handling the monumental task of building and running the Mnro Clinics. He let the simple explanation satisfy him, so that he could manage the emotional confrontation.
"I want to accompany you onto the Eclipse!" he declared. "I feel I must!"
"Dear, dear R.K.! You've always been the sweetest person, the most patient, and undoubtedly the most vital to my sanity. I thought I was rewarding your service and your friendship by inviting you on this... this mission. I thought you deserved a share of my adventure and would benefit from meeting the high and mighty lord Admiral Etrhnk. But the closer we approach that meeting, the more frightened and worried I become! I had decided for you and I to make this trip by shuttle, just to use the privacy to dissuade both of us, or one of us, from going aboard the Eclipse. Things were happening too fast to plan or even think!"
How identical could a twin sister be? Ramadhal wondered. How can she speak as if she knew me for all these years? All Ramadhal could dare ask was: "Why is this happening?"
"I have secrets, R.K."
"That was obvious to me! From the moment you told me about Pan. I've wondered about your relationship to him ever since Sugai Mai asked me about it more than thirty years ago."
"You've met him, haven't you?" she asked.
"Yes. We've been friends for many years, mainly because I wanted to know why he was important to you. He never gave me a reason. I don't believe he knows why. That's another reason I felt I needed to accompany you: he's my friend, too, you know."
"I wish you wouldn't follow me!" But Mnro said it in a way that seemed to allow for the opposite meaning.
"I'm already a scheduled guest of the Navy Commander," he stated.
This impossible copy of Doctor Mnro sat across from Ramadhal and stared at him the way the real Mnro could see through him. Temporarily released from the stress of the moment, she could make all the facial expressions that were perfect facsimiles of those of the real Mnro. The real Mnro? He then realized that this woman actually felt more real to him. Her excited presence and her mystery threw his decades of memory of Doctor Mnro into comparative paleness.
Mnro studied Ramadhal's expression and seemed to arrive at a decision. She spoke wistfully. "Pan is the son of my husband."
Son? Husband? He could not have been more surprised. How could she keep such a secret for so long?
"How could I keep such a secret?" she asked, obviously reading his astonished reaction as well as the real Mnro could. Just as keenly she anticipated his next emotional reaction. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you before now, but it was for the sake of security, mine and his, and yours."
"Your husband." The words tasted slightly bitter to Ramadhal. He realized he had always felt Doctor Mnro belonged to him, in some collegial way, that he loved her as a friend, and that he could imagine her as more than a friend, and now she was lost to him as the wife of someone else. How much did his eyes betray him, as she gazed at him in such concern?
"Who is he?" Ramadhal asked. It was the kind of question he would never have dared ask, until now.
Mnro leaned back in her seat and turned away to watch the dark limb of the moon uncover a sprinkle of glinting space countries. "I don't know," she finally replied sadly.
Her answer disturbed Ramadhal almost as much as did knowing she had a husband. The averting of her eyes allowed him to selfishly enjoy her youthful features and to try to believe she was the same person he knew as Aylis Mnro. Yet, she was not.
"How could you not know who he is?" Ramadhal finally dared to ask.
"I only remember that I had a husband." She sounded frustrated. "I remember that I loved him so... so imperfectly! I remember that he's lost, somewhere far away. I remember these few ideas with an intensity that's unbearable! This is a new thing for me, this remembering. Oh, God, and I remember my son! My real son!"
She was frozen in troubled thought for several moments. Ramadhal dared not disturb her.
A soft yet startling chime signaled arrival at the Eclipse. The door of the automated spacecraft opened. Doctor Mnro stood up and took a deep breath. Ramadhal stood up with her. She stepped toward the door and he followed her. She stopped and turned to face him.
"Please!" she implored him. She placed a hand on his shoulder and gently pressed. He shook his head in refusal. He removed her hand from his shoulder, clasped it in both of his, and gave it back to her. She quickly leaned forward and kissed him. "From now on I'm kissing everyone I love, because I may never get another chance!"
Ramadhal was proud he never considered obeying Mnro's wish for him to stay on the shuttle. He was deeply pleasured with the affection she bestowed on him. He had infinite courage - at least for the moment - to follow his friend - his new friend - as far as he could.
