"Look!"
"Yeah, it's a great show. But—hell! It couldn't be a—"
The scintillating point of light which lie dead ahead, in the exact center of the gateway and at its extreme end, could not, Cragin realized, be a planet. Unless it were a perfectly polished reflector, it could not show so much like the miniature stars at either side.
It was a star, itself.
"It must be just illusion," he said evenly. "It's got to be."
"Oh no," Lin Griffin said. "Of course they live in the center of a star! They rule all, don't they? They're the great masters of all creation, aren't they? Certainly you don't think your great masters would live on anything so simple as a mere planet! But of course they live where the temperature is only several billion degrees—"
She began laughing and Cragin slapped her across the face.
"Cut it, kid, CUT IT!"
There were tears coming from her eyes and her face remained in the twisted contortions of hysteria even after her voice had become soundless.
She pulled away, and Cragin left her to herself. In a little while she began to cry and he could hear her sobbing above the even hum of the telescreen, but he left her alone.