He tried to listen with his mind-and stopped almost before he began. There was a constant press of thought about him that he was made aware of when he reached out. It was like being in a vessel far beneath the ocean, with your hand on the door that held back the frightening pressure. Touching the door, without opening it, you could feel the stresses, the power pushing in and waiting to crush you. It was this way with the psi pressure in the city. The unvoiced hate-filled screams of Pyrrus would instantly destroy any mind that received them. Some function of his brain acted as a psi circuit breaker, shutting off awareness before his mind could be blasted. There was just enough leak through to keep him aware of the pressure-and supply the raw materials for his constant nightmares.

There was only one fringe benefit. The lack of thought pressure made it easier for him to concentrate. In spite of his fatigue, the diagram developed swiftly.

Meta arrived late that afternoon, bringing the parts he had ordered. She slid the long box onto the workbench, started to speak, but changed her mind and said nothing. Jason looked up at her and smiled.

“Confused?” he asked.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said. “I’m not confused. Just annoyed. The regular trip has been canceled and our supply schedules been thrown off for months to come. And instead of piloting or perimeter assignment all I am allowed to do is stand around and wait for you. Then take some silly flight following your directions. Do you wonder that I’m annoyed?”

Jason carefully set the parts out on the chassis before he spoke. ” I said, you’re confused. I can point out how you’re confused-which will make you even more confused. A temptation that I frankly find hard to resist.”

She looked across the bench at him, frowning, one finger unconsciously curling and uncurling a short lock of hair. Jason liked her that way. As a Pyrran operating at full blast, she had as much personality as a gear in a machine. Once out of that pattern she reminded him most of the girl he had known on that first flight to Pyrrus. He wondered it was possible to really get across to her what he meant.

“I’m not being insulting when I say ‘confused,’ Meta. With your background you couldn’t be any other way. You have an insular personality. Admittedly, Pyrrus is an unusual island with a lot of high power problems that you are an expert at solving. That doesn’t make any less of an island. When you face a cosmopolitan problem, you confused. Or even worse, when your island problems are put into bigger context. That’s like playing your own game, only having the rules change constantly as you go along.”