"I'd like to see those rapids sometime," said Leo Sessler.

Lord Vantedour was at his side. "Whenever you wish, Dr. Sessler. They're rather far away, but we can go anytime. You must also see the coffee fields and Theophilus's greenhouses."

"Why rapids?"

"It's actually a huge waterfall, bigger than any you've ever seen before. You see, I spent a good deal of my life living near a waterfall."

"How can a house be close to a waterfall?"

"It wasn't my house, I never had a house, doctor."

Lord Vantedour led them across the Patio of Honor.

Theophilus rejoined them at dinner, and Tuk-o-Tut resumed his post in front of the Arms Room. The commander made a speech, one that made Leo Sessler laugh to himself. Lord Vantedour stood up and graciously rejected their offer on behalf of those who had been crew members of the Luz Dormida Tres .

Bonifacio of Solomea evidently agreed. Tuko-Tut, in front of the door, and the women wearing the tall, white hennins on the interior balconies, laughed.

"I don't see any other possible solution," said the commander.

"The simplest and most sensible one is that you leave everything as it is," said Theophilus. "You all return to Earth and we stay here."

"But we have to write a report and present our findings. We can't take all of you with us, true, but at least Kesterren, who needs urgent medical help, and perhaps Leval too, he needs treatment."

"You haven't seen Moritz," said Theophilus.

"According to calculations, we can take two with us. We'll see who that will be later."

"Don't even mention it. Go back, give your report, but leave us out."

"A report without physical evidence?"

"It wouldn't be the first time. Nobody took the Tammerden Columns or the Glyphs of Arfea to Earth."

"That's less incredible than..."

"Than us."

"Regardless, those men need treatment, it's a simple question of humanity. And besides, when the colonizers arrive you all will be occupying the land illegally, and you'll have to go back."

"I dare to state, Commander, that there won't be any colonizers," said Lord Vantedour, "and that we won't go back."

"Is that a threat?"

"Not at all. Think about it rationally: colonizers in a world where, if one knows how, anything can be obtained from nothing? No, Commander, it's not a threat. Do not forget that we are gods and gods don't threaten, they act."

"That seems like a famous saying," said Leo Sessler.

"Maybe one day it will be, Dr. Sessler. But please, try these pink grapes. You must also visit the vineyards."

Leo Sessler laughed. "Vantedour, you seem to be a comedian, and a rather good one."

"Thank you."

The commander refused to try the grapes. "I insist you go back, if not with us, then with one of the future expeditions. I'm going to include in the report a recommendation that all of you be permitted to take back to Earth some of the things you have here, along with the people you'd like to have accompany you." He looked toward the interior balconies. "Is one of them the chatelaine, Commander Tardon? You know that recommendations made in a report are taken very seriously."

Theophilus was laughing. "Commander, allow me two objections. In the first place, nothing produced by the violet can leave Salari II. Didn't it occur to you that, ten years ago, ten Earth years ago, the most logical thing would have been to ask for a ship in good working condition in which to return to Earth? Wewished for it, Commander. But we were mistrustful and well trained enough to do a test run with a ship controlled from the ground. If Bonifacio of Solomea were to try to accompany Vantedour to Earth, he would disappear upon leaving the atmosphere."

"Then none of this is real!"

"No? Try a pink grape, Commander."

"Forget the grapes, Tardon! You said you have two objections, Sildor, what's the other one?"

"There's nobody here that we'd want to take back, even if we could. There's no Lady Vantedour, there's not a single woman on all of Salari II."

"But wait!" said Savan. "I've seen them here, and in that house of crazies, and in..."

"They're not women."

Leo Sessler was waiting. They all spoke at the same time except young Reidt, who remained pale and quiet, his hands intertwined under the table.

Lord Vantedour said, "You're such a fan of evidence, Commander. Go ahead, call them over and ask them to disrobe. They won't refuse. The correct word is ephebi."

"But those women in Leval's house, the ones playing cards on the floor, they had breasts!"

"Of course they have breasts! They love having them. We can get hormones, and scalpels, and surgeons to use the scalpels. And a surgeon can do many things, especially if he is skillful. What we can't get is a woman."

"Why not?" asked Leo Sessler.

Young Reidt had gone red and tiny beads of sweat dotted his upper lip.

"Due to those special, indispensable conditions under which created things must be conceived," said Lord Vantedour. "If any of you'd had a recorder last night, or if you possessed a perfect memory, you'd find the answer somewhere in what I said."

"That definitely changes things." The commander was more alert now.

"Does it? The fact that at least four of us sleep with young men changes things?"

"Of course. You are all, or were, and I dare to say still are, officers of the Space Force."

No, Leo Sessler said to himself, no, no. A man can't travel throughout space, set foot on other worlds, slip around in the silent void, immerse himself in other atmospheres, ask himself why he's there and if he'll ever return, and continue being nothing more than a commander in the Force.

"And I can't be responsible for ruining the reputation of the Force ( I've never heard a capital letter as clearly as that one, Sessler thought) by taking five homosexual officers back to Earth."

That's when young Reidt exploded. Leo Sessler crossed over to him in two strides and struck him.

