‘The contagious fear is one reason we built the Dome on the other hemisphere. Another is that with Megas always in the sky, astronomic observations are more difficult to make in this hemisphere. But I think it's time we begin our return. You know your mother. She'll be in a panic.’
‘Call her and tell her we're all right.’
‘I don't have to. This ship is sending out signals continuously. She knows we're all right - physically. But that's not what she's worried about,’ he said, tapping his temple significantly.
Marlene slumped in her chair and a look of deep discontent crossed her face. ‘What a pain. I know everyone will say, “It's just because she loves you,” but it's such a bother. Why can't she just take my word for it that I'll be all right?’
‘Because she loves you,’ said Genarr, as he quietly instructed the aircraft to return home, ‘just as you love Erythro.’
Marlene's face brightened at once. ‘Oh, I do.’
‘Yes, yes. It's quite visible in your every reaction to the world.’
And Genarr wondered how Eugenia Insigna would react to that.
51She reacted in fury. ‘What do you mean, she loves Erythro? How can she love a dead world? Is it possible you brainwashed her? Is there some reason you've talked her into loving it?’
‘Eugenia, be reasonable. Do you really believe it is possible to brainwash Marlene into anything? Have you ever succeeded in doing so?’
‘Then what happened?’
‘Actually, I tried to subject her to situations that would displease or frighten her. If anything, I tried to “brainwash” her into disliking Erythro. I know from experience that Rotorians, brought up in the tight little world of a Settlement, hate the endlessness of Erythro; they don't like the redness of the light; they don't like that enormous puddle of an ocean; they don't like darkening clouds; they don't like Nemesis; and, most of all, they don't like Megas. All these things tend to depress and frighten them. And I showed all these things to Marlene. I took her out over the ocean and then, far enough out to show her Megas entirely above the horizon.’
‘And?’
‘And nothing bothered her. She said she got used to the red light, and it stopped looking so terribly red. The ocean didn't in the least frighten her, and, most of all, she found Megas interesting and amusing.’
‘I can't believe it.’
‘You must. It's true.’
Insigna sank into thought, then said reluctantly, ‘Maybe it's a sign that she's already infected with the - the-’
‘With the Plague. I arranged for another brain scan as soon as we got back. We still haven't got the complete analysis, but the preliminary inspection shows no change. The mind pattern changes markedly and noticeably even in a light case of the Plague. Marlene simply doesn't have it. However, an interesting thought just occurred to me. We know that Marlene is perceptive, that she can note all sorts of little things. Feelings flow from others to her. But have you ever detected anything that might seem the reverse? Do feelings flow from her to others?’
‘I don't understand what you're getting at.’
‘She knows when I'm uncertain and a little anxious, no matter how I try to hide the fact, or that I'm calm and unafraid. Is there any way, though, that she can force me or encourage me to become uncertain and a little anxious - or calm and unafraid? If she detects, can she also impose?’
Insigna stared at him. ‘I think that's crazy!’ she said, her voice choked in disbelief.
‘Perhaps. But have you ever noticed that sort of effect with Marlene? Think about it.’
‘I don't have to think. I've never noticed any such thing.’
‘No,’ muttered Genarr, ‘I suppose you haven't. She would certainly love to make you feel less nervous about herself, and she certainly fails to bring that about. However- It is true, though, if we just cling to Marlene's perceptive ability, that it has strengthened since she has arrived on Erythro. Agreed?’
‘Yes. Agreed.’
‘But it's more than that. She's now strongly intuitive. She knows that she is immune to the Plague. She is certain that nothing on Erythro will harm her. She stared down at the ocean in convinced knowledge that the aircraft wouldn't drop into it and drown her. Has she had this kind of attitude back on Rotor? Hasn't she felt uncertain and insecure on Rotor when there was reason to feel so, just as any other youngster might?’
‘Yes! Certainly.’
‘But here she's a new girl. Totally sure of herself. Why?’
‘I don't know why.’
‘Is Erythro affecting her? No, no, I mean nothing like the Plague. Is there some other effect? Something completely different? I'll tell you why I ask. I felt it myself.’
‘Felt what yourself?’
‘A certain optimism about Erythro. I didn't mind the desolation, or anything else. It's not that I was desperately put off by it before, that Erythro made me seriously uneasy, but I never liked the planet. On this trip with Marlene, however, I came nearer to liking it than ever before in my ten years of residence here. It was possible, I thought, that Marlene's delight was contagious, or that she might somehow be forcing it on me. Or else whatever it is about Erythro that is affecting her may be affecting me, too - in her presence.’
Insigna said sarcastically, ‘I think, Siever, that you had better have a brain scan yourself.’
Genarr raised his eyebrows. ‘Do you think I haven't? I've undergone a check periodically ever since I've been here. There've been no changes except those inseparable from the aging process.’
‘But have you checked your mind pattern since getting back from the plane trip?’
‘Of course. First thing. I'm no fool. The complete analysis isn't back yet, but the preliminary work shows no change.’
‘Then what are you going to do next?’
‘The logical thing. Marlene and I are going out of the Dome, and out upon Erythro's surface.’
‘No!’
‘We'll take precautions. I've been out there before.’
‘You, perhaps,’ said Insigna stubbornly. ‘Not she. Never she.’
Genarr sighed. He whirled in his chair, looking at the false window in the wall of his office as though he were trying to penetrate it and look out upon the redness beyond. Then he looked back at Insigna.
‘Out there is a huge brand-new world,’ he said, ‘one that belongs to no-one and nothing except ourselves. We can take that world and develop it with all the lessons we've learned from our foolish mismanagement of our original world. We can build a good world this time, a clean world, a decent world. We can get used to the redness. We can bring it to life with our own plants and animals. We can make sea and land flourish and start the planet on its own course of evolution.’
‘And the Plague? What of that?’
‘We might eliminate the Plague, and make Erythro ideal for us.’
‘If we eliminate the heat and the gravity, and alter the chemical composition, we can make Megas ideal for us, too.’
‘Yes, Eugenia, but you must admit that the Plague is in a different category from heat, gravity and global chemistry.’
‘But the Plague is just as deadly in its own way.’
‘Eugenia, I think I've told you that Marlene is the most important person we have.’
‘She certainly is to me.’
‘To you, she's important simply because she is your daughter. To the rest of us, she is important for what she can do.’
‘What can she do? Interpret our body language? Play tricks?’
‘She is convinced she is immune to the Plague. If she is, that might teach us-’
‘If she is. It's childish fantasy and you know it. Don't grasp at cobwebs.’
‘There's a world out there, and I want it.’
‘You sound like Pitt after all. For that world, will you risk my daughter?’
‘In human history, much more has been risked for much less.’
‘More shame to human history. And in any case, it's up to me to decide. She's my daughter.’
And Genarr said in a low voice that seemed to contain infinite sorrow, ‘I love you, Eugenia, but I lost you once. I have had this feeble dream of perhaps trying to undo that loss. But now I'm afraid I must lose you again, and permanently. Because, you see, I'm going to tell you that it's not up to you to decide. It is not even up to me to decide. It is up to Marlene. Whatever she decides, she will do, somehow. And because she may well have the ability to win humanity a world, I am going to help her do what she wants to do, despite you. Please, you must accept that, Eugenia.’