n Spain."

It was suddenly dizzying for Houston. Here were five people, doomed to
slow, painful death, talking as though there were nothing to worry
about. Within minutes, each had learned to know the others almost
perfectly.

It was more than just the words each used. Talking aloud helped focus
the thoughts more, but at the same time, thousands of little, personal,
fringe ideas were present with the main idea transmitted in words.
Houston had talked telepathically to Dorrine hundreds of times, but
never before had so much fine detail come through.

Why? Was there something different about space that made mental
communication so much more complete?

"No, not that, I think," said Matsukuo. "I believe it is because we have
lost our fear--not of death; we still fear death--but of betrayal."

That was it. They knew they were going to die, and soon. They had
already been sentenced; nothing further could frighten them. Always
before, on Earth, they had kept their thoughts to themselves, fearing to
broadcast too much, lest the Normals find them out. The little, personal
things that made a human being a living personality were kept hidden
behind heavy mental walls. The suppression worked subconsciously, even
when they actually wanted to communicate with another Controller.

But out here, there was nothing to fear on that score. Why should they,
who were already facing death, be afraid of anything now?

So they opened up--wide. And they knew each other as no group of human
beings had ever known each other. Every human being has little faults
and foibles that he may be ashamed of, that he wants to keep hidden from
others. But such things no longer mattered out here, where they had
nothing but imminent death and the emptiness of space--and each other.

Physically, they were miserable. To be chained in one position, with
very little room to move around, for three weeks, as Sonali had been,
was torture. Sonali had been there longer than the others--for three
days, there had been no one but herself out there in the loneliness of
space.

But now, even physical discomfort meant little; it was easy to forget
the body when the mind was free.

"What of the others?" Dorrine asked. "Where are the ones who were
sentenced before us?"

* * * * *

Houston thought of Robert Harris. What had happened to the young
Englishman?

"Space is big," said Juan Pedro. "Perhaps they are too far away for our
th