H’lim stepped out from behind Titus. “Dr. Mihelich and I confirmed that there’s no need for quarantine. And now I believe you’ve told me the truth, however unlikely it seems.” He placed his hands on his knees, giving a sort of half-bow as he said, “Forgive me if I frightened you in return for the kindness you have shown me.”

“You may,” said Colby, “have condemned us all to live out our lives on this station. It could take decades for Earth to accept the absence of a health threat.”

“You will have my cooperation in regaining trust.” H’lim looked to Titus with the barest whisper of Influence.

Recalling the paralyzing blast H’lim had generated on wakening, and his puzzlement over the faintness of Abbot’s Mark, Titus said, “As a physicist, I’m intrigued by H’lim’s sensitivity across the electromagnetic spectrum. The human nervous system is electromagnetic, too, which could account for the odd effects he has on people’s minds. Could those effects be a natural defense reflex of your species, H’lim?”

Titus underscored “natural defense” with Influence, and H’lim, after an awkward pause, took the cue. “I’ve never met a species on which my fright has such an exaggerated effect. I know you’re not my enemies, so it won’t happen again.”

Titus said softly, to Colby alone, “Biomed and Cognitive Sciences will be fascinated to learn of a planet that evolved a dominant species with a reflex for becoming invisible when frightened. Dr. H’lim is a life sciences expert, and would help them.” H’lim didn’t blink at Titus’s according him the ubiquitous “tie ”Doctor.“ Titus asked, ”Doctor, can you agree now to compose the message for the probe to send?“

“Yes. I can.” H’lim glanced at Titus acknowledging how Titus had altered the mood of the crowd without Influence.

The hall door opened, and Abbot entered, halting on the top step to survey the tableau. He wore ordinary coveralls.

Colby didn’t see Abbot. She knew that H’lim expected to survive the centuries it might take for his people to come, but that human knowledge of his language was too sketchy for them to verify what his message said. “We can accept such a message only on condition that from now on, you allow our cameras to record and monitor all your movements.”

It’s only sensible, thought Titus with despair. H’lim’s terror surged into rising Influence, and Titus laid a hand on his elbow, feeling his tremor of hunger. How could he feed under surveillance? Titus was determined not to let Abbot take over this time. He said, “We’re asking H’lim to vouch for us, but we’re treating him like a dangerous animal. I wouldn’t vouch for people who treated me that way.”

“Titus,” protested H’lim, “they are frightened.” He addressed Colby, “You react to fright by using your power, and I react to your use of power by being frightened and using my power. In this small laboratory, can we not experiment with ways to prevent such a destructive cycle?”

“I don’t think you understand how we feel about what you’ve done-or what we imagine you can do beyond that.”

“Possibly not. But can you understand that I regret frightening you?” At Colby’s cautious nod, he went on, “So let us break this cycle before it controls history.”

“But I must have you under absolute surveillance. No other option is open to me.” Her voice was hard.

“Allow me some freedom and some privacy with the chance to earn more by proving trustworthy, and I will aid you in every way I can. Deny me such necessities, and I will die.”

Her expression altered. “Die?”

“My kind are not like yours. I have other needs. Are you so barbarous that you’d enjoy watching a death by deprivation? Is that why you revived me?”

Titus listened open-mouthed. H’lim had caught the knack of manipulating humans so fast, Titus wondered how much he and Abbot had been manipulated by him.

Abbot strode forward, threading between the Brink’s and Biomed crews to stand beside Colby. “Some humans would enjoy watching such a death,” he replied to H’lim, the whole room reverberating to his controlled whisper of Influence. “But I think everyone here is as offended by your remark as I am.”

“Then I withdraw it.” H’lim bowed again, this time with an Oriental flavor, yielding utterly to his grandfather.

Abbot said, not needing Influence with the deeply conditioned human, “Carol, I came as soon as I heard H’lim had left his quarters. I thought you might not realize he was so starved and so exhausted from being unable to sleep that his judgment has to be impaired.”

Contrite, Colby said to H’lim, “Exhausted? And hungry, too. Together, they’d leave a human prey to fear and likely to overreact. Why didn’t you say something-”

“I did ask to go to Kylyd.”

Abbot said, “We didn’t understand, but now I think I’ve got a solution.”

“We have other business to settle first,” Colby said, that hardness returning to her voice. Titus sensed a shield go up within her mind, shattering Abbot’s hold on her. Abbot stepped away from her, puzzled, unsure of himself for the first time since Titus had known him.

Titus said, “Abbot’s solution to H’lim’s insomnia might explain why H’lim feels his life is threatened by confinement and surveillance. After all, Abbot is the Project’s foremost electronic engineer and H’lim’s most remarkable distinction from humans is his electromagnetic sensitivity. Am I right, Dr. Nandoha?”

Some of Abbot’s apprehension vanished. “In a way. I found that the beds aboard Kylyd are rigged to produce a controlled magnetic environment. If they were functional, no recorder could operate within the electromagnetic noise they’d set up-at east, none of ours could.” He turned to H’lim, highlighting his words with Influence, “You want the cameras off because they’re noisy, right? You want to move about the station because you require sensory stimulus of shirting magnetic fields, not just muscular exercise.”

H’lim assented, guardedly, and Abbot cast a reproachful glance at Colby.

“H’lim,” she said, “can you ever forgive us? We never intended to torture you. Believe that, and tell us what you need, but please understand we can’t tolerate being controlled as you have done. We’ll defend ourselves against it, even if it hurts you. We won’t enjoy your suffering, but we won’t suffer in your stead.”

“That seems reasonable,” answered H’lim.

Titus said, “H’lim, do you understand the concept of giving your word of honor, the military usage of ”parole`?“

“In your mind, these concepts define your identity. It is even more central for us.”

Colby gasped. “You can read our minds!”

H’lim flinched from her horror but denied, “I can’t read minds. Titus gave me his spoken language and later provided graphics. I understand some things, but am missing others.”

“Then how can you twist our minds as you have?”

“Titus is the physicist here, not I,” H’lim answered.

“Physicist,” said Titus, “not metaphysicist.” That second session with H’lim had been a major trial, and he knew he had not done well. H’lim still stumbled over words with multiple meanings or with concepts he didn’t have.

H’lim shrugged, and went on, “I will offer my word, my ”parole,“ thusly. Let Titus and Abbot visit me, and me visit them. Let them, along with”-he scanned the crowd, appearing to select Inea at random-“this lady, determine the conditions in which I am to be kept. In return, I pledge that my power, such as it is, will never touch them. You’ll be able to trust them, and if they judge I must be put to death, my defenses will not rise against them.”

And he called us sly. He had given away absolutely nothing and claimed in return everything he wanted. Titus said, “I’d trust him to keep his word-more so, perhaps, than if he’d promised to include the whole station in the pledge.”

“I believe him, too,” said Abbot, without Influence.

“I’ll take his word for it,” added Inea.