Confusion. Consternation. Pallor. Babble.

"Heads up, people," said Chad, tapping the president on the arm. "To the ship, now."

As the Earthians started for the ship, a mob of Pistach with T'Fees in the vanguard surged up the stairs toward the House of the Fresco at an eight-legged gallop, all shrilling at one another like locusts.

The humans ignored this rather ostentatiously, as they strode confidently toward the ship with heads up, drums beating, tambourines chinking, and the president reaching out to shake the manipulators of every Pistach that he passed while the Big SA God-blessed them right and left. While the others blocked the doorway, the artists went aboard, opened up the altars and took out all the paint cartons, brushes, rollers, smocks, projectors, and drop cloths and put them down the conversion chutes along with the lighting equipment and the elaborate animatronic figure of Canthorel, complete with aura. Also down the chutes went the voice recording in Pistach provided earlier by the Inkleozese. It had been done, so the Assessor Emeritus had told Benita, by a Pistach actor who happened to be on tour in Inkleoza. He had been well paid for the work, and for keeping his mouthparts fastened thereafter.

Robes, candles, bells, drums and other ritual impedimenta went into the altars, which were left conveniently close to the loading ramp, wide open, so anyone could see the contents. The artists split off, some toward food, some toward beds, while the president, the Big SA, Chad and Benita went into the dining room, which was near the hatch. The first two non-humans into the ship were the Inkleozese, who also entered the salon.

"I take it you don't disapprove of our actions," said the president to the elder one, the Assessor Emeritus, as he led the way to the kitchen where Chad was starting a pot of coffee.

The assessor rubbed her forelegs together, pondering. "I am not appointed to approve or disapprove of human conduct. I merely observe. What you have done breaks no rule of our people. Because this effort of yours aligns the Pistach with their traditional inclinations, those of self-approving benignity, and because we owed a debt to the intermediary, we cooperated in this effort. We are unaware that it disrupts any galactic trend."

A few other weary humans trickled into the dining room, broke out Earthian stores and began fixing breakfast. Through the view screen they could see arguments erupting all up and down the Fresco stairs.

After about an hour, Chiddy came trudging up the ramp into the ship, along with a few of T'Fees's followers, who stopped just inside the door to run their pincers through the stuff inside the hollow altars, chattering in confusion. Eventually Chiddy came to the dining area.

"There has been a miracle," Chiddy said, giving Benita a strange, almost doleful look.

"Oh?" she asked. "What miracle was that."

"The Fresco changed, overnight."

"That couldn't be," the president said. "It was dark when we went in last night, so we couldn't really see the Fresco, but we were there the whole time and we didn't see a miracle. When daylight came this morning, the Fresco was exactly as Glumshalak's Compendium describes it, though far better done, of course. I'm afraid Glumshalak was no artist."

"Canthorel spoke to you!"

The president said, "We saw a figure who resembled the Canthorel in the Fresco, though ai offered us no proof of identity. The figure said it had come to repeat aisos message to the Pistach people.

Presumably Canthorel's Fresco is as it is by the will of Aitun."

"It could be any way at all by the will of Aitun," snapped Chiddy. "Aitun lets everything happen that can happen! It is up to intelligence to select!"

"Well, then," said the Big SA, "Something selected it the way it is. Something that we know is very good because it chooses to avoid death and pain and horror and hurting creatures, which the false Fresco certainly would have caused. I can't imagine Canthorel being on the side of predators eating humans, or eating Pistach, can you? On Earth we say, don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

"It wasn't the way we remembered it from when T'Fees cleaned it," mumbled Vess. "Benita and Chad were there, they know!"

"Well," Benita said, with considerable hauteur, "what I remember most about the way it was before was that there was a tree in every panel, and there's still a tree in every panel. And I saw the form of Canthorel in a burst of smoke and light saying the work was originally beautiful."

"So I had always believed," said Chiddy.

"Well, the one I saw when I was here before wasn't all that beautiful, which means some evil-doer must have come along and painted over it. That was when Canthorel inspired Glumshalak to provide the Compendium in its place. And when Glumshalak's efforts were thwarted by T'Fees, someone, and I'd like to believe it was Canthorel, put it back the way it was supposed to be."

"The way it was at first?" said Chiddy, still sounding somewhat indignant.

"Well, Chiddy," she said, "it certainly didn't make sense the way it was when T'Fees cleaned it.

Would you choose to put something like that on your walls to guide your people?"

Chiddy gestured, no.

"And it was badly painted, too," said the president thoughtfully. "Chad took pictures of it, and it was quite dreadful. If I had been Canthorel, I'd have been as upset at the lack of artistry as at the misrepresentation of what I was teaching! We feel so fortunate that Canthorel came to set things right.

Even T'Fees saw it happen!"

Chad voiced agreement, backed by all the little SAs.

"T'Fees did see it happen," Chiddy agreed. "T'Fees just isn't willing to believe any of his own eyes!"

