"You see? And you've only been on the first experimental Dive. Imagine when it is your whole life." Fred Williams nodded slowly. Then he asked: "Where do you live?" "Oh, no. Divers never mix. Our existence is a top-secret. And the risk of losing two Divers in a single accident would keep the Defense Council awake at night." "But everyone was here today." "To welcome you. That's a big occasion to us." "It's the biggest thing that ever happened to me," Fred Williams said. "I know," Pat answered quietly. "I saw your mind. But I'll change that, Fred." She stood up and brushed her hands over her dress. "Where will I see you again?" he asked. "You never will." He stood up to protest. "Not in the body," she amended. He looked so mournful that she walked over and kissed him. "There's a good-by present, Diver. But _we_ will meet regularly." * * * * * Finding him sitting with a pile of apple cores beside him, the doctor clicked his tongue reprovingly. "Tell me, Doc, how could you stop me Diving?" asked Fred worriedly. "Fill you full of vitamins and carbohydrates and alcohol and send you on a pleasure-cruise with a lot of accomplished women," said Dr. Howard Sprinnell promptly. "Or allow you to stuff yourself with apples, for a start. Now come along or I'll bar you from the exercise room." Fred Williams followed him thoughtfully. "By the way," the doctor said over his shoulder, "your wife thinks you're under arrest. You've been here four days so far and we can keep you another ten or so. After that you'll have to go back. You're on our payroll now, but you'd better keep your job. Or we can find you a heavier one, if you're not tired enough. We'll seal a miniature transmitter into your larynx under the skin before you leave, so that you can report audibly from wherever you are. Diving has the same effect on the body as sleep, you'll find, so you can do both at once. I'll grade off the injections before you leave here. Now this is the political field as we know it...." They stood in a large lecture hall, filled with spaced models of the Solar System, set in the Milky Way and surrounded by the related galaxies. "Here's the spiral in Andromeda," said the doctor, using a long pointer. "I understand you went there...." He took Fred Williams on a general tour of the hall.