Peron sounded unhappy but resolute. Elissa said no more, but she snuggled closer to him and took him in her arms.

Almost a mile away, in a secluded area on the other side of Gulf City, Wolfgang Gibbs was engaged in his own secret meeting with Charlene Bloom. They lay side by side in an empty room, in darkness and with all monitors turned off. “You noticed the difference, didn’t you?” he said softly. “I think we caught a new breed of fish this time. Sharks, maybe, instead of guppies.”

“I agree. JN certainly thinks so, too. You could feel the tension between all four of them. Especially with the dark-haired kid — he didn’t give her an inch. I’m not sure I want to be at the next meeting. She’ll have her hands full.” “I sure as hell hope so.” Wolfgang Gibbs smiled bitterly in the darkness. “You know the trouble with the two of us, Charlene? We’re outgunned. JN’s the boss, and we know it, all three. We just can’t argue with her, even when we’re on the right side of the issue. She has too much firepower. I’m sick of this place, and I’m beginning to hate S-space life, but I still can’t tell her I want out.” “You mean leave? Leave Gulf City and JN completely?” Charlene Bloom pulled away from him. “We couldn’t do that. We’ve all been together since the beginning.” “Yeah. And that’s too long. Over fifteen years, most of them in S-space. God, Charlene, don’t you think we need a new look at things here? And I don’t believe we can provide it. Maybe those three kids can. You and I should be off, out to pasture, running a planet contact group or a Sector Headquarters. Maybe we should go to Pentecost, where they came from.”

“Did you tell them about their three friends?”

Gibbs scowled and shook his head. “Not yet. I couldn’t do it. They’re expecting them to roll up here at Gulf City. I’m leaving it to JN to break the news. They’ll hear it soon enough. That’s going to be hard for them.”

There was a long silence.

“Wolfgang?” said Charlene at last.

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry you feel the way you do.” Her voice was unhappy and tentative. “I know it’s frustrating here, sometimes. But I’ve been very happy, all these years. I know my limitations. I could never have done what Judith has done, pulling us together and holding us together. Nor could you. And you can say what you like about living in Gulf City, but we’re working on humanity’s biggest problem. If we don’t find a solution, it’s the end of the road for homo sapiens. And if you’re making a sacrifice, JN is making one that’s just as big.” “I know it. But she’s calling the shots. Suppose we’re off on the wrong tack? JN thinks we’re making progress, but as far as I’m concerned we’re in just the same position as when Gulf City was created — that’s over fifteen thousand Earth-years ago. What have we accomplished in all that time? And how long do we have, before it’s all over?”

Charlene did not reply. Wolfgang had sometimes spoken of breaking away from Gulf City, but never before in such strong terms. If he went, what would she do? She could not bear to lose Wolfgang, but also she could not desert her work and Judith Niles.

She was glad of the darkness. And she was more than ever dreading the results of the coming meeting.

Sy hesitated for maybe a minute after leaving Peron and Elissa. Then he moved fast. During their tour of Gulf City they had seen a dozen suspense chambers for movement to and from S-space. Now he headed for the nearest of them and unhesitatingly lowered himself inside one of the tanks. He performed a final check of the monitors to confirm that he was alone and unobserved, then lay back in the casket and initiated the process that would take him to normal space. His eyes closed…

. . . and opened — to find Judith Niles calmly peering in at him through the tank’s transparent cover. She had an unreadable smile on her face, and when he was fully awake she opened the door and helped him out. He looked at her warily. “Come on, Sy Day,” she said. “You and I need to talk, just the two of us. I think my office will feel more comfortable than the chamber here.” And without looking at him she turned and led the way.

She took him toward the main labs of Gulf City, in the very center of the station. Sy soon found himself in a well-appointed set of rooms, with pictures on the walls, shelves of genuine books, and serried ranks of monitors. She waved at them.

“First lesson. I’ll be throwing a lot of lessons at you. Don’t ever assume that you are unobserved in Gulf City. I learned the art of monitoring from a master — the only master I’ve ever known. From here you can watch everything.” She initiated a suite-spin to give an effective gravity about half that of Earth, then sank into an armchair and tucked her feet in under her. She gestured Sy to take a seat opposite. There was a long silence, during which they performed a close inspection of each other.

“Want me to do the talking?” she said at last.

Sy shook his head. “You first, me second. You know I have questions.” “Of course you do.” Judith Niles leaned back and sighed. “I wouldn’t be interested in you if you didn’t. And I think I have some answers. But it has to be a two-way street.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Everything. Cooperation, understanding, brain-power, new ideas — maybe partnership.” She was staring at him with peculiar intensity, eyes wide and unblinking beneath the scarred forehead. “It’s something I haven’t had in all the years since we left Earth. I think you can be a full partner. God knows, we need it. We’re dying for lack of fresh thoughts here. Every time a new arrival finds a way to Gulf City, I’ve waited and hoped.” Her expression had changed, become almost beseeching. “I think you’re different. We can read each other, you and I. That’s rarer than you know. I want you to help me recruit your companions, because I’m not sure I can do that. They’re a stubborn pair. But you think in the same way as I do. I suspected you would come here, to normal space, because it’s exactly what I do myself, when I need quiet time, time to think. You heard that it’s bad to go from normal space to S-space and back too often?” Sy nodded. “That’s what Olivia Ferranti told us. She believes it, but I’m not sure I do. I’ve seen no evidence of it.”

“I don’t think you will. If there are bad effects, they are very subtle.” Judith Niles smiled again, an open smile that lit up her face. “But a system in which people pop into normal space to think is hard to control. You don’t take other people’s word for much, do you?”

“Should I?” Sy’s face was expressionless. “Look, if this is to be more than a waste of time, let’s get to specifics. You’re right, I came here to think before we met with you again. I needed time. Gulf City seemed like a big charade — a place without a plausible purpose. If you want my cooperation, and the cooperation of Peron and Elissa, begin by telling me what’s really going on here — tell me why Gulf City exists.”

“I’ll do better than that.” Judith Niles stood up. “I’ll show you. You can see for yourself. I don’t often have a chance to brag about the work we’ve done here, but that doesn’t mean I’m not proud of it. Put this suit on — we’ll be visiting some cold places.”

She led the way down a long corridor. The first room contained half a dozen people, all frozen in postures of concentration around two beds occupied by recumbent forms.

“Standard S-space lab.” Judith Niles shrugged. “No big mysteries here, and no justification for Gulf City. We still conduct sleep experiments in S-space, but there’s no reason except my personal interests why this has to be here. This is my own lab. I started out in sleep research, back on Earth — it led us to discover S-space. The main center for sleep research is still back in the Sol System, under Jan de Vries. The best protocol we know reduces sleep to about one hour in thirty. Our end objective is still the same: zero sleep.”