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Adam grew impatient. The ship seemed to be motionless, suspended in space. Vega sensed his impatience at once, and knew that her mention of Launie was in part the cause of it. In that moment she lost her sentimental attachment to Adam. Adam looked toward Vega, and with a note of apology pleaded, “Vega, to be honest with you, I feel myself already in love with her, although I do not even know what she looks like. Never before have I felt this way. Who is Launie? Where is she? I feel that Ihave so much to say and to ask, but to say and ask only of Launie. Suddenly I feel no repressions, no inhibitions, and you now seem to me like a distant goddess. But Launie—she beckons and nothing matters except finding her. Tell me, is she a spirit or is she flesh-and-blood? Can my hands touch her, or does she just fade away from my reach like a mirage? Yes, I know my thinking and feelings are conditioned by the nectar you gave me, but nevertheless it is my best self speaking. “I love you Vega, and I love all your people. Yet I know it is Launie through whom all my feelings, my new lessons, and my new awarenesses shall be expressed. So I open my heart, and pray T 1 a» I may be worthy.” Then Adam became more practical. He suddenly realized he was going somewhere, somewhere into Vega’s promised “world.” It would be best to ask questions that would prepare him for entry into it. So his conversation became more academic. “Are the peers greater in number than the lesser ones in your society?” he asked. “Yes, many times greater. On our planet, which is no larger than your earth, the peers number twenty billion. We, the unattained ones, number not quite five hundred million. So there are forty peers to every one of us, the retarded ones. Yet a dozen peers would be sufficient to control all the activities of the five hundred million retarded ones. We not only obey them; we honor and love them. You will learn why very shortly.” Adam knew instinctively that he was not being taken to 65 VEGA ALERTS ADAM