The Big SA took this as a cue to speak at length on the subject of belief, quoting Scripture to the point, citing several of the Fresco panels as exemplary. Benita thought he should have been an actor instead of an SA, though maybe one had to be an actor to be a Big SA. In any case, Chiddy had to stand there listening out of Pistach politeness, until the president whispered in the SA's ears, and he let Chiddy escape dazedly back down the exit ramp.

Benita watched Chiddy go. He seemed depressed. She felt a little sorry for him, the way she had felt sorry for the children, sometimes, when she had had to say "no playing until homework" or go "write your spelling words." One had to do it, but one still regretted the sadness it caused. Of course later, at least in Angelica's case, there had been the jubilation at getting an A, so it was all worth it. She wondered when Chiddy would realize he was getting an A.

He evidently passed along the comment that T'Fees had willfully chosen to restore an evil version of the Fresco, for a little later they saw T'Fees led by in shackles. Benita said she hoped they wouldn't hurt him, and was assured they intended only to regress him to age twelve, select him as a quality improvement consultant, for which job they already knew he had skills, and provide him with rigorous training.

Despite the combined feelings of weariness, relief, and subdued elation that most of the humans felt, there was also unspoken agreement among them that getting out before too many questions could be asked might be an excellent idea. Chad saw a number of the Chapter members standing at the foot of the stairs, and he walked over to suggest the immediate departure of the Earthians. The Chapter members seemed more than willing to see them go as soon as possible. It was obvious that the members needed to get their heads together and talk about what had happened. They were shifting from one set of feet to another, twitching their mouthparts, exhibiting all the signs of distraction. They were not too distracted, however, to summon Chiddy and Vess and the two Inkleozese, who seemed even jollier than usual as they agreed it was time to leave Pistach-home.

Benita and Chiddy were standing beside the ramp when Carlos came from the direction of the village, walking beside a Pistach whom Benita thought she knew. As they came closer, she identified Chiddy's nootch, Varsi, the one she'd given the scarf to on her first trip to Pistach-home. Varsi, the nice one.

"Ke greets someone," called the nootch.

"Mother," said Carlos. "It's wonderful to see you. Is everything working out well? Varsi tells me there's been a miracle."

Benita took a deep breath and held it, then blinked a time or two. "Carlos?" she said, uncertainly.

"It's been fun here," he said, smiling. "But I'm dying to get back to school. I've really let things slide there, and it's going to take major effort to get back on track." He moved past her, holding his hand out to Chiddy. "Chiddy, good to see you again. Your nootch has told me so many stories about you . . ."

"Wha . . . ?" Benita said to the nootch, as Carlos moved on toward the ramp.

"For someone, a gift," warbled the nootch, through her translator device. "In return for a gift received. A small expression of esteem.

Ke bowed, and moved toward the ramp, following Carlos.

Benita turned to glare at Chiddy. "You did it."

"I did not," he said, moving his shoulders from side to side in Pistach negation. "You told me not to.

I wouldn't have gone against your will, Benita. You know I respect you too much to do that."

"Then who?" she demanded.

"Varsi," he confessed, almost in a whisper. "She told me when we got here. It was while we were gone. She couldn't bear to let him be so unhappy. Not even if he wished it."

"What did she ... I mean it ... I mean the nootch, do?"

"Not much, really," Chiddy said, looking anywhere but at her.

"But, is that really him?"

"Are you really you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Varsi did Carlos a welcome reversal, as ton'i, Vess and I, did for you when ton'i first met. Someone had . . . ghosts. Someone had troubles. Ghosts and troubles were sent away."

"That's all?"

"Yes. My nootch says it didn't take a lot. Not a regression, which ke would not have had the authority to do, anyhow. Ke told me it was just a little envy removal. Just enough so Carlos did not measure everything against some other person. Plus just enough forgetting not to resent the world. And then, too, ke has been giving him sleep lessons in good manners." He frowned, or did with his face what Pistach do when they are troubled. "Do you want to report ker to the athyci? Do you want ker to be punished? If so, Vess and Chiddy should also be punished."

Wordless, Benita shook her head. No. No. Punished for what?

They boarded the ship, and she went on down a main gangway into her own roomlet, where she found Carlos reading a book that he said the "reverend with the president" had given him.

"It looks interesting," he remarked. "Will we sleep on the flight home, like we did before?"

She shook her head, still wordless. He looked different. It was in the eyes, the muscles around the mouth. He looked at her, not past her, as though he saw her.

"We won't have to sleep so much, no. It's a big ship, and evidently being on a big ship is less tiring.

There's an empty room next door to this one, that you can have."

"Hey," he said. "Cool. It'll be fun hearing about what happened on the way."

And without fuss, he departed to the next roomlet, taking the book with him.

During the trip, Carlos was charming. He was respectful to Chad, boyishly awed by the president, sincere and intent with the Big SA. He talked art endlessly with the artists, asking intelligent questions.

During the trip, Benita watched him, bouncing back and forth between awe and jealousy. A nootch! Who wasn't even human! And look what she'd managed to do!

During the trip, Chiddy and Vess stayed away from the humans and busied themselves ostentatiously with running the spaceship, though both Benita and Chad knew it hardly took any effort to run.

