sorry.
As he passed by the control booth with its huge reading board he caught a glimpse of himself in the reflection of the halfsilvered window. He saw a young man leaving his twenties, lean, slightly above average in height, straight of limb and steady of hand. Large dark eyes looked out from under a brown thatch of hair which, no matter how it was combed, always appeared rebellious. The face showed a quick intelligence and by the thrust of a firm jaw a decisive resolve almost bordering on stubbornness. It was a face which did not easily show emotion, but one which was saved from being completely cold and aloof by a full, sensitive mouth perched above a deeply cleft chin. …
THE SHIFT WORE AWAY and by the end of it he was ready to begin the next round of sleep experiments. He celebrated the return of his will to work by treating himself to an hour in Gotham's arcade playing Rat Race, his favorite hologame. It was one of the latest generation of hologames featuring a biofeedback variable that homed in on the player's mental and emotional reflexes. In his present good spirits Spence racked up half-a-million points before the rats caught him and he turned the game over to a group of impatient cadets. He left the noisy arcade and was soon strolling idly along his favorite path among the great green ferns of Central Park.
He had stopped to steep himself in the damp, earthy atmosphere of the place-eyes closed, face tilted upward to receive shield-reflected sunlight, drawing great gulps of air deep into his lungs-when he heard a rustle behind him. Reluctantly he turned to allow the other to pass, and as he opened his eyes discovered himself blinking into two liquid orbs of china blue fringed with long dark lashes.
'You!' Spence jumped back involuntarily.
The disarming intruder laughed and replied gaily, 'I thought it was you; I see I was right. I never forget a face.'
'You startled me. I didn't mean to shout at you.'
'You are forgiven. I've been following you. You certainly wander around an awful' lot. I almost lost you several times.'
'You were following me?'
'How else was I going to apologize? I happened to see you in the concourse-I always come down to the park, every day.'
'Apologize?' Spence kicked himself for babbling like an imbecile. 'For what?' he added.
'For my shocking behavior yesterday. I'm sorry, really. I had no right to treat you that way. Very unprofessional of me.'
'Oh, that's all right,' he muttered.
The young lady chattered on. 'It's just that it was close to the end of the shift and I was getting a little giddy. I do that when I get tired. And anyway, Daddy has been gone so long I'm afraid I've kind of let the decorum of his office disintegrate.'
'Daddy?' Another inner kick.
'Oh, there I go again. I'm always getting ahead of myself somehow.'
'You mean your father is the director of GM?'
'Yes-the colony, not the corporation.'
'Then you're his daughter…' Buffoon! What are you saying?
'That's right,' she laughed. 'It makes it nice that way.'
'You work for him? I mean…'
'No, not really. I was just helping out because both he and his assistant are gone. I didn't have anything else to do. They've been gone all week setting up some sort of field trip or something.'
'That sounds interesting.' Spence was dying for something half-intelligent to say. At least he had passed imbecile and was now merely moronic.
'Does it? I suppose so, to a scientist, I mean. I have no desire to go tramping around on Mars or anywhere else. I didn't even like the jump up here very much.'
Spence had heard about such 'field trips,' as she called them; at least once a session various cadets would be chosen to take a trip to one of the extra-terrestrial bases to see firsthand the work going on there. Mars was without doubt the deluxe trip. Anyone who made that one would add an appreciable amount of prestige to his credentials.
'When is the-ah, field trip supposed to take place? I hope you don't mind my asking. Would you like to walk for a while? My name is Spencer. Spence.'
'I know. I looked it up in your file, Dr. Reston.' To his look of mild surprise she added, 'Oh, it wasn't hard. I told you I never forget a face. And I remembered the bar code on your jumpsuit.'
'Right.' They began to walk slowly among the ferns and leafy trees. Now, however, Spence was aware of a new scent among the musky odors of the tropical garden. A fresh clean scent: lemons, he decided.
'I'm Ari. It's short for Ariadne, only if you ever call me that I'll never speak to you again.'
For an instant Spence considered that would be an extremely unfortunate event, but then realized he hardly knew the girl at all. 'Hmmm.' He screwed up his face into a contemplative scowl. 'Ariadne-that's Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Minos of Crete. She gave her lover Theseus a ball of twine which he used to escape the labyrinth of the minotaur.'
'Very good!' She laughed and clapped her hands. 'Not one person in a thousand remembers that.'
'Oh, I regard myself something of a classicist,' remarked Spence with a mock-serious air. 'Ari. It's a nice name. I like it.'
'I like yours, too.' They stopped walking. As Spence turned to look at her he could feel his nerve evaporating. 'Well, it's been nice talking to you,' she said. 'I do have to go now. Maybe we'll run into each other again sometime.' She hesitated. 'Bye.'
She turned quickly and ducked under a large frond and Spence watched her dart away like a deer, her long blonde hair flagging behind as she disappeared among the green shadows. He stood perplexed by the strange mix of emotions which assailed him. He was sorry to see her go; and yet he told himself that he could not feel that way, that he had never seen her before yesterday, that she was just like every other girl he had ever met. Still, a vague sense of loss settled on him as he continued to walk the garden paths.
4
… SPENCE STUMBLED BRUISED AND bleeding across a rocky, alien landscape. Over his shoulder Earth, a beautiful, serene blue globe, rose full in the black, formless sky. He winced with pain as needlelike shards of tiny cinders sliced the soles of his bare feet and scraped the flesh away from his knees and the palms of his hands when he fell. He felt a cool wetness on his cheek and lifted a hand to his face.
Tears. He was crying.
Then he was standing on the top of a low mountain overlooking a lush green valley. Around him a gentle breeze played among tiny yellow flowers, shifting their sunny heads playfully with each gust. The air bore a sweetly pungent scent and seemed to vibrate with a faintly audible tinkling sound which reminded him of bells.
In the valley below, small white houses, each surrounded by its own neat acreage, dotted the slopes in an orderly fashion. He could see the minute figures of people going about their daily chores, moving in and out of the little houses. An atmosphere of unfathomable peace and wholeness enfolded the valley like a golden mist and Spence was crying-heartbroken because he did not belong in that valley, among those people who lived in such simple splendor.
The air grew cold around him. The fragile yellow flowers shriveled at his feet. The tears froze on his face. He heard the empty howl of frigid winds roaring down as if from incredible heights. He looked down in despair and watched the verdant valley wither and turn brown. The whitened wisps of dried grass and leaves flurried about him in the savagely gusting wind.
He shivered and wrapped his arms tightly across his chest to keep warm. He glanced down at his feet and saw that he stood upon hard, bare earth. He saw something sparkle and beheld a small pile of diamonds glittering in the icy glare of a harsh, violent moon. They were his tears-frozen where they had fallen. The earth would not
