Vardin flickered, became insubstantial. Her body seemed to melt into the gray mists. The gleaming walls were gone. The black box was gone. Vardin was gone. Ramsey led Margot back to the _Enterprise_. Moments later--although the elapsed time was subjective--they blasted off. Margot opened her eyes. She had been sleeping. She smiled at Ramsey tremulously. "I love you," she said. Her words seemed to surprise her. "I can't go back to Earth," Ramsey said. "Who wants to go back to Earth--if you can't?" They had, Ramsey knew, all of space and the life-span of mortal man to enjoy together. THE END +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Transcriber's note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation (matter-transmitter/matter | | transmitter, scintillation-counter/scintillation counter, | | space-suit/spacesuit) has been retained. | | | | Deliberate mis-spellings (borogroves, momraths; plus all the | | lithping) have been retained. Minor changes to punctuation | | were made without comment. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+