"You brought me here without losing the way. Then, from a hundred feet away you saw that this rocket tender had settled two feet into mud. All this in absolute darkness. That must mean that you have night sight—like the natives, a sure sign of abnormality. Besides that, you have consistently avoided me in daylight. Meaning that I must not get a glimpse of you, even though you were able to see me quite well. You were the reason for Sealilly's hostility. He wanted to get rid of me before I found out about you. Joseph, the normal child, was used as a decoy to mislead me. But Joseph's sister was a mutant."
She fell to the deck, sobbing, as he throttled full power for the blast-off.
Wellesley left Ophir a small, grey-green globe in the vastness of black space and set an automatic course for the mother ship, where he intended to submit a detailed report by radio to Regional Headquarters on Rigel Twelve.
So far as he was concerned, the case was closed, once they were aboard the patrol ship, but it was three weeks to the vicinity of Rigel, and in that time a curious sequel had developed.
The girl (her name turned out to be Laura) had stopped crying, and had begun to take an interest in life once more. In fact, he sensed that she was studying him a great deal of late.
They were standing before the viewport, she looking at the great angry mass of Rigel, magnified in the glass, but actually still two days ahead, he listening to every sound aboard the huge ship as he had learned to listen since the darkness closed in on Ophir.
She spoke. "How will it be on Rigel Twelve? Will I ever see you again?"
"Will you care?" he said.
"Perhaps I ought to hate you, but it is only because you are blind that you can not understand. On Ophir I was not happy, but at least it was home. Out there they may laugh at me. It is exciting and wonderful, but terrifying."