He stared moodily at the sky. "You know, there isn't much here for me, Avis. I lost my whole family when Chicago was wiped off the map. Larry had died before then, of course." He lowered his voice to a brooding sadness. "And the indoctrination I had, it hasn't entirely worn off. Sometimes I think of people as ... apes again." "What do you want to do, Stan?" Her voice was cautious. He stood up and waved at the sky. "I'm going back with you! There's a thousand worlds up there I've never seen, a thousand adventures I've never had! And there's still Thusca!" She laughed softly. "Anything else?" He ran his fingers through her hair and brushed her lips. "You know better than that...." "We leave tomorrow," she repeated after a moment. He kissed her softly and then lay back on the parapet and stared at the flickering stars overhead. A breeze came in off the lake and tugged at his hair and he imagined it sweeping on, blowing to a thousand worlds he had never seen. And a thousand adventures he had never had....