true name. We evoked you by the name of Dave Hanson. You _are_ Dave
Hanson, therefore."

"Don't try to deceive us," Nema suggested. Her voice was troubled. "Pray
rather that we never have reason to doubt you. Otherwise the wisest of
the Satheri would spend their remaining time in planning something
unthinkable for you."

Ser Perth nodded vigorous assent. Then he motioned to the office. "Nema
will show you to your quarters later. Use this until you leave. I have
to report back."

Dave stared after him until he was gone, and then around at the office.
He went to the window and stared upwards at the crazy patchwork of the
sky. For all he knew, in such a sky there might be cracks. In fact, as
he looked, he could make out a rift, and beyond that a ... hole ... a
small patch where there was no color, and yet the sky there was not
black. There were no stars there, though points of light were clustered
around the edges, apparently retreating.

All he had to do was to repair the sky. Shades of Chicken Little!

Maybe to David Arnold Hanson, the famed engineer, no task was
impossible. But quite a few things were impossible to that engineer's
obscure and unimportant nephew, the computer technician and generally
undistinguished man who had been christened Dave. They'd gotten the
right man for the name, all right. But the wrong man for the job.

Dave Hanson could repair anything that contained electrical circuits or
ran on tiny jeweled bearings, but he could handle almost nothing else.
It wasn't stupidity or incapacity to learn, but simply that he had never
been subjected to the discipline of construction engineering. Even on
the project, while working with his uncle, he had seen little of what
went on, and hadn't really understood that, except when it produced data
that he could feed into his computer. He couldn't drive a nail in the
wall to hang a picture or patch a hole in the plaster.

But it seemed that he'd better put on a good show of trying if he wanted
to continue enjoying good health.

"I suppose you've got a sample of the sky that's fallen?" he asked Nema.
"And what the heck are you doing here, anyhow? I thought you were a
nurse."

She frowned at him, but went to a corner where a small ball of some
clear crystalline substance stood. She muttered into it, while a surly
face stared out. Then she turned back to him, nodding. "They are sending
some of the sky to you. As to my being a nurse, of course I am. All
stude