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By Root 465 0

hard treatment—maybe he could do some kind of a deal. She had been such a loving and affectionate wife: merry, occasionally even frivolous, and often childlike in her enthusiasms during their married life. It was inconceivable to him that she could also be a ruthless, corrupt outlaw. Maybe she was a split personality, and that complexity, once proved, would reduce the sentence. The very thought of Dinah encased in a space coffin, waiting for the air supply to end, appalled him. He was determined to find some way out for her. Marmion was a kind and understanding person. Perhaps she might drop her own criminal charges against Dinah—if she knew of factors which could mitigate the offense. Dinah hadn’t actually pulled the trigger that had killed anyone. Her crew had murdered, that was true, but she had assured him, when he first found out whom she claimed to work for, that the pirates were under strict orders to fire at others only when they were being fired upon themselves. Of course, they were being fired on legally for attempting illegal activities, and self-defense, accordingly, could not be claimed. Oh, my stars and sparkles, Namid thought, I’m arguing like a modern-day Gilbert and Sullivan.

He took a deep breath and opened the inner door to the communion chamber. Warm mist obscured everything, making him feel as if he had stepped into a steam bath, and he immediately felt a strong presence that had nothing to do with Dinah or her crew. Well, he had been assured by sane and intelligent people that the planet definitely had a persona.

“Good morning,” he said, feeling just a trifle foolish, but if the planet understood, then it would appreciate normal courtesies, too. “And it is morning and I expect that you’ve had a busy time of it lately, but I did wish a few words with you.”

“Few words.”

Was that permission? Or limitation? Namid wondered.

“They might be more than a few, actually,” Namid went on, smiling. “I’ve so many questions to ask.”

“Many questions.”

Again Namid wondered if that was permission or limitation. But it had sounded, to his untutored ear, as if the speaker was slightly amused by his presumption.

“I’m told that you do communicate, or rather go into a communion phase with . . . what should I call it? With supplicants? No, that’s much too religious a word. Communicants? Ah, yes, I think that is best. Now, first, is there anything I can do to assist you right now? Remove the occupants that spent the night here? I can’t see them for the fog but . . .”

Namid had—not quite stealthily, but slowly—felt his way farther into the cavern. Before he took another step, however, the fog suddenly sucked itself back into the farthest reaches of the cave and vanished, leaving him awestricken and speechless for several moments as he watched the gentle play of light and color across the surfaces of the cave.

“You are rather stunning in appearance, you know,” he said in a hushed voice. The shifting colors of the walls were coruscations of complex blendings and wave designs. He rather suspected he could spend hours following the patterns as they made their way deeper and deeper into the cavern. The path was level now, where before it had been on a slight downward incline. “Am I well into this communion place now?”

“Now!”

“Ah, then,” Namid said, “I’m an astronomer, you see. I have spent my life observing the anomalies of stellar matter, with particular emphasis on variables. Do you have any idea what I’m talking about?”

“Talk.”

“Well, now, I’m certainly willing to, although I am not a lecturer by training. Still, to talk to a planet, the satellite of a rather . . . ah . . .”—not ordinary, Namid said to himself, not wishing to offend Petaybee—“. . . an excellent example of a G-type star . . . well, it’s an extraordinary experience, if you know my meaning.”

“Know meaning. Talk.”

“I’ve seen many stars, constant, dwarf, variable, binary systems, everything so far astronomically categorized, but speaking to a planet is highly unusual.”

Namid, aware that nervousness was making him more garrulous than was natural, thought