John slumped before the shattering logic of the old man. “And so you would have me become a savage, too, and have Lora and I regard each other daily with increasing bitterness while we fight the jungle merely to stay alive.”
“There is one other answer,” said Papa Sosnic, slowly. “I have not suggested it because it is such a slim hope. But I would have you try it before taking this wild, stowaway flight to Earth.”
“What is it?” demanded John.
“Was Lora tested for the various Colony qualifications?”
“I don’t know. She said she volunteered as a Control.”
“Then it might just be possible that she could pass the tests for Alpha Colony. If she could, it would be permissible for her to re-apply and she would probably be admitted — if she could pass.”
“She would never do it. For some crazy reason, she hates the thought of the experimental Colonies. The only answer for us is something in between. And the only place to find it is on Earth.”
“She has been in the jungle for a month now. Perhaps she has changed her mind; perhaps it is not so romantic as she thought.”
John turned sharply, decision in his voice. “What can I do?”
“She could be brought here for a period of visiting, and she could be given the examination. It’s worth trying.”
“Yes — yes, it’s worth trying.”
John approached Dr. Warnock early the next morning. He laid before the director the entire story, holding back only his own desperate plan to return to Earth — which he still intended to keep as a final resort.
When he was through, Warnock glanced up and smiled crookedly. “And Papa Sosnic told you this would be possible, this bringing Lora here to visit and inspect Alpha Colony to see if she liked it well enough to stay?”
“Provided she could pass the tests. And I’m sure she can do that!”
“I sometimes wonder who runs this colony — me or Papa Sosnic,” said Warnock.
John felt a cold shock traveling slowly upwards from his feet. He realized then that what Papa Sosnic had said could be done was true only in the old man’s own opinion.
“It has never been done before,” said Warnock, confirming John’s sudden fear. “To do so now would come close to shattering the whole plan of the Colony. You don’t understand, and neither does Papa Sosnic, that it must be kept in isolation.”
“Imprisonment,” whispered John, “that’s the word you mean.”
Warnock smiled a little sadly. “It is quite difficult to put over, to you who come here, the basic reasoning behind our experiments. The moment a man becomes a member of our Colonies it is almost impossible to keep him from adopting a sort of persecution-complex; he develops a prisoner’s psychology.”
“Perhaps that is more than a trivial comment on the methods of your experiments.”
“We have rules, yes — but we also realize we are dealing with human beings. I suppose you think I am going to turn down your request. Well, you are wrong. I am going to let Lora come here — if she will, of course; the decision must be hers.
“I am aware of your potentiality as a productive member of the Colony. We already have a dossier on you an inch thick. We want to know what a man like you can do for the future of mankind when given the freedom to develop all that is in him.”
“Freedom!”
Warnock nodded slowly. “You haven’t understood, John. There is freedom here on Planet 7; all you have to do is reach out and take it.”
“But you said the kind of thing I have asked has never been done before.”
“It has never been requested.”
John suddenly relaxed and slumped in the chair and laughed uncontrollably, in spite of the conviction that he felt more like crying. “What is the matter?” Warnock demanded.
John told him then about the wild plan to stow away aboard the star-ship and return to Earth to conduct a campaign against the Project.
“You couldn’t have gone without our knowing,” said Warnock, “but we wouldn’t have stopped you. You would never have seen Lora again.”
“Did Papa Sosnic know this?”
“Papa knows a great many things which we wonder about. Yes, I think he probably understood this very well. He knew how it would be; Papa Sosnic has done you a great service.”
7
It was three days before he received word that Lora was coming. When the news came it seemed as if it were about someone he had known long ago in childhood, someone who would be changed by the long years between, and whom he would scarcely know. He wondered what they would say to each other when they met.
Lora’s Control-Colony was through the jungle in the opposite direction from the spaceport; it was at the port that it was arranged for him to meet her.
They saw each other across the storm-darkened terminal lobby where the rain smell made it hard to get a full breath of air. He didn’t run toward her as he had thought he would. She was like some long ago acquaintance of childhood, and he wanted time to absorb the fact of her presence.
He had never seen her as she was dressed now. Her clothing was rough, a green tinged leather that confirmed her as part of the jungle itself. Her face was changed, too; it was thinner and had taken on a brownness.
But her eyes were the same. He felt a warmth of gladness rising within him as he came close enough to see that light in her eyes. It was more alive than ever before, he thought.
Then she was near him, touching him, her hand upon his arm. And he still had not found the thing to say.
Her eyes glistened now. “I shouldn’t have come,” she said. “But I had to; I had to take this chance I thought would never come. The chance to see you once again.”
“I told you I’d never let you go,” he said.
Deep inside him be had really believed this moment would never come, he thought. He had long ago lost the capacity for believing in miracles.
He put his arms about the miracle of Lora and held her close, but it was like enfolding an impatient bird.
“I shouldn’t have come at all,” she said. “It was a trick, but I knew it was the only chance I'd ever have to see you.”
“What are you talking about?” He drew her close again. “You’re here now, and this is forever.”
“I’m not staying, John; I let them believe I’d take the tests but I won’t. I don’t even want to know that I might be eligible for Alpha Colony.”
His muscles turned rigid, as if time had stopped, and he was cold and hollow inside. He pressed her closer and touched his lips to her ear. “Hush,” he whispered. “Tomorrow we can talk.”
But they didn’t mention it again, neither on the morrow or the next day. Lora stayed with Doris, and John wasn’t sure at all how that would be. He still burned with the too-recent memory of her calling his meeting with Lora disgusting and stupid.
But Doris had changed in the past few weeks, he thought, without his being aware of it. Perhaps it was Bronson. The scientist came often to see them — or Doris — and John supposed this was highly irregular, since it was no doubt a contaminating factor in the eyes of the Project directors.
The change in Doris was evident when John brought Lora to her. The two exchanged glances, as if they had some lone secret that united them against the world. John tried to understand the sad, friendly smiles they offered each other.
Papa Sosnic beamed and kissed her on both cheeks when John brought Lora to see him. She had traded temporarily the crude clothing of the Control-Colony for the exquisite fabrics furnished the Alpha group. Lean and bronze against the white material of her dress, she was quite the loveliest woman in the whole Colony, John knew — and Papa said so.