"You can't!" young Reidt was yelling, as blood from Sessler's violent blow ran from his nose to his mouth, staining and washing away the beads of sweat. He continued to yell and spray Sessler's face with a reddish rain. "You can't force me to go near that garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Filthy whores! Dirty perverts!" Another blow. "Get rid of them! They've dirtied me! I'm dirty!"

Leo Sessler closed his fist.

"Get that imbecile out of my house," said Lord Vantedour.

The young man had fainted, and two of the crew members lifted him up by his arms and legs.

"And you were saying that we were the ones in need of medical attention?" asked Theophilus. "What does this say about your crew, Commander? We are reasonably content, we can live with ourselves, we play clean; but that fellow's nights must be an orgy of sex and repentance. Do you repent anything, Vantedour?"

"I could have him killed," said Lord Vantedour. "Make sure they take him away from here and lock him in the ship, Commander, or I'll have his throat cut."

"Take him away and confine him to the ship," said the commander. "He's under arrest."

"Use my car," said Theophilus.

"It seems we owe you an apology."

"Listen, Sessler," the commander protested.

"We apologize for the incident, my lord," said Leo Sessler, still standing.

"Let's sit down. I assure you I've already forgotten that imbecile. Please, continue with dessert.Maybe you'll prefer the quinces over the grapes, Commander."

"Look, Tardon, stop talking about food."

"Vantedour, Commander, Lord Vantedour, and that's the last time I'll tell you: it's the price of my forgiveness."

"If you think you can treat me like one of your servants..."

"Of course he can, Commander," said Leo Sessler. "It's best if you just sit back down."

"Dr. Sessler, you are also under arrest!"

"Forgive me, Commander, but that's arbitrary and I'm going to ignore it."

The commander of the Nini Paume Uno violently shoved back his dinner chair, causing it to crash to the floor. "Dr. Sessler, I'll make sure they expel you from the Auxiliary Corps! As for the rest of you...as for the rest of you!"

Leo Sessler panicked for a moment. Who knows how a fifty-eight-year-old man's heart-sick, maltreated by space, gravity, and the void, faced with overwhelming tension-is going to react. And if the commander dies...

"I'm going to recommend that Salari II be sterilized! That all human life, or whatever it is, disappear, terminate, die!"

"If you'll only sit back down, Commander."

"I don't want your grapes or your quinces!"

"If you'll sit back down, I'll explain why it's not advisable for you to do any of that."

Carita Dulce was sleeping and Lesvanoos was crying in the arms of the card-playing women.

The man beneath the trees had his green velvet suit once again, though this one was a lighter green, with a gold chain draped across the vest, and his boots had silver buckles. A bad thing, dreams.

"Any one of us, Theophilus or myself, and even Leval or Kesterren, can destroy all of you before you have the chance to give an order."

The commander sat down.

"You're not as stupid as you think you have to be."

"That's a compliment, Commander," said Leo Sessler. "We've come to disrupt the balance on Salari II, and you know it."

"We have the means to do it," said Theophilus. "In fact, we already have two ways, equally fast, equally drastic."

"Fine," said the commander, "you win. What do you want us to do?"

We've won. What's with this "we've"? No doubt now, someday I'm going to have to write my memoirs .

"Nothing, Commander, absolutely nothing. Besides keeping the preacher locked up in the ship, nothing. Finish eating. Take a walk, if you want. Have you seen the five moons? One of them orbits the world three times in a single night. And after that, go to sleep."

Theophilus's vehicle took them to the river, and from there they had to continue on foot.

"There aren't any roads on the other side," said Theophilus.

They crossed the hanging bridge. On the other side was only a meadow of soft, green grass. They found flowers, birds, and three violet stains. The men stood upon the violet and wished for gold, barrels of beer, race cars; then they continued walking. Neither the commander nor Leo Sessler tried it. But Savan did, asking for a platinum bracelet with diamonds to give to Leda. Moments later, an uproar: Savan had a platinum and diamond bracelet in his hand.

"You see, it's not so difficult," said Lord Vantedour. "You, an engineer, met the conditions without knowing it."

"But I didn't do anything."

"Of course not."

"What are the conditions?"

"That's our advantage, engineer. And why do you want to know them? In order to keep what you obtained you'd have to stay and live on Salari II."

Savan looked sadly at Leda's bracelet. The men were jumping, spreading wide their arms, asking for things out loud and in whispers, singing, praying, sitting, and lying on the violet. Theophilus told them it was all useless, and the commander ordered them to keep moving.

They managed to drag them away from the violet stains, but the men were not happy about it. Leo Sessler could guess how they felt about Theophilus and Lord Vantedour. (They won't dare, they've been living under rigorous discipline for too long. Anyway, they know that everything would disappear as it left the atmosphere of Salari II. But if Leda's bracelet doesn't disappear?) Each man caressed Leda's bracelet as it was passed from hand to hand, some sniffing it, some biting it. One of the crew members rubbed it against his face, another hung it from his ear.

"Over there."

There were trees now, and they were nearing a cave in the side of the hill. Three old, overweight women came out to greet them.

"They're the matronas."

"The what?"

"They're not women either, is what I mean. Moritz called them the matronas: they're some of his mothers."

"And Moritz? Where's Moritz?"

"Moritz lives inside his mother, Commander."

"Welcome," chorused the women.