LI-PO Hsen walked onto the catwalk in the starship chamber only after six black uniformed men armed with pistols and submachine guns stepped out and formed a silent menacing line along the metal railing Then the head of Pacific Commerce came through the doorway He was too short, Jo no
ticed, to need to duck his head. The only addition to his usual shortsleeved shirt and comfortable, baggy slacks were the weighted lunar boots he wore. To Jo they looked almost like the boots deep-sea divers had used a century earlier.
Behind him came Zoltan fanos, his antiquated business suit still buttoned tightly across his stocky torso, his round bearded face staring in awe at the huge bubbling vat that simmered and steamed almost within arm's reach of the catwalk.
Cliff Baker and Tomasso stood next to Jo, but their presences faded to nothing as she locked eyes with the man who had murdered her daughter.
Both of them tried their best to keep their faces from betraying the emotions that raged within them. Hsen felt the joy of long-awaited triumph All the knowledge of the alien star-rovers is within Stoner's mind, and I have him in my grasp He will cooperate once he understands what can happen to his wife if he does not. It might even be profitable to give him a little demonstration, show him how easy it is to make a woman beg for mercy. Jo would try to resist, of course. I wonder how much pain it will take to break her?
Jo saw the corners of Hsen's mouth twitch with the beginnings of a smile that he quickly suppressed. She allowed herself to smile back at him, and watched the surprise flash in his dark brown eyes.
That's not the only surprise I've got in store for you, she told her enemy silently You think you're safe because you've got six goons with guns behind you But just give me the opportunity to take my belt buckle off and I'll give you the last surprise of your life
Does he want to go to bed with me? Jo asked herself. It would be just like his kind of barbaric thinking, fuck the woman you've conquered. Okay, )ust say the word, take me to your bed and tell me to strip. That's all I want from you now
"I know what you are thinking," Hsen said
"Do you?"
"You would like to kill me, wouldn't you?"
Jo said, "Wouldn't you "
"No, not yet. Not for a long time Perhaps not at all, if you are reasonable "
"You murdered my daughter," Jo said, her voice as flat and wooden as that of a woman who had given up all hope.
"A regrettable accident."
"You abducted my husband and tried to kidnap my son."
"Your husband is an extremely valuable property," Hsen replied. "As for your son, and the cloning apparatus that bears your daughter--I can take them, if I must, no matter what the cost Or it might become necessary to destroy them Archimedes has no nuclear shield, does it?"
Jo's teeth clenched Kill him! her blood urged Kill him as quickly as you can, before he kills your babies
"You don't need to threaten me," she said, her right hand slowly going to her belt buckle. "You've won I know that the game is over."
Hsen's eyes became wary. "You accept defeat?"
Toying with her belt buckle, Jo said, "I understand when the time has come to make an accommodation."
"Such as?"
Gesturing toward the steaming vat with her left hand, Jo answered, "You can control Vanguard through me. You can have access to all the technology of the aliens through my husband. As long," her voice hardened, "as you promise not to harm my children or my husband."
Despite himself, Hsen let his eagerness show "Stoner will cooperate?"
"If I tell him that he must."
"Truly?"
"Why not ask me myself?"
They all turned and saw Stoner filling the metal doorway, his bare chest showing the ugly burns, his wrists skinned red, his beard and hair fiercely ragged. The guards levelled their guns at him
"Keith!"
Jo ran to him, pushing past Hsen's slight form and the
shocked, gaping Janos to throw herself into his arms. He gripped her tightly
"What have they done to you'"
"Not 'they,'" Stoner replied. "Him " He pointed at Janos with his left hand.
"Your fingeri"
Stoner moved his accusing hand to point at Hsen. "Working for him."
"How did you get out . . ." Janos's voice choked off as Ilona clumped through the doorway, still in the pressure suit, followed by Paulino Both of them had removed their helmets
"Who are these people?" Hsen demanded
Stoner made a wry smile. "Two lost souls "
Hsen folded his thin arms across his chest. "You are very clever, Dr. Stoner But not clever enough to evade bullets, I trust."
"That won't be necessary," Stoner said. Then he saw Cliff Baker and Tomasso, still standing off a few paces along the catwalk.
For a long moment he said nothing. The only sounds in the huge underground chamber were the frothing hiss of the immense seething, steaming glassteel vat and the distant whirring hum of the suction fans high above.
Stoner recognized Tomasso and sensed the fear and tension that made the man's innards tremble. But no guilt. Not a shred of guilt Tomasso felt no remorse for the role he had played in killing Cathy. He's convinced himself that it wasn't his fault, not his responsibility, Stoner sensed Poor damned fool All he fears is Jo's vengeance. If only he knew what he should really be afraid of.
