“It’s an eon tree,” Odal explained to them. “They’ve become very rare. It will take a century to reach maturity, but once grown it will be taller than any other tree known.”
Geri smiled at him and took the present.
“I wanted to give you a new life,” Odal went on, “in exchange for the new life you’ve given me.”
Hector said, “We wanted to give you something, too. But with the wedding and everything we just haven’t had the time to breathe, practically. But we’ll send you something from Mars.”
They chatted for a few more minutes, then the loudspeaker summoned Hector and Geri to the ship.
Standing beside Leoh, watching the two of them walk rm in arm toward the ship, Odal asked, “You’re going to return to Carinae?”
“Yes.” Leoh nodded. “Hector will join me there in a few months, he and Geri. We’ve got a lifetime of work ahead of us. It’s a shame you can’t work with us. Now that we know interstellar teleportaUon is possible, we’ve got to find out how it works and why. We’re going to open up the stars to real colonization, at last.”
Looking wistfully at Geri as she rode the lift up to the shuttle’s hatch, Odal said, “I think it would be best for me to stay away from them. Besides, I have my own duties in Kerak. Romis is teaching me the arts of government … peaceful, law-abiding government, just as you have in the Commonwealth.”
“That’s a big job,” Leoh admitted, “cleaning up after the mess Kanus made.”
“You’d be interested to know that Kanus is being treated psychonically, in the dueling machineYour invention is being turned into a therapeutic device.”