"You have nothing then. Don't you realize it is nothing?" He rose and walked to the nook where her recreation machine sat on a shelf. Grasping it with both hands, he wrenched it from the wall and let it fall to the floor, smashed. She stared at it dumbly.
"See! There is your Leader—a smashed machine!" Sten shouted. He moved to her side and leaned close to her. "Kathryn, you're a woman. You're not stone! Don't you feel anything at all?" Her neck turned slowly red as he pulled her toward him.
"No, I feel nothing," she said woodenly. "Is this supposed to be something special, the touch of a man?"
"It can be." He put his face into her hair. Slowly he pulled her head back and looked into her eyes, then he kissed her, hard.
She fought free of him and began pacing back and forth. "I don't know. I don't know. Perhaps you are right, but I don't know if I can do it."
"Here, what's this?" Johnathon entered smiling. "Has there been a change of heart? Good. Then we can leave. Franz here tells me he found the lady he went looking for too."
Kathryn looked again at the dream machine lying on the floor, then at Sten. She seemed to gather up strength for a brief moment. "I'll go," she whispered.
"I'm glad," Sten said. "We can leave right away then. What about your girl, Franz?"
"She is waiting for me," Franz smiled. "I made sure of that. But it is a long way. Give me an hour. Better yet, I'll meet you at the tunnel in an hour and a half."
Franz laid his hand on Sten's shoulder and spoke in a low voice. "If I'm not there in an hour and a half, go on. I'll catch you outside." He squeezed Sten's shoulder. "Be careful, my friend. And good luck."