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IT w~ the first time, really, that Captain Racety had found hier Had that passenger been one of the Great Squires theht still have counted on co-operation A Great Squire ht be all-powerful on his own continent, but on a ship he would recognize that there could be only one master, the Captain

A wohter of a Great Squire was completely impossible

He said, "My Lady, how can I allow you to interview them in private?"

Sa, said, "Why not? Are they armed, Captain?"

"Of course not That&039;s not the point"

"Anyone can see they&039;re only a pair of very frightened creatures They&039;re half scared to death"

"Frightened people can be very dangerous, my Lady They can&039;t he counted on to act sensibly"

"Then why do you keep thery "You&039;ve got three tres Captain, I&039;ll not forget this"

No, she wouldn&039;t, the Captain thought He could feel hiive way

"If Your Ladyship pleases, will you tell me exactly what it is that you want?"

"It&039;s simple I&039;ve told you I want to speak to theet tremendously valuable inforh, if they&039;re too frightened to speak If I could be with them alone it would be fine Alone, Captain! Can you understand a simple word? Alone!"

"And ould I say to your father, uarded in the presence of two desperate criminals?"

"Desperate criminals! Oh, Great Space! Two poor fools that tried to escape their planet and had noto Sark! Besides, hoould my father know?"

"If they hurt you he would know"

"Why should they hurt me?" Her small fist lifted and vibrated, while she put every atom of force she could find into her voice "I demand it, Captain"

Captain Racety said, "How about this then, my Lady? I will be present I shall not be three sailors with blasters I shall be one man with no blaster in view Otherwise"-and in his turn he put all his resolution into his voice-"I must refuse your demand"

"Very well, then" She was breathless "Very well But if I can&039;t get them to speak because of you I will personally see to it that you captain no more ships"

Valona put her hand hastily over Rik&039;s eyes as Sairl?" asked Sa to speak to thely

Valona spoke with difficulty She said, "He is not bright, Lady He wouldn&039;t know you were a Lady Heany haroodness," said Samia "Let him look" She went on, "Must they stay here, Captain?"

"Would you prefer a staterooe a cell not quite so gririm to you,water here Ask them if there was any in their hut on Florina"

"Well, tell those men to leave"

The Captainout niht aluht with him Samia took it

He said brusquely to Rik and Valona, "Stand up"

Samia broke in instantly "No! Let them sit You&039;re not to interfere, Captain"

She turned to theirl"

Valona shook her head "We&039;re frohtened It doesn&039;t matter that you&039;re from Florina No one will hurt you"

"We&039;re from Wotex"

"But don&039;t you see that you&039;ve practically adirl? Why did you cover the boy&039;s eyes?"

"He&039;s not allowed to look at a Lady"

"Even if he&039;s from Wotex?"

Valona was silent

Samia let her think about it She tried to smile in a friendly way Then she said, "Only Florinians aren&039;t allowed to look at Ladies So you see you&039;ve admitted that you&039;re a Florinian"

Valona burst out, "He&039;s not"

"Are you?"

"Yes, I a to him He really isn&039;t a Floriian He was just found one day I don&039;t knohere he comes from, but it&039;s not Florina" Suddenly she was almost voluble

Samia looked at her with some surprise "Well, I&039;ll speak to hi Was that hoo And she slad she had let hiain, "What&039;s your name, boy?"

Rik came to life but stumbled badly in the attempt to shape a ht, Why, that&039;s not my name He said, "I think it&039;s Rik"

"Don&039;t you know?"

Valona, looking woebegone, tried to speak, but Sa hand

Rik shook his head "I don&039;t know"

"Are you a Florinian?"

B,ik was positive here "No I was on a ship I came here from somewhere else" He could not bear to look away fro with her A small and very friendly and homelike ship

He said, "It was on a ship that I came to Florina and before that I lived on a planet"

"What planet?"

It was as though the thought were forcing its way painfully through mental channels too shted at the sound his voice otten

"Earth! I come from Earth!"

"Earth?"

Rik nodded

Samia turned to the Captain "Where is this planet Earth?"

Captain Racety smiled briefly "I never heard of it Don&039;t take the boy seriously, my Lady A native lies the way he breathes It comes naturally to him He says whatever comes first into his mind"

"He doesn&039;t talk like a native" She turned to Rik again "Where is Earth, Rik?"

