."She caught his tone of voice. "You don't like to shoot... ?" No! Guns are for killing! When I left Southeast Asia... I swore I'd never touch one, ag...in... but when Andy went down... I knew I'd have to kill the bear! It was a hard decision to make!"Gayle put a trembling hand on his shoulder. Her voice was low. "For Andy's sake... I'm glad you made the right decision!" Her eyes misted. Her lips quivered open, and she lifted her mouth to him to be kissed.The realization of what she wanted came. ”“You shouldn’t send me those kind of pictures; you should talk to me like an adult.”“Are you going to tell Dad? Please don’t. He will freak out.”“I’m not going to share this with anyone, least of all your father.”“Thanks Mum. Earth was unique — the human race seemed to be, also. Men and women went out, checked out star systems that looked promising. About one in ten had planets. One out of a thousand planets had environments suitable for habitation by human beings, and that was just suitable, meaning that man could exist there without outside intervention. Most of these worlds were marginally habitable — better as far as the colonists were concerned than Earth with its giant megacities, food riots and astronomical. I noticed the palms begin to move around when I circled the top of Janet’s folks’ home. No big wind yet, but it could get worse. I promised myself to watch the weather. I didn’t have all my confidence back yet.I anchored the aircraft to the big anchors on the roof. There’s no sense in watching your helicopter take off on its own and fly into the ground. We all followed Janet down the stairs and into the kitchen where Janet’s mother was standing with her hands on her hips.Janet introduced her.