"1987," Temple supplied.
"1987. We"ll wait."
After a moment or two, the voice came through, faintly metallic: "Temple, Jason. Arrival: 1987. Psychograph, 115b12. Mental aggregate, 98. Physcom, good to excellent. Training: two years, s.p.a.ce perception concentrate, others. Shipped out: 1989."
So Jase had shipped out for--Nowhere.
"Someday you"ll follow in your brother"s footsteps, Temple. Now, though, I have a few hundred questions I"d like you to answer."
The psychiatrist hadn"t exaggerated. Several hours of questioning followed. Once reminded of her, Temple found it hard to keep his thought off Stephanie.
He left the psychiatrist"s office more confused than ever.
"Good morning, child. You Stephanie Andrews?"
Stephanie hadn"t felt up to working that first morning after Kit"s final goodbye. She answered the door in her bathrobe, saw a small, middle-aged woman with graying hair and a kind face. "That"s right.
Won"t you come in?"
"Thank you. I represent the Complete Emanc.i.p.ation League, Miss Andrews."
"Complete Emanc.i.p.ation League? Oh, something to do with politics.
Really, I"m not much interested in--"
"That"s entirely the trouble," declared the older woman. "Too many of us are not interested in politics. I"d like to discuss the C.E.L. with you, my dear, if you will bear with me a few minutes."
"All right," said Stephanie. "Would you like a gla.s.s of sherry?"
"In the morning?" the older woman smiled.
"I"m sorry. Don"t mind me. My fiance left yesterday, took his final goodbye. He--he embarked on the Nowhere Journey."
"I realize that. It is precisely why I am here. My dear, the C.E.L.
does not want to fight the government. If the government decides that the Nowhere Journey is vital for the welfare of the country--even if the government won"t or can"t explain what the Nowhere Journey is--that"s all right with us. But if the government says there is a rotation system but does absolutely nothing about it, we"re interested in that. Do you follow me?"
"Yes!" cried Stephanie. "Oh, yes. Go on."
"The C. E. L. has sixty-eight people in Congress for the current term.
We hope to raise that number to seventy-five for next election. It"s a long fight, a slow uphill fight, and frankly, my dear, we need all the help we can get. People--young women like yourself, my dear--are entirely too lethargic, if you"ll forgive me."
"You ought to forgive _me_," said Stephanie, "if you will. You know, it"s funny. I had vague ideas about helping Kit, about finding some way to get him back. Only to tackle something like that alone.... I"m only twenty-one, just a girl, and I don"t know anyone important. No one ever comes back, that"s what you hear. But there"s a rotation system, you also hear that. If I can be of any help...."
"You certainly can, my dear. We"d be delighted to have you."
"Then, eventually, maybe, just maybe, we"ll start getting them rotated home?"
"We can"t promise a thing. We can only try. And I never did say we"d try to get the boys rotated, my dear. There is a rotation system in the law, right there in Public Law 1182. But if no men have ever been rotated, there must be a reason for it."
"Yes, but--"
"But we"ll see. If for some reason rotation simply is not practicable, we"ll find another way. Which is why we call ourselves the C.E.L.--Complete Emanc.i.p.ation League--for women. If men must embark on the Nowhere Journey--the least they can do is let their women volunteer to go along with them if they want to--since it may be forever. Let a bunch of women get to this Nowhere place and you"ll never know what might happen, that"s what I say."
Something about the gray haired woman"s earthy confidence imbued Stephanie with an optimism she never expected. "Well," she said, smiling, "if we can"t bring ourselves to Mohammed.... No, that"s all wrong! ... to the mountain...?"
"Yes, there"s an old saying. But it isn"t important. You get the idea.
My dear, how would you like to go to Nowhere?"
"I--to Kit, anywhere, anywhere!" _I"ll never forget yesterday, Kit darling. Never!_
"I make no promises, Stephanie, but it may be sooner than you think.
Morning be hanged, perhaps I will have some sherry after all. Umm, you wouldn"t by any chance have some Canadian instead?"
Humming, Stephanie dashed into the kitchen for some gla.s.ses.
There were times when the real Alaric Arkalion III wished his father would mind his own business. Like that thing about the Nowhere Journey, for instance. Maybe Alaric Sr. didn"t realize it, but being the spoiled son of a billionaire wasn"t all fun. "I"m a dilettante,"
Alaric would tell himself often, gazing in the mirror, "a bored dilettante at the age of twenty-one."
Which in itself, he had to admit, wasn"t too bad. But having reneged on the Nowhere Journey in favor of a stranger twice his age who now carried his, Alaric"s, face, had engendered some annoying complications. "You"ll either have to hide or change your own appearance and ident.i.ty, Alaric."
"Hide? For how long, father?"
"I can"t be sure. Years, probably."
"That"s crazy. I"m not going to hide for years."
"Then change your appearance. Your way of life. Your occupation."
"I have no occupation."
"Get one. Change your face, too. Your fingerprints. It can be done.
Become a new man, live a new life."
In hiding there was boredom, impossible boredom. In the other alternative there was adventure, intrigue--but uncertainty. One part of young Alaric craved that uncertainty, the rest of him shunned it.
In a way it was like the Nowhere Journey all over again.
"Maybe Nowhere wouldn"t have been so bad," said Alaric to his father, choosing as a temporary alternative and retreat what he knew couldn"t possibly happen.
Couldn"t it?
"If I choose another ident.i.ty, I"d be eligible again for the Nowhere Journey."
"By George, I hadn"t considered that. No, wait. You could be older than twenty-six."
"I like it the way I am," Alaric said, pouting.
"Then you"ll have to hide. I spent ten million dollars to secure your future, Alaric. I don"t want you to throw it away."