* * * * *
The blast of the second turbo-copter's explosion might have precipitated
the seizure that took him just then.
The polar plain sprang up about him, more terribly cold and stark than
ever, its clustering buildings and metal machines standing out in such
clear perspective that he was certain he could have put out a hand and
touched them.
But the people were faceless no longer, except for one that knelt before
the group in a tense attitude. Janice Wynn stood over that one while its
features filled in slowly, line by line, growing more and more familiar
as the face neared identity.
By the time Alcorn realized that it was his own face, the change was
fully upon him.
A vast icy wind roared in his ears. A force seized and flung him,
distorted and disoriented, to infinity. There was darkness and terror
and then a chorus of calm voices calling reassurance. Pain gripped him,
and panic, and finally an ecstasy of remembering that was beyond
imagining.
Dimly, he heard Kitty's screaming. Something struck him furiously on the
shoulder and he felt his distant physical body struggle automatically
for balance.
A second blow caught him on the temple and he fell heavily, his new
awareness flickering toward unconsciousness. There was a confusion of
voices about him and Kitty's raw shrilling died away.
He lay still, secure in the certainty that he was no longer alone.
Mind after mind brushed his, lightly, yet more warming than any clasping
of hands, and with each touch, he identified and embraced an old friend
whose regard was dearer than his own life. He knew who they were. He was
one of them--again.
_It's over_, Janice Wynn's voice said gently. _Do you remember me now,
Filrinn?_
_Janeen_, he said. He stood up slowly.
Her green eyes stirred with an emotion that matched his own. It was
incredible that he could ever have forgotten--no matter how thoroughly
he had absorbed the protective conditioning--the unity between himself
and Janeen.
_I remember_, he said. The wonder of it still dazed him. _It's good to
be myself again._
She sighed. _It's good to know why they sent me, instead of one of the
others, to bring you back. You remember that?_
"I remember," he said aloud, as if he needed to say the words to make it
true. "We were together before this assignment for two hundred of these
people's years. We'll be together again for hundreds more, now that
we're free to go--for when will we ever find another world that needs
attention as this one needed it?"
* * * * *
He saw the Earthgirl then, curled limply on the cabin's sofa.
Her stillness left him alarmed, surprised and ashamed that he should so
readily have forgotten an obligation.
Her dishevelment, and the heavy brass fireplace poker on the rug beside
the couch, told him the story at once.
_You came just in time, Janeen. Poor Kitty! You didn't hurt her?_
Janeen shook her head. _Of course not, Filrinn. I caught her mind before
the shock of your change could derange it and--conditioned her. She'll
sleep until we've gone, and tomorrow Philip Alcorn will be no more than
a pale memory._
_Either my conditioning still lingers or my empathetic index is too high
... I'd like her to know the truth about us, Janeen, before we go._
He knelt beside the couch and smoothed the fair, tousled hair back from
the Earthgirl's quiet face.
"I'm sorry it had to be like this, Kitty," he said. He spoke aloud, but
his mind touched hers below the level of consciousness. He felt the
slow, bewildered surge of response. "It'll help you to forget, perhaps,
if you know that we came here from a star system you'll never hear of in
your lifetime, to study your people and to see what we could do to help
them.
"Alike in form, we are so far apart in nature that you could not have
borne our real presence, so we buried our real selves under a mask of
conditioning as deeply as we buried our ship under the ice of your
planet's pole. After ten years of study, our conditioning was to lift
slowly, so that we would realize who and what we were. But you are more
like us than we had thought, and with some of us, the conditioning was
too strong to break.
"It may help to know that your likeness to us will bring our people
together again when the time is right, that your children's children may
meet us on equal terms."
He lifted her from the couch and carried her to her 'copter. He set the
machine's controls to automatic and stepped back.
"Good-by, Kitty," he said.
Janeen was waiting for him in the cabin.
_The auxiliary shuttle is on its way to pick us up, Filrinn. We'll be
gone within the hour._
They stood together, linking their minds, sharing an ecstasy in the
meshing of identities that was greater than any physical fulfillment.
_But we have that, too_, Janeen said for his ears alone. And then, to
the calm, smiling faces that lingered in the background of their mingled
consciousness: _Leave us._
The faces withdrew and left them--like children just grown to awareness
of their own marvelous gifts--alone.