She looked up toward the colored curtain of the screen. "That is true. It is not the complete truth, Dantan." He said, "I love you--Quiana." This time he called her by name. Neither of them moved. Minutes went by silently. Quiana said, as if she had not heard him, "Those who followed you are here. I have been listening to them for some time now. They are trying to break through the door at the top of the shaft." He took her hand in his gloved grasp. "Stay here. Or let me go back to Zha with you. Why not?" "You could not live there without your armor." "Then stay." Quiana looked away, her eyes troubled. As Dantan moved to slip off his helmet her hand came up again to stop him. "Don't." "Why not?" For answer she rose, beckoning for him to follow. She stepped across the threshold into the shaft and swiftly began to climb the pegs toward the surface and the hammering of the Redhelms up above. Dantan, at her gesture, followed. Over her shoulder she said briefly, "We are of two very different worlds. Watch--but be careful." And she touched the device that locked the oval door. It slipped down and swung aside. * * * * * Dantan caught one swift glimpse of Redhelm heads dodging back to safety. They did not know, of course, that he was unarmed. He reached up desperately, trying to pull Quiana back but she slipped aside and sprang lightly out of the shaft into the cool gray light of the Martian morning. Forgetting her warning, Dantan pulled himself up behind her. But as his head and shoulders emerged from the shaft he stopped, frozen. For the Redhelms were falling. There was no mark upon them, yet they fell.... She did not stir, even when the last man had stiffened into rigid immobility. Then Dantan clambered up and without looking at Quiana went to the nearest body and turned it over. He could find no mark. Yet the Redhelm was dead. "That is why you had to wear the armor," she told him gently. "We are of different worlds, you and I." He took her in his arms--and the soft resilience of her was lost against the stiffness of the protective suit. He would never even know how her body felt, because of the armor between them.... He could not even kiss her--again. He had taken his last kiss of the mouth so like Quiana's mouth, long years ago, and he would never kiss it again. The barrier was too high between them. "You can't go back," he told her in a rough, uneven voice. "We _are_ of the same world, no matter what--no matter how--You're no stranger to me, Quiana!" She looked up at him with troubled eyes, shaking her head, regret in her voice. "Do you think I don't know why you fought for me, Dantan?" she asked in a clear voice. "Did you ever stop to wonder why Sanfel risked so much for me, too?" He stared down at her, his brain spinning, almost afraid to hear what she would say next. He did not want to hear. But her voice went on inexorably.