"Oh, yes, it is," Rita assured me, catching my thought. "You'

ll notice there aren't any NSA agents around the place anymore. You radiated sincerity the night you spoke on the worldwide web and people believed you. When the government tried to take control of us again, there was such an outpouring of rage from voters that they had to back off. We've been left pretty much alone ever sin ce. The world knows Seconders here and in the Nexus are looking for the answers and they're waiting to see what happens."

I swallowed hard. The pressure was on. We had to come through.

Russ nodded. "I watched a replay of your speech on the web. I was mov ed, buddy. And the part where Carl shot Hess-talk about drama. The evil government agent trying to shoot you in the back, but stopped by the loyal employee. You gotta love it. And people did. Plus, you got extra points for being honest and telling it like it is rather than scheming to further your own ends."

Rita got up from the lounger and moved over to the crib to change Justin's diaper. "You do have diapers in the Nexus, don't you?" she aske d as she worked.

Russ and I exchanged a grin. "I'll make a room full of them for yo u," I promised.

She picked Justin up again. "Thanks. That will be about a month's supply at the rate this little character uses them up."

Her smile grew sad as she handed the baby to me. "Do you want to say goodbye to your son? In another couple of minutes he'll be your daughter."

I took the small, warm bundle into my arms. "Does it matter? The esse nce inside will stay the same whatever the outside wrapping."

Rita took my arm and looked around the bedroom one last time. "Okay, I'm ready. Let's go."

We found a group of Seconders waiting for us downstairs in the great room.

Of course, everyone wanted to hold the baby one last time and say goodby e to Rita.

I stood around feeling awkward as Rita collected hugs and kisses and peo ple wiped151

tears from their cheeks. Everyone loved Rita but respected her decision to be close at hand in the Nexus in case I needed her help.

We left the others behind in the great room at last and walked down the tunnel to the gate. As we walked, I couldn't help but think how brave Rita was and how much she must love me to travel with me to a world she'd never seen, taking our newborn child with her.

I reached out and slipped one finger into Justin's little hand. His t iny fingers gripped my single finger. I wondered what lay ahead and how long I'd be away from him on the psychopath world. I wanted to be with my family, to spend tim e with them, and instead we would soon be torn apart again.

Rita looked grim too now that the time had come. I knew it was breaking her heart to have to leave him in the care of someone else. Our minds touche d and she nodded, as if to say, "Let's get on with it."

My heart swelled with pride and I took her hand. Rita has the kind of courage that isn't obvious but is always there when needed. Through my various adventures, she'd been at my side, helping and encouraging me, keeping me compass ionate and human with her own brave heart. That's the kind of courage I mean. She will always do what needs to be done, come what may.

We entered the room and without hesitating, we went into the gate.

152

CHAPTER TWELVE.

Russ guided us back without any problems. Both Justin and Rita made the trip without mishap. I was fairly certain that would be the case, since the baby was exhibiting telepathic abilities already. Nonetheless, it was a relief to step out the other side and see Rez and Justina emerge a second later.

"Wow!" was all Rez could say, as he took in the crystal city.

Russ had purposefully guided us in the flux so that we emerged through a different gate than usual, a gate on a hill overlooking the city. In fact, it was the same gate I'd come through the first time I arrived in the Nexus. It gave Rez a sweeping view of his new world-the green valley, the bubbling stream, and the strange crystal city rising in the distance.

"I feel like Dorothy did when she woke up in Oz," Rez said, after spending a minute taking in the phenomenal view. "You never told me how beautiful it was."

"Mostly I've been too busy to appreciate the beauty," I said. "It seems like I've had a deadline looming over my head since the moment I first arrived."

"Ah, yes, the deadline." Rez's beautiful dark eyes gazed at me with sympathy.

Usually I'd be busy admiring the rest of his handsome male body, but there's no point craving what you can't have. He handed Justina over to me, then stepped back through the gate. Rita wanted to remain a female for Justina, but she didn't want to take the risk of sending our baby through the gate a second time , no matter how sure we might be that she would come through okay.

I reached out and touched Justina's little mind, but caught no hint of upset in the baby from the transition. The change in her body was minor from the baby's point of view, since she was young and healthy and years away from carin g what sex she belonged to. Yet I did notice one subtle difference, a slight but perceptible sense of confusion filled the baby's mind when Rez held her, a confusion that disappeared when Rita came back. I handed Justina to Rita and went throu gh the gate myself, changing to male. I was enjoying the father role. Rissa joined me on the second trip to become Russell again.

