'Not much because she's fond of me, and I've tried to be very diplomatic with her. But if I cross her, I shudder to think what a shambles she'll make of me. Look, I've managed to delay her. Give me credit for that. She wanted to go out immediately after the plane trip. And I held her off to the end of the month.'
'How did you do that?'
'Pure sophistry, I assure you. It's December. I told her that, in three weeks, the New Year would begin, at least if we go by Earth Standard time, and how best to celebrate the beginning of 2237, I asked her, than to begin the new era of the exploration and settlement of Erythro? You know, she views her own penetration of the planet in that light - as the beginning of a new age. Which makes it worse.'
'Why worse?'
'Because she doesn't view it as a personal caprice, but as something of vital importance to Rotor, or even to humanity, perhaps. There's nothing like satisfying your personal pleasure and calling it a noble contribution to the general welfare. It excuses everything. I've done it myself, so have you, so has everyone. Pitt, more than anyone else whom I know, does it. He has probably convinced himself that he breathes only to contribute carbon dioxide to the plant life of Rotor.'
'So, by playing on her megalomania, you had her wait.'
'Yes, and it still gives us one more week to see if anything will stop her. I might say, though, that my plea didn't fool her. She agreed to wait, but she said, "You think that if you delay me, you will win your way at least a little bit into the affections of my mother, don't you, Uncle Siever? There's nothing about you that indicates you consider the coming of the new year of the slightest importance." '
'How unbearably rude, Siever.'
'Merely unbearably correct, Eugenia. Same thing, perhaps.'
Insigna looked away. 'My affections? What can I say-'
Genarr said quickly, 'Why say anything? I've told you I loved you in the past, and I find that getting old - or getting older - hasn't much changed it. But that's my problem. You've never treated me unfairly. You never gave me reason to hope. And if I'm fool enough not to be able to take no for an answer, what concern is that of yours?'
'It concerns me that you're unhappy for any reason.'
'That counts for a lot right there.' Genarr managed a smile. 'It's infinitely better than nothing.'
Insigna looked away and, with obvious deliberation, returned to the topic of Marlene. 'But, Siever, if Marlene saw your motivation, why did she agree to the delay?'
'You won't like this, but I'd better tell you the truth. Marlene said, "I'll wait till the New Year, Uncle Siever, because perhaps that will please Mother, and I'm on your side." '
'She said that?'
'Please don't hold it against her. I have obviously fascinated her with my wit and charm and she thinks she's doing you a favor.'
'She's a matchmaker,' said Insigna, obviously caught between annoyance and amusement.
'It did occur to me that if you could bring yourself to show an interest in me, we could use that to persuade her into all sorts of things that she would think would further encourage the interest - except that it would have to be real or she would see through it. And if it were real, she wouldn't feel it necessary to make sacrifices to bring about what was already so. Do you understand?'
'I understand,' said Insigna, 'that if it weren't for Marlene's perceptiveness, you would be positively Machiavellian in your approach to me.'
'You've got me dead to rights, Eugenia.'
'Well, why not do the obvious thing? Lock her up and, eventually, carry her on to the rocket back to Rotor.'
'Bound hand and foot, I suppose. Aside from not thinking we could do such a thing, I've managed to catch Marlene's vision. I'm beginning to think of colonizing Erythro - a whole world for the taking.'
'And breathing their alien bacteria, getting them into our food and water.' Insigna's face curled into a grimace.
'What of it? We breathe, drink, and eat them - to an extent - right here. We can't keep them out of the Dome altogether. For that matter, there are bacteria on Rotor that we breathe, drink, and eat, too.'
'Yes, but we're adapted to Rotor's life. These are alien bits of life.'