«Everybody?»

«Well, too many of us, anyway.»

«Why?»

«There's a lot of reasons. But mainly because Govcentral is forcing different kinds of people to live next to each other. They do it because they think it's fair, that people should be treated equally. Which they should be, I'm not complaining about that. The problem is, the immigrants aren't used to other cultures.»

«But they all get on together on Earth.»

«They get on together in different arcologies; they might be on the same planet, but they're all segregated. And the people who come here to Nyvan, especially now, are the poor ones. They don't have much education so they're very set in their ways, very stubborn, and not very tolerant.»

«What do you mean, now? Haven't poor people always come here? I remember Father telling me Grandpa didn't have any money when he arrived.»

«That's true, but Grandpa wanted to come. He was a pioneer who wanted to build a fresh world for himself. Most of the people of that time were. That's changed now.» She pointed up at the night sky. «See those stars up there? Their planets aren't like Nyvan. The new colony worlds have ethnic streaming policies; they're all sponsored by different Govcentral states, so the only people you get emigrating to them are the ones from the same arcology. As they're all the same to start with, they don't quarrel so much.»

«Then why are people still coming here?»

«Because Earth is so overcrowded, and we're close to it, only seventeen light-years away. That makes travelling here one of the cheapest starflights possible. So Govcentral sends us all the people who can't afford to pay the passage to another planet, all the unemployed and petty criminals, people who never really wanted to come here in the first place.»

«Can't we stop them from doing that?» he asked indignantly. «This is our planet. Won't Govcentral wreck it?»

«We can't stop Earth dumping people on us because Govcentral is our government, too. Although a lot of people think it shouldn't be. That's another big part of the problem. Nobody here can agree on anything any more.»

«Can't we go to an ethnic streaming world? A Nyvan-ethnic one, like it was before?»

Amanda was glad of the night, it meant her son couldn't see the tears forming in her eyes. That one innocent child's question reducing her every accomplishment to nothing. Three generations of labour, sacrifice, and pride had bequeathed him this farm. And for what? She couldn't even call it an island of sanctuary from the madness which raged all around. Today had extinguished that illusion.

«There aren't any Nyvan-ethnic worlds, Guy,» she said slowly. «Only us. We're just going to have to stay and make the best of it.»

«Oh. All right.» He studied the gleaming constellations. «Which one is Earth?»

«I don't know. I never thought it was very important to find out.» She gave the darkened hills one last look. There was no sign of the pick-up van returning. The bleak depression inside her was threatening to become outright despair. Not even Blake would be so stupid as to go with Fakhud, surely? Though the alternative was even worse, that Sergeant Derry had caught them.