"I'll come by for visits," Rick said. "I want to keep an eye on Marselius. He's keeping the peace so far, but you never know. I confess I envy you. A tranquil university life looks pretty tempting compared to what we'll have to do here."
More details. Fields to be cleared for the surinomaz. Careful planning of the cultivation area so that the population could quickly take refuge in caves. The caves to be stocked with food, and more fields to be plowed with the newly designed plowshares. And always the threat of wars- Tylara came to join them. Rick took her hand and stood close to her. Living with her was like having a dozen wives: one moment she could command armies, but in the next she would be shy and seem helpless. At the moment she wore armor and looked very much the warrior aristocrat.
They'd been married two months, and he understood her less now than he had when they first met. There was only one certainty: he couldn't imagine living without her.
Well, one other certainty. Gwen's leaving couldn't hurt. The Chinese ideograph for "trouble" was a stick drawing of two women under one roof, and the last months had shown the truth of that.
"Before you go, there's something I've been meaning to ask you," Rick said to Gwen. "You might not want to tell me. You once mentioned that Les had a message for his child. I'd like to hear it."
"All right," Gwen said. "It wasn't long. He said he wanted his child to know this much: to know that his father believes that the human race has a greater destiny than to be the slave soldiers of a so-called civilization preening itself over remaining unchanged for five thousand years." She looked up at the Demon Star. "I hope he was right."
"Damned right he was," Rick said. "Even if Les can't come back with his textbooks and a ship. All we need is time, and we'll have that. We'll have six hundred years. It didn't take Earth half that long to go from the steam engine to the space shuttle. We'll do it in a generation because we start with more."
Gwen nodded agreement. "A lot more. And we know starships are possible."
"Yes. That does help. You go start your university, and I'll deal with the Shalnuksis. One way or another, your child will inherit the stars."
"Our children," Tylara said. я