Something about the dream itself made him determined to get some definite answers. He got up and went barefoot, looking for Window. He was also ravenous, so he went to the eating hall first. (He kept wanting to call it an eating nodule.) Window was there, and Proteus sat down beside him.

“You’re gaining weight,” Window said. “It must be our sun and food.”

Proteus grinned. “My stomach’s finally getting used to the bulk, instead of synthetics. Window, where did your people learn to grow all this food? Any of it?”

“It’s given,” Window said, with a half-smile.

“Given?”

“It’s already here. The Earth produces it. We harvest it and plant the seeds that the Earth gives; and cultivate the soil—”

“What about the rest of the planet?”

“It’s in pretty poor shape. It’s been stripped, but it’s recovering, now that most of the people are gone. Even the animals are coming back. There’s no question, though, that this particular area is amazingly productive.” Window spoke slowly, and Proteus thought that he was holding something back. He was tempted to pursue the subject further, but there were too many other questions on his mind.

“Why don’t the Floaters know about this dig?” Proteus asked. “They know about the first one.”

Window stood up. “We don’t know,” he said. “You tell me.”

“You don’t know? You’re joking, aren’t you? With all of your knowledge, you don’t know?”

“You can’t even get in here except for the way we took you in, through the pyramid,” Window said. “We suspect there may be other secret entrances but we haven’t found any. No animals come in either, unless we bring them. Of course, the cliffs make a natural barrier, and there aren’t that many animals yet, still—” He lowered his voice, almost in embarrassment. “A few times we saw planes go over. We thought for sure we’d been discovered, but nothing happened. The truth is that this place should be easy enough to spot from the air, yet it escapes the observation cameras that are aimed constantly at the Earth from the floating city. And we don’t know why.”

“Maybe the Floaters do know, but aren’t letting on,” Proteus said.

Window shook his head. “We’re sure they don’t.”

“Well, maybe you can’t answer my next question either, then. I never thought of that. But your abilities seem shared to some extent by all of the people here. Where did they come from?”