"No. The plant and these buildings have a separate power source of
their own. I wasn't going to touch it until I knew you were safe."
He drew an apple from a bin and munched it. "We'd better turn things on
again before the fruit spoils. Come on...."
The button, Henry knew, turned on as well as off. Henry pressed down
the button, stepped back to watch the large battery of lights flash
on, but nothing happened. Had Theta somehow wrecked--ah! The red
buttons all began to glow again. Then, a minute later, a bank of lights
switched to green, then another and another. But Henry noted that an
occasional light did not change.
Within the hour the board was lighted up completely.
Henry could barely stumble back to his quarters as the reaction set in
compounded with disappointment. He flung himself on his bed.
"I have failed," he kept muttering. "I have failed in everything. They
won't listen. No one will!"
Theta wisely kept silent and covered him up.
On the second day they heard the sound of a group breaking their way
through the forest. They slipped into the brush, ready to retire to a
hiding place they had ready. But the dozen people who appeared in the
clearing did not have the look of a vengeful mob. Several were almost
elderly, some were boys, two were young women.
Henry stepped into the open, but not too close to them. "What do you
want?" he demanded.
They looked at each other, waiting for the other to speak first.
"What do you want?" Henry directed his question to an elderly
grovemaster.
"I want to know what's happening," he began. "My hopper has stopped
working, my defrosters were dimming. They blame me...."
A young man, strong, with alert eyes, stepped forward. "You are right
about that other valley," he said. "I have been in it myself. I don't
want that to happen here. I want to learn."
"I do too!" shrilled one of the teenagers. "I sneaked into a learning
house, too, but I couldn't understand."
The others gave their reasons, all varied, but with the same intent:
they wanted to learn. Sometimes how to repair an individual object,
others longed for general knowledge. But they were willing to face the
rest of the valley with him to get it.
Henry took a deep, happy breath. There would be others. Slowly but
surely the group would grow.
"Come in," he said. "Rest and eat. Then we'll start making plans."