"Close to twenty percent, was it?" Barton said. Ferenc nodded. "With the Demu, it's more like ninety, when they find out. Of course, maybe having been pets is worse" than being gametes."

He'd said it to jolt Ferenc loose from introspection, and the ploy worked. Now Barton leaned forward. "Who says the human race has to know? The rest of it, I mean?"

Bearpaw hadn't said much; now he spoke. "This isola- tion won't last; you can't believe it will. Either human ships will come close enough to be drawn here by mental influence, or the Children will find a way to take over the ship and make it work." He looked harassed. "Can you deny those possibilities, Barton?"

Barton grinned. "Sure not. The only thing is, why wait for them to happen?" And before anybody could take the wrong reading from what he'd said. Barton added, "Why don't we give them the ship now?"

For a while there, the party got a little noisy. Then Ferenc got the floor, and said, "You're talking as if such a thing were possible. But there is no fueL No air in the

516.

ship, so no way anyone could'work in it if we had fuel.

You saw to that yourself. Barton." For a moment, Ferenc looked almost reproachful.

That's when Barton told them about the Children's fuel-refining project across the hills, and about the space- suits he'd smuggled downside. "It won't take all that long," he said.

"But I don't understand," said Bearpaw. "Turning the Children loose, sooner than necessary-what good will that do?"

Barton savored his punchline. "Who said we're turning them loose in this galaxy?"

It was a good thing. Barton thought, that the fuel wasn't ready any sooner. Because until little Conjy was old enough to leave her and be with the Child's own kind, Limila wasn't about to let her offspring go. And of course there was no question of one of the Children, isolated, staying with humans of any sort. But the timing worked out, well enough.

Most people, now, tended to avoid the Children, but Barton didn't. He knew they outclassed him, and that as adults they'd be totally outside his comprehension, like as not, but he didn't let it bother him. Some people were bigger or stronger or faster or smarter-that was the way things were-but Barton was Barton and he was satisfied being himself. Ferenc, he noticed, was another who spent time with the Children, and Racelle often joined him io that pastime. Limila, of course, took Conjy for playtimes and teachings, and seemed to feel no unease.

She hadn't said any more about starting a norma humanoid pregnancy, so Barton didn't push it, either Actually, he didn't feel he needed any new complication!

just yet. For one thing, he was thinking over a converse tion they'd had recently, and wondering how he felt abou'

it. She'd been trimming bis hair for him, and said, "Thf parts at each side, that were gray, now are not. Barton I think the TUaran treatments are having effect on you.

Well, hell. Barton thought. If she had it right, if all the misery he'd suffered on Tilara would really make him live young for a long time, well and good. He didn't really believe it, though.

Quite a lot of the colony, including Bearpaw and Lis and Gyril and Elys, opted to stay on Endatheline; fo

517.

sure, sooner or later there'd be more people coming from

Earth to .join them there.

Barton had a few jitters about passing so near the glorious spectacle of Opal, but Dahil and Tiriis kept their promises. No matter what the Others below might have felt, they made no mental moves against the ship, and Dahil and Tiriis did their teleport trick at the ship's closest approach to OpaL First, though, the number of Children aboard the ship was approximately doubled;

Barton took the Others' word that alt the Children from Opal had transferred up. He hoped so, because that was the way his plan was supposed to work. But from Opal on, passing Blaine's Mistake and crossing the dead belt, the ship held only Earthani and Limila and Children.

There was no point. Barton and Ferenc agreed, in call- ing Earth Base; people there might not agree with what the two men intended, and they were going to do it, any- way. It worried Barton that the F.T.L. transmitter got no response from Sisshain, but when they came within range for light-speed talk, things cleared up a little.

Tarieton got the obelisk in shape," Barton said to Ferenc, "before he left. Now all we have to do is get

hold of it."

Sholur, Keeper of the Heritage for the Dema, was

another matter. "It is," Barton said to that gold-robed worthy, "that even those Derou who have become-even yourself-may not have become sufficiently to with- stand what will be seen when we arrive. It is, perhaps, that all should leave the place of becoming."

But Sholur stayed, and withstood. Even when the great ship, Mecca for the Demu race since its beginnings, lifted to take the Children away beyond return. Pulled the lower third of its two-kilometer length out of the moun- tain, and lifted and was gone. "It is." said Sholur, "that

they are well removed from us."

Maybe, Barton thought. But for himself, he wasn't

entirely sure.

From her own ship. Thirty-one, Estelle Cummings was running the Earthani embassy. She and her husband Max, the surgeon, filled Barton in on the news. Tarieton was back on Tilara, and a recent ship had brought word that after some hot F.T.L. talks with Earth Base, he was in charge of both the first and second fleets. Arieta Fox and

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p* Bonus Rayward had gone to Tilara with Tarieton. Too I-, bad. Barton thought; he'd have liked to see them again.

'Well, last reports had them still together, anyway; that

was nice.

Barton's own status, Cummings said, was still a gray [

area. So when he and Limila went back to Ferenc's ship, Barton got help to put an F.T.L. call through to Tilara.

But Tarieton wasn't available; he was TO-planet and not due back for a few days. Barton shrugged and thanked

his helper. "I'll try again, then."

The next contact he tried to make. Barton had better luck, and about an hour later he welcomed two guests aboard the ship. Eeshta bad grown; the young Demu wasn't quite full-sized yet, but coming close. And while Barton was fairly certain that the exoskeletal Demu weren't given to hugging among themselves, Eeshta must have picked the habit up from Barton, because now she came to him and did so. "Barton^. It is good to see you."

"And to see you, Eeshta. You're well?" The young one signed assent, and now Barton looked past her, to the adult Demu. "Hishtoo?" No hugging here, nor did Barton think Hishtoo would have picked up the custom of shak- ing hands. "It is that I greet you, Hisbtoo. That I wish you good health." And thinking, things do change-because, unmistakably, Hishtoo lifted his stumpy tongue in the

Demu smile.

"It is. Barton," said Hishtoo, "that I would have died

before changing as I have changed. That in part I can never forgive what you forced on me. But that I am more now, than before that change." The chitinous, serrated mouth flexed; a sound came that Barton had not heard before. Then Hishtoo said, "It is. Barton, that although you have not correct appearance, you are Demu. Not animal." And while Barton was trying to find an answer, Hishtoo turned abruptly and left the compartment.

Barton looked at Eeshta. "What in the-will he be 'all

right?"

"He will, Barton. I did not know if he could say to you

what he has said, but be did. Now he needs, for a time, to

be alone."

Barton relaxed. "Okay, I guess. Hey, you want somi

coffee? And I'll tell you what's been happening lately.'

So they sat, and be did. Eeshta was disappointed, fbougl