It's over, Janice Wynn's voice said gently. Do you remember me now, Filrinn?
Janeen, he said. He stood up slowly.
Her green eyes stirred with an emotion that matched his own. It was incredible that he could ever have forgotten—no matter how thoroughly he had absorbed the protective conditioning—the unity between himself and Janeen.
I remember, he said. The wonder of it still dazed him. It's good to be myself again.
She sighed. It's good to know why they sent me, instead of one of the others, to bring you back. You remember that?
"I remember," he said aloud, as if he needed to say the words to make it true. "We were together before this assignment for two hundred of these people's years. We'll be together again for hundreds more, now that we're free to go—for when will we ever find another world that needs attention as this one needed it?"
He saw the Earthgirl then, curled limply on the cabin's sofa.
Her stillness left him alarmed, surprised and ashamed that he should so readily have forgotten an obligation.
Her dishevelment, and the heavy brass fireplace poker on the rug beside the couch, told him the story at once.