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was holding the child as securely as bailing’s talons. But like most Fives, Jessy was bursting with energy, and Lisa preferred that she expend it at ground level. They could drop down to the shopping center, perhaps, and Lisa could show her how to tell what each of the stores sold by the picture in the window. Or else they could walk around the city’s business area and look at the tall buildings, or—
    Lisa had a flash of pure genius. “Jessy,” she said, turning smoothly and heading toward a spot north of the city building, “have you ever been to the library?”
    Jessy hadn’t; and she was delighted. She had, of course, seen TVs and tape players before—though the headphones connected to the latter seemed new to her—but the flashing lights of the video games were a source of instant fascination. She ran back and forth among the machines, standing on tiptoe to see over players’ shoulders, occasionally trying to touch the images or teek them through the screens, and generally making a minor nuisance of herself. The preteens playing the machines, most of whom had probably fled the game rooms at their hives for the express purpose of getting away from younger kids, were not inclined to be patient, and after a few minutes Lisa corralled her young charge and took her upstairs to the second floor. Much of that level was taken up by nature exhibits, and Jessy wandered among them for nearly twenty minutes, stopping by each exhibit and listening to part of its accompanying information tape before moving on to the next. The exhibits ranged from dioramas of Tigris’s native plants and animals to cages housing small, furry animals, both earthstock and native; and as she watched Jessy’s exploration, Lisa was again reminded of her own girlhood. She could still spend hours here, watching the gerbils and furheads in their cages and imagining what it must be like for them in the wild. Today, though, her mood was more one of impatience than interest as she waited for Jessy’s excitement to wane.
    Finally, she couldn’t wait any longer. Soon they would have to head back to the hive. “Jessy, there’s one more place I want to show you,” she said, dropping to one knee beside Jessy and the ant farm she was studying.
    â€œDo I have to?” Jessy asked plaintively, her eyes not leaving the scurrying insects.
    â€œYes,” Lisa said. “Don’t worry, you’ll be able to come here again. But I want to show you what the library is mostly for.”
    Reluctantly, Jessy pried herself away from the display and followed Lisa up one more flight of stairs.
    It was like traveling from the hive to the city building in an instant. Suddenly, everything from the heavy wooden chairs and tables to the quiet colors and quieter footsteps labeled the room as adult. Jessy froze just inside the doorway, and even Lisa—who had known what to expect—felt a strange reluctance to go any further. But she was determined, and taking Jessy’s hand she forced herself to walk toward the tall shelves she could see off to the right.
    It wasn’t an easy trip. They first had to pass by a tall desk, from behind which an even taller librarian gazed down at them, then they walked through a lounge area where several adults and a couple of teens sat with books. Lisa could almost feel their eyes on the back of her head as she and Jessy passed, and she sighed with relief when they finally reached the shelves and ducked into the space between two of them, out of sight of the adults.
    Jessy looked up at the shelves, packed solidly with books from floor to ceiling. “What are those?” she asked, sounding awed.
    â€œThey’re books ,” Lisa told her, pulling one out at random and carefully opening it. Neat lines of black letters on white paper stared back at her. “You see, when you get to be a teen and go to school, you’ll learn how to read these. You can