"After a fashion, of course. Any Lunarite can. I'm not as good as they are. I haven't joined any teams- There's going to be the melee now, the free-for-all. This is the really dangerous part. All ten are going to be in the air and each side is going to try to send members of the other side into a fall."
"A real fall."
"As real as possible."
"Are there injuries occasionally?"
"Occasionally. In theory, this sort of thing is frowned upon. That is considered frivolous, and we don't have so large a population that we can afford to incapacitate anyone without real cause. Still, the melee is popular and we can't raise the votes to outlaw it."
"Which side do you vote on, Selene?"
Selene blushed. "Oh, never mind. You watch this!"
The percussion rhythm had suddenly grown thunderous and each of the individuals in the huge well darted outward like an arrow. There was wild confusion in mid-air "but when they parted again, each ended firmly on a bar-grip. There was the tension of waiting. One launched; another followed; and the air was filled with flashing bodies again. Over and over it happened.
Selene said, "The scoring is intricate. There is a point for every launch; a point for every touch; two points for every miss inflicted; ten points for a grounding; various penalties for various kinds of fouling."
"Who keeps the score?"
"There are umpires watching who make the preliminary decisions and there are television tapes in case of appeals. Very often even the tapes can't decide."
There was a sudden excited cry when a girl in blue moved past a boy in red and slapped his flank resoundingly. The boy who received the blow had writhed away, but not successfully, and grabbing at a wall bar with improper balance struck that wall ungracefully with his knee.
"Where were his eyes?" demanded Selene indignantly. "He didn't see her coming."
The action grew hotter and the Earthman tired of trying to make sense of the knotted flights. Occasionally, a leaper touched a bar and did not retain his hold. Those were the times when every spectator leaned over the railing as though ready to launch himself into space in sympathy. At one time, Marco Fore was struck in the wrist and someone cried "Foul!"
Fore missed his handhold and fell. To the Earthman's eyes, the fall, under Moon-gravity, was slow, and Fore's lithe body twisted and turned, reaching for bar after bar, without quite making it. The others waited, as though all maneuvering was suspended during a fall.
Fore was moving quite rapidly now, though twice he had slowed himself without quite being able to maintain a handhold.
He was nearly to the ground when a sudden spidery lunge caught a transverse bar with the right leg and he hung suspended and swinging, head downward, about ten feet above the ground. Arms outspread, he paused while the applause rang out and then he had twisted upright and jumped into a rapid climb.
The Earthman said, "Was he fouled?"
"If Jean Wong actually grabbed Marco's wrist instead of pushing it, it was a foul. The umpire has ruled a fair block, however, and I don't think Marco will appeal. He fell a lot farther than he had to. He likes these last-minute saves and someday he'll miscalculate and hurt himself… Oh, oh."
The Earthman looked up in sudden inquiry, but Selene's eyes weren't upon him. She said, "That's someone from the Commissioner's office and he must be looking for you."
"Why-"
"I don't see why he should come here to find anyone else. You're the unusual one."
"But there's no reason-" began the Earthman.
Yet the messenger, who had the build of an Earthman himself or an Earth-immigrant, and who seemed uneasy to be the center of the stares of a couple of dozen slight, nude figures who seemed to tinge their scorn with indifference, came directly toward him.
"Sir," he began. "Commissioner Gottstein requests that you accompany me-"
Barren Neville's quarters were somehow harsher than Selene's. His books were on bold display, his computer-outlet was unmasked in one comer, and his large desk was in disarray. His windows were blank.
Selene entered, folded her arms, and said, "If you live like a slob, Barren, how do you expect to have your thoughts neat?"
"I'll manage," said Barron, grumpily. "How is it you haven't brought the Earthman with you?"
"The Commissioner got to him first. The new Commissioner."
"Gottstera?"
"That's right. Why weren't you ready sooner?"
"Because it took time to find out. I won't work blind."
Selene said, "Well, then, we'll just have to wait."
Neville bit at a thumbnail and then inspected the result severely. "I don't know whether I ought to like the situation or not… What did you think of him?"
"I liked him," said Selene, definitely. "He was rather pleasant, considering he was an Earthie. He let me guide him. He was interested. He made no judgments. He didn't patronize… And I didn't go out of my way to avoid insulting him, either,"
"Did he ask any further about the synchrotron?"
"No, but then he didn't have to."
"Why not?"
