‘All right. Good for her.’

‘But Wu will be back. Very bright man. It was his brain that yielded the proper finding. You know, I'm sure that when he comes back to work on the Repulsion Effect, his real desire will be to remain on Erythro. The Erythro organism has picked him as it had picked Marlene. And what's funnier still, I think it's picked Leverett, as well.’

‘What system do you suppose it uses, Siever?’

‘Do you mean why does it take Wu and not Crile? Why does it take Leverett and not me?’

‘Well, I can see that Wu must be a far more brilliant man than Crile, but, Siever, you are much better than Leverett. Not that I would have wanted to lose you.’

‘Thank you. I presume the Erythro organism has a criterion of its own. I even think I have a dim idea of what it might be.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. When my mind was being probed, it meant that through Marlene, the Erythro organism itself was entering us. I caught a glimpse of its thoughts, I imagine. Not consciously, of course, but when it was over I seemed to know things I didn't know before. Marlene has the strange talent that makes it possible for her to communicate with the organism and makes it also possible for it to use her brain as a probe for other brains, but I think that's just a practical advantage. It chose her for something far more unusual.’

‘What would that be?’

‘Imagine you're a piece of string, Eugenia. How would you feel if you suddenly and unexpectedly became aware of a piece of lace? Imagine you're a circle. How would you feel if you came across a patterned sphere? Erythro had knowledge of only one kind of mind - its own. Its mind is immensely huge, but so pedestrian. It is what it is only because it is made up of trillions of trillions of cellular units, all very loosely connected.

‘Then it came across human minds, in which the cellular units were comparatively few, but in which there were incredible numbers of interconnections - incredible complexity. Lace instead of string. It must have been overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of it. It must have found Marlene's mind to be the most beautiful of all. That was why it seized upon her. Wouldn't you - if you had a chance to acquire a real Rembrandt or a Van Gogh? That was why it protected her so avidly. Wouldn't you protect a great work of art? Yet it risked her for the sake of humanity. It was rough on Marlene, but rather noble of the organism.

‘Anyway, that is what I consider the Erythro organism to be. I consider it an art connoisseur, a collector of beautiful minds.’

Insigna laughed. ‘By that token, Wu and Leverett must have very beautiful minds.’

‘They probably do to Erythro. And it will continue collecting when scientists from Earth arrive. You know it will end by collecting a group of human beings different from the common run. The Erythro group. It may help them find new homes in space and, in the end, perhaps the Galaxy will have two kinds of worlds, worlds of Earthmen and worlds of more efficient pioneers, the true Spacers. I wonder how that would work out. Surely it would mean the future would lie with them. I regret that somehow.’

‘Don't think of that,’ said Insigna urgently. ‘Let people of the future deal with the future as it comes. Right now, you and I are human beings judging each other by human standards.’

Genarr smiled joyously, his pleasantly homely face lighting up. ‘I'm glad of that, because I find your mind beautiful, and perhaps you find mine equally beautiful.’

‘Oh, Siever, I always did. Always.’

Genarr's smile faded somewhat. ‘But there are other kinds of beauty, I know.’

‘Not for me any longer. You have all the kinds of beauty. Siever, we lost the morning, you and I. But there's still the afternoon.’

‘In that case, what more can I possibly want, Eugenia? The morning is well lost - if we can share the afternoon.’

Their hands touched.