Turning to Baker, Stoner asked, "What are you doing here, Cliff?"
But before Baker could answer, Stoner saw it flashing through the man's mind. He felt a sudden dizziness, a stomach-tumbling vertigo, as if the metal grillwork beneath his feet had given way and he was plunging in lunar slow motion down, down, down to the concrete floor fifteen stones below.
"My god, Cliff," Stoner gasped. "Why? Why did you do it?"
Baker made a lopsided smile "Why not?"
"Do what?" Jo asked, still in Stoner's protective grasp.
"The Horror," said Stoner "Cliff created the Horror."
Hsen and all the others stared at the Australian
With a slight giggle, Baker said, "I didn't create it. The stuff came out of a Vanguard laboratory--your own lab, Jo. The one at Mt Isa "
"That's not a biology lab!"
"The plague isn't biological," Stoner said "It's caused by nanomachmes. Virus-sized weapons specifically designed to destroy the cells of the stomach lining."
Baker's grin widened, became more twisted "Two of Jo's very bright lads were working on the next step down in size from biochips. One of 'em was a drinking mate of mine. Instead of communications chips, he wanted to create machines that could work inside the human body He got the idea of designing microminiaturized machines that could build even smaller machines."
"Down to nanometer dimensions," said Stoner "The size of a virus."
"Right The easiest one to build would be a machine that chewed up biological cells. That's what he wanted to do first. As an experiment "
"I've never seen a report about this work " Jo said in an accusing voice
" 'Course not. They knew what they were doing could be turned into enormous profits for Vanguard. And power That worried 'em "
Stoner saw Hsen's eyes glittering with the prospects of nanotechnology and the power it could yield
"Being good lads, they let me talk 'em into quitting Vanguard before their work went beyond the theory stage It was easy for me to convince 'em that no corporation could be trusted with this technology So I got 'em both to come and work for the IIA Gave 'em a lab of their own in Sydney and let 'em go ahead with their experiments."
"And then you killed them," said Stoner.
"I had to test the stuff, di'n't I?"
Hsen seemed wonder-struck. "And then you turned the plague loose on the world?"
"Right. Started my own population control program," Baker answered, almost laughing. "Women and children first, of course. Decent thing to do, don't you think?"
"It kills women preferentially," Stoner explained. "Especially pregnant women."
"Rich women," Baker corrected. "Kill the rich. Send the little buggers all across the world on airliners. Let the fat tourists and big-shot business people spread the plague among their own."
"But the Horror is killing millions of people--rich and poor!" Jo said.
"Can't be helped," Baker replied, shrugging. "Can't make an omelet without breaking eggs, y'know."
Ilona whispered, shocked, "But all those people . . ."
"What of it?" Baker snapped. "Maybe the plague will wipe out everybody except those of us who're clever enough to get off the planet. So what? There's too damned many people on Earth anyway, everybody knows that."
"If nanomachmes cause the Horror," Hsen mused, one hand lightly stroking his chin, "then other nanomachmes can be made to protect a person against the plague. Such protection would be priceless. Absolutely priceless!"
He turned to Stoner, "Is that not so?"
Stoner closed his eyes. Inoculate the whole population of Earth? Turn nanotechnology loose for everyone, all at once? The results could tear human society to shreds. Most human beings couldn't bear to see themselves as they truly are; it would hit them the way it hit Novotny. Half the world might go insane.
There is no other way, his star brother counselled. It is too late for gradual measures Our deepest fears have come true. Humans have discovered nanotechnology and are using it for genocide, perhaps racial suicide. We have no choice now but to provide them with the means to protect themselves.
"Is it not so?" Hsen repeated, raising his voice angrily.
"Yes," Stoner answered. "It is true."
"The ultimate power!" Hsen said, half to himself. "The power of life and death. Over everyone! Over the entire world!"
fo snapped, "You're acting as if the power is already yours."
"Of course it is! I control you, both of you. Dr. Stoner, you will begin by inoculating me, just as you inoculated de Sagres and the others."
Stoner stared at him for long moments, his gray eyes seeing beyond Hsen's jubilant face, beyond the starship being built atom by atom within the giant vat, beyond the confines of this world and time.
"Let me tell you about my star brother," he said, so softly that the others strained toward him slightly to hear.
