Omega Point Trilogy by George Zebrowski Page B

accustomed to the gaze of any other except the ones who have spoken for them.”
    “Very well.”
    Fane got up and went to the fireplace, where he added two chunks of peat to the flames. “You will sleep by the fire,” he said without turning around.
    Silently, the women got up. Azura and Apona went to a door at the end of the room, opened it and disappeared into a dark room, closing the wooden door firmly behind them. Slifa went to the door at the opposite end of the room at Kurbi’s right, opened it and went inside, leaving it slightly ajar.
    Fane prodded the fire a few times with a stick.
    “Why are you really here, offworlder?” he asked as he sat down again.
    “You’re certainly curious about how people live elsewhere. I’m here for the same reason.”
    Fane shrugged and his dark eyebrows went up. “What is there to know — we know, and we know our way is right.” There seemed to be a suppressed anger in the man’s manner, as if the existence of other worlds were an insult to him. “I do not believe there are as many worlds as some say — certainly there are not as many as grains of sand.”
    Kurbi did not answer, but searched for something else to say. “I’d like to watch your sunset before I sleep,” he said finally.
    Fane looked at him and smiled, obviously relieved that Kurbi had not contradicted him about something he was unsure about. “Yes — but the wind gets cold,” he said as he stood up. “I will leave you now.”
    “Sleep well,” Kurbi said as the man went into his bedroom and closed the door. Kurbi heard him putting something against the door inside.
    There was a muffled giggle from the bedroom at his left as he stood up to go outside. He opened the door and stepped out.
    The storm was completely gone. At his right the sky was clear and blue, darkening into jet black. The twin suns were balls of molten metal, joined with a white-hot streamer of plasma. The wind from the east was cold, but there was less dust on its breath after the rain.
    The suns touched the horizon and sank into the flat earth, until only an upward wash of red light was left. Abandoned, the planet seemed to shudder as the wind quickened and became cooler. Kurbi turned and went back inside, closing the wooden door quickly behind him.
    He unrolled his sleeping bag by the fire, put his package of provisions aside and lay down by the warming flames. For a time he wandered in the suburbs of sleep, circling the center of rest while images of his travels came to him like actors paying curtain calls.
    “If you don’t return in some months,” Nicolai had said, “I’ll take the flyer we have and come out along the rail line looking for you — so don’t wander too far from the tracks.”
    “I can take care of myself.”
    “I will come anyway.”
    “Suit yourself, Nico — you just want an excuse to travel. Or is it because you’ll miss our talks?”
    “Both.”
    “I’ll get back, don’t worry. If you feel so constricted, why don’t you leave New Mars, start a new life elsewhere?”
    “My family is here — I haven’t faced the idea of leaving my parents permanently to go worlds away.”
    “You don’t have a wife or children.”
    “No — there is a brother I haven’t seen for years. It’s not the same for me, Raf, as it is for you.”
    “I think I understand. It would be as if the Earth were not there anymore, as if something had destroyed it.” He had thought of the Herculean at that moment, of Julian and his offer, and it all seemed to mean more.
    A bit of moist peat crackled in the fire, jarring him into wakefulness. He felt that eyes were watching him. The floorboards creaked under him as if someone were walking across the room toward him. The planet trembled under his back slightly and he sat up, wide-awake.
    The house shook a little, and the window facing east brightened. Kurbi stood up just as Fane came out of his bedroom. “Do you have quakes?” Kurbi asked.
    Fane shook his head and went out