Brion was startled, this was too close to his own thoughts about planetary backgrounds. There couldn't possibly be a connection though. "Never," he told her. "Up until a few months ago I never even considered leaving Anvhar. The Twenties are such a big thing at home that it is hard to imagine that anything else exists while you are still taking part in them." "Spare me the Twenties," she pleaded. "After listening to you and Ihjel I know far more about them than I shall ever care to know. But what about Anvhar itself? Do you have big city-states like Earth?" "Nothing like that. For its size it has a very small population. No big cities at all. I guess the largest centers of population are around the schools, packing plants, things like that." "Any exobiologists there?" Lea asked, with a woman's eternal ability to make any general topic personal. "At the universities, I suppose, though I wouldn't know for sure. And you must realize that when I say no big cities, I also mean no little cities. We aren't organized that way at all. I imagine the basic physical unit is family and the circle of friends. Friends get important quickly since the family breaks up when children are still relatively young. Something in the genes I suppose, we all enjoy being alone. Suppose you might call it an inbred survival trait." "Up to a point," she said, biting delicately into the apple. "Carry that sort of thing too far and you end up with no population at all. A certain amount of proximity is necessary for that." "Of course there is. And there must be some form of recognized relationship or control--that or complete promiscuity. On Anvhar the emphasis is on personal responsibility, and that seems to take care of the problem. If we didn't have an adult way of looking at ... things, our kind of life would be impossible. Individuals are brought together either by accident or design, and with this proximity must be some certainty of relations--" "You're losing me," Lea protested. "Either I'm still foggy from the dope or you are suddenly unable to speak a word of less than four syllables in length. You know--whenever this happens with you I get the distinct impression that you are trying to cover up something. For Occam's sake be specific! Bring together two of these hypothetical individuals and tell me what happens." * * * * *