hands.

"This man is from another planet, Ela. He told me that people live all over the universe!"

"You don't say!"

"They left the earth a long time ago. They've traveled between the stars for centuries and centuries!"

"That's wonderful, dear. Help me with this pot of dye, will you, Seth?"

Sethos drew back, unbelieving.

"Ela.... The stars are trillions of miles apart. Men have learned to fly between them somehow!"

"It's breathtaking. The dye?"

"Quintillions, some of them! Think of it, Ela!" Sethos was shaking with agitation.

"Dearest," said Ela, moving away from him, "do you think we might move closer to Center after my Plaza crystal is finished? I'd like to be able to look out and see it every morning in the sun...."

She wasn't listening! She didn't care!

"Ela. Ela, love—listen to me! What's wrong with you? Can't you see?" His voice shrank to a whisper.

She smiled tolerantly. "Of course, dear."

"I'm telling you something no one has dreamed of before and you fuss about your crystals! Don't you ever get sick of this little cage? Don't you ever feel like getting out and running away?"

"Cage?"

"I'm telling you the earth can be ours! People can live like mechanoids if they'll only wake up and stop their childish play!"

"But why, dear?"

"Why? We were meant to, that's why. Because we've already done it, or someone has. But we're still here, left behind. We've got to catch up!"

"How silly." She returned to her chemicals.

Sethos felt a burning rage seize him. This woman he had loved—she was only a shell, a stick of wood, with no ideas of her own—no curiosity. Nothing! And she didn't have the faintest notion what he was talking about. She didn't care!

Furious, he grasped a heavy bronze ash tray and hurled it, hard as he could, into the mass of shining crystal that filled the room. With an explosive rainbow of color and a reverberating crash, it collapsed under the heavy blow into a million tiny fragments.

He stood, glaring at the scattered shards, waiting for Ela to leap at him, screaming and clawing him for the ruin he had made of her masterpiece.

But she only smiled weakly, and shrugged.

"Dear, that was very irrational. I think you had better request therapy one of these days. Now I shall have to start all over again. But don't fret, sweet. I had a much better idea anyway. I can get sensational results using fluorides."

She wouldn't fight him—she couldn't think of such an act, raised in a world where coercion and violence did not exist. She didn't care about anything!

Calm now, he knew what to do. Striding swiftly from the house, he went straight to the vehicle space. He got into an autocar and slammed the door.

"Direction, please."

"Contact Dispatching. Ask for permission to go directly to first level primary. Tell them it's Sethos."

Pause. "Permission granted."

"Come in, Sethos. What can I do for you?"

Sethos looked around the room anxiously.

"I want to make a request, Mr. First, if it isn't too late."

"Too late?"

"I would like to see Hol before he leaves. Is he still here?"

"Perhaps I can arrange it. His time is budgeted, you understand."

"I must see him."

Mr. First was silent for a moment, and Sethos realized he was contacting someone. Then, he announced, "Yes, he's willing to see you. Go through this door. His compartment is the second down the corridor."

Sethos thanked him and hurried out. Finding the door, he hesitated an instant, then went in.

"Good morning," said Hol.

There was a second man standing beside him, dressed in the same manner and of the same stature as Hol.

"I had to see you," Sethos began hastily, not expecting to encounter two men.

"I see. This is Bek, a field observer. He was at your party last night."

Sethos remembered the