At breakfast on the first "day" of the journey, they asked one of the Inkleozese what the feeling had been on Pistach-home about what had happened.

"Yes, please tell us," murmured the president. "How were they reacting?"

The Inkleozese made a chuckling sound. "The majority of the people of Pistach have decided it was a miracle. The Chapter closed the House of the Fresco after T'Fees's people cleaned it, so few if any of the Pistach actually saw it the way it was, though rumors flew, of course. Since any wise government knows it is best to go along with the majority of the people, it is very likely that the curators will confirm that it was a miracle and leave well enough alone. There is precedent for this. On a former occasion, as Chiddy may have told you, the Chapter decided not to upset the status quo by inquiring into the real content of the Fresco. Since the current Fresco maintains that status quo, they will no doubt come to a like conclusion.

"Of course," and she actually laughed, "they have never seen human art. Our sisters who visited you on Earth have seen it. They have told us all about the remarkable talents of humans. It was amusing to see the Chapter members teetering on their ethical slide, deciding whether to inquire about or even mention the artistry of Earthians. Several of them finally got up the courage to ask me if I had seen Earthian art.

Of course, I had to be honest. I told them, no, I had not."

Then she turned to the president and asked softly, "Have the Pistach really done so much for your people?"

"They really have," he murmured. "A lot of things they speak of doing are things many humans have wanted to do but have never been able to muster a mandate to get them done. Things like legalizing drugs to take out the profit motive. Or paying teachers the way we do athletes, depending on how effective they are. Or getting rid of weapons whose only purpose is to kill people."

"Is a mandate necessary?"

"If you're going to overcome an economic incentive, yes."

"Logic has no part?"

"No part at all. People can see the problem, they're not stupid, but they can't influence the legislators the way money can. Even when bad situations go on and on until the people are desperate for a correction, even when they threaten legislators with voting them out, the money still prevails."

"It is hard for me to see how this could happen."

Chad said, "The legislators react to a problem by writing a law, let's say to put repeat drunk drivers in jail. The liquor industry objects, because they don't like a lot of discussion about drunkenness, it hurts their image. The legislators react by amending the law to create a commission to study how best to jail drunk drivers. Then, when the budget bills come along, they fund only the commission. The appointees to the commission include representatives of the liquor industry.

"This allows the legislators to claim success, because the law got voted in. The liquor industry also claims success, because they made sure the law won't work.

"The next step is to hire a lot people to work for the commission, many of whom are also liquor industry supporters, and the commission begins to issue long, complicated, vaguely pointless reports.

Now, however, there are jobs involved, and legislators can't get rid of jobs, even useless ones.

"Then, repeatedly, the lawmakers amend the law further, tweaking this and changing that, but always adding more jobs, until we have a bureaucratic monstrosity that's in the business of helping the liquor industry prevent legislation against drunk drivers. That's the way our Forestry Service got to be owned by the lumbermen, and our DEA got to be owned by the drug cartels, welfare got to be owned by a social work hierarchy, and schools got to be owned by professional educationalists. None of them work, because that's not what they're designed to do."

The Inkleozese nodded. "I see. The Pistach wouldn't accept that, of course. It's ineffectual."

The president nodded. "The Pistach don't have opposing political parties shooting one another out of the sky just for the fun of it, or legislators who sell their votes. The Pistach are way ahead of us technologically, and they're blessed pragmatists, and we need them. We really, really do."

"And you think you'll achieve Tassifoduma?" She cocked her head at him.

Benita, watching, saw something of the praying mantis in her stance and realized with a shock that if they didn't achieve Tassifoduma, all the men on Earth would be useable as brooders by the Inkleozese.

The Assessor Emeritus turned her slightly mocking gaze on Benita, who flushed and looked at her feet.

The president murmured, "Nothing is ever sure in the world . . . in the galaxy, but we'll certainly come closer with the Pistach than we would without."

Benita and Chad went with the Inkleozese as she left the room.

"And how do you rationalize this little . . . joke you played on the Pistach?" the Inkleozese asked, staring at Benita and Chad.

Benita looked at Chad, and then at the ceiling.

He said, "I've heard Benita quote her grandfather about civilized people trying to cope with the problems caused by belief in savage gods left over from barbaric yesterdays. It seemed to us that since Chiddy and Vess have been helping us with that problem, it's only right we should help them with similar problems in our turn. They don't tell us everything while they're helping us, Chiddy's journal made that clear, so it would be quid pro quo if we didn't tell them everything while we're helping them."

The Assessor Emeritus was dropped off on Inkleoza, still laughing every time she looked at the president, and after that, the humans went on home.

Chiddy and Vess joined Benita as she was leaving the ship, the last human to do so but Carlos.

Before the Pistach took the large ship back to Inkleoza, Carlos was getting a lift to California so he could make his apologies to the foundation.

"We'll be back in a few days," said Chiddy, rather formally. "You can take a few days to figure out what you're going to tell me," he said. "About what happened."

She gave him a long, level look. "I don't need a few days, Chiddy. Do you respect the Inkleozese?"

"You know we do."

"If the Inkleozese approve of what happened, why would you expect me to tell you anything?"