Contents Earth was too perfect for these extraordinary exiles—to belong to it, they had to flee it!...

Light flickered. It was uncomfortably bright. Doctor Cameron gazed intently at the top of the desk. It wasn't easy to be diplomatic. "The request was turned over to the Medicouncil," he said. "I assure you it was studied thoroughly before it was reported back to the Solar Committee." Docchi edged forward, his face alight with anticipation. The doctor kept his eyes averted. The man was damnably disconcerting—had no right to be alive. In the depths of the sea there were certain creatures like him

Docchi sat beside the pool. It would be pleasant if he could forget where he was. It was pastoral though not quite a scene from Earth. The horizon was too near and the sky was shallow and only seemed to be bright. Darkness lurked outside. A small tree stretched shade overhead. Waves lapped and made gurgling sounds against the banks. But there was no plant life of any kind, and no fish swam in the liquid. It looked like water but wasn't—the pool held acid. And floating in it, all but submerged, w

Docchi waited near the rocket dome. He wasn't hiding but he did make himself inconspicuous among the carefully nurtured shrubbery. Plants failed to give the illusion of an Earth landscape—in part because some of them were Venusian or Martian imports—but at least the greenery added to the oxygen supply of the asteroid. "That's a good job," commented Docchi. "I thought Nona could do it." Jordan could feel him relax as he watched the event. "A mechanical marvel," he agreed. "But we can gab about th

Jordan caught up before Docchi reached the cargo hold. In lesser gravity he was more active and could move freely. Now his handicap was almost unnoticeable, seemed to have disappeared. The same was not true of Docchi. It required less effort to walk but there was also a profound unsettling effect that made him cautious and uncertain. Docchi heard him coming and waited, bracing himself against the wall in case the gravity should momentarily change. Jordan still carried the weapon he'd taken from

The doctor was at ease, confident. "You've got the ship and you've caught me. How long do you think you can keep either of us?" Docchi regarded him levelly. "I don't expect active cooperation but I'd like to think you'll give us your word not to hinder us hereafter." Cameron glared at the toaster. "I won't promise anything." "We can chain him to Anti," suggested Jordan. "That will keep him out of trouble." "Don't wince, Cameron," said Docchi. "She was a woman once. An attractive one too." "We ca

Perfectly synchronized to their speed the outer shell of the dome opened, closing behind them before they reached the inner shell. It too gaped wide to swallow them, snapping shut like a quickly sprung trap. Jordan set the controls in neutral and dropped his hands, muttering to himself. They glided to a stop over the landing pit, thereafter settling slowly. Homecoming. "Cheer up," said Cameron jauntily. "You're not prisoners." Nona alone seemed not to mind. Docchi hadn't said anything for hours

Vague shapes were stirring. They walked if they could, crawled if they couldn't—fantastic and near-fantastic creatures were coming to the assembly. Large or tiny, on their own legs or borrowed ones they arrived, with or without arms, faces. The news had spread fast, by voice or written message, sign language, lip reading, all the conceivable ways that humans communicate, not the least of which was the vague intuition that something was going on that the person should know about. The people on Ha

Docchi slumped in the chair, looking the place over with some satisfaction. The medical inventory was proceeding quite well; one by one each preparation was being identified and the local source checked. It wasn't nearly as bad as he had assumed at first; they were nearly self-sufficient. One of the checkers came in. Docchi recognized her vaguely; he'd seen her around but that was all. He didn't know who she was nor what she did. Unless he was mistaken her arms and legs were her own, a trifle he

Jeriann came into the office. "I've got it down to twenty," she said briskly. "What?" said Docchi absently. Management details were unfamiliar to him and he was trying to pick them up as he went along. The scattered records were in order but some were still unaccounted for. "Oh. The deficiency biologicals. Good. How did you do it?" "I asked them." "And they knew? It's surprising. I'd expect them to be familiar with their standard treatment. But not something that's entirely new." Jeriann smiled

Jed Webber came in noisily. His left foot was heavy and his left arm swung more than it should. Otherwise there wasn't much that remained of the timid awkward man of weeks ago. Docchi looked up. "Did my calculations check?" Webber grinned. "I thought they would but I wanted to be sure. It's one of the Centauris." "Is that as close as you can come?" "With that telescope it is. It's pretty wobbly. Who made it, anyway?" "I did." Webber grinned again. "In that case it's pretty damned good." With dif

In the beginning there was silence and it never changed. No sound came to break the stillness. Darkness changed to light with regularity or not, but in the particular universe in which she lived there was never any noise nor any conversation, and music was unknown. She didn't miss it. There were also machines in the universe in which she dwelt and these too observed a dichotomy. Some machines were warm and soft and this distinguished them from those which were hard and cool. The warm ones starte

Anti looked up at the dome. It was all she could see with comfort. Stars changed less than she would have believed. The patterns were substantially the same as on Earth. Brightness varied with rotation, that was the main difference. Now those overhead were brilliant and that meant she was facing the direction they were travelling. She wondered which was Alpha and which Proxima Centauri. She never had been able to recognize them. She extended one arm, splashing acid. Lately there were times she h

The dimensions of the place were fear, panic and loneliness. It was no-time or all-time, the endless instant of survival—or less. It was light or it wasn't, the illumination of the closed mind, the intellect turned in on itself, perception curled backward while it reached for the outside world. It was a universe which neither existed nor would ever quite vanish. And there wasn't a sound. To the distorted senses, wavering and uncertain, sounds could be masculine. "Yes?" said Maureen poutingly. "W

"I'm cold," said Jeriann. "Put on more clothes," said Docchi grimly. "That's not a nice thing to say to a girl with a figure as pretty as hers," said Anti. "She can go to hydroponics," suggested Jordan. "It's warmer there and we've had to allow lights." "But it's a lot smaller than it was and too many have crowded in. I don't want to be crushed," said Jeriann. She wouldn't have left even if it hadn't been true. "Have to cut down," said Anti. "Meanwhile, what do we eat? Synthetics." She snorted.

Now that Cameron was gone there was much more to be done in the hospital. Jeriann rushed to get through but small errors plagued her, nullifying a good part of her work. Finally she forced herself to be more careful, checking the biologicals with extreme caution. "I hear," said Maureen, sauntering in, "the nuptials were informal, catch as catch can." "No ceremony," said Jeriann. "We stopped in and registered and went on to my place." "What's the difference as long as you're sure of him," said Ma

They went walking in the night. Stars were out but they didn't notice. They had found a star to belong to and weren't looking for others. "Which one?" said Jeriann, turning her head. "I can't point. Anyway I don't know," said Docchi. "I can get it for you on the scanner." Jeriann laughed. "Never mind. I don't need to see their planet. They'll come soon enough." "Almost too soon. I keep wondering what they're actually like." "Me, too," said Jeriann. "I don't even know how big they are. Sure, I sa