It began nearly ten million years earlier, on a planet imbedded in a thick cluster of stars halfway across the Milky Way. They were originally created as weapons, Stoner told them. The nanomachmes were first invented to serve as implements of death. "Almost the same way you're using them, Cliff," Stoner said
Before they wiped themselves out, the race that invented the nanomachmes sent a few of its kind into deep space. Their best scientists saw that they had committed planet-wide genocide and tried to save a few of their own. The stars in their cluster were so close together that it took only a few years for a spacecraft to reach another civilized world. But the nanomachmes that they carried within them, built for nothing more than killing, began to destroy that race, too. Like an interstellar plague, the machines killed and killed and killed.
The second race's scientists worked feverishly to develop their own nanotechnology and counter the invading plague. They succeeded. They saved their species. For a while. They found that the nanomachmes could be made to preserve the bodies they dwelled in, protect them against disease and cure injuries. Their hfespans lengthened incredibly They became virtually immortal. But they did not know how to handle such godlike power. They allowed their numbers to grow
beyond the ability of the planet to support them. The gift of life was turned into worldwide pollution that destroyed their biosphere. Again, a pitiful few were able to get away on spacecraft, but their race died in its own garbage and excrement.
And so it has gone. For millions of years, from one world to another, across the breadth of the Milky Way galaxy the nanomachmes have spread. Over those eons the machines have gained incredible new capabilities as one race after another added different powers to them. Now they can be sym-biotes, enhancing not only their hosts' physical well-being, but the hosts' mental abilities also. Yet not one race in a thousand has been wise enough to use them well. The race that sent them to Earth was one of those rare exceptions. Virtually every species to attain nanotechnology killed itself within a generation or two.
"The star brethren are a test," Stoner concluded. "The human race's ultimate test Can we join with these symbiotes to move humanity to the next phase of our development, or will we use their powers to destroy ourselves?"
Hsen nodded as if he understood. "That is why this power must be restricted to the very few people who have the understanding and strength to direct all the others."
"Such as you?" Jo sneered.
"Don't you understand?" Stoner asked of them. "Don't any of you understand? We're talking about an evolutionary step as big as the invention of fire Bigger! Even the biochips are trivial compared to nanotechnology."
"Yes," said Ilona. "I see. I understand."
Stoner went on, "At first, evolution works at the physical level, changing species over geological spans of time. Once a species achieves intelligence, though, evolution becomes social. Our societies change, and that becomes the driving force in our evolution. Social changes happen over centuries, generations, incredibly faster than physical evolution works. But when the species invents science, the big evolutionary changes come out of technology, and they come so swiftly that it's hard to keep up with them. The world begins to change in decades instead of generations."
The others stared at him in silence.
"Two or three decades ago," Stoner went on, "everybody was scared to death of nuclear weaponry. For the first time people realized that we had developed a technology that could wipe out all life on Earth. Politicians and scientists and diplomats worked out treaties to control nuclear weapons. But while they were doing that, our global technology was spewing out enough pollution to heat up the atmosphere and change the world's climate."
"And cutting down the rain forests," Ilona said.
"And manufacturing poison gas weapons," added Tomasso.
"That's just it," Stoner told them. "Our technology is global in its power. Unless we control it carefully it can destroy us in a thousand ways."
Jo said, "And nanotechnology is so big a step ..."
Looking at her, Stoner said, "Right. Bigger than anything that's come before it. It's so big that it could shatter the human race before we learn to deal with it. That's what we've been trying to avoid. That's why we've worked to introduce nanotechnology gradually, carefully, with the least shock and pam to human society as possible."
He turned back to Baker. "But you've made that impossible, Cliff You're forcing me to inoculate the world against your Horror. The consequences . . . god, I don't know what the consequences will be."
"That is of no importance at the moment," Hsen snapped. "You will inoculate me Now!"
"No," said Stoner.
Hsen's thin lips curved upward slightly "You are in no position to refuse me. Unless, of course, you do not care what happens to your wife "
Stoner thought swiftly. He's a strong personality, not like Novotny. And absolutely amoral. Like Vie, he doesn't feel guilt for anything he's done. A star brother might open his heart to the rest of humanity, or it might simply reinforce his existing personality. A man of that strength, of that ruthlessness, with a star brother? We can't take that chance, Stoner's star brother agreed.
"I won't do it," Stoner said.
Hsen let his fury show in his face. He pointed at Jo and said to the black-uniformed men behind him, "Pin her arms behind her back "
Not a man moved They stood staring at nothingness, their submachine guns slung over their shoulders.
"Do as I say!" Hsen shouted.
"They can't hear you," said Stoner softly. "They can't even see you "
His face contorting with rage, Hsen grabbed at the holster on the hip of the commando nearest him. Pulling the heavy black revolver from it, he levelled the gun at Stoner. The others backed away, but Jo clung tightly to her husband
"You can control them but you can't control me " he shouted.