They stepped onto red carpet and two dozen Marines in dress uniform snapped to attention. A bosun piped them aboard the Navy flagship Eclipse. They walked between the opposing ranks of the brightly-uniformed Marines and up to the tall, black-uniformed, Navy Commander Admiral Etrhnk, a mass of diamond stars of rank twinkling on the high collar around his neck. Doctor Mnro continued past him, forcing him to hurry and fall in step with her. Ramadhal trailed behind them.
"Where is he?" she demanded with false bravado, heading across the debarkation bay toward a personnel exit.
"I could guess at the identity of this person," Etrhnk said without apparent concern, "but I'll ask anyway. Who?"
"My younger son, Admiral. You know him as Pan. The Opera Master of Earth."
"I wasn't aware you had any children, Doctor Mnro." The Navy Commander, seemingly unbothered by Mnro's odd behavior and unexpected information, indicated the direction they should walk as they entered an intraship transport terminal. A tube car awaited them.
"I'm not his biological mother," Mnro said. "I think his mother is dead and his father disappeared long ago. I'm all he has left."
"You knew his parents?"
Ramadhal felt invisible as they seated themselves for a journey through the ship. He preferred it, so that he could listen intently to Doctor Mnro and wonder about what he heard.
"I didn't know his mother," Mnro said. "I was his father's first wife. How do you do, Admiral Etrhnk? I'm sorry to be such an ill-mannered guest."
She extended a pale, delicate hand, which he took carefully in his large, dark hand.
"Perhaps understandable," the tall Essiin admiral said. "And this would be Doctor R. K. Ramadhal. Honored to meet you, sir. I expected many more in the entourage."
Ramadhal was immediately fascinated with the composition of Admiral Etrhnk. He was quite a rare Essiin specimen of genetic modification. When the light was just right he could see faint patterns in his face, possibly fluorescent in different lighting.
"I thought about dressing up some of my gardeners," Mnro said, "and having them tour your famous arboretum. You have a small version of it on your flagship? But most of them double as security guards, and I didn't want them becoming too stressed."
"Yes, a quiet place to myself," Etrhnk said. "Why would your gardeners become stressed?"
"They're quite attuned to my moods and body language. As you must have detected, I'm not very calm. You could even say I'm terrified."
"You have no need to be. And your son - Pan - is in no danger and hasn't been harmed. Please know that you're perfectly safe in my company. It disturbs me that you could possibly feel otherwise. Is there something I don't understand?"
"No, I think you understand more than I do," Mnro said. "It's ignorance that makes me nervous. I've come charging into your ship to rescue Pan without the slightest notion of how to do it. Other than being the famous Aylis Mnro, what leverage do I have?"
"You should put aside your mistaken notion that you must in some manner battle me for the freedom of your son. He's a very interesting person, but I can't hold him for being a mystery."
"But you can hold him for some other reason?"
"He seems to have a falsified genetic identity. Would the Mnro Clinic know why his record is incorrect?"
Ramadhal watched Mnro turn inward at the question and seem to lose contact with them. Etrhnk watched her also, but otherwise did not react to her strange behavior. She soon returned to normal and responded to the question.
"He was a refugee from the Rhyan Empire and was granted special protection."
"Can you prove this?" Etrhnk asked.
"Not easily. I'll make a sworn statement. I think my word should be worth something."
The intraship conveyance came to a stop and Etrhnk led Mnro and Ramadhal into his suite of offices. They entered a very plain white meeting room containing only a few chairs and a dark wooden table. One wall showed a view of the moon and the lights of cities on its night side. The Navy Commander allowed Mnro and Ramadhal to choose places to sit and a few moments to bring their attentions back to him.
"Your manner of dealing with me isn't what I expected," Etrhnk commented, which Ramadhal supposed revealed something of how Mnro may have disturbed him.
"What did you expect?" Mnro asked.
"That you have the confidence of being the most famous person alive, that you have the logic of the great scientist you are."
"I'm just a mother trying to help her son! I've never been able to apply logic to my personal affairs."
"Beware Earthians who deny use of logic." Etrhnk said it as though quoting an Essiin adage. "Let us talk and perhaps a solution will present itself. Or would you first rather have the visitor's tour of the ship?"
"I've seen a few Navy ships in my
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