protested. "Not whenshe's come so close."
"She'll understand. Just as you understand. You'll be good for eachother, Ramsey, you and the girl. She's had only her fierce pride and herdreams of power. She has room for love. She needs love."
"But you--"
"I? I am nothing. I am the end-product of an equation our ancestorsfound a million years ago. An equation to give them god-like power.Instead it made them savages and I have had to watch their slow climbback to the stars. An equation, Ramsey. Almost an equation of doom. Nowgo."
Vardin flickered, became insubstantial. Her body seemed to melt into thegray mists.
The gleaming walls were gone. The black box was gone. Vardin was gone.
Ramsey led Margot back to the _Enterprise_.
Moments later--although the elapsed time was subjective--they blastedoff.
Margot opened her eyes. She had been sleeping. She smiled at Ramseytremulously. "I love you," she said. Her words seemed to surprise her.
"I can't go back to Earth," Ramsey said.
"Who wants to go back to Earth--if you can't?"
They had, Ramsey knew, all of space and the life-span of mortal man toenjoy together.
THE END
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Transcriber's note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation (matter-transmitter/matter | | transmitter, scintillation-counter/scintillation counter, | | space-suit/spacesuit) has been retained. | | | | Deliberate mis-spellings (borogroves, momraths; plus all the | | lithping) have been retained. Minor changes to punctuation | | were made without comment. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
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