at each other for a while. Finally Jason laughed again. "You know, I kept expecting any time, after the first hundred years here, that you'd turn up someday. I think I was still hanging on to some hope of that. What kept you?"
"Oh, things, you know. The revolution took a bit longer than I had expected to foment, that kind of thing. People are so damned unpredictable."
"I know," Jason said. They sat in silence for a moment.
"Oh, by the way," Boon said. "I took some liberties. I read all the Histories you've got stashed in here - fascinating reading. And the wreckage in the back of the ship here is self - explanatory. So instead of waking you and wasting your time on a guided tour, I made a few visits around your little planet."
"And is everything up to snuff?"
"Going nicely. You'll be interested to know that Wien's group - Wien's dead, by the way - made it to the lake without much trouble, and there's a magnificent little bronze - age town growing up along the shores, with farms spreading all over. And Noyock's quite ambitious - he's already sent colonists to five of the major islands. You've accomplished a great deal. A planet with no metals, and you've created a stable, religious society, progressive, well - governed, peaceful, knowledgeable - my congratulations."
Jason nodded, smiling.
Doon moved in for the kill: "So what the hell are you doing with that miserable little farm in the middle of the Forest of Waters?"
"Oh," Jason said. "You went there."
"Yes, I went there, and they damn near killed me before I got away. That's when I decided to come back here and wake you up. That farm is the opposite of everything else you've done - everywhere else, poets, music, a chance for a totally nontechnological culture of real beauty and refinement. And on that farm, everyone suspicious, murderous, ignorant, and hemmed in by the strongest damn mindshield I've ever had the misfortune to bypass."
"Well," Jason said, "that's my showcase."
Doon snorted. "Papa's pride and joy."
"Exactly."
Boon looked up, startled. "You don't mean it!"
"Didn't you see their eyes?"
"I didn't come close enough. You mean that's your family?"
"That's where my genes are being stored. Inbred. There's a very small chance that a few idiots will start turning up after a while. But in the meantime, they're going to be getting my genes from every parent for a few generations."
Doon looked disturbed. Angry. He got up and walked to the control board. "Dammit, Jason! That's terrible. I mean, it's fine to want to improve the strain - but inbreeding like that can cause real harm. You just don't have the right to play with people's lives like that!"
Doon might have said more, but Jason started laughing uproariously, and it didn't take Boon long to join in.
"Oh, well," Boon finally said. "From one man who's spent his life playing God to another, I must say you've done a thorough job."
And Jason reached over and shook his hand.
The door from the storage area opened, and Arran came in. She rushed to the coffin, saw it was empty, and whirled to see Boon and Jason shaking hands, looking at her in surprise. "Arran," Jason said.
"That must be the stranger," Arran said.
"Arran?" asked Boon. "Not Arran Handully - "
"Correct," Jason said. "Not Arran Handully. Just Arran. My wife."
Arran stepped forward, eyeing Boon suspiciously. "He came to the farm, Jason, just as you said. Thomas and the boys drove him off though - I came as soon as they told me."
"It's all right, Arran," Jason said. "He's a friend of mine."
Boon got up and offered her his hand. She took it carefully, and Boon smiled. "Still beautiful," he said, "as beautiful as ever, though the years have deepened you, it seems."
"Have we met each other?" Arran asked, surprised.
"A long time ago," Doon said.
"Never mind, Arran." Jason took her arm, and she clung to him - clung as she had when they both looked young, and she was a bride, living for three glorious years in Heaven City as the wife of God, before the Dispersal, before she went to the farm in the Forest of Waters and raised a family in the strange fashion Jason had commanded.
"Is he - " she asked, then stopped.
Jason looked at her carefully, then smiled. "Yes, Arran. He's my father."
They spent three days together in the ship, telling