"What man, Miss? I don't know what you mean. I would like to speak with you about a sex matter that has troubled me since my mother went with Marcus. I don't mean I was having sex with her since the Arena, but I've been thinking about it." Sylvi is flustered by Cherl's reaction and has difficulty expressing her request. "I don't mean I was thinking about having sex with my mother. I mean I wanted to have sex, but when mother left, It began bothering me. I don't mean not having sex with my mother was bothering me because I wasn't having sex with my mother. I mean...Miss, I'm mixed up. May I start again?"
Cherl is confused, too, but nods her consent.
"Miss, when the other girls have sex, they sometimes pair off and leave me waiting. I feel like I'm not wanted, and I want to be wanted. I want someone to want me... Oh Miss, I don't mean you don't want me. I mean..." Sylvi still wasn't getting this right. She hoped that Cherl would forgive her for her lack of eloquence.
"May I start again, Miss? Well, I would like to have a partner, and... oh, I don't mean you, Miss. I mean I do want to have sex with you, Miss, but I want a sex partner. I don't mean you aren't a good sex partner. I just mean I want another partner. Oh, not instead of you..." Sylvi breaks into tears, grabs her chiton and runs from the room -- nude.
A few minutes later, she knocks at Cherl's door and when Cherl bids her enter, she walks in -- still nude -- and drops her chiton on the floor. She takes a deep breath and blurts out, "I would like to have my own girl. I mean I would like you to buy another girl for me...actually for you...but one I could use and have sex with without you. I don't mean instead of you. I mean to have sex with when you're gone. I don't mean that you're going away, but when you are busy, or...Miss, I don't know how to say it. I can come back later when you're not busy. I don't mean when you're not too busy to have sex with me." Sylvi resumes crying, picks up her chiton, and leaves again - - nude.
Cherl stifles the urge to laugh and runs to the door. "Sylvi, come back here. Let's talk about this." She notices that Sylvi has peed on the floor, but she doesn't say anything to the girl. She will clean it up after the talk with Sylvi; she points to the girl's wet legs and hands her a towel.
Before Sylvi can start crying again, Cherl puts her arm around her and tells her that getting a companion for her is a great idea, and that they should purchase one as soon as possible. Cherl is still having difficulty keeping a straight face.
When she hears that Cherl is sympathetic to her needs and will purchase a companion for her, Sylvi runs from the room to tell the other girls. A few seconds later, she knocks on Cherl's door again and asks if she can come in and get her chiton. She picks up the chiton and leaves, but almost immediately knocks on Cherl's door and tells Cherl that she had peed on the floor and asks if Cherl would permit her to use the towel that she wiped her legs with to wipe up the floor.
Cherl walks with the girl and spreads the towel over the wet spot. She tells Sylvi to run along but to put her chiton on correctly, as it is inside out and backwards. Sylvi grins, changes her chiton around and skips off. Cherl goes back into her bedroom, closes the door and bursts out laughing. She feels better after the laugh and because Sylvi didn't ask for her freedom to get married. She adores the beautiful child, this child who thinks she's an adult. How can she have been a woman one moment in the Arena and, then, act like a naive teenager the next?
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It has been nearly a year since Steev and Cherl arrived on Romana: Its initial stored energy has sustained the Exosphere, but extensive use has been draining that power. Steev is consumed with worry over the Exosphere. The power level keeps dropping, and when it reaches zero, the sphere will snap back to Earth. Steev has several things to worry about: How much Earth time has elapsed since he and Cherl were catapulted here? Is it just the time they have been here? Is it time reckoned by the speed the Exosphere traveled? Will the sphere land in the same place? Will it end up on the surface or possibly kilometers below the surface? If he and Cherl are in the sphere when it snaps back, will they be safe? If they are not in it when it snaps back, will they snap back anyway -- through space, through hyperspace, through a wormhole -- another -- dimension -- whatever? The computer output would take millennia to provide that information, and they have possibly only days -- weeks at the most - to make a decision to ride it back or stay here. Neither way can be predicted as safe.
He has been walking a tightrope erecting wind turbines for power to the Exosphere, but the energy level continues dropping, as he must use the replicator to produce new turbine kits. There is no way to balance the two and the power level needle continues to advance toward zero. Steev decides that he will stay here and take his chances that he won't be snapped back through space and killed.
Cherl is of another mind. She thinks they'll die if they stay where they are as this isn't their home world. Her scientific training tells her that they'll snap back along with the Exosphere -- inside it or outside it. She opts to be inside the sphere when it loses stasis and returns to Earth. She asks Steev to say her goodbyes to the household if he survives. Otherwise, they both will disappear without explanation.
Possibly, Marcus will notice the encasing hillock's collapse when the Exosphere departs, but he won't know the significance of that event. He may not connect the disappearance of Steev and Cherl with that of the strange cave he has been inside only once.
Both Steev and Cherl think about explaining to Claude what is about to happen, but finally decide against it. He may not believe it anyway.
When the needle reaches .02 percent, Cherl enters the sphere, straps herself into a command center plastex chair, and waits for whatever happens next. She and Steev have said goodbye, and he has taken a small briefcase with one of the computers in it. In his bedchamber he watches the computer screen as the energy needle reaches zero and breathes a sigh of relief for himself. He and the computer remain on Romana; he feels a pang of grief for Cherl and wonders what she'll find on Earth IF she reaches that planet. Possibly the planet no longer exists and the Exosphere will hurtle into outer space for eternity.
Steev immediately returns to the area he calls "Park Place," the hillock where the Exosphere was buried no longer exists. He is unable to fight his curiosity about the fate of the Exosphere. When he arrives at Park Place, there is just a forty-foot hole with some loose dirt and plant life at the bottom. The sphere had snapped back as he had figured. Cherl is gone.
"Steev, don't stand there. Get this dirt off me." Steev rushes to the side of the mound and finds Cherl partially buried under the rubble. He claws his way through the dirt until he frees her and brushes her off.
"What happened? Did the Exosphere expel you?" He is elated that she is still alive and here on Romana. He hugs her and kisses her dirty face. "I'm so glad to see you, Cherl. I thought you were gone forever."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm glad to see you, too, but get your hands off my ass and let me go. Find me something to wear. I decided to stay on Romana and take my chances; I couldn't bear the thought of being separated from Sylvi and the rest of you; I realized that I would rather be dead. When I left the sphere, the iris door closed on my chiton, and ripped it off; most likely the Exosphere took it back to Earth with it.
"I didn't move fast enough when the hill collapsed, and I was buried under the falling dirt. I have dirt in my eyes, in my mouth, and it feels like it's in my pussy. I've been digging my way out for the last ten minutes. If you hadn't come along and helped, I might have suffocated. Can you get me back to the house? I need a bath.
"It was weird, Steev. When the Exosphere disappeared, there was no sound or movement from it. One second it was here, and the next it wasn't. If I had hesitated one microsecond more, I'd be standing in the iris doorway right now, and I'd be experiencing whatever happens to a human body in hyperspace. Please, get me back to the house, ASAP."
