the food and water
had to be rationed and then how the laws were passed forbidding birth
and after that how the people died and there weren't any more babies
born, until at last there was plenty of what the Earth had to give,
for everyone. And then the news was broken to everyone about the
culturing of the scar tissue, and there were a few dissenters but they
were soon conditioned out of their dissension and the population was
stabilized." He paused. "After all this past history, I don't think
the council could endure what you've done."

"No," she said quietly. "I don't think they could."

"And so this will be just for _us_." He took her in his arms. "If I
remember rightly, this is a traditional action." A pause. "Now I'll go
with you out onto the Earth--if we can swing it. When we get outside
the city, or if we do--Well, we'll see."

They were very still together and then he turned and stood by the
window and looked down upon the city and she came and stood beside
him.

* * * * *

They both saw it at the same time. And they watched, without speaking,
both knowing what was in the other's mind and heart. They watched the
giant four dimensional screens all through the city. A green, lush
planet showed bright and clear on them and there were ships standing
among the trees and men walking through the grass, that moved gently
like the swells on a calm ocean, while into their minds came the
thoughts projected from the screen:

"This will be your new home. It was found and then lost. But another
expedition will be sent out to find it again. Be of good hope.
Everything will be all right."

Michael turned from the window. "So there's our evidence. Two thousand
years. All the others killed getting it. And with a simple twist, it
becomes a lie."

Mary sat down and buried her face in her hands.

"What a terrible failure there's been here," said Michael. "The
neglect and destruction of a whole planet. It's like a family letting
their home decay all around them, and living in smaller and smaller
rooms of it, until at last the rooms are all gone, and since they
can't find another home, they all die in the ruins of the last room."

"I can't face dying," Mary said quietly, "squeezed in with all these
people, in this tomb they've made around the seas. I want to have the
open sky and the quiet away from those awful pounding pumps when I
die. I want the spread of the Earth all around and the cle