A few hours later, he had decided that she definitely could cook, and that she had somehow managed to bring to Titan some of the best wine he had tasted in years. Now the table was folded back into the wall, and they were sitting together on the couch, listening to music tapes. "What's that?" he asked. "Villa-Lobos, a Twentieth Century composer. _Bachianas Brazilieris._ Number eight, I think...." They listened in silence for a few moments to the moody, restless music. "Reminds me of topside, standing at the shore of the ammonia sea when a storm is coming up," he said. Elaine nodded. "Yes ... the wind, and the dark, and the waves...." Abruptly, the music snapped off. "Oh damn!" Elaine blurted. "I thought I had the thing fixed." "Let me take a look at it," Lee said getting up from the couch. He tinkered with the recorder for a while, to no avail. "I'm no electronics tech, that's for sure." Elaine shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I'll have it repaired tomorrow." She went into the kitchenette and called back, "How about some brandy?" "Fine," he answered. She returned and handed him a glass. "Ad astra," he said, as they touched glasses. "Amen." Elaine walked slowly away from him, swishing the liquor in her glass. "Let's go topside and see the stars," she said, suddenly. "H'mm?" "Up to the bubble. Come on." * * * * * So they left her one-room quarters and took the lift tube up to the bubble. It was deserted. Overhead, Saturn was low on the horizon, silhouetting the alien buildings. They turned to the other side of the sky, where it was clear and dark. Thousands of stars twinkled in the darkness; they made out Sirius and Vega, then Mars, and finally Earth--a bright blue jewel that outshone all the others. "I guess Jupiter's on the other side of the Sun," Lee said. Elaine nodded. "It looks so far away," she said, staring at Earth, "and so lonely, out there in all that emptiness." "A psychotech would call that 'projection.'" "I know. We're the lonely ones, aren't we?" She was perfectly serious now. "You know that Ruth and I have split up," he said. "I heard ... that she left you." He shrugged. "That's a matter of viewpoint. She got tired sitting Earthside while I batted around the Solar System. When I told her I was going to Vega, she called it quits." "Couldn't she have gone with you?" "If she had wanted to...." "Do you still love her?" Elaine asked. "I don't know. I don't think I know what love really is, anymore. All I know is ... on that long trip out to Vega, when I had nothing to do but sit and think, it wasn't Ruth I was thinking about. It was you." "Oh...." They talked a bit more, and finally he took her in his arms and kissed her and she was his, at least for a little while. * * * * *