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into the sun at a thousand times the speed of a fast bullet, and were now being ejected by a force within the sun which ac- celerated the Little Dipper to the same dizzy velocity, much like a volcano spews out molten rock and metal. ad tn 1 1 1 a > Adam and Eve kept on looking into each other’s eyes, en- raptured with the awareness that each was the only living companion the other had in this ultimate of physical experiences. Then, at a velocity almost equal to that of a solar prominence, they were flung out into the coronal halo of Old Sol. Once more the Little Dipper was operating in the orientation of its own automatic controls, and the maelstrom of sound and fury around them died out like a flash storm in the summer. Conversation was again possible. As they looked searchingly at one another, Adam was the first to speak. «xr to. tad we n 1 “You knew what such a trip could be like, Eve, and you volunteered to go into it with me? Was it a form of madness, or your desire?” he asked. «r wrros 1 . ad toe reo. 1 “T would do it over and over again, Adam, if it served to teach or to unfold someone, but never just for the adventure of it,” Eve answered him. “I learned the vast distance between you Alpha Centaurians and myself in the scale of cosmic evolution, yet you have shown me that within myself is something that overtakes you as a woman. I could not have known what endurance I had except in o, re Pad ‘ ete oat ‘ + toad that ultimate test within the star, my sun. I ascended because you descended, yet it was not ascension or descension in their literal sense but a bringing out of the man and the woman. Thank you, Eve. Thanks a million times over.” “You have learned, Adam. But I am still a woman, and we are still in the fusing glow of your sun. My emotions, usually calm and oriented, are swirling. Let me ask you,” she said, seriously, “if you were given the choice to be with any of the women who have awakened you into that kind of love for the remainder of your life, which would you select? Remember, there is lovely Vega, devastating Launie, and me. Any one of us, to spend the rest of your living days with you.” there devastating “ c and is me. 198 SON OF THE SUN