"I-" He put a shaking hand to his forehead Then he said, "It&039;s in the Sirius Sector" The intonation of the statement made it half a question

Samia said to the Captain, "There is a Sirius Sector, isn&039;t there?"

"Yes, there is I&039;ht Still, that doesn&039;t make Earth any more reaL"

Rik said vehemently, "But it is I re since I re now I can&039;t"

He turned, gripping Valona&039;s elbows and clawing at her sleeve "Lona, tell them I come from Earth I do I do"

Valona&039;s eyes ith anxiety "We found him one day, Lady, and he had no mind at all He couldn&039;t dress hi Ever since then he&039;s been re he&039;s relance at the bored face of the

Captain "He may really have come from Earth, Squire No contradiction intended"

The last was a long-established conventional phrase that ith any statement that seemed in contradiction to a previous staterunted "He may have come from the center of Sark for all that story proves,queer about all this," insisted Sa up her mind flatly, woman-wise, on the side of romance "I&039;m sure of it What irl? Had he been hurt?"

Valona said nothing at first Her eyes darted helplessly back and forth First to Rik, whose fingers clutched at his hair, then to the Captain, as s without huirl," said Samia

It was a hard decision for Valona to make, but no conceivable lie could substitute for the truth in this place and at this time She said, "A doctor once looked at him He said m-my Rik was psycho-probed"

"Psycho-probed!" Saht wash of repulsion well over her She pushed her chair away It squeaked against the metal floor "You mean he was psychotic?"

"I don&039;t knohat that means, Lady," said Valona hu of, my Lady," said the Captain almost simultaneously "Natives aren&039;t psychotic Their needs and desires are too simple I&039;ve never heard of a psychotic native in my life"

"But then-"

"It&039;s siirl tells, we can only conclude that the boy had been a cri psychotic, I suppose If so, he must have been treated by one of those quacks who practice a the natives, been nearly killed and was then dumped in a deserted section to avoid detection and prosecution"

"But it would have to be someone with a psycho-probe," protested Samia "Surely you wouldn&039;t expect natives to be able to use them"

"Perhaps not But then you wouldn&039;t expect an authorized medical man to use one so inexpertly The fact that we arrive at a contradiction proves the story to be a lie throughout If you will accept estion,You see that it&039;s useless to expect anything out of theht"

She rose and looked uncertainly at Rik The Captain stepped behind her, lifted the little chair and folded it with a snap

Rik jumped to his feet "Wait!"

"If you please,the door open for her "My men will quiet him"

Samia stopped at the threshold "They won&039;t hurt hio to extre"

"Lady! Lady!" Rik called "I can prove it I&039;m from Earth"

Samia stood irresolute for a moment "Let&039;s hear what he has to say"

The Captain said coldly, "As you wish, my Lady"

She returned, but not very far She remained a step from the door

Rik was flushed With the effort of re, his lips drew back into the caricature of a smile He said, "I remember Earth It was radioactive I reht The soil glowed and nothing would grow in it There were just a few spots men could live on That&039;s why I was a Spatio-analyst That&039;s why I didn&039;tin space My world was a dead world"

Sa" But this time it was Captain Racety who stood there, open-mouthed He muttered, "A radioactive world!"

She said, "You ?"

"Yes" He turned wondering eyes on her "Nohere could he have picked that up?"

"How could a world be radioactive and inhabited?"

"But there is one And it is in the Sirius Sector I don&039;t reht even be Earth"

"It is Earth," said Rik, proudly and with confidence "It is the oldest planet of the Galaxy It is the planet on which the whole huinated"

The Captain said softly, "That&039;s so!"

Sainated on this Earth?"

"No, no," said the Captain abstractedly "That&039;s superstitiOn It&039;s just that that&039;s how I came to hear about the radioactive planet It claims to be Man&039;s home planet"

"I didn&039;t knoere supposed to have a home planet"

"I suppose we started somewhere, my Lady, but I doubt that anyone can possibly knohat planet it happened"

With sudden decision he walked toward Rik "What else do you remember?"

He almost added "boy," but held it back

"The ship mostly," said Rik, "and Spatio-analysis"

Samia joined the Captain They stood there, directly before Rik, and Sa "Then it&039;s all true? But then how did he come to be psycho-probed?"