" I smiled at Aaden." I smiled at Aaden. "We've got ourselves a smart kid." "We always have," Aaden replied. "In both of them." As night came across Pendor, I stood out on the porch overlooking the Vinyare' ocean, across the sunlit sectors and up the ring towards the most sparsely, if at all, populated section of the entire ring. I wondered idly if tonight was going to change my entire view of the universe. There are people who think that there's no starry sky on Pendor, that the shadow squares block out everything like a ceiling. Well, we've got plenty of starry nights, when the clouds aren't in the way, and from where I'm standing I'm sure one of those incredibly dim points out there is Terra. Am I as far away from the culture that created me as I should be? Am I too far away? What was that word Robert was so fond of using to describe himself? The latin translated into something like 'burned blood' and I think that was a pretty good description. Terran Twentieth Century Western Culture, American, has burned itself into my blood permanently. I don't work well in threesomes; that's a fact I've proven to myself over and again. |