She could make out stars, now, patterns of light interladen with drifts of nocturnal fog.
“Mrs. Morley,” a fussy male voice said.
She opened her eyes, fully awake. Fred Gossim, Tekel Upharsin Kibbutz’s top engineer, walked toward her carrying official papers. “You got your transfer,” he told her; he held out the papers and Mary Morley accepted them. “You’re going to a colony settlement on a planet called—” He hesitated, frowning. “Delmar.”
“Delmak-O,” Mary Morley said, scanning the transfer orders. “Yes—and I’m to go there by noser.” She wondered what kind of place Delmak-O was; she had never heard of it. And yet it sounded highly interesting; her curiosity had been stirred up.
“Did Seth get a transfer, too?” she asked.
“‘Seth’?” Gossim raised an eyebrow. “Who’s ‘Seth’?”
She laughed. “That’s a very good question. I don’t know. I guess it doesn’t matter. I’m so glad to get this transfer—”
“Don’t tell me about it,” Gossim said in his usual harsh way. “As far as I’m concerned you’re abandoning your responsibilities to the kibbutz.” Turning, he stalked off.
A new life, Mary Morley said to herself. Opportunity and adventure and excitement. Will I like Delmak-O? she wondered. Yes. I know I will.
On light feet she danced toward her living area in the kibbutz’s central building-complex. To begin to pack.