"There's no water and little air on Mars," said Rains. "We'll reach it, but we'll die soon after." "Hmmm," said Gowru. Coming from anyone else it would not have been a profound comment. He got unsteadily to his feet and paced around the room, gathering bottles as he went. He squinted out the window. "The very fabric of space," he muttered. He seemed to be looking at the comet. He beckoned to Rains. "Come here." He had enough liquor inside and he really didn't need what he held in his hands, except perhaps he liked the feel of bottles. "Look," he said, and pointed. Rains looked. There was the comet, streaming away from the sun, headed in the direction of Mars, though it would miss by several million miles. He'd seen it before. But, somewhere in space it struck something. There was nothing there, but it broke into tiny fragments and slanted toward Mars. There was no doubt that Mars was going to capture most of the mass, and would soon have an abundance of water and oxygen. But there was nothing for the comet to strike! Except--Except what? "The very fabric of space," Gowru had muttered, and that proved merely that he was a poor semanticist. The _structure_ of space. That's what he worked with, not molecules, though he didn't know it. Gowru had projected a space warp inclined chutelike toward Mars, and when the comet came along it had collided with a plane surface anchored to the entire universe. Water, air, and a new planet to explore, with Gowru Chandit as his companion. But there was still one last defect. He groaned aloud. "Is there something else to complain about?" asked Gowru. Rains gestured savagely to indicate the whole temple. "I'm a man of science," he said bitterly. "I resent being marooned with religious fanatics." "Don't worry. They're women." That made it worse. Monks, or the Indian equivalent, he could ignore. But could he do the same with grim and dour females intent on saving his soul? Just the same, they were going to be on Mars with him and in self-defence he'd have to learn their religion, the better to refute it. "What are the fine points of their theology?" he asked. "Very old," muttered Gowru. "Priestesses are selected for temperamental qualifications. Rites are ancient Hindu, maybe older than that." "Rites?" he queried. "Sacrifices?" "It's no sacrifice," yawned the other. "They're a local fertility cult." Rains' mind swung back to the priestess he had encountered on first entering the temple, the only one he'd seen. The hall had been dimly lighted, but she'd been young and very seductive. If the others were like her--Any scientist worth his salt believed in fertility, one way or another.