Temple could not
fathom.

Now, as he struggled awkwardly with weightlessness, Temple called it
his imagination. His thought-patterns shifted vaguely, without
motivation, from the gleaming, polished interior of the ship with its
smell of antiseptic and metal polish to the clear Spring air of Earth,
blue of sky and bright of sun. The unique blue sky of Earth which he
somehow knew could not be duplicated elsewhere. Elsewhere--the word
itself bordered on the meaningless.

And Stephanie. The brief warm ecstasy of her--once, forever. He
wondered with surprising objectivity if a hundred other names, a
hundred other women were not in a hundred other minds while everyone
stared at the crescent Earth hanging serenely in space--with each name
and each woman as dear as Stephanie, with the same combination of fire
and gentle femininity stirring the blood but saddening the heart.
Would Stephanie really forget him? Did he want her to? That part of
him burned by the fire of her said no--no, she must not forget him.
She was his, his alone, roped and branded though a universe separated
them. But someplace in his heart was the thought, the understanding,
the realization that although Stephanie might keep a small place for
him tucked someplace deep in her emotions, she must forget. He was
gone--permanently. For Stephanie, he was dead. It was as he had told
her that last stolen day. It was.... _Stephanie, Stephanie, how much I
love you...._

Struggling with weightlessness, he made his way back to the small room
he shared with Arkalion. Hardly more than a cubicle, it was, with
sufficient room for two beds, a sink, a small chest. He lay down and
slept, murmuring Stephanie's name in his sleep.

* * * * *

He awoke to the faint hum of the air-pumps, got up feeling rested,
forgot his weightlessness and floated to the ceiling where only an
outthrust arm prevented a nasty bump on his head. He used hand grips
on the wall to let himself down. He washed, aware of no way to prevent
the water he splashed on his face from forming fine droplets and
spraying the entire room. When he crossed back to the foot of his bed
to get his towel he thrust one foot out too rapidly, lost his balance,
half-rose, stumbled and fell against the other bed which, like all
other items of furniture, was fastened to the floor. But his elbow
struck sleeping Arkalion's jaw sharply, hard enough to jar the man's
teeth.

"I'm sorry," said Tem