"What makes you believe that?" asked Stoner mildly. "Do you really think that you're some sort of superior creature? Do you think that your ability to make money, to steal and he and murder, places you above normal men?"
Hsen squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened. He brought up his other hand and pulled with both fingers. Beads of perspiration broke out on his forehead. His lips peeled back in the grimace of a hissing snake.
Ignoring him, Stoner turned to Baker. "Cliff, you're sick. Maybe you've always been this way. Maybe it's my fault. I don't know if a star brother can heal the scars in your mind. There's a chance that if you realize what you've done, truly understand the enormity of the evil you've unleashed--that realization might kill you. It's a chance you'll have to take."
Baker backed away, one hand sliding along the railing of the catwalk. "No you don't! You're not sticking those alien monsters in me!"
"Stop speaking!" Hsen screamed. "I'll kill you all!"
Without moving his arm from Jo's shoulders Stoner told him, "Be quiet, little man. Cliff is a psychopath, and he needs our help. But you are a deliberate, calculating murderer. You are a carrier of death, you belong with the dead."
"I'll kill you'"
Stoner's voice became as soft as the sweep of an angel's hovering wings. "There is only one person here that you can kill."
For a long moment Hsen stood absolutely still, holding the heavy revolver rigidly in both hands, pointed at Stoner's chest. Then his arms began to tremble and slowly, painfully, his hands turned the pistol inch by agonizing inch until it pointed at his own face. Hsen's entire body shook with the exertion. Rivulets of sweat ran down his face. His eyes were wide with horror as he stared directly into the yawning black depths of the gun's muzzle.
"Now," whispered Stoner, "if you truly want to kill someone, now you can pull the trigger."
Hsen screamed an incoherent animal screech. The gun went off with a shattering roar and the upper half of his head disappeared in an explosion of blood and bone and brain His nearly headless body slammed against the catwalk railing, vaulted over it and fell slowly twisting to the steel flooring fifteen stories below. It finally hit with a sickening wet thump
Jo's fingers tore into Stoner's flesh She screamed, and so did Ilona. Baker stared, goggle-eyed. Tomasso and Janos stood frozen in slack-jawed shock. Behind him Stoner heard Paulmo gag and retch in the corridor outside the doorway. Jo was clutching at his bare torso He could feel her gulping for breath, her whole body wire-taut.
The six black-clad commandos still stood as if they had turned to statues
"How does revenge feel, Jo?" he asked.
She swallowed hard "Numb," she gasped. "I feel numb all over "
"You would have felt worse if you had killed him yourself Vengeance is always bitter, Jo. Always."
Janos, his eyes nearly popping from their sockets, stuttered, "P-please . . . don't . . don't kill me!"
Stoner stared at him
"I didn't know ... I didn't realize ..."
"You knew," Stoner said calmly. Extending his left hand with its stump where a finger should have been, "You knew exactly what you were doing. You )ust never thought that you'd have to face the consequences."
The Hungarian fell to his knees and clutched Stoner's legs. "Don't kill me! Please don't kill me "
Stoner reached out and grasped his quaking shoulder with his four-fingered hand. "Don't you think that I know the terror that lies deep in your heart? I feel it too, the terror of death, the fear that I will cease to be."
Janos raised his tear-streaked face.
"Hsen killed himself," said Stoner, "because he didn't have the courage to face a world in which he would be powerless. I simply allowed him to do it. I can't kill you--even if you deserved it."
"Thank you!" Janos blubbered. "Thank you!"
But Stoner raised his hand. "I'm going to do something to you that might be much worse. I'm going to give you a star brother. You saw what it did to your president. What it does to you will depend on your own inner strength, your own ability to expand your consciousness to envelop the entire human race."
"It'll protect us against the Horror?" Jo asked.
"Yes. And it will change the way you see the world, for as long as you live "
"What about me?" Tomasso asked, all in a rush. Stoner could see that it took every ounce of his courage to ask Jo the question. The muscles beneath the skin of his face were so rigid that he seemed to be wearing a mask of pain.
Jo looked up at her husband and then back at the traitor. "Just get out of my sight, Vie," she said wearily. "Go away and never let me see you again."
"Can . . ." Tomasso shifted his fearful eyes to Stoner. "Can I get it too, a star brother"
Stoner nodded. "Will you share it with others? Will you return to Earth and help to inoculate your human brothers and sisters?"
"Ten billion people?" Tomasso's voice was slightly hollow with the challenge.
"Everyone," said Stoner.
"I'll try," he said.
