Neat story. It's the first one of the Talent stories to be written, and there's one major aspect that doesn't really come into play ever again - that is, that the Horvaths have to apply to have children. In Pegasus in Flight, which is two generations later and on a much more crowded Earth, the first child is allowed but later ones are illegal, which isn't quite the same thing. Still, aside from pinpointing the day of conception, the question doesn't really affect the story...well, yes it does, since Ruth Horvath's mental state is a major part of the story and a large part of that is that she can't figure out her Talent and she's not allowed to bear a child. Ah well. It's a trifle awkward in terms of fitting in with later stories. But the whole thing with Ruth's Talent is very clever. The neat sequences with Mansfield and Joel Andres, the precog and how it affects things later - though if the heat converter blew, it probably would have fried the neo-protein anyway. And how they figure out her Talent at the end. An excellent story. And it's nice how Dorotea shows up again in Pegasus in Flight. ( )