some human touch, drew her
into his arms. They clung together, and he felt her wet face against his
own, the softness of her trembling hands. She was still crying a little.
Then the blackness closed on him, as if endless, and the gray blur of
warp-drive peak blotted his brain into nothingness.

He came out of it to feel her cheek soft against his, her head
trustfully on his shoulder. He said huskily, "All right, Meta?"

"I'm fine," she murmured, shakily. He tightened his hands a little,
realizing that for the first time in months he had physically forgotten
his Lhari disguise, that Meta had given him this priceless reassurance
that he was human. But, as if suddenly aware of it again, she looked up
at him and drew hesitantly away.

"Don't--Meta, am I so horrible to you then? So--repulsive?"

"No, it's only--" she bit her lip--"it's just that the Lhari are--I
can't quite explain it."

"Different," Bart finished for her. "At first I was repelled--physically
repelled by myself, and by them. It was like living among weird animals,
and being one of the animals. And then, one day, Ringg was just another
kid. He had gray skin and long claws and white hair, just the way I once
had pinkish skin and short fingernails and reddish hair, but the
difference wasn't that I was human inside and he wasn't. If you skinned
Ringg, and skinned me, we'd be almost identical. And all of a sudden
then, Ringg and Vorongil and all the rest were men to me. Just people. I
thought you Mentorians, after living with the Lhari all these years,
would feel that."

She said in slow wonder, "We've lived and worked side by side with them
all these years, yet kept so apart! I've defended the Lhari to you, yet
it took you to explain them to me!"

His arm was still round her, her head still lying on his shoulder. Bart
was just beginning to wonder if he might kiss her when the infirmary
door opened and Ringg stood in the doorway, staring at them with
surprise, shock and revulsion. Bart realized, suddenly, how it must look
to Ringg--who certainly shared Meta's prejudice--but even as he
comprehended it, Ringg's face altered. Meta slipped from Bart's arms and
rose, but Ringg came slowly a step into the room.

"I--remembered you had a bad reaction, to warp-drive," he said. "I came
to see if you were all right. I would never have believed--but I'm
beginning to guess. There was always something about you, Bartol." He
shut the door behind him and stood against