Clarion

PAUL FELT A BRIEF INSTANT OF VERTIGO WHEN

the scoutcraft broke out of the stream after the final skip. The bank of vidscreens above the control console flickered, and the screen in the center cleared with a view of a brownish-green planet.

In the pilot's chair beside him, Selmer Ogram gave the drive system a final command and leaned back to look at the screen. "Home at last!" He looked over his shoulder at Dorland Avery in the rear passenger compartment. "Look familiar?" Dorland offered no response. He was hunched in one corner of the wide seat, staring up at the vidscreen. His face was expressionless. He had been immersed in his own thoughts during the entire trip.

Ogram turned back to the console. "Well, it looks good to me."

Paul had fervently hoped they would never see Selmer Ogram again after his departure through the window of Dorland's dressing room. But

Ogram had returned to the auditorium for the 51

§2 William Greenleaf

evening show just as Dorland had predicted. Fresh clothing and a shaved face had changed his appearance enough to get him past the guardsmen at the door, but Jeffrey Hanes had found him easily in the balcony.

Ogram hadn't seemed at all surprised by

Borland's change of heart. He wasn't happy at the prospect of taking an extra passenger, but Paul made himself a nuisance until Ogram gave in. Paul had wanted Jeffrey Hanes to come, too, but Ogram stood his ground in refusing that request.

In real distance. Clarion was less than a hundred light-years from the planet Fynnland, but the trip had taken a long and tiring six hours. For obvious reasons, Ogram couldn't file the skip sequence with NavSec, and had been forced to use mass-plus planets and stellar objects for skip points instead of the UNSA sector stations that would have provided a shorter route.

Which meant that Paul had had a full six hours to wonder what awaited him and Dorland on Clarion. We need your help. The situation at home has gone from bad to impossible. Sabastian wants you to come back.

That had been Ogram's message to Dorland in Dorland's dressing room—that and a few vague statements about the Holy Order and a man named High Elder Brill and something called the Sons of God. Paul had questioned him during the trip, but Ogram had refused to elaborate.

"You'll find out when we get there," he had said. But he had freely given Paul information about the planet itself, and it was clear that Erich Frakes was right about at least one thing: Clarion was a ninety-nine. That was UNSA jargon for a planet that had the atmosphere and water and other ingredients necessary to support human life without artificial—and expensive—help. According to Ogram, the climate was mild in the area where the