"Good."
"You'll never do it in time," Baker said, almost snarling. "They're already starting to tear themselves apart down there. The human race is going to self-destruct!"
"You're wrong, Cliff," Stoner replied. "You've been wrong about almost everything."
"Everybody dies!" Baker nearly shouted it.
"Not anymore," Stoner said softly. "You almost had it right when you said that only those of us off-planet can survive the Horror. Space flight, the ability to live elsewhere than on the Earth, that's what guarantees the immortality of the human race. Even if we fail to beat the Horror, the human race can survive here on the Moon and in the Lagrange habitats. Our' fate is no longer tied to the fate of the Earth."
"And star flight," Jo said, the realization of it filling her voice with wonder. "With star flight the human race can outlive the Sun!"
Stoner smiled at her and pointed to the enormous vat beyond the catwalk's railing. It had stopped bubbling. The steam was gone. Within its cylindrical glassteel walls they saw the graceful crystalline lines of the starship's propulsion and guidance section.
"It glitters like a diamond!" Ilona exclaimed. "An enormous diamond!"
Stoner said, "A lot of it is diamond, especially the structural segments and the hull. Nothing but carbon atoms, properly arranged by nanomachines."
Glancing down at the bloody remains of Hsen, Jo said, "That's what he wanted. The starship. All the knowledge that the aliens hold."
"There are no aliens," Stoner said. "Not anymore. They're our star brothers and sisters. Our symbiotes. We need each other to live."
"Like multicellular organisms," Ilona said. "Single-celled
creatures joined together billions of years ago to produce the earliest multicellular organisms Now we are joining with the star creatures "
Stoner nodded "First single cells, then aggregations of cells Now we move on to a symbiosis that will create a new species, the next step in humankind's development "
"You're not sticking those alien machines in me!" Baker shouted, waving his fists in the air "You're not going to turn me into an alien freak "
Stoner took a step toward him "Cliff, the symbiotes have made me more human, not less There's nothing to fear "
Baker stared at him wildly
"Believe me, Cliff," Stoner soothed, "we're all going to be more than human You'll see "
The primitive fire in Baker's eyes calmed His hands unclenched
Will he be able to handle a star brother within him' Stoner wondered silently His own star brother replied, That is a test that every human will have to face, now
Paulmo's timid voice came from the doorway "Will we really be safe from the Horror?"
Stoner smiled at him "And from addictions, too Chemical and otherwise " He nodded to Ilona
"Immortality?" Jo asked "Will we truly be immortal?"
"Maybe With the star symbiotes within us, who knows how long a human being can live? Long enough to go star-roving, at least "
"It frightens me a little," said Ilona
"It frightens me a lot," Stoner admitted "This is going to change human society completely The upheavals are going to be tremendous "
"But the alternative is the Horror," Jo said
"Yes That's the problem "
"Then what are we waiting for?" she asked, with newfound strength in her voice "We've got a whole world of work to do Let's get started Now "
EPILOGUE
JOAO de Sagres stood at the crest of the bare pebbly hill and watched, breathless in the high altitude of the Nazcan plain, as the Sun touched the horizon exactly at the point where the long straight line arrowed to reach it
The star brother within him had never seen the figures before, scratched into the bare soil of Nazca so many centuries earlier Neither had de Sagres Together they thrilled at the artistry and determination that had covered the empty plain with human purpose
De Sagres smiled inwardly How my cabinet members would laugh if they saw me here, alone, in this faded old wmdbreaker and worn-thin slacks £7 Presidente should always have his entourage around him, he should wear hand-tailored suits with razor-edge creases and elegant silk ties At least, thought the president, they no longer expect their leader to wear a military uniform
The breeze gustmg across the treeless plain from the Andes was chilling De Sagres knew it would get much colder once the Sun had dipped completely below the barren horizon Still he waited at the hill's dusty summit Waited and watched the sky darken
Perhaps we should not have come alone, his star brother said to him It's a long way to the nearest station on the highway
I had to get away, he replied silently, away from the crowds and the ceremonies Away from the work and the pain and the grief This night of all nights, I must be by myself
He sensed his star brother's hurt Are we not one person he rebuked mildly
One person, my brother, admitted de Sagres
It had been a long, hard year The Horror was being brought under control, but slowly, ever so slowly Nearly a quarter billion people had died in Latin America alone A terrible, agonizing tragedy De Sagres could feel the awful grief and misery that spanned the world To him the deaths were not merely statistics, they were brothers and sisters who had perished, his blood, his km He had gazed deeply into the well of anguish A lesser man would have given up hope and run away to hide
But it has been only one year, his star brother replied Less than a full year And the death rate is dropping fast now
De Sagres thought of the changes that were already taking place across Latin America and the rest of the world Humans accepted the "alien" inoculations because they were terrified of the Horror Then they found that they carried star brothers and star sisters within themselves
Some went mad Some seemed completely unchanged But for most men and women, the star symbiotes seemed to make them more human than they had ever been They could no longer look at another person as someone separate from themselves They could not look at an animal or a tree or even a cloud in the sky as something outside their own existence
Across Latin America, across the entire world, the human race was reaching toward a new level of existence No one on Earth was untouched by the twin impacts of the Horror and the star symbiotes There were no isolated human souls anymore No one could stand alone and aloof, not once he acquired a star brother Pushed by the Horror, pulled by the star brethren, all of humanity was swiftly becoming one huge interlinked family, brought together by ties of love and caring and--at long last--understanding
