NORTHWORLD

might well be a bumble of phased spacetime; certainly it wasn't North world, a

barren wilderness untill its settlement three standard months before. The crops
below had been in the ground longer than that, and Hansen couldn't even guess
how long it must has taken to construct the city-sized building on which he now
stood. "You were expecting me, then?" Hansen asked, keeping his tone mild. The
promenade was paved with a rubbery layer that responded comfortably beneath his
boots. "Well, not you precisely," said the old man. "My name is Dana, by the way,"
interjected the younger man. "And these are Gorley—" the other man "—and
Lea." "And as Lea said," Gorley went on, "we're delighted you're here—" "Both for
yourself," added Lea, "and because you're not...." Her face quirked in
embarrassment and her hand squeezed Hansen's biceps. "But particularly for
yourself, Mr. Hansen," the older man went on, "We never received a visitor before."
"As to whether we knew you were coming," said Dana, "and please—you mustn't
take this as an insult—but... " "You are disruptive, you see," explained the
woman, "Here in Diamond', because of the, ah...." "Well," said the older man,
"your weapons, Mr. Hansen." He pointed with the paired index and middle fingers
of his left hand toward the remains of the intrusion capsule—now a silhouette in
ash as if quantity of cardboard had been burned on the promenade. "I'm afraid
that the vehicle in which you arrived was itself a weapon." All three of the local
daises looked apologetic. "And you see," the younger man finished, "weapons don't
exist in Diamond." "Anything can be—" Hansen snapped before he got control of
his tongue, Even if what he'd been about to say were true—and it certainly was
true where he came from that anything could be used as a weapon if the will to do
so existed—that wasn't an attitude he wanted to stress to his present hosts. "But
with the weapons gone," Lea said, "we hope that you'llbe able to stay. Would you
like to see the village?" "Or perhaps you're hungry/he's hungry?" the men said in
near unison, "I—" said Hansen, He looked at his hosts and decided to be perfectly