the Far Seer. Overcoming his own distaste at what he was about to do, he bent quickly and pressed his small tongue to the bare flesh of the Far Seer's domed head. The act proceeded with surprising simplicity. There was not the pleasure involved in merging with Beautiful Wings, but it was not, he found, distasteful. His flesh melted into the flesh of the Far Seer. Red Earth's mind registered high surprise, but also a quickness of understanding that awed Rack. «Now I understand,» Red Earth sent excitedly. But there was something in the Far Seer's mind that made Rack feel uncomfortable, even as he continued to merge and began to make repairs on the body of Red Earth. There was a thought below the readable level; it grew stronger and stronger until it burst out as it became obvious that the Healer's powers were being extended into the Far Seer's body. «Hail, New One. Hail, New One.» «No,» Rack said, feeling a flush of embarrassment. «I am Rack the Healer.» The process continued, cell by cell, fiber by fiber, organ by organ. A sense of excitement spread from the agitated Far Seer into Rack's mind and into the mind of Beautiful Wings. Red Earth, in his dreams, had been expecting a completely new form, as different from present life forms as the first Healer was different from the Old Ones. Nature, always guileful, had duped them, sending the New One in a common form, but Red Earth was capable of understanding the import. Beautiful Wings thought only that Rack's new ability would undoubtedly save him from being punished for past crimes. She took a small, selfish pleasure in basking in the glow of Red Earth's near-adoration of Rack, who, when he had finished, had left the Far Seer in better health than he had enjoyed since his youth. She could not feel seriously threatened by the predictions of the Far Seers. Her world was good. She had Rack and a rare, lasting love. Their position was secure. They were home. Red Earth's mind, stimulated by the realization of a dream, blessed the infallibility of all-knowing nature and speculated wildly about the future. He was brought up short when it was revealed that Rack's union with Beautiful Wings had produced a child. «A Keeper,» Rack told him. «She was left in the care of a young Far Seer of the east.» «No, no, that cannot be,» Red Earth said, forgetting himself and searching the mind of Beautiful Wings for confirmation. Nature would not deliver a New One and then let him be wasted in death without having passed on his abilities. «Perhaps,» he mused, «the Keeper is also different.» «She seemed as all Keepers,» Rack said, remembering his disappointment. «You will breed again, then,» Red Earth said. «Perhaps,» Rack agreed. «The experience was a repeated one.» «Yes, you will breed again,» Red Earth continued, excited once more. «When you tint we will select the most suitable mate.» He felt the flare of jealousy from Beautiful Wings, sent soothing things, and said, «Perhaps it will be you, since your attachment is strong.» It was truly a time for great things. To demonstrate his ability, Rack, after eating hungrily and breathing deeply to rebuild himself, merged with Red Earth's Keeper, planting the technique in her storage banks as he felt her blood, her body, her organs. Then Rack and Beautiful Wings, with Red Earth feeding the data to his Keeper, told of their flight to the east, sending detailed pictures of all their activities there. Thus was history served, for it was the duty of all to record knowledge. In return Rack was briefed on conditions at home and they were discouraging. The discussion returned to Rack's statement that something could be done to allow Red Earth to measure the Breathers in their home waters. At first Red Earth was skeptical, but after a demonstration during which Beautiful Wings merged with Rack, encompassed both Rack and Red Earth in her field of power, and lifted them from the floor, he was convinced. It was a strange grouping that emerged a short time later from the roiling clouds into the thin, upper air. Face to face, merged, were Rack and Beautiful Wings. Back to back with Rack, Red Earth was making a rare soar, his mind seeing all, feeling the far suns, contacting the face of the satellite, measuring the scant spray of air particles in the vast heights. He let his pleasure flow and it was joined to the never-old pleasure of Beautiful Wings and Rack, who had soared higher and longer than any Healer and Power Giver in history. Rack laughed, seeing the bright satellite in the sky, and playfully repeated his boast that with his vitality and the power of Beautiful Wings, he could send them all soaring there. But he was sobered when Red Earth, using the distance around the planet as a base, sent a picture of the distance and a calculation of the energies involved. Then the southern sea was below. They lowered through the dense clouds and found only minimum conditions at the surface. Red Earth directed the flight of the Power Giver, crossing the area again and again, his mind storing pictures so vast that they would not stick in Rack's mind. Since the air was scarce and the hard projectiles plentiful, it was necessary for Rack to break his merge with Beautiful Wings, and to merge with Red Earth and heal him. When he was finished, he turned back to Beautiful Wings and was shocked to see how quickly the heavy burden had sapped her. He felt himself flow out, giving gladly and feeling a tenderness that made Red Earth squirm with embarrassment. «You are never to soar without