forget you, Walt. I'll be back soon." She smiled almost
shyly. "If Calvin contacts you again, don't go away. I'll just have to
hunt you down."

* * * * *

After she had gone, Walt relaxed. His body was still weak. He lay
staring at the ceiling. Outside, the sun's rays slanted even more. A
breeze, chill with approaching night, rustled the curtain.

There were shadows along the far wall.

I've been an instrument, Walt thought, a piece of metal, to be used as
Forential saw fit: if she were not lying. My parents are somewhere down
here on this planet, the third from the sun. They are not on Lyria. I
might have killed them during the invasion. That would be worse than
killing Forential, even. If Julia weren't lying to me. Forential has
been raising me to fight my own people!

Forential. Saucer eyed. Tentacled. Moist and slippery. Breathing in
labored gasps under high gravity. Air bubbling in his throat. Tentacles
caressing, fondling--not with affection (if Julia is right) but with
calculating design: to fashion my personality to his purpose....

Walt closed his eyes.

_Forential_, he thought.

Forential was far away in space; every second he was growing farther
away in time. I've lost him, Walt thought. So much has happened, so
much, so fast, since last I saw him, that I'm changing away from him
every minute.

Earthlings aren't so bad. They're--they're not too much different from
Lyrians, from ... _mutants_.

I'm a mutant?

_I'm not a Lyrian?_

FORENTIAL!

But Forential could not hear him.

I'll have to think for myself, Walt decided. Julia said I couldn't be
fooled if I just looked at the facts.

Earthlings aren't like Forential always told us they were. They're
pleasant enough. In their way. I don't see how they can menace Lyria (if
there is such a place). _I don't think they've even got space travel!_

He tossed restlessly on the bed.

And Julia, he thought. Well, she's nice. She's all right.

She's....

Again the new emotion troubled him. He missed her. He wished she would
hurry back.

_Julia!_

... and why _did_ she lose her powers if she's a Lyrian? Why did I?
Lyrians shouldn't lose their powers.

What about the machines on the ship?

Can there really be another compartment of--mutants?

Is that why the walls of the ship were impenetrable?

Is that why we were never permitted in more than a fraction of the
overall space of the ship?

I don't think, I d