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problem of energy. Transfer enabled the Spheres to elevate their level of civilization without
increasing their consumption of energy-and a foreign galaxy was trying to steal the energy of the
Milky Way galaxy, incidentally destroying its substance. In short, the card was right on target-and
somewhat more specific than the first card. But chance would have both relevant and some irrelevant
symbols.
"This crowns you," the Hierophant said, dealing another card for animation. "This is the ideal for
which you strive, your best potential."
It was a massive fortress, not quite square in Sol fashion or round in Pole fashion, but a cross between
them. It was girt by four sturdy towers of similar ambiguity: one flaming, one filled with water, one
hollow, and one solidly packed. The four conditions, or elements, again. "The Four of Solid," the
Hierophant said. "The symbol of power. But it is primarily a matter of maintaining what you have,
and achieving equilibrium through negotiation. And," he added a bit slyly, "on the purely personal
level, it means pleasant news from a lady."
That put Flint in mind of Tsopi, as pleasant a female as he had encountered. Could this Tarot tell him
anything of her?
"This is beneath you," the Hierophant said, dealing again. "The foundation, the basis of your
mission." And it was the crater of Luna, or rather the region known as the Lake of Death, inverted as
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it had looked to him in the hour of his capitulation, when he had made the decision to continue with
the transfer mission, rather than to die alone. Then the image receded as if he were rising, and the
surrounding landscape of Earth's moon came into view: the Lake of Dreams, the craters Burg,
Posidonius, Hercules, and Atlas, the Sea of Serenity... and then the larger Sea of Rains, Sea of Cold,
and Ocean of Storms. Finally the entire face of the moon was visible, and it was a face, the Man in the
Moon, the Lake of Dreams forming its left eyebrow. It became small in the distance, and the horizon
of a planetary landscape rose up, with two towers, and two carnivores sitting beside a river, howling
at that lunar face.
"The moon," the Hierophant continued. "Adapted from that of your own Imperium. Few planets are
blessed with such a close, magnificent companion. This is the symbol of secrecy, of hidden urges,
horror, fear, dragging through poisoned darkness in the absence of air-"
"I know!" This card was so relevant it was stifling. The Polarian went on quickly. "This is behind you,
that which has just passed." And it was a charging chariot.
"Enough!" Flint cried against the floor, not caring to expose his experiences in the Eye of the
Charioteer on System Capella. They had been good experiences, with a strong-Kirlian Dragon and a
Kirlian queen who had, as promised, been very young in bed. These cards, seeming to orient on him
with demonic perception, were striking entirely too close to the mark.
"This is before you," the Hierophant said, dealing the next immediately. "Perhaps it represents your
next mission." It was a human heart, pierced by three swords. "Three of Gas, meaning sorrow." This
time the dealer did not dally, but proceeded to the next four keys in succession-and the animation
plate became subdivided so that all four were evident at once.
One was a Polarian suspended by its trunk so that its wheel could not touch the ground, rendering it
helpless, yet it did not seem to be in distress: "This is yourself, unable to make an informed decision."
Next a tower being blasted by lightning: "Yet your illusions will soon be destroyed to make way for
new understanding." Then a pattern of six swords, their points touching within a cross: "The Six of
Gas-your hopes and fears expressed within the concept of science. Your mission surely involves some
modern technological concept." And the last: a dancing human skeleton wielding a scythe. "A strange
animation-we Polarians have no bones-but it represents what is to be, the culmination of all these
influences. And it is-"
"I see it!" Flint cried. "Death!"
"Not necessarily," the Hierophant hastened to clarify. "It is also called Transformation, a shifting from
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