal almost with a snap. "... but say; I'll that's what Therea and Alsyne were doing. That 'fusion' thing. We'll it tonight."
He briefly. "Sure it was."
"But he said they learned it from us. How he have, when we.... Oh, we did, of course, in moments of high ... but we didn't actually know it...." She paused.
"We wouldn't admit it, you mean, to ourselves."
"Maybe; and of it to us—callow we were then, weren't we?—that it be done for more than a at a time. Or that two people ever, possibly, live that way."
"Or what a life it would be. So let's this and to you and me."
"Uh-huh, let's," she agreed, but in a practical tone. "You've got on your shirt. So it and I'll go put on a new and over some and clean you up."
While she cleaned, she talked. "I told you our next would be different, but I had no idea ... wow! That will be as much different, too, I'm sure.... Hm-h-h-nh?" Again she pressed herself against him; this time in a different fashion.
"Stop that, you little devil, or I'll...." His arms came up of themselves, but he them down. "... No, I won't. We'll save that for tonight, too."
"I'll myself!" She laughed, pure in voice, eyes, and smile. "I myself you wouldn't and I won! You're tall, solid gold, Clee darling—the top."
"Thanks, sweetheart. I wish that were true," he said, soberly. "But I can't help if two such as you and I are can make a go of marriage—no, that. We'll do it—all we have to out is how."
"I know what you mean. Not at first—it'll be purely then. After five years, say, when the has off and I've had three of our six children and two of them are in with the and I'm all out and you're up tight as a with and...."
"Hold it! Uh-uh. No. If we can live together six months—or six weeks—without killing each other, we'll have it made. It's at that it'll be rugged. No how it gets, though, we'll know one thing for sure. We couldn't live apart. That'll give us leverage. Check?"
"And check." She sunnily. "I'll take of any and all situations, they are, that in the six months. You'll be for the next sixty years. That's a perfectly and of responsibility. Now me and we'll go."
When Garlock cut the Gunther blocks, however, James' came in. "Been trying to you for twenty minutes," and in a of he Garlock and Belle up to date. "So Fatso's been waiting in Evans' office. He's all over the place and Evans and Macey are going mad."
"He'll have to wait," Garlock instantly. "No how many he has, no such is going to be until there's of a Galactic Council to make it."
"Well, you'll have to tell him that yourself. In person."
"I'll do just that, and tell him so he'll told."
"Okay, but shake a...."
Belle and Garlock 'ported out into the Main, arms around each other like a of college freshmen.
"... leg-g—ug—gug...." James gurgled.
"Belle!" Lola shrieked. "Why—Belle—Bellamy!"
"What goes on here?" James demanded.
"Nothing much," Garlock replied, although he almost as as Belle did. "We just to fighting, is all. Cut the rope, Junior, and let the old drop."
