Just by being so different from the creature you were studying you started out at a sufficiently great angle, it seemed to him, to be able to make that penetration and get inside their minds. With somebody who was ninety-nine per cent the same as you, you were too close sometimes. You couldn’t draw far enough away from them to come in at a steep enough angle; you just slid off, every time in a succession of glancing contacts. No getting through. Frustration upon frustration.

Then a post had come up on a world called Telaturier. A long-term situation, spending anything up to five years with an aquatic species called the ’Ktik which the Culture wanted to help develop. It was the sort of non-ship-based Contact post people were often offered at the end of their career; Dajeil was regarded as a natural for it. It would mean one, maybe two people staying on the planet, otherwise alone save for the ’Ktik, for all that time. There would be the occasional visit from others, but little time off and no extended holidays; the whole point was to establish a long-term personal relationship with ’Ktik individuals. It wasn’t something to be entered into lightly; it would mean commitment. Dajeil asked to be considered for the post and was accepted.

Byr couldn’t believe Dajeil was leaving the Recent Convert. He told her she was doing it to annoy him. She told him he was being ridiculous. And unbelievably self-centred. She was doing it because it was an important job and it was something she felt she’d be good at. It was also something she was ready for now; she had done her bit scudding round the galaxy in GCUs and enjoyed every moment, but now she had changed and it was time to take on something more long-term. She would miss him, and she hoped he would miss her - though he certainly wouldn’t miss her for as long as he claimed he would, or even as long as he thought he would - but it was time to move on, time to do something different. She was sorry she hadn’t been able to stick around longer, being his still point, but that was just the way it was, and this was too great an opportunity to miss.

Later, he could never remember exactly when he’d made the decision to go with her, but he did. Perhaps he had started to believe some of the things she’d been telling him, but he too just felt that it was time to do something different, even if he had only been in Contact for a short while.