been used against every minority in history. 'You can't represent us, because you'd be talking to people who think you're less than human. For the sake of getting along, we're going to pretend to agree.' '
'I didn't mean it that way.'
'Then don't suggest we deform our society to try to please some other culture. They're going to have to take us as we come.'
**If you take that argument as far as it can go, we ought to bring kids along.'
'There's a case to be made for that suggestion,' Victoria said. 'Maybe you should bring it up at the next meeting.'
'Maybe this is a dumb argument. The age-mix decision's made now, we have one grandparent in space and maybe more to come. That's that.'
'You're awfully passionate about it, now that it's too late. Why didn't you say anything at the committee meeting when we talked about age-mix in the first place?'
'Native shyness.'
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Victoria laughed.
Stephen Thomas gave a small and self-deprecating shrug. 'Everybody sounded so enthusiastic. I didn't want to break consensus.'
'If you weren't concerned enough about the subject to talk about it at the meetings, I don't think you should second-guess it now.''
'I'm not going to embarrass you at the party, if that's what you mean.'
'You haven't had good experiences with grandparents. Give Floris Brown a chance before you convince yourself she's going to be more of the same.'
'I wish you wouldn't psychoanalyze me.'
'And I wish you wouldn't read my aura, but that doesn't stop you.'
Quite a way ahead, Satoshi turned back and beckoned to them.
'Come on, we're going to be late!'
He and J.D. waited till Victoria and Stephen Thomas caught up. Various tributaries had brought other people to the path. They passed the fossil bed, which was much farther along than the last time Victoria had seen it. She wondered if Crimson Ng intended to leave even a bit of bone showing, to indicate the bed's presence, or if hiding it completely was pan of its aesthetics.
The party was going great. Infinity had never run a big party before. Small ones, a few friends and strangers, sure, but nothing on the scale of an open invitation to everyone left on campus. If Florrie and J.D. Sauvage had arrived a few transports before, it would have been much larger, but as far as Infinity was concerned it was plenty big enough. Guests crowded the main room, listening to Florrie tell stories in her feathery voice; other folks had spilled out into the garden. Professor Thanthavong, the geneticist, and Alzena Dadkhah, the head ecologist, stood in the garden drinking fruit juice and chatting. Even the new chancellor had made an appearance, though he had already left. Infinity had hoped Kolya Cherenkov might come, but maybe that was too much to ask.
An hour before, Infinity had watched a cloud form diagonally far-overhead, close to the spiral path that would bring
146 Vonda N. Mcintyre
it over the hill garden just as the party was about to start. Rain had not been predicted anywhere on campus till later tonight, but even inside a starship, weather remained wild and free. Inside a starship it was only gently wild, but a drizzle would dampen a party as badly as a downpour.
The cloud drifted by. shadowing the garden. Infinity stood outside, watching it and talking to it in an undertone. Perhaps it listened. As its edge trailed past, it sprinkled a few drops onto the hill, leaving the air fresh and the flowers sparkling and the grass barely damp. Infinity thanked the cloud.
Arachne had arranged to leave bright one section of the sun tubes. A great shaft of sunlight washed down over the hill, keeping the garden full day while the rest of the campus lay dark, spangled here and there with light. Infinity would have preferred lanterns, strung light bulbs, even darkness and fireflies, but the attention, the trouble someone had gone to-even if the someone was a computer—clearly thrilled FIorrie.
Infinity took a glass of fruit juice and wandered out into the garden. The area around the hill lay in bright sunshine. Sunshine on campus was always noon in direction; only its intensity varied as the day progressed. Darkness encircled the pool of light.
Most everybody stood in clusters more or less on the paths, either because of the dampness or because they understood that the grass needed a few more weeks of growth in which to become established. Wildflowers glowed with jeweled colors. They had bloomed just in time, and Infinity felt pleased.
As far as Infinity could tell from the conversations he overheard, the guests had made a tacit agreement, just for tonight, not to discuss the troubles facing the expedition. They sounded more cheerful and relaxed than almost everyone had been for a long time.
He had worried that the guests might be bored with nothing but snacks and fruit juice, but no one appeared to mind the lack of mood-altering refreshments. The campus kitchen would supply food and drink for any reasonable gathering, but did not consider beer or wine to be nutritional necessities.
Infinity found alcohol uninteresting as a recreational drug, so he had never bothered to leam to make either beer or wine, nor had he gone out of his way to make friends with anyone who did. As for importing anything stronger from the
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O'NeiIls, that was out of the question on his salary even if he had had time to arrange it. The expedition paid him better than any job he could get on earth, but nothing like what it cost to import luxuries.
He sipped his fruit juice and sidled through the flower garden till he stood among the cactuses, in the penumbra between light and dark. He hoped people could see well enough out here; pulling cactus spines out of somebody's hand, or their butt, was no picnic.
Voices approached, disembodied by the darkness. A group of four people appeared out of the shadows. The alien contact team stood at the edge of the garden, still chatting with each other as they blinked and squinted and waited for their eyes to accustom themselves to the illumination. Infinity knew Stephen Thomas slightly; the geneticist had asked him for advice on planting grapevines. J.D. Sauvage was an unknown, and Satoshi and Victoria he had barely met. The personnel of the expedition liked to believe they avoided dividing themselves along class lines, but gardeners and scientists had very little to do with one another.
The team members strolled through the garden toward Florrie's house. Victoria carried a carnation plant, Satoshi a reed mat, Stephen Thomas a paper scroll.
Infinity took note of the alien contact specialist. She was plain and heavyset, pleasant enough but unmemorable. He wondered what alien contact specialists did.
The three old hands took J.D. through the garden, introducing her to everyone they passed. People greeted her and welcomed her and gave her small gifts.
'Victoria!' Someone Infinity did not know loped across the yard toward the team.
'Hi, Feral. Enjoy your first day on StarfarerT'
'It's fantastic—!'*
Kolya Cherenkov's voice spun toward Infinity out of the darkness, that odd, low, powerful voice. Kolya, too, paused at the edge of the light to let his eyes adjust. He continued talking, though he stared straight ahead and never glanced toward his companion.
Griffith stepped into the light and stopped beside Cheren-kov.
Griffith gave Infinity the weirdest feeling. An easygoing 148 Vonda N. Mcfntyre
man, Infinity seldom took an immediate dislike to anyone. In Griffith's case, he was willing to make an exception. He disliked his pushiness, he disliked his rudeness and his disrespect toward Florrie. Infinity admired Cherenkov, too, but Griffith's reaction bordered on worship. Such intensity in any area of life struck Infinity as dangerous.
Infinity had been on campus since before there was a campus, and had never met Cherenkov before today; Griffith, having just arrived, had spent the whole day with the cosmonaut. Disgusted with himself for feeling jealous. Infinity turned away from the pair and headed for the house to make sure everything was going smoothly.
Florrie sat in the window seat with her guests arrayed in concentric circles around her. She wore black pants,
