He rose from the chair and faced the group. "But before we take any
further steps I think we ought to thrash out something right now that
has been bothering Amra and me. Tell me, Walzer, is there enough room
for Amra, Paxi, Soon, Grizquetr and myself? And perhaps for Inzax, if
she wished to come along?"
Walzer's eyes widened. "No, man, absolutely not! There's barely space
for you, let alone anybody else."
Green held out his hands to Amra. "You see? I was afraid of this all
the time. I'll have to go without you."
He paused, swallowed, then said, "But I'll return! I swear I will! I'll
get the Interstellar Archaeology Bureau interested in this planet.
When I tell them of the Xurdimur, of the rocket-shaped towers, of the
islands with their anti-gravity machines, they'll not hesitate a moment
in organizing an expedition. The chance of solving the mystery of how
man spread all over the Galaxy in prehistoric times will be too strong
for them.
"And I'll come back with them. And I'll make this planet my life work.
I've a Ph.D. in ichthyology, and I can get accredited as a scientific
member of the expedition. There's no doubt about it!"
Amra fell into his arms, weeping, crying that she had known all the
time that he couldn't leave her. Then in the next breath she was
swearing that he was just promising to return so he would avoid a scene.
"I know men well, Alan Green, and I know you, especially. You won't
come back!"
"Yes, I will, I swear it. If you know men so well, you ought to know
that no man who is worthy of being called a man could even think of
leaving a woman like you."
She smiled through her tears and said, "That's what I wanted to hear
you say. But, oh, Alan, it'll be so long. Won't it take at least two
years?"
"Yes, at least. But it can't be helped. I'll worry about you while I'm
gone. Or I would if I didn't know how capable you were."
"I can learn how to run this island," she said half-sobbing,
half-smiling. "By the time you get back I'll probably be Queen of the
Xurdimur. I could contact the Vings, and together we could have the
whole plain and every city along its border under our thumbs. And...."