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what right did she have to be the only one
to make it through?  She continued to sob like a little girl for a long time,
oblivious to the world around her. 
    *    *    *
    Watcher awoke as the
alarms sounded, ringing from the walls of his quarters and through the bones of
his head.  It had been a long time since he had heard this kind of klaxon; the
steady whooping that meant something had come through one of the Donut’s many gates.  And since most of them were long since sealed with a barrier that could
not be traversed, and almost all of the rest were inactive, it wouldn't take
long to locate the gate, and with it the origin of the intruder.
    His tall, muscular form
leapt from the bed and he walked toward the center of the large, tapestry-hung
room.
    "Computer,"
he said. "Project a hologram of the security system in the center of the
room."
    Instantly the great
artificial intelligence complied, a multicolored panel of lights and view
screens appearing in the center of the room.  It had even been more convenient ,
thought Watcher, when I could simply think the display into the visual
centers of my mind .  But that would mean opening the inner recesses of his
brain to the computer, and he might be waiting for any chance he might get to invade and conquer the mind of his greatest enemy.
    Views were given of
dozens of open and unblocked gates, all leading to destinations he had assumed
were unoccupied. Recognition numbers appeared underneath.  A couple had numbers
he did not recognize, his total recall realizing that these must have been
opened by the computer at random since last he had checked.  Well , he
thought, the power has to go somewhere, and I can always shut the gates down
anytime I need to .  One gate caught his eye immediately, its view screen
box blinking to attract his attention.  The gate to the lost ship.   But
that one had gone through a dimension of subspace, where time ran in another
direction than the four-space humankind was most familiar with.  It should be
thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of years in the past. And the gate was
no longer open.
    "Computer,"
he said quickly in his melodic voice, "what came through gate number
1,347,902?"
    A screen blinked into
existence in the center of the panel and expanded quickly until it formed a
four-meter square that occupied most of the panel.  A space suited figure came
through the open gate.  A bulky, white and red suit such as he had never seen,
with a spout of material coming from the large backpack that looked
suspiciously like a chemical thruster.  It looks very old , he thought. 
Very old and of very low technology.  He continued to watch as the opening of
the wormhole revealed a vision of white-hot hell.  He almost cringed along with
the figure in the forefront of the screen, and then the wormhole was gone, the
figure collapsed on the floor.
    Watcher observed the
figure looking around the room, still unable to tell what kind of being it
was.  Probably human from the shape of the suit.  But very unrevealing of age
or sex.  Then the figure walked in a shuffle over to one of the benches and sat
down, the hands going up to the helmet seal.
    "Computer,"
he ordered. "Focus on the helmet."
    The helmet grew on the
screen, as the five fingered hands pulled and twisted at the seal.  To his
surprise the computer followed the helmet as it was taken off and placed on the
bench.
    "Computer,"
he shouted, realizing that he shouldn't have been so literal with the enormous
idiot savant, "bring the focus to its face."
    His breath caught in
his throat as the picture resolved on the virtual screen.  She's beautiful ,
he thought, remembering that he had a fully functional glandular system no
matter the advanced complexity of his brain.  Not one for the scrap heaps after
all, like all the other intruders.
    Long hair the color of
fire, skin almost as pale as watchers own, but covered with a constellation of
freckles.  Full lips, with laugh