and inventiveness, find Lumia and the other shining worlds beyond the sky.”
“And the nations like Kroaxia, whose collective understanding will require time
yet before it is mature, have been provided with a harmless distraction which
will predispose them meanwhile in thought and deed toward reasonableness and
tolerance,” Groork said. “We must be careful to ensure that our acquiring of
Lumian knowledge is paralleled by the cultivation of a comparable measure of
such Lumian wisdom.”
“So it shall be,” Kleippur assured him.
Eventually the two groups repeated their farewells, this time amid a lighter,
more exuberant mood than had prevailed previously. The Terrans entered the
airlock at the rear of the annex, and Zambendorf turned in the outer door to
send a last wave back to the Taloids before passing through into the
administration building proper, where the first thing everybody did was get out
of their EV suits in the lock antechamber. Then, feeling reborn, they moved out
through the far door to return to the wonderful world of bright, airy corridors,
people in shirt-sleeves and slacks, the smell of canteen food and the clatter of
cutlery, the sounds of shoes on metal stairways, and piped music in the
restrooms.
“Just think of it,” Abaquaan said to Zambendorf as they followed Mackeson and
one of his officers to be officially checked into the base. “A hot bath, clean
sheets, and as much uninterrupted sleep as you want. What more could anyone ask
for? Who’d have ever thought we’d find a NASO base on Titan the last word in
luxury? You know, Karl, I’ve got a feeling that the place at Malibu might never
seem the same again.”
Zambendorf blinked. “Malibu? Why, I can’t even imagine it any more. In fact I
can’t imagine anything beyond getting back up to the Orion. That’s the last word
in luxury as far as I’m concerned, Otto, the Orion—pure, blissful, unashamed
luxury.”
Meanwhile Thirg was looking out of the presidential carriage at the head of the
stately cavalcade proceeding through the outskirts of Menassim along the
picturesque and colorful Avenue of Independence. The crowds lining the way to
watch the carriages and the soldiers pass seemed buoyant and joyful, as if they
could somehow sense or read in the faces in the carriages the good tidings that
would affect the whole land. Thirg had never seen the city looking quite so
beautiful, with the fading light of bright’s-end softening the hues of the trees
along the avenue and painting a delicate blue haze over the rolling forests
outside the city and the mountains rising distantly behind. Ahead, he could see
the tall, clean lines of the new buildings of the central city rising proudly
above the intervening suburbs as if in anticipation of the new era about to be
born.
A gentle breeze was blowing from the east, carrying the fragrant scents of
distilled tar-sands and fumace-gas ventings, and a family of dome-backed
concrete-pourers was laying out filter beds on the far bank of the bend where
the river flanked the avenue, downstream from the ingot-soaking pits. From
somewhere off in the distance he could hear the muted strains of a power hammer
thudding contentedly while nearer to the road a flock of raucous coilspring
winders was playing counterpoint with the warbling of a high-pressure relief
valve, and on all sides the undergrowth chirped happily with piezoelectric
whines and whistles. He had a true brother now, a home again, and a patron, and
the soldiers and priests of Kroaxia would trouble him no more.
Yes indeed, Thirg, Asker-of-Questions-No-Longer-Forbidden, thought to himself as
he gazed out at the scene in contentment, it was a beautiful world.
Epilogue
GEROLD MASSEY STRETCHED HIMSELF BACK IN AN ARMCHAIR IN one comer of the team’s
lounge in Globe II, finished his scotch and soda, and set the glass down on a
utility ledge built into the side of the communications console at which Drew
West was sitting with the chair reversed to face the room. Thelma was with
Fellburg and Clarissa on a couch folded down from the opposite wall; Zambendorf
was sprawled in another armchair near Vernon, who was perched on a stool with
his back to the shelf being used as a bar; and Abaquaan was leaning by the door.