“Wonderful. Relaxed and free. And I slept - oh, how I slept. Without a single dream.”

“I know.”

“How could you possibly ... ?” Ruth stopped and blushed at her rudeness.

The Initiator laughed and motioned her to sit beside her on the couch. “It was easy. No more slammed doors. No more broken glass.”

That really was me? I did that with my mind?”

“You certainly did. Oh, don't worry about it. You're not to blame. We should have diagnosed you far sooner.”

“Diagnosed? Do you mean I'm sick or something?”

“Far from it. Ruth, do you know what psychokinesis is?”

“I think so. Isn't it the movement of physical objects by the use of the mind alone?”

“That's right. And we have finally realised that you are a powerful, though completely uncontrolled, psychokinetic. You're only the second PK to turn up in a generation, which is why we didn't catch you sooner.”

“Well, thank goodness the Black Hole cured mc. I feel wonderful - as light as air. But it's funny . I thought . . .” She stopped.

“What's the problem?”

“I thought the Black Hole was supposed to be a terrible punishment.”

The Initiator laughed. “The things that neophytes dream up! Did you think you'd come out stark mad or with your hair turned white? I remember those stories going around when I was in Grade Eight. But of course we had no intention of punishing you. Only of making sure of our diagnosis. Ruth, do you know what insulation is?”

“A non-conductor. Something that stops the passage of heat or electricity.”

“That and more. It is also used to dampen out sound waves- or in this case psychic noise. The Black Hole is nothing more than a room designed to insulate out the psychic emanations of the Ark and vice versa.”

Ruth tried to look intelligent. The Initiator laughed. “Suppose there was a noisy party going on and you wanted to go to sleep, it wouldn't be a problem if you had a sound- proofed sleeping cubicle, would it?”

“Oh, I do see. The psychic noise of everyone in the Ark was bothering me so much that I couldn't sleep properly and that's why I had all those crazy dreams and got irritable and ... and so on. “

“Well, it's a little more complicated than that, but more or less.”

“I don't understand why the Web doesn't bother anyone else?”

“That's a bit harder to explain. Imagine a group of musicians playing together. If their instruments are tuned to each other and they play well you will get a harmonious sound. But if there is an instrument that's made differently, that cannot be precisely tuned to the others, then you get discord.”

“That's exactly the way I felt when the girls were talking about me spoiling everything. I thought what a shame it was for me to ruin the sound of the whole orchestra. That's why I ran away. You should have let me go, Initiator.”