me,» Rack said sternly. He was unable to bear the thought of her using her own substance, being weakened. «Yes,» she said gladly. «Yes.» After a time of mutual healing back in Red Earth's establishment, the Far Seer went into rapport with his Keeper. For a long period, he compared his pictures, drawing occasionally on the minds of his fellow Far Seers and the storage banks of their Keepers. Rack and Beautiful Wings drew fresh Breathers from the Eastern Establishment and replenished his old establishment, emptied during his absence. Their home was a dome of transparency, for Rack liked to see the outside. The inside was filled with good air and happiness. Beautiful Wings slept peacefully as Rack watched. He saw that Red Earth had valued his hard-material nuggets so little that they had been left in his establishment. Outside, the survival factor was negative in his immediate area and the severity of the toxicity dampened his emotions. The readings of Red Earth confirmed the predictions of the Far Seers of the east. He announced his findings, making individual contacts with far-flung Far Seers, but added that all hope was not lost. He called for a council in the Eastern Establishment. He did not reveal the source of his hope as it was now only a wild dream. But already one of his dreams had come true with Rack's discovery of his new power. Selected Power Givers transported Healers and Far Seers to the council. There was a drain on all, for the storms were peaking. Rack, feeling the damage, wanted to heal them all, but he knew, by some instinctive measuring, that it would be impossible, that it would result only in his own depletion. The gathering, although it was representative of the entire area of Red Earth, was small. The council began with a dry, long-winded recital of the observations of the Far Seers, confirming once again the great threat to life on the planet. The corroborating observations of the eastern Far Seers were presented. New deaths were reported in sad pictures. Predictions of more deaths left the gathering silent. No one could
actually believe the verdict of the data, the end of all life on the planet, but the evidence was undeniable. «Where,» asked a young Far Seer attached to the Eastern Establishment, «is the hope you promised us, Red Earth? The Breathers die, breeding toward their own extinction. The clouds stir the accumulated poisons. People are dying.» «He is among us,» Red Earth said. Once again Rack had to demonstrate his powers. He merged, to Beautiful Wings' squirming displeasure, with a weakened Power Giver, bringing her back to strength. He ate, breathed, stored, and merged again with an ancient Far Seer, who was eased, but who was so near natural death that Rack was unable to do more than give momentary comfort. «It is my hope,» Red Earth said, «that this power has been latent in all Healers. We will listen as Rack the Healer explains. Then the Healers will try to emulate him.» Embarrassed Healers placed their small mouths on the heads of the Far Seers, and the mouths of the Power Givers, watching the pictures sent by Rack. But the Far Seers concluded that the power in Rack came from a totally unknown section of the mind, a strangely shaped area that seemed to be missing completely in the other Healers. The experiment was abandoned. Red Earth, an impressive figure, rose to face the council. «Nature has sent the New One. Is it accepted?» «It is accepted.» «Would she send the New One without purpose?» A chorus of negative, negative. «There is, then, only the question of finding the purpose,» Red Earth said. «And, for some time, she has been trying to tell us, in her own way, the nature of that purpose.» He sent a picture of elapsed time measuring back to Rack's trek to the valley of the hot waters. He projected an exact picture of the object found there. «This object, which has been studied by our foremost minds, was a message.» Rack, who had been letting his mind wander, was brought to full attention. He had been unaware that such a study had been made. The last time he had seen the object, it was lying on the floor of Red Earth's establishment where it had been flung in revulsion by Red Earth. «The fact that nature told this Healer that it was time to dig'—a shudder of fear passed through the assembly—'was also a message, a message we, who are supposed to be wide-seeing and wise, chose to ignore. How long had the object been hidden below the soft poison of the earth? And what of the nuggets of hard material? We have considered them useless, but they too may be part of nature's overall plan for us.» Following a dramatic pause, Red Earth continued. «In the beginning nature imbued the Healers with a fascination for the hard-material nuggets. To them they are beauty, wonder, possessions of aesthetic worth. The reason for this apparent folly of nature is now clear. Do you see it?» He waited, the look of a questioning teacher in his pictures. There were small, shamed negatives. Even Rack was silent, waiting to hear Red Earth's conclusion, as he tried to group his own confused thoughts. «Balanced against this curiosity, this yen for possession of the nuggets, was the ancient knowledge that to dig meant death. Thus it was for an incomprehensible picture of time. And yet, even as the planet died, nature had long since planted our salvation. It was there in the valley of the hot waters, a strange and wonderful place, for where, in our tortured world, does one find clean water, good air, and soft, unpoisoned