Once we had our sexes straightened out, Russell and I materialized some 153

clothes out of the quantum flux, impressing Rita in the process. Then we led her on a brief tour of the crystal city. She laughed when we showed her the trick of walking through the walls. The strange machines and glowing crystals held little interest for her, though. Rita is a people person. As we walked, Russ and I sent out mental messages to the other Seconders in the Nexus that we were back, and that they should come to the central chamber to meet Rita and the baby at 1500 hours.

Russell left us to check in with his group, while I took Rita and Justin a to see the suite of rooms I had prepared for their stay in the Nexus.

"Oh, how beautiful!" Rita cried, as we came through the wall.

Our private retreat looked like the suite of some luxury hotel with thick carpets, polished furniture made from exquisitely finished woods, and a huge double bed piled high with rich linens and plump pillows. A crib with lacy pink blankets stood in the far corner. She put Justina down for her nap, and turned to me.

"You thought of everything, Lee. I love you."

"Come here." I opened my arms.

We had a good two hours until the meeting and I took full advantage of them.

When we arrived at the central room, we both had big grins on our faces.

Russell chuckled and gave me the thumbs-up sign.

Messler had created the central room some time ago. It served as a gathering place where we could come together for fun and games, and to mingle and talk.Most of the Seconders in the Nexus were friends of Russell's, fellow scientists he had recruited to join him. By agreement, we kept the room more or less the same, although I noticed some differences every time I went to it.

There was certainly a difference this time; Justina was the only child to ever come to the gate master's world and everyone, men and women alike, gathered to witness the event. Donna was first in line to greet us. I had to hold Ju stina again while she hugged Rita and the two of them burst into tears of joy. A great deal of kissing and hugging later, Donna took little Justina in her arms and coo ed with delight, as she smiled down at the baby's face.

"She's perfect, Rita, absolutely perfect."

Rita beamed and patted Donna's stomach. "I hear you have one in the oven, 154

too."

"Yes." Donna glowed with happiness. "I only just caught, though .".

While the two of them huddled together to talk about babies, I held Justina and endured the sight of usually staid scientists turning into blubbering idiots. Every last one of them oohed, and ahed, and made silly noises at our baby, until I began to suspect that something in the air was affecting their minds. But Rita assured me that anyone who was normal did the same thing. Russell gave everyone plenty o f time to meet the new additions to the crystal city, and then he called us to order.

This would be our last planning session before we departed for our assignments on the other worlds.

I found a comfortable lounger for Rita and Justina, and sat down beside them.

Others found their own chairs. Russell stood in front, counting noses as the chatter died down. After a moment, a puzzled frown crossed his face.

"Where are Amanda and Derrick?" he demanded.

I reached out with my mind, seeking a sense of their presence somewhere in the city. My mental touch came back empty.

"I'm afraid they've left already," Randy said.

Russell's face darkened. "That was foolish. I've got a great de al more to convey about handling the transfer."

"They said it was more important to get their world in order, and time was limited." Randy shot an apologetic glance my way. "Amanda seemed impatient to get started."

I held up a hand against a murmur of angry voices. "That was a mistak e, but what is done is done. I'm not about to act like some sort of cop and go after them.

They'll have to handle the transition in their world as best they can without the mostup-to-date information."

Russ folded his arms as the others quieted down. "Okay, people. Listen up.

What we're about to try won't be easy. No one knows how many souls are in stasis at the moment, maybe millions, and we won't be able to save them all.

A twinge of guilt passed through me. I still struggled with conflicting feelings about the entity who'd reached out to me in the gate, offering me vast powers in 155

exchange for my humanity. With such powers I could save many more. Either Russ caught my thought or he was thinking along the same lines. His expression grew even more serious.

"This stasis environment was set up by the masters to hold those the gate could not handle. It's my belief that the masters fully intended that these people be released eventually. This is why there is a limit to how long stasis can could them-a limit we are rapidly approaching."

"Less than twenty-four hours remaining, by latest estimate," Donna added.

Russ lifted his chin a notch, and his eyes flashed. "We're going t o do our best, I know. If we lose people-and we will-I want you to remember that what is happening is not our fault. The blame lies with the gate masters. When they sent their gates to Earth, they made some terrible miscalculations. Because w e are an alternate world that is close to their own timeline, they expected we would react like them, but we didn't."

