_At the moment, I couldn’t care less_, Lynne replied. _What do you hear from Lei on Earth?_ Revere’s bride, she learned, was doing fabulously well and a successful, uninduced twin birth was prophesied by the doctors. Lynne felt a flash of pride for both of them, as well as a flash of envy. By the time she and Rolf got around to having babies, she surmised, they’d both be candidates for the geriatrics bureau. Discouraging thought. But she kept it from Revere. He was too happy for sadness. When he had gone, she shared a skinless gasper with the tiny dark-skinned Rana and asked her about the fatal experiment that had put her into coma. After all, the necro-recorder could only take down thoughts over a very limited period of its subject’s mental activity. Rana told her, talking aloud, since she was still forbidden to overuse her telepathic qualities. She said, “I know now it was wrong, of course, but we were filled with the excitement of discovery. I don’t understand why you and Rolf went to Callisto. We beamed our relay-thinking right here on Mars, somewhere in the Syrtis Major prairie, near Woomera Station. At first it was like being in some incredible temple. It was vast and awe-inspiring and--Lynne, I can’t really describe it.” “I know,” said Lynne. “What turned it sour?” “That,” said the dark girl, “is what I don’t understand. We were receiving wonderful stuff--sort of soul-healing. But when Juan flicked on the recorder to take it down it vanished.” Lynne probed the girl’s thoughts and found she was holding nothing back. She was heartsick at the tragic result, for her companion, of an experiment for which she felt herself responsible. Lynne lay back and did some thinking while the dark girl slept and had reached a number of conclusions by the time Rolf appeared that afternoon. He, it seemed, had been terribly busy since their return to the Red Planet. All sorts of crises had come or were coming to a head. There had been a localized reappearance of the disembodied aborigines that had for so long threatened all communications on Mars--and a campaign had had to be organized to exterminate them. There had been a squabble over efficiency credits between the communications crews of New Walla Walla and Cathayville which had had to be settled. Earth Interplanetary Authority was anxious for Rolf and Lynne to visit their Rio de Janeiro Headquarters as soon as possible to discuss the ramifications of the Callisto incident. And the problem of decreasing moisture in the Martian atmosphere table was becoming critical. _Which is why I have not been able to stay here at your side_, VINRAL, he told Lynne silently. _And now, I must leave you again._ _Oh, Rolf!_ Lynne was desolate. _I have so much to tell you. I think I’m beginning to understand a little about our--entity._