The teachings of Christ are becoming the norm of human behavior, thought de Sagres He smiled to himself Even the Church is becoming Christian, at last
Slowly the Moon rose from behind the sunset-tinged snow-caps of the Andes, enormous and full, pale and slightly sad looking
De Sagres felt his heart thumping as he strained his eyes to see the lights of human settlements on the lopsided face of the Moon And then he saw one single incredibly bright light, so brilliant that no one could miss it, rising up from near the edge of the Moon's disc, heading out into the darkness of the night sky, racing into the depths of black space, stretching into a streak of blazing light that crossed the dome of the heavens and then dwindled swiftly and was gone
The sky seemed to shudder Ghostly shimmering veils of delicate pale greens and pinks rippled across the encroaching darkness The aurora, never seen at this latitude except when a starship taps the core of the Earth's magnetic field
The dancing sheets of pastel colors seemed to be waving good-bye to the departing starship A farewell from the planet A farewell from all of humankind
De Sagres waved too Both his arms, like an eager child, until the light of the starship and the answering gleam of the aurora both disappeared and left the sky empty--except for thousands of glittering stars
Dhoum Nkona stood outside his house and saw the silver arrow of light streak across the night sky of Africa He watched, fascinated, as the aurora glowed the way it had thirty-three years earlier, when the alien's ship had first appeared in Earth's skies
Beside the gray old man stood Lela Obin, young, strong, slowly recovering from her ordeal of eight months earlier
The star sister within her had confirmed what Nkona had tried years ago to teach her that all living creatures are linked, united into a single form of life that spans Mother Earth Yet her star sister expanded even that insight all living creatures are linked even among the far-scattered stars All life in the universe is one
That vision had nearly destroyed Lela The guilt and shame she felt over her murder of five men almost drove her insane Almost For months she could not face another human being She lived in the preserve with the great apes while her star
sister gradually, patiently helped her to understand her own depths of fear and hatred
Now she stood beside Nkona, ready to take her place in the world of imperfect men and women once again The old man gave her a fatherly smile Lela was stronger now than she had ever been The wound in her spirit was healing, the scar would always be there, but she would be all the stronger for having suffered the wounding and surviving Men and women were imperfect, it was true, but they were striving toward perfection Nkona believed with all the fierce passion in his soul that each human being was truly perfectible
Less than fifty kilometers from where they stood, outside Nkona's modest home on the fringe of the university campus, several hundred gorillas lived in peaceful contentment at last No one had even tried to bother them, not since the star brethren had shown all who received what Lela had known from the beginning
In Bangladesh it was nearly morning Walking slowly along the sandy shore, Chandra Varahamihara turned his gaze from the gently lapping sea to the dark forest that lined the beach with tall swaying coconut palms and thickly gnarled goran mangroves
He was a lonely figure, this frail bald-shaved lama in his saffron robe But he was not alone Within him dwelled a star brother, and he sensed all the hundreds of millions, the billions of humans who also shared their blood with brethren from the stars
Once this region where the five mighty rivers met the sea was called the Plain of Death The rivers would flood and thousands who had no dwelling place except miserable shacks along their banks would be swept away The sea would be heavy with drowned bodies for weeks afterward
Now, in his mind's eye, Varahamihara could see the mighty dams far to the north in the mountains of Nepal that controlled the flow of the rivers And the forests that had been planted to hold the moisture of the monsoon rains and pre-
vent the erosion of the soil that the people needed to grow their food Almost, he smiled Nepal was becoming a rich nation, selling its hydroelectric power not only to Bangladesh but to India, China, and even the Soviet Union
But the smile never came to his lips The Horror had been particularly cruel in the great Indian subcontinent Its ravages were diminishing as the visitors from the stars joined in the unity of life, but what a terrible, excruciating toll it had taken Yet perhaps such pain was necessary The wheel of life is lubricated with human blood, it seems At least now the teachings of the Buddha were becoming the true frame of reference for all the people of Earth
Yet he wondered What changes will come when all men and women are linked with star brothers and sisters? We will survive the Horror, that much seems sure now But can we survive the cure'
The lama lifted his worried face to the glowing dawn that touched the sea's horizon with pink
A streak of brilliant light rose in that brightening sky and climbed across the heavens Varahamihara watched the star-ship until it disappeared from sight, uttering a prayer of peace to those who were heading for the stars And of thanks
But most of all he prayed for understanding
In the dimmed lighting of the starship's observation dome, Stoner and his son seemed to be standing on nothing, suspended in space, as the Earth dwindled to a mere point of light Stoner rested one hand on Rickie's shoulder and realized that the boy was already chest-high to his father
Wherever they looked the stars crowded thickly against the blackness of space, like sprinklings of brilliant gems that dazzled the eye
"We're on our way " Rickie shouted, a mixture of excitement and fear in his voice
Stoner tousled his son's hair "Yes, we are This is going to be our home for a long, long time, Rick You'll be a grown man before we return to Earth "
"How long will it take to get to the world where the star brothers came from?"
