"Have you told Father yet? He could arrange for Healer—"
"No!" he shouted. "I don't want him to know. He'd only begin lecture on his shame, his gray hairs, how all pain comes from unruly mind, why don't I put myself in tune with group—old familiar story. But I know this is something different."
"But Pehn! You know yourself, surely, that since you've got into Atomics Institute, you have changed. You aren't perfectly adjusted, any more. You worry about things."
He touched his swollen face and smiled at her placatingly.
"Don't worry, Soma, or you'll get lines in your forehead, and Father could never bear shame of having two maladjusted children in family. I'm stronger than you think. Last year when I passed Fire Test, I stood flames longer than any of boys in my class, longer even than Nautunal. But this is different. Trouble with Zenob is that we don't have any biology or any real medicine."
"Pehn! How can you say such things? Your best friend is Healer."
"You know I haven't anything against Healers. But only ailments they can cure are those that originate in mind, and they can't really do anything for purely physical ailments. Bidagha has admitted as much to me. He wants to change all that—he thinks time is ripe."
"But Pehn, our Healers can foresee future. You know that Ainta Penab proved that, five centuries ago."
"Ainta was worst disaster that ever befell Zenob," shouted Pehn. He put out his hand to restrain his sister, who was attempting to struggle to her feet in horror.
"Oh, Soma, I guess I'm just heretic. But listen to me. Sure Ainta Penab proved conclusively that such phenomena as telepathy and precognition are real. And what was result? Members of Cult used it as argument and launched campaign to stop scientific research completely. They nearly succeeded, too. Medical research has never been resumed on any large scale, and chemistry and physics only in last century."