at which everybody but the bride and groom would
celebrate. One of the bridesmaids gave Elaine a huge sheaf of
flowers, which she was to toss back from the escalator; she held it
in the crook of one arm and clung to his with the other.

"Darling; we really made it!" she was whispering, as though it were
too wonderful to believe.

Well, wasn't it?

One of the news cars--orange and blue, that was Westlands Telecast
& Teleprint--had floated just ahead of them and was letting down
toward the landing stage. For a moment, he was angry; that went
beyond the outer-orbit limits of journalistic propriety, even for
Westlands T & T. Then he laughed; today he was too happy for anger
about anything. At the foot of the escalator, Elaine kicked off her
gilded slippers--there was another pair in the car; he'd seen to
that personally--and they stepped onto the escalator and turned
about. The bridesmaids rushed forward, and began struggling for the
slippers, to the damage and disarray of their gowns, and when they
were half way up, Elaine heaved the bouquet and it burst apart among
them like a bomb of colored fragrance, and the girls below snatched
at the flowers, shrieking deliriously. Elaine stood, blowing kisses
to everybody, and he was shaking his clasped hands over his head,
until they were at the top.

When they turned and stepped off, the orange and blue aircar had
let down directly in front of them, blocking their way. Now he was
really furious, and started forward with a curse. Then he saw who
was in the car.

Andray Dunnan, his thin face contorted and the narrow mustache
writhing on his upper lip; he had a slit beside the window open
and was tilting the barrel of a submachine gun up and out of it.

He shouted, and at the same time tripped Elaine and flung her down.
He was throwing himself forward to cover her when there was a
blasting multiple report. Something sledged him in the chest;
his right leg crumpled under him. He fell--

He fell and fell and fell, endlessly, through darkness, out of
consciousness.

V

He was crucified, and crowned with a crown of thorns. Who had they
done that to? Somebody long ago, on Terra. His arms were drawn out
stiffly, and hurt; his feet and legs hurt, too, and he couldn't move
them, and there was this prickling at his brow. And he was blind.

[Illustration]

No; his eyes were just closed. He opened them, and there was a white
wall in front of him, patterned with a blue s