Another face swam into the blur beside Luci's. It was Adam Stone. His
deep voice rang across immensities of space before coming to Martel's
hearing. Martel tried to read Stone's lips, but could not make them
out. He went back to listening to the voice:
"...not cranched. Do you understand me? Not cranched!"
Martel tried to say: "But I can hear! I can feel!" The others got his
sense if not his words.
Adam Stone spoke again:
"You have gone back through the Haberman. I put you back first. I
didn't know how it would work in practice, but I had the theory all
worked out. You don't think the Instrumentality would waste the
Scanners, do you? You go back to normality. We are letting the
habermans die as fast as the ships come in. They don't need to live
any more. But we are restoring the Scanners. You are the first. Do
you understand? You are the first. Take it easy, now."
Adam Stone smiled. Dimly behind Stone, Martel thought that he saw the
face of one of the Chiefs of the Instrumentality. That face, too,
smiled at him, and then both faces disappeared upward and away.
Martel tried to lift his head, to scan himself. He could not. Luci
stared at him, calming herself, but with an expression of loving
perplexity. She said,
"My darling husband! You're back again, to stay!"
Still, Martel tried to see his box. Finally he swept his hand across
his chest with a clumsy motion. There was nothing there. The
instruments were gone. He was back to normality but still alive.
In the deep weak peacefulness of his mind, another troubling thought
took shape. He tried to write with his finger, the way that Luci
wanted him to, but he had neither pointed fingernail nor Scanner's
Tablet. He had to use his voice. He summoned up his strength and
whispered:
"Scanners?"
"Yes, darling? What is it?"
"Scanners?"
"Scanners. Oh, yes, darling, they're all right. They had to arrest
some of them for going into _High speed_ and running away. But the
Instrumentality caught them all--all those on the ground--and they're
happy now. Do you know, darling," she laughed, "some of them didn't
want to be restored to normality. But Stone and his Chiefs persuaded
them."
"Vomact?"
"He's fine, too. He's staying cranched until he can be restored. Do
you know, he has arranged for Scanners to take new jobs. You're all to
be Deputy Chiefs for Space. Isn't that nice? But he got himself made
Chief for Space. You're all going to be pilots, so that your
fraternity and guild can go on. And Chang's getting changed right now.
You'll see him soon."
Her face turned sad. She looked at him earnestly and said: "I might as
well tell you now. You'll worry otherwise. There has been one
accident. Only one. When you and your friend called on Adam Stone,
your friend was so happy that he forgot to scan, and he let himself die
of _Overload_."
"Called on Stone?"
"Yes. Don't you remember? Your friend."
He still looked surprised, so she said:
"Parizianski."