"We can correct that in a few hours."

"I don't feel. . . finished. Why is that?"

"You have to mature. Your reconstruction is still finding its pathways. You don't have your own body. You're occupying a medical worker."

Again the expletive, even stronger. "I am behind the times. Only a mental midget could have fit into the most advanced worker. . .” The image tilted its head forward, regarding Olmy from beneath its brows, eyes questioning. "I was damaged, wasn't I?"

"Yes," Olmy said.

"What's missing?"

"The Mystery. We had to work from partials only."

"Whose Mystery replaced it?"

Olmy pointed to Patricia.

"Thank you," Korzenowski said after a moment of thoughtful silence.

"You're welcome," Patricia said lamely.

"You look familiar. . . I've seen you before."

"This is Patricia Luisa Vasquez," Olmy said.

Korzenowski's expression was at first incredulous. The image extended its hand to Patricia. Patricia grabbed the hand, no longer surprised by the solidity and warmth of projections. "

"The Patricia Luisa Vasquez?"

"One and only," Patricia replied.

Korzenowski's image leaned its head back, grimacing. "I have an awful lot to catch up on." He released her hand, apologizing under his breath. He took Lanier's outstretched hand and shook it more briefly, his grip firm but not insistent.

Lanier was more than a little awed to meet the man who had designed the corridor. "I have a small. . . I don't know what it is, statue, hologram, whatever, of you. Back in my desk. You've been a puzzle to me for years. . . .” he realized he was babbling. "We're from Earth," he concluded abruptly.

Korzenowski's face was unreadable. "Where are we?" he asked.

"In the Way, at one point three ex nine," Olmy replied.

"Where is the Thistledown?"

"In orbit around the Earth and Moon."

"What year?"

"2005," Patricia said.

"That's Journey year?" Korzenowski asked hopefully.

"Anno Domini," Olmy said.

The Engineer suddenly looked very tired. "How long before you can educate me?"

"We can start now, even before your personality is mature. Is that what you wish?"

"I think we'd better, don't you?" Turning to Patricia again, he said, "You're very young. How much work have you done. . . how many of your papers?"

"None of my most important ones," she replied.

"This is not something I anticipated. . . . It is not an obvious result of our work. I mean to say, how could I have missed it? And you must tell me how you got here. . . and why you?"

Even before Olmy could arrange for the update of information, Patricia and the Engineer were deeper in discussion.

Within four hours, the researchers, representing seven of the species that utilized the corridor, had gathered around the scaffold. Each of these species had demonstrated its usefulness to the human patrons, though by no means their subservience; they were full partners in the venture of the Way, and they came in a wide variety of forms—though not necessarily much wider a variety than the neomorphs of the Axis City, Lanier thought.