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Oh, yes, Viktor said politely. Uh, Wollet? That mark on the boy s forehead
. . .
The fertility mark, yes. What about it? Oh, I see you ve got one, too. Well,
Balit shouldn t have intercourse now for a few weeks, you know, until any live
sperm in his tract dissipate, then they ll take the brand off. Hasn t Nrina
told you all this? I guess she would do you, too, if you asked her to I mean,
now that you re not donating anymore. Oh, here comes Pelly!
Viktor was not at his best, greeting the bloated-looking space captain; he was
not used to the fact that everyone he met seemed to know all about the state
of his genital system. All he could say was, in a rush, Pelly, I really want
to talk to you
About Nebo. I know, the man growled good-naturedly. Nrina warned me you
would.
Let s get out of this noise, though. Suppose we pick up a couple of drinks,
and then we can go over there and sit by the edge of the pond.
It wasn t just Nebo that Viktor wanted to talk about, but Pelly was easy. He
seemed almost to admire Viktor well, naturally enough, he explained. You,
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Viktor you ve really traveled!
All the way from Old Earth all I ve ever done is cruise around this little
system.
So it wasn t just the fizzy, faintly tart, mildly fruity drinks they were
putting away that made Viktor feel good. He had become used to being a
curiosity, but it had been a long, long time since he had felt himself
admired.
He glanced back at the coming-of-age party, which was increasing and
multiplying as random passersby came by and joined in and stayed. Nrina was
showing Balit how to feed the kitten out of the improvised bottle she had
made; Frit, from the top of the banquet table, was declaiming a poem.
Nrina said you had some artifacts you d picked up from Nebo, Viktor said.
Pelly shook his head. Oh, no, not me. I mean, I didn t pick the things up
personally
I ve never landed on Nebo, and I never will. But I do have this thing I carry
it around to show people. He fumbled in his pouch and handed Viktor a bit of
something that was metal-bright, but a pale lavender in color.
Viktor turned the thing over. It was astonishingly light, for metal: a rod
about the size of his finger, tapering to round at one end, the other end
cracked and jagged. Is it hollow? he asked, hefting it.
No. It s what you see. And don t ask me what it s for, because I don t know.
Pelly restored it to his pouch, then had a change of mind. I know, I ll give
it to Balit for a coming-of-
age present! There are plenty more of these things not here, of course, but on
Newmanhome.
He peered keenly at Viktor and the moon face split in a smile. I m going back
there in a few
278
THE WORLD AT THE END OF TIME
Frederik Pohi
279
days, you know.
Really? to Newmanhome?
To tell the truth, Pelly admitted, I m looking forward to it. I m generally
happier on the ship than I am here maybe because I m pure, you know. I mean,
he explained, nobody tinkered with my genes before I was born. Not much,
anyway, outside of, you know, getting rid of genetic diseases and that sort of
thing. I probably wouldn t even have needed the muscle builders and things to
be on Newmanhome, except for growing up on a habitat but I was always a lot
heavier than the other boys.
I didn t know there were any like you anymore, Viktor said.
There aren t many. Maybe that s why I like space. Maybe I take after the ones
who originally came here, you know. You ve seen their ships! Can you imagine
the courage of them What s the matter?
I haven t seen those ships. I wish I could.
Oh, but that s easy enough, Pelly said, grinning. From his shoulder bag he
pulled out a flat board, glassy-topped, like the teaching desks. He touched
the tiny keypad. There it is, he said ruefully. Pathetic, isn t it?
Viktor bent over to study the picture. Pathetic was the right word a single
hydroxy-
propelled rocket, tiny in the screen but certainly not very large in any case.
It was orbiting with ruddy Nergal huge below it, and as Pelly manipulated the
keypad to move the scene forward in time the ship was joined by another, and
another more than a dozen in all, linking together in a sprawling mass of
nested spaceships. Viktor could see years of history happening in minutes as
the ships deployed solar mirrors and began to reshape themselves. That was
the first habitat,
Pelly told him. Altogether only eight hundred people made it to Nergal that
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was all they could build ships for; the rest, I guess, just stayed there and
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