Stoner called up the figures in his mind. "It will seem like a couple of years to us."
"Cathy will be born by then, won't she? She'll be a little baby."
"You'll be her big brother, Rick. You'll help to take care of her, won't you?"
"Sure."
Stoner and his son walked back to the living quarters, where there were normal-looking walls and furniture. He had designed this part of the ship to look as much like their home in Hilo as possible, even down to the plant hangings and carpets.
Half the scientists of Earth had wanted to go along on this first human flight to the stars. Politely but with implacable firmness, Stoner had refused them all.
"The ship's sensor systems will be transmitting data to you constantly," he had said. "That will have to do until more starships are built."
The only other one aboard their ship, other than Jo and Stoner and their children, had been the dead and frozen body of Kirill Markov. The first duty that Stoner had performed once the ship had cleared the Earth/Moon region was to release Kir's sarcophagus and send it searching outward among the stars.
"Good-bye, old friend," Stoner had whispered. "May you find eager minds wherever you travel."
Now he lay in bed next to Jo, watching the stars through the transparent diamond ceiling above them.
"Just like home," Jo murmured.
"This is our home," he replied. "All the home we'll know."
"I'll miss seeing the Moon."
He smiled. "You'll have other sights to entertain you. Have you noticed that the stars aren't just pinpoints of light anymore?"
"No ..." Jo stirred slightly beside him, as if concentrating her attention on the panoply of stars above them.
"See? They're like little oblate spheres. Almost like teardrops."
"Oh yes! They're all that way."
"In another few days they'll look like streaks, smears that are red on one end and blue on the other," he told Jo.
She moved closer to him, pressed against his bare flesh. He slid an arm around her lovely shoulders. The scent of her hair was like jasmine.
Jo asked, "Are you certain we had to leave?"
He turned and looked at her in the light of the stars. "Helluva time to ask."
"We could always turn around." But she was grinning at him.
"I had to leave, Jo. Maybe you and the kids didn't, but I had to. I've done everything I could do. If we had stayed on Earth they'd start to treat me like some kind of royalty. Or worse, a deity."
"You wouldn't like to be worshipped?"
"I haven't done anything to be worshipped for," he said tightly. "I failed, really. I wanted to introduce the star brethren gradually, gently, give the human race enough time to absorb the changes that nanotechnology will bring. But I failed."
"It wasn't your fault."
"Still ..."
"You did everything you could."
Stoner did not reply.
Propping herself on one elbow, Jo looked down at his starlit face and said, "I'm glad it worked out this way. If it hadn't, you'd have spent the next hundred years trying to ease them into nanotechnology. You'd have broken your heart trying to make things right for every last idiot on Earth. Now they've got to do it for themselves."
"But can they? Can they absorb this without destroying themselves?"
With a shrug of her bare shoulders, Jo answered, "We'll find out when we come back."
Stoner thought about it for a few moments. Then, "Maybe
you're right, Jo. I thought I could give them a new world, but maybe in the final analysis nobody can give the human race anything They've got to make it for themselves."
"Sink or swim."
"Ten billion lives," he muttered.
"Less than that, after the Horror," Jo corrected.
Nodding absently, "Well, the human race has beaten other challenges in the past. The Ice Ages, wars, famines . . ."
