‘Astonishing. How much of this do you suppose is misinterpretation of alien minds?’

‘None. I’m sure of that. It was all quite plain. I had sufficient time to plumb their queer minds. Too much time.’

Again his thoughts drifted back into privacy.

Gan said, ‘This is well. I’ve been afraid all along of our tendency to romanticize the so-called Golden Age of our surface ancestors. I felt that there would be a strong impulse among our group in favor of a new surface life.’

‘No’ said Roi vehemently.

‘Obviously no. I doubt if the hardiest among us would consider even a day of life in an environment such as you describe, with its storms, days, nights, its indecent and unpredictable variations in environment.’ Gan’s thoughts were contented ones. ‘Tomorrow we begin the process of transfer. Once on the island— An uninhabited one, you say.’

‘Entirely uninhabited. It was the only one of that type the vessel passed over. The Tech’s information was detailed.’

‘Good. We will begin operations. It will take generations, Roi, but in the end, we will be in the Deep of a new, warm world, in pleasant caverns where the controlled environment will be conducive to the growth of every culture and refinement.’

‘And,’ added Roi, ‘no contact whatever with the surface creatures.’

Gan said, ‘Why that? Primitive though they are, they could be of help to us once we establish our base. A race that can build aircraft must have some abilities.’

‘It isn’t that. They’re a belligerent lot, sir. They would attack with animal ferocity at all occasions and—’

Gan interrupted. ‘I am disturbed at the psychopenumbra that surrounds your references to the aliens. There’s something you are concealing.’

Roi said, ‘I thought at first we could make use of them. If they wouldn’t allow us to be friends, at least, we could control them. I made one of them close contact inside the cube and that was difficult. Very difficult. Their minds are basically different.’

‘In what way?’

‘If I could describe it, the difference wouldn’t be basic. But I can give you an example. I was in the mind of an infant. They don’t have maturation chambers. The infants are in the charge of individuals. The creature who was in charge of my host—’

‘Yes.’

‘She (it was a female) felt a special tie to the young one. There was a sense of ownership, of a relationship that excluded the remainder of their society. I seemed to detect, dimly, something of the emotion that binds a man to an associate or friend, but it was far more intense and unrestrained.’

‘Well,’ said Gan, ‘’without mental contact, they probably have no real conception of society and subrelationships may build up. Or was this one pathological?’

‘No, no. It’s universal. The female in charge was the infant’s mother.’

‘Impossible. Its own mother?’

‘Of necessity. The infant had passed the first part of its existence inside its mother. Physically inside. The creature’s eggs remain within the body. They are inseminated within the body. They grow within the b?dY and emerge alive.’

‘Great caverns,’ Gan said weakly. Distaste was strong within him. ‘Each creature would know the identity of its own child. Each child would have a particular father—’

‘And he would be known, too. My host was being taken five thousand miles, as nearly as I could judge the distance, to be seen by its father.’

‘Unbelievable!’

‘Do you need more to see that there can never be any meeting of minds? The difference is so fundamental, so innate.’

The yellowness of regret tinged and roughened Gan’s thought train. He said, ‘It would be too bad. I had thought—’

‘What, sir?’

‘I had thought that for the first time there would be two intelligences helping one another. I had thought that together we might progress more quickly than either could alone. Even if they were primitive technologically, as they are, technology isn’t everything. I had thought we might still be able to learn of them.’

‘Learn what?’ asked Roi brutally. ‘To know our parents and make friends of our children?’

Gan said, ‘No. No, you’re quite right. The barrier between us must remain forever complete. They will have the surface and we the Deep, and so it will be.’

Outside the laboratories Roi met Wenda.

Her thoughts were concentrated pleasure. ‘I’m glad you’re back.’

Roi’s thoughts were pleasurable too. It was very restful to make clean mental contact with a friend.

The Martian Way

From the doorway of the short corridor between the only two rooms in the travel-head of the spaceship, Mario Esteban Rioz watched sourly as Ted Long adjusted the video dials painstakingly. Long tried a touch clockwise, then a touch counter. The picture was lousy.

Rioz knew it would stay lousy. They were too far from Earth and at a bad position facing the ,Sun. But then’ Long would not be expected to know that. Rioz remained standing in the doorway for an additional moment, head bent to clear the upper lintel, body turned half sidewise to fit the narrow opening. Then he jerked into the galley like a cork popping out of a bottle.

‘What are you after?’ he asked.

‘I thought I’d get Hilder,’ said Long.

Rioz propped his rump on the corner of a table shelf. He lifted a conical can of milk from the companion shelf just above his head. Its point popped under pressure. He swirled it gently as he waited for it to warm.

‘What for?’ he said. He upended the cone and sucked noisily.

‘Thought I’d listen.’

‘I think it’s a waste of power.’

Long looked up, frowning. ‘It’s customary to allow free use of personal video sets.’

‘Within reason,’ retorted Rioz.

Their eyes met challengingly. Rioz had the rangy body, the gaunt, cheek-sunken face that was almost the hallmark of the Martian Scavenger, those Spacers who patiently haunted the space routes between Earth and Mars. Pale blue eyes were set keenly in the brown, lined face which, in turn, stood darkly out against the white surrounding synthofur that lined the up-turned collar of his leathtic space jacket.

Long was altogether paler and softer. He bore some of the marks of the Grounder, although no second-generation Martian could be a Grounder in the sense that Earthmen were. His own collar was thrown back and his dark brown hair freely exposed.

‘What do you call within reason?’ demanded Long.

Rioz’s thin lips grew thinner. He said, ‘Considering that we’re not even going to make expenses this trip, the way it looks, any power drain at all is outside reason.’

Long said, ‘If we’re losing money, hadn’t you better get back to your post? It’s your watch.’

Rioz grunted and ran a thumb and forefinger over the stubble on his chin. He got up and trudged to the door, his soft, heavy boots muting the sound of his steps. He paused to look at the thermostat, then turned with a flare of fury.