eciation for
your proposed visit to the Markovian Nucleus for study of our history
and customs. We have not been before so honored. We feel, however, that
it is an imposition on your Foundation and on you personally to require
that you make the long journey to the Nucleus for this purpose alone.
While we would be honored to entertain you--"

It was the same proposition as Ebbing had reported the delegate offered.
Only this time it was from the head of the Markovian government himself.

They sat up nearly all the rest of the night considering this new
development. "Maybe you shouldn't go, after all," said Joyce once.
"Maybe this is something that needs bigger handling than we can possibly
give it."

Cameron shook his head. "_I've_ got to go. They haven't closed the door
and said we can't come. If I backed out before they did, I'd be known
the rest of my life as the guy who was _going_ to crack the Markovian
problem. But I'd much rather you--"

"No! If you're going, so am I."

* * * * *

They consulted again with Fothergill and finally drafted as polite a
reply as possible, explaining they were newly married, desired to make
the trip a honeymoon excursion primarily and conduct an investigation
into Markovian culture to prevent the waste of the wonderful opportunity
their visit would afford them.

An hour before takeoff a polite acknowledgment came back from the
Nucleus assuring them a warm welcome and congratulating them on their
marriage. They went at once to the spaceport and took over their
stateroom. "Before anything else happens to try to pull us off this
investigation," Cameron said.

The trip would be a long one, involving more than two months subjective
time, because no express runs moved any distance at all in the direction
of the Nucleus. It was necessary to transfer three times, with days of
waiting between ships on planets whose surface conditions permitted
exploration only in cumbersome suits that could not be worn for more
than short periods. Most of the waiting time was spent in the visitors'
chambers at the landing fields.

These seemed to grow progressively worse. The last one could not
maintain a gravity below 2G, and the minimum temperature available was
104 degrees. There was a three-day wait here and Joyce spent most of it
lying on the bed, under the breeze of a fan which seemed to have
required a special dispensation of the governing body to obtain.

[Illus