led from the office, from
the glad light in her eyes, as a burned child flees fire. He needed time
to think, time to plan. Yet his body and his surface thoughts wanted no
plans or time. Living with a Lani wasn't frowned upon on Flora. Many of
the staff did, nor did anyone seem to think less of them for doing
so. Even Alexander himself had half-confessed to a more than platonic
affection for a Lani called Susy.

Yet this was no excuse, nor would it silence the cold still voice in his
mind that kept repeating sodomite--sodomite--sodomite with a passionless
inflection that was even more terrible than anger.

The five kilometers to Station One disappeared unnoticed beneath his
feet as he walked, and he looked up in surprise to see the white walls
and red roofs of the station looming before him.

"Good Lord! Doc! What's got into you?" the stationmaster said. "You
look like you'd seen a ghost. And out in this sun without a helmet! Come
inside, man, before you get sunstroke!"

Kennon chuckled without humor. "Getting sunstroke is the least of my
worries, Al," he said, but he allowed Al Crothers to usher him inside.

"It's odd that you showed up right now," Al said, his dark face showing
the curiosity that filled him. "I just had a call from Message Center
not five minutes ago, telling me to have you call in if you showed up."

Kennon sighed. "On this island you can't get away from the phone," he
said wryly. "O.K., where is it?"

"You look pretty bushed, Doc. Maybe you'd better rest awhile."

"And maybe it's an emergency," Kennon interrupted. "And probably it is
because the staff can handle routine matters--so maybe you'd better show
me where you keep the phone."

* * *

"One moment please," the Message Center operator said. There were a few
clicks in the background. "Here's your party," she continued. "Go ahead,
Doctor."

"Kennon?" a nervous voice crackled from the receiver.

"Yes?"

"You're needed out on Otpen One."

"Who is calling--and what's the rush?"

"Douglas--Douglas Alexander. The Lani are dying! It's an emergency!
Cousin Alex'll skin us alive if we let these Lani die!"

Douglas! Kennon hadn't thought of him since the one time they had met
in Alexandria. That was a year ago. It seemed much longer. Since the
Boss-man had exiled his cousin to that bleak rock to the east of Flora
there had been no word of him. And now--he laughed a sharp bark of
humorless annoyance--Douglas couldn't have timed it bet