compounded by her jealousy for Clearwater.
With the opening of her mind and the realisation that her hated rival
was a soul-sister, those negative feelings had been transformed. Now
at last she was able to give full expression to her emotions. Here at
last was the love she had yearned for - unencumbered, unrestricted; not
hedged about with petty rules and regulations. A love that could now
be expressed in words that had been denied to her since birth. An
emotion which, through her inability to express it, had become
distorted and misdirected towards her kin-brother.
She was still linked closely and intimately to Steve, but only through
her mind. Her heart and body were now her own, and she had found the
person with whom she was destined to exchange these precious gifts. In
so doing she had found her place in the world, a new identity, and a
mission which gave her life meaning beyond mere physical existence.
Then it happened. A sweet burning that brought a sharp cry to her lips
and a juddering sigh to his.
Everything flowed together, their minds and bodies fusing in a
convulsive star-burst of ecstasy that left them feeling utterly
fulfilled for at least half an .hour, at which point - being healthy
young animals with the stamina to match their sexual appetite - both
were ready to go round again.
The dawn of the fourth day (the third having been spent mostly in bed)
found Cadillac hollow-eyed through lack of sleep but feeling on top of
the world. The secret envy and lingering distrust of his rival, the
confusion of brotherly love, jealousy and hatred had vanished, leaving
him brimming with a new self-confidence which caused him to be
immensely satisfied with the world in general and - being Cadillac with
himself in particular.
As the days passed, the super-charged emotional state generated by
their discovery of one another gradually subsided and their life
together assumed its natural rhythm. But it was not achieved without a
great deal of hard work. Hearing about life on the overground was not
the same thing as being there. Even though Roz felt-like Steve- that
she belonged to the blue-sky world, there was much to learn. And a
great deal to do.
In the Federation, nearly everything came at the turn of a tap, or the
flick of a switch. Food was literally handed to you on a plate. Okay,
there were Trackers manning the hydroponic tank-farms, the
water-pumping and power-gert stations, the materials and food
processing units. And there were the Seamsters sweating away down in
the A-Levels to keep everything going.
Roz herself had put in the statutory number of PD hours on a variety of
