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.I can pursue and bring to justice—and to rehab treatment—one type of criminal.The one who commits an act of savagery or injustice against another sentient being.But I am not allowed to do anything about a person who commits a crime against himself.""It's not easy to rehab a suicide." I said it intentionally, to see if he would wince.He did, but then he smiled.I knew he had seen through me again."Not suicide.I didn't mean suicide." (He was proving to me that he was tough enough to use the word)."What kind of crime is it if a man blights his own great potential? I feel just as badly if a man cripples his own hopes and dreams, as if he does it to another." He leaned forward."Captain Mira, when Jilli Carmel and I leave for Earth, will you come with me?""For rehab?"He nodded."First level erasure.You'll lose memories, but little change to your personality.You'll still be you."I lay back on my pillow and looked up at Quake again.Memories, those I certainly had.Rebka knew his job better than anyone.But it seemed to me that memories were all that I had.Take those away, and what was left? Nothing.I shook my head."I need no rehabilitation.I'll stay here on Egg, and keep an eye on the traffic with Quake."He did not appear at all surprised."Very well," he said quietly."I told you, I have no control of that.You have committed no crime that I can document.We will go, Jilli and I."He stood up, gingerly on his swaddled feet."She will be cured?" I said.He nodded."She will be in treatment for one hundred Earth-days.When that is complete, she will be very confused about everything.In order for her rehab to succeed completely, she will need help in the year or two after that."I lifted my head up from the pillow so that I could look at him properly."I'm sure you will succeed." It was hard to believe that he had given up on me."We may succeed with Jilli." he said."I hope so.But I cannot be involved in that phase of her treatment.I must go to another case on Peacock A—a bad one.I will go with Jilli as far as Earth, for the first rehab phase, then I must leave her."I looked down at his bandaged feet."No rest for you, eh? When do you get your own rehab treatment, Councilman? No one is more driven than you."He smiled.I had tried to get in a low blow, and it had bounced off him."Drives in a good cause are all right," he said."In any case, I am not the subject of the discussion.I want to talk about Jilli Carmel.As I told you, I have authority only in certain areas, but one of those is the decision as to where subjects who have been rehabilitated will receive Phase Two of their treatment.On that, I have full authority.I have decided that Jilli will spend that time here, on Quakeside.""You can't do that," I said.My throat was constricted and I had to choke the words out.I had enough problems already."I'm afraid that I can, Captain," he said."Check it if you wish, but you'll find that your cooperation is obliged by Sector law.""You can't go away and dump this in my lap," I began, but Rebka had turned and was walking towards the door."I can," he said.He turned in the doorway and pulled something from his pocket."By the way, you might want to keep this." He lobbed it through the air and it landed lightly on my chest as he walked out of the room.I picked it up.It was the ID pack of Jilli Carmel, smiling as she had been before they had landed on Delta Pavonis.I stared at it for a long time, then put it under my pillow.I wondered just how well Rebka knew his job.Was it possible that he knew it so well that the rehab center on Earth was something that he could dispense with if he had to?I moved the dome to its opaque setting and the image of Quake slowly dimmed above me and disappeared.I couldn't answer my own question.Not yet.Did Rebka know me, after a few Days, better than I knew myself? Perhaps in another year I might have some kind of answer.AFTERWORD: SUMMERTIDE.About a year ago I was sitting in a bar in Brighton, drinking beer with Bob Forward.His first novel, "Dragon's Egg", was finished but not yet published, and we were chatting randomly about exotic stellar and planetary settings for stories.We had known each other long before either one of us published a word of fiction, so we tended in our conversation to dwell on the science side of sf plotting.Bob mentioned that he had come up with a rather interesting planetary system and he was going to build a novel around it.Naturally, I asked for details.He didn't want to give them.He said that he preferred not to talk until he had everything plotted out to a conclusion.I quite understand that attitude—some writers go further, and will never say a word about a story until the last sentence has been typed and the finished story is away in the hands of an editor
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