"What do you mean?" Rita asked.

"They thought we would sacrifice our humanity to our evolution, as they did."

A look of grim satisfaction passed over Russ's face. "We fooled them, and I'm glad.

I'm a scientist myself-I've dedicated my life to understanding the world in an ordered, rational way. But that doesn't mean I'm prepared to give up my humanity, and its tremendous gifts-including the most important gift, the ability to love."

He smiled at Rita and me for a moment, but his tender gaze came to rest on Donna. Her own eyes shone with love as she watched him.

"They miscalculated," he continued. "They didn't understand our emotional, intuitive side. They expected that those of us who were able to go through the gates more than once would evolve in intelligence, but they never dreamed we w ould develop intuitive powers as well. They thought we would sacrifice our emotional side to pursue an ever-increasing intelligence. We Seconders were meant to be comegate masters, able to release those in stasis. Instead, we have chosen t o remain human."

"And that's the right choice." Rita stood up, her eyes flashing. "Don't ever doubt it, whatever may happen in the next few hours."

156

Russ nodded. "I agree. It's the right choice. There've been hints, though, that the gate masters continue to watch our progress. Some entity tried to contract Lee during a gate passage. It may be the masters are not pleased with the choice we've made. We need to stay alert."

"Do you think they'll interfere?" I asked.

"Depends on how things go. The masters knew the gates could handle physical problems, as long as they weren't too far gone, but psychological problems are more subtle and not necessarily physically based. I can only conjecture that if we'd gone the step beyond humanity we'd have mental powers that would enable us to either cure or control these people-perhaps in ways that would be repugnant to a human being."

"Psychological control of their minds, you mean." Rita shook her h ead, her mane of dark curls bouncing around her shoulders. "That's unacceptable."

"To you and me. Perhaps to the gate masters it's the only rational course."

"Do you think they might try to control our minds?" An icy river of fear ran down my spine at the thought.

Russ tried to smile, but didn't quite succeed. "It's possible. We haven't taken the last step to change into what they are. Perhaps they intend to force us to do so."

My temples started to throb with the beginnings of a headache. The sense of impending doom that never left me nowadays crystallized, and I knew Russ 's words were chillingly accurate. The gate masters did plan to interfere with humanity, but they intended to use human agents to do so-or more accurately, humans who were no longer human, who had betrayed their own kind and taken that final step as the gate masters had planned all along.

With a rush, the pattern came together. Amanda and Derrick! The two names pulsed like strobe lights in my mind in time to the pounding headache that erupted out of nowhere. Why hadn't I seen it sooner? Amanda had dropped some clues, but I'd been too busy thinking with the wrong part of my anatomy.

In the distance I heard Russ's voice droning on. He was explaining ho w the team staying in the Nexus planned to release those locked in stasis onto the variousworlds using the sex gates. He had set up an order for release, with the innocents 157

scheduled first, followed by those with minor mental illnesses. Next he would release those who had committed minor crimes, and the religious fanatics. Those who had committed major crimes, sexual deviants, and my assignment-psychopaths- would be released last.

My pattern sense continued to go off, warning me that Amanda had sacrifi ced her humanity to follow the path of the gate masters. Perhaps she'd convinced Derrick to do the same. I almost wished they would stay missing, but I suspected that Amanda intended to confront me with one last plea to give up my humanity and join her in the quest for superiority. What better way to convince me than to make the release a disaster in some way, so that I had to change to save huma n lives?

Or maybe what she really wanted was to see me go down in crushing defeat .

That would give her an excuse to step in, save the day with whatever new powers her change gave her, and try to convert the other Seconders to her way o f thinking.

My stomach knotted with fear. Of all the terrible events we'd faced since the appearance of the gates, the worst might lie a few hours ahead of us.

"Are you okay, Lee?" Rita whispered. Her eyes filled with concern as she stared at me. "You don't look good."

"I'm fine," I lied. But I could tell she saw right through it.

At the front of the room Russell finished his briefing, and began answering questions. I flashed what I hoped was a cheerful smile at Rita and bent over the baby, who lay sleeping in her arms. So far Justina didn't appear to be too impressed by the Nexus. She'd slept through the tour and Russ's briefing. I watched her little face scrunch up, and her eyes move behind her eyelids. She was dreaming. What did babies dream about? I started to reach out and touch her mind, then stopped.

We needed to respect her privacy. Besides, she looked so peaceful. I hat ed to disturb her.