"Whenever scientists say they're Christian," Sax said, "I take it to be an aesthetic statement."

"The church of the wouldn't-it-be-pretty-to-think-so," Frank said, still looking into his cup.

Sax said, "They feel we're missing a spiritual dimension of life that earlier generations had, and they attempt to regain it using the same means." He blinked in his owlish way, as if the problem were disposed of by being defined.

"But that brings in so many absurdities!" John exclaimed.

"You just don't have faith," Frank said, egging him on.

John ignored him. "People who in the lab are as hard-headed as can be-you should see Phyllis grilling the conclusions her colleagues draw from their data! And then suddenly they start using all kinds of debater's tricks, evasions, qualifications, fuzzy thinking of every kind. As if they were an entirely different person."

"You just don't have faith!" Frank repeated.

"Well I hope I never get it! It's like being hit by a hammer in the head!"

John stood and took his tray to the kitchen. The rest looked at each other in silence. It must have been, Maya thought, a really bad confirmation class. Clearly none of the others had known any more than her about this side of their easy-going hero. Who knew what they would learn next, about him or any of them?

News of the argument between John and Phyllis spread through the crew. Maya wasn't sure who was telling the story; neither John nor Phyllis seemed inclined to speak of it. Then she saw Frank with Hiroko, laughing as he told her something. Walking by them she heard Hiroko say, "You've got to admit Phyllis is right about that part-we don't understand the why of things at all."

Frank, then. Sowing discord between Phyllis and John. And (not a trivial point) Christianity was still a major force in America, and elsewhere. If word got around back home that John Boone was anti-Christian, it could give him problems. And that wouldn't be such a bad thing for Frank. Maya understood that; what she didn't understand, at first, was why Frank thought that anyone's opinion back home mattered to them anymore. It was only after long reflection that she came to see that he was right. They were all getting media play on Earth, but if you watched some of the news and features, it became clear that some were getting more than others, and this made them seem more powerful, and so they became more powerful in fact, by association. Among this group were Vlad and Ursula (whom she suspected were more than friends, now), Frank, Sax-all people who had been well known before their selection-and none so much as John. So that any diminution in Earth's regard for one of them, might have a kind of corresponding effect on their status within the Ares. This at any rate seemed to be Frank's operating principle.

# # #

It felt as if they were confined to the interior of a hotel with no exits, without even any balconies. The oppression of hotel life was growing; they had been inside now for four long months, but it was still less than half their trip. And none of their carefully designed physical surroundings or daily routines could hasten its end.