The automatic secretary on his desk hummed into life and announced, "Department heads' meeting starts in five minutes." To hell with the department heads. To hell with Titan. A world of cold and dark and ice. Like Dante's Inferno. Titan is hell. A place where sinning scientists are sent. Their punishment is to stand out in the cold and try to solve the unanswerable. Forever. Stand in the icy darkness and try to understand the unknown. Once in a while you make a discovery that excites you; but when you look again, your discovery is meaningless, you know as little about the real answer as you knew before. The discoveries are just part of the punishment, part of the eternal torment, they just keep you going after the carrot on the stick, but the carrot is always out of reach.... "Department heads' meeting beginning now," the automatic voice said. Lee cocked an eye at the tiny device. "All right," he said, getting up, "I'm going." The meeting was strictly routine. The reaction had set in. A week ago they had all been agog with the gravity-waves discovery. Now it had become apparent that the discovery had not opened the door they were trying to get through. _We're like children_, Lee thought, _trying to put together a stereo transceiver from an assembly kit; all the pieces are there, but we can't get them together in the proper way_. It was a short meeting. As they broke up, Lee saw Richards walk over to Elaine. "I hear you're leaving us," the young physicist said. "Going Earthside?" "Yes," Elaine answered. "For a while, at least." Richards broke into his feline grin again. "Good. I'll be vacationing on Earth in a few weeks. Do you like to ski?" "I haven't skied in years...." "There's a lodge I go to in Switzerland. Really fine. And the skiing is marvelous. Even if you don't want to ski, there are mountains to climb ... and glaciers...." Lee started toward them, thought better of it, and walked sullenly out of the room. He went to his office, sat fidgeting at his desk for a while, then called her on the intercom. She was not at her office or her quarters, so the equipment automatically paged her. When her face finally showed on the viewscreen, Lee could see that she was still in the conference room, which was now empty, except for her and Richards. "What is it, Sid?" "Uh ... can you come down to my office for a minute? Right now?" She quickly covered her surprise. "Of course. I'll be right down." * * * * * Within a few minutes, she was entering his office. "What's the matter?" "Nothing," he said, gesturing her to a chair. "I just wanted to get you out of the grips of that All-American physicist." "What? Why, you jealous old goat!" "Never mind. If you want to listen to propositions, please make sure I'm out of earshot." She laughed. "Is that what you brought me down here for?" "Yes." "I'm flattered." "Don't be cute." "He's a very nice boy."