"They'll make it," Jo said confidently "By the time we return they'll have statues of you in every city on Earth."
"God forbid'"
She laughed
"That's exactly what I wanted to avoid," Stoner said. "That's why we had to leave. If I had stayed on Earth they would have never left me alone. They would have wanted to ... to
"To deify you Or at least make you a saint." Jo lay back on the pillows "Saint Keith of the Star Brethren They'd hang your portrait in the Vatican."
"That's not funny." Despite himself he was grinning at her.
"No, it isn't. Especially when we both know you could have never said no to any of them Never duck that damned sense of responsibility of yours "
Stoner changed the subject "I know it was a lot to ask, Jo, bringing you and Rickie--taking you away from everything, away from home . ."
"My home is with you, Keith."
"You won't miss Vanguard? The power?"
"I don't know Maybe I will But I want to be with you," she said, her eyes searching his.
"Even out to the stars'"
"Even out to the stars," Jo said. Then she added, "It is kind of scary, though "
"Scary?"
"Flying out to the stars aboard a ship completely unlike anything that's ever been built before Don't you have any doubts' And questions'"
Stoner wrapped his arms around her "I think it's time you received your very own star sister Then you would understand much better than you do now "
"I don't need it now," Jo said "There's no danger of the Horror here "
"There's no danger of anything here, except maybe an equipment failure But the ship is self-repairing, self-regenerating Just like me " He waggled the five fingers of his left hand
Jo was quiet for a moment Then, "Keith, I can't trust what I don't understand "
"But
"Let me finish " She touched a finger to his lips "I trust you If you think I should have a star sister, I'll do it. Not because I want it, but because you want me to "
Stoner kissed her "I'll have to prick your finger "
"Can't you do it while we make love?"
He blinked with surprise "I never thought of it " His star brother smiled within him "Yes, of course If that's the way you want to, why not "
"I'll get my star sister by injection," Jo teased
Stoner laughed and kissed her again
Nearly an hour later, as they lay side by side staring up at the stars, a sheen of perspiration on their naked skins, Jo said, "I don't feel any different "
"You will tomorrow And all the tomorrows afterward The next time we make love, you'll see "
"Really?"
"The symbiotes can damp down on your emotions, when it's necessary," he said, grinning "But they can also enhance them You'll see "
"So that's how " Jo pursed her lips
Stoner became serious again "You'll start to understand why I couldn't let you kill Hsen "
"That would have been an execution," she snapped
"It would have been a vendetta murder, and sooner or later you would have felt the full impact of its guilt "
"The last of the warlords," Jo muttered.
"What?"
"Hsen--he always reminded me of an old-fashioned oriental warlord."
Stoner smiled at her. "Good analogy. Only, he wasn't the last of the warlords, Jo. You were."
"Me?"
"Not all the warlords were evil," he quickly added. "Still . . . maybe it's a good thing that you're heading for the stars with me. You might have decided to make yourself empress of Earth."
For some while she did not reply. They lay together and watched the stars.
"I'm sure you would have made a good empress," Stoner offered.
Jo laughed softly. "Sure you are."
"Want to go back and try it?"
Instead of replying, she said, "Everything always changes, doesn't it? Whether we want it to or not."
Nodding in the starlight, Stoner answered, "Some changes we deliberately cause, some we have to adapt to because we can't avoid them."
"Keith," she asked, her voice suddenly urgent, "where does it all end? Where are we heading? What are we doing?"
He smiled at her. "We've helped the human race make the transition to the brotherhood of the stars, Jo. That's the greatest achievement we or anyone else could have accomplished."
"And now what?"
"And now we have the whole universe to play in. No matter what happens, we have each other and our children."
"And the stars," Jo said.
"And the stars," he agreed.
She turned toward him again. "Keith . . . you could have gone on this journey without us."
"Without you?"
"You left me once. For eighteen years."
"That was a long time ago. A lifetime ago. I couldn't leave you now. I love you, Jo. I want you beside me always."
She smiled in the starlight and twined her arms around his neck.
"That's what I wanted to hear," Jo said.
"You didn't know?"
"I still like to hear you say it."
Stoner kissed her lightly on the lips. Then he began to sing an old tune that Jo recognized from her student years. He's never sung to me before, she thought. And at that moment all her fears disappeared like a rime of frost evaporating in the morning sun. Jo smiled, content to be with this man and their children, wherever their destiny would take them.
And Stoner sang, in a surprisingly gentle and romantic voice:
"If the world should stop revolving, spinning slowly down to dust
"I'd spend the end with you,
"And when the world was through
"Then one by one the stars would all go out,
"Then you and I would simply fly away."