She could make out stars, now, patterns of light interladen with drifts of nocturnal fog.

"Mrs. Morley," a fussy male voice said.

She opened her eyes, fully awake. Fred Gossim, Tekel Upharsin Kibbutz's top engineer, walked toward her carrying official papers. "You got your transfer," he told her; he held out the papers and Mary Morley accepted them. "You're going to a colony settlement on a planet called-" He hesitated, frowning. "Delmar."

"Delmak-O," Mary Morley said, scanning the transfer orders. "Yes-and I'm to go there by noser." She wondered what kind of place Delmak-O was; she had never heard of it. And yet it sounded highly interesting; her curiosity had been stirred up. "Did Seth get a transfer, too?" she asked.

"'Seth'?" Gossim raised an eyebrow. "Who's 'Seth'?"

She laughed. "That's a very good question. I don't know. I guess it doesn't matter. I'm so glad to get this transfer-"

"Don't tell me about it," Gossim said in his usual harsh way. "As far as I'm concerned you're abandoning your responsibilities to the kibbutz." Turning, he stalked off.

A new life, Mary Morley said to herself. Opportunity and adventure and excitement. Will I like Delmak-O? she wondered. Yes. I know I will.

On light feet she danced toward her living area in the kibbutz's central building-complex. To begin to pack.

Books by Philip K. d.i.c.k

available from Vintage BooksConfessions of a c.r.a.p Artist

The Divine Invasion

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

Galactic Pot-Healer

The Game-Players of t.i.tan

The Man in the High Castle

Now Wait for Last Year

A Scanner Darkly

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

Ubik

VALIS.

We Can Build You

The World Jones Made