Thet landed breathlessly and introduced herself and Rodi. "Come to my home," said Darby. "My family will be more than excited to meet you. And you can tell us all about your... integrality."

Rodi looked around for a transport. There was none.

Darby said nothing. He held out his hands. Like children, Rodi and Thet took hold.

Rodi saw Darby's coverall ripple, as if in a sudden breeze.

The museum, the flitter slid away.

Rodi looked down. He was flying, as if in a glass elevator. He felt no fear. Hand in hand they soared over the curves of the little world.

Darby's home was a tentlike, translucent structure; it was at the heart of a light-filled forest. The days were as long as Ark days, adhering to some ancient, common standard. Thet and Rodi spent four days with Darby's family.

Thet looked out of place in all this domesticity: squat, brusque, embarrassed by kindness. She let Rodi talk to the adults while she sat on the leaf-strewn ground telling Integrality parables to Darby's two children. Each child towered over Thet. Their earnestness made Rodi smile.

On the final day Darby took Rodi by the hand. "Come with me. I'd like to show you a little more of our world."

They flew soundlessly. Houseboats floated on circular oceans; clumps of dwellings grew by the banks of rivers. Everywhere people waved at them. "This is a peaceful place, you see, Rodi," Darby said. "There are only a few thousand of us."

"Yes. And this orderly world has risen from the debris of war... just as the Integrality teaches us to expect. As I've told you, the Integrality is a movement based on the inter-meshing of all things. Local reductions in entropy occur on all scales throughout the Universe, from the growth of a child to the convergence of a galaxy cluster. Order is to be celebrated..."

Irritation touched Darby's face briefly. He said nothing. Rodi fell silent, faintly embarrassed.

At a savannah's heart sat a simple dome. "This is a place we call Tranquility," said Darby. "What I'm going to show you is a kind of monument. On seeing this perhaps you'll understand why your sermons are a little out of place here."

They landed like leaves.

Rodi peered through the clear dome wall. Boulders littered a patch of bald earth. There was a craft, a spiderlike structure as tall as a man. Gold foil gleamed through years of dust. Its colors faded beyond recognition, a flag lay in the soil.

"Here is the original surface of the planet, preserved through the terraforming," said Darby. "Airless."

"The craft looks very old. What is it?"

"Human, of course. This is one of our first spacecraft. Do you know where you are yet?"

Rodi turned and met Darby's mild eyes.