of secrets.'
'As a matter of fact, the idea has occurred to me - now and then.'
'But it's not my job. I suspect that I'm too close to you to be trusted. In fact, I'm quite sure that I'm reported on, too, and that my activity is carefully weighed. As long as I keep you happy-'
'You're a cold-blooded person, Crile. How can you find humor in something like that?'
'There's no humor there. I'm trying to be realistic. If you ever tire of me, I lose my function. An unhappy Tessa may be an unproductive Tessa, so I will be suddenly gotten out of your hair and the way will be smoothed for my successor. After all, your contentment is worth far more to them than mine is, and I recognize that it is only sensible that that be the case. You see my realism?'
Whereupon Wendel reached out suddenly to stroke Crile's cheek. 'Don't worry. I think I've grown too used to you to tire of you now. In the hot blood of my youth, I could grow bored with my men and discard them, but now-'
'It's too much of an effort, eh?'
'If you choose to think of it that way. I might also finally be in love - in my way.'
'I understand your meaning. Love in cool blood can be restful. But I suspect this is not the proper moment to prove it. You'll have to chew over this exchange with Koropatsky first, and get that poisonous feeling about fakery out of your system.'
'I'll get over that someday. But there's another thing. I told you a little while ago about Earthpeople having no feel for space.'
'Yes, I remember.'
'Well, here's an example. Koropatsky has no feeling - no feeling at all - for the sheer size of space. He talked about going to the Neighbor Star and finding Rotor. Now how is that to be done? Every once in a while, we spot an asteroid and lose it before we can calculate its orbit. Do you know how long it takes to relocate that lost asteroid, even with all our modern devices and instruments? Years sometimes. Space is large, even in the near vicinity of a star, and Rotor is small.'
'Yes, but we search for one asteroid among a hundred thousand. Rotor, on the other hand, will be the only object of its kind near the Neighbor Star.'
'Who told you that? Even if the Neighbor Star doesn't have a planetary system in our sense, it is extremely unlikely that it won't be surrounded by debris of one sort or another.'
'But it would be dead debris, like our dead asteroids. Since Rotor will be a functioning Settlement, it will be emitting a wide range of radiation, and that should be easy to detect.'
'If Rotor is a functioning Settlement. What if it isn't? Then it's just another asteroid and finding it may prove an enormous task. We may not succeed at all in any reasonable period of time.'
Fisher could not keep his face from falling into lines of misery.
Wendel made a small sound and moved closer to him, placing an arm around his unresponsive shoulder. 'Oh, my dear, you know the situation. You must face it.'
Fisher said in a choked voice, 'I know. But they may have survived. Isn't that true?'
'They may,' said Wendel with a slightly synthetic lilt to her voice, 'and if they have, so much the better for us. As you pointed out, it would then be easy to locate them through their radiational output. And more than that-'
'Yes?'
'Koropatsky wants us to bring back something that will prove we encountered Rotor, feeling that would be the best evidence that we had indeed been in deep space and returned, covering several light-years in, at most, a few months. Except- What exactly could we bring back that would be convincing? Suppose we find some drifting bits of metal or concrete. Not any bit will do. A lump of metal with nothing to identify it as Rotorian would be something we might well have taken with us. Even if we manage to find a piece that is characteristic of Rotor - some artifact that could only exist on a Settlement - it might be considered a fake.
'If, however, Rotor were a working, living Settlement, we might be able to persuade some Rotorian to come back with us. A Rotorian can be identified as one. Fingerprints, retinal patterns, DNA analysis. There may even be people on other Settlements, or on Earth, who would be able