There was a in the manner of those at the Weald when the Med Ship left next morning. Calhoun was not popular Weald was scared. It had been to easily, where might be involved. Its children were to when the word "blueskin" was in their hearing, and its to say "blueskin" when anything to entered their minds. So a planet-wide of non-rational response had and was not to be almost had it.
The who'd the on the ship from Orede was safe, though. He'd a survey of the ship he'd to enter and examine. For his courage, he'd have been but for Calhoun. The of his fellow-citizens was that by entering the ship he might have by material if the still existed, and if the men in the ship had it—but they hadn't died of it—and if there had been on Orede to it—for which there was no evidence—and if were for the tragedy. Which was at the moment pure supposition. But Weald he might death to Weald if he were allowed to return.
Calhoun saved his life. He ordered that the guard-ship admit him to its airlock, which then was to be with steam and chlorine. The would and eat away his space-suit, after which the and steam should be out to space, and air from the ship let into the lock. If he off the space-suit without its surface, and reëntered the ship while the was by a man in another space-suit, it with a he'd after it, there be no possible back.
Calhoun was right, but Weald in that he'd the government to take an risk.
There were other for of him. Calhoun had been frank. The of the death-ship to those people who that all should be as a act. They'd appeared on every visionscreen, not only the ship from Orede but other which they as against Weald. They that all Wealdian be to turn out fusion-bomb materials while a space-fleet was for an anti-blueskin crusade. They such a rain of fusion-bombs on Dara that no blueskin, no animal, no of vegetation, no fish in the ocean, not a virus-particle of the alive on the world!
One of these that Calhoun that no other was possible, speaking for the Interstellar Medical Service. And Calhoun a to it by broadcast, and he a and speech from which a planet-wide audience that he them fools. He did.
So he was definitely when his ship from Weald. He'd his as Orede, from which the death-ship had come. The landing-grid locked on, the small space-craft until Weald was a great it, and then somehow him off. The Med Ship was free, in clear space where there was not of a to overdrive.
He for his destination, his very grim. He said savagely;
"Get set, Murgatroyd! Overdrive coming!"
He the button. The of out, while in the ship the of dizziness, of nausea, and of a to nothingness. Then there was silence. The Med Ship actually moved at a which was a number of times the speed of light, but it solid, and fixed. A ship in as if it were in the of a planet. There is no vibration. There is no of anything but and—if one looks out a port—there is only plus an of fit to make one's crack.
But began. There was a and there were sound-speakers to keep the ship from like a grave. The played and the speakers gave off minute creakings, and meaningless hums, and very of every sort, all of which were just above the of the inaudible.
Calhoun fretted. Sector Twelve was in very shape. A Med Service man would have let the anti-blueskin go in a report on Weald. Health is not only a physical affair. There is health, also. When health goes a can be more surely and more than by any or plague-germ. A kills off those who are to it, to up a world again. But are the to be killed when a a population.
Weald was definitely a Med Service problem world. Dara was another. And when hundreds of men themselves into a cargo-boat which not them with air to breathe, and took off and into the air fail.... Orede called for no less of worry.
"I think," said Calhoun dourly, "that I'll have some coffee."
"Coffee" was one of the that Murgatroyd immediately. He would watch the coffee-maker with bright, eyes. He'd to Calhoun's with it, once, and had his in the attempt. This time he did not move.
Calhoun his head. Murgatroyd sat on the floor, his long about a chair-leg. He the door of the Med Ship's sleeping-cabin.
"Murgatroyd," said Calhoun. "I mentioned coffee!"
"Chee!" Murgatroyd.
But he to look at the door. The temperature was in the other cabin, and the look of was different from the control-compartment. The was part of the means by which a man was able to be alone for on end—alone save for his tormal—without ship-happy. There were other out in the ship with the same purpose. But none of them should Murgatroyd to and at the sleeping-cabin door. Not when coffee was in the making!
Calhoun considered. He angry at the that to him. As a Med Service man, he was duty-bound to be impartial. To be might not to with Weald in its to blueskins. The people of Weald had to help Dara in a time of famine; they'd that world for years afterward; they had other for the people they'd badly. It was for some on Weald to that Calhoun must be killed he be of help to the Weald abhorred.
In fact, it was possible that somebody had away on the Med Ship to Calhoun, so that there would be no of any report to Dara being presented anywhere. If so, such a would be in the sleeping-cabin now, waiting for Calhoun to walk in to be dead.
So Calhoun coffee. He a into a pocket where it would be handy. He a small cup for Murgatroyd and a large one for himself, and then a second large one.
He on the sleeping-cabin door, a blaster-bolt came through it.
"Coffee's ready," he said sardonically. "Come out and join us."
There was a long pause. Calhoun again.
"You've a seat at the captain's table," he said more still. "It's not to keep me waiting!"
He listened, for a which would be a fanatic's attempt to do despite discovery. He was prepared to shoot ruthlessly.
But there was no rush. Instead, there came foot-falls. The door of the slowly aside. A girl appeared in the opening, white and composed.
"H-how did you know I was there?" she asked shakily. She her lips. "You didn't see me! I was in a closet, and you didn't enter the room!"
Calhoun said grimly;
"I've of information." He pointed to Murgatroyd.
The girl did not move. Her from Murgatroyd to Calhoun.
"And now," said Calhoun, "do you want to tell me your story? You have one ready, I'm sure."
"There—there isn't any," said the girl unsteadily. "Just—I—I need to to Orede, and you're going there. There's no other way to go—now."
"To the contrary," said Calhoun, "there'll be a for Orede as soon as it can be assembled and armed. But I'm that's not a very good story. Try another."
She a little.
"I'm—running away ..."
"Ah!" said Calhoun. "In that case I'll take you back."
"No!" she said fiercely. "I'll—I'll die first! I'll this ship first!"
Her hand came from her. There was a in it. But it visibly as she to it.
"I'll—shoot out the controls!"
Calhoun blinked. He'd had to make a in his of the the he saw that the was a girl. Now he had to make another when her threat was not to kill him but to the ship. Women are assassins, and when they are they don't use energy weapons. Daggers and are more typical.
"I'd you didn't do that," said Calhoun drily. "Besides, you'd if we were in a waiting for our air and food to give out."
Murgatroyd, for no whatever, it necessary to enter the conversation. He said;
"Chee-chee-chee!"
"A very suggestion," Calhoun. "We'll and have a cup of coffee." To the girl he said, "I'll take you to Orede, since that's where you say you want to go."
"I—there's a boy there—"
Calhoun his head.
"No," he said reprovingly. "Nearly all the had packed itself into the ship that came into Weald with dead. But not all. And there's been no check of what men were in the ship and what men weren't. You wouldn't go to Orede if it were likely your had died on the way to you. Here's your coffee. Sugar or saccho, and do you take cream?"
She a little, but she took the cup.
"I—don't understand—."
"Murgatroyd and I," Calhoun—and he did not know he spoke out of anger or something else—"we are do-gooders. We go around trying to keep people from killed. It's our profession. We it on our own behalf. We want to alive. So since you make such threats, we will take you where you want to go. Especially since we're going there anyhow."
"You—don't anything I've said!" It was a statement.
"Not a word," Calhoun. "But you'll tell us something more presently. When did you eat last?"
"Yesterday—."
"Better have something now. We'll talk more later." Calhoun her how to the for such-and-such dishes, to be from and or chilled, as the case might be, and at dialed-for intervals.
Calhoun himself in the Galactic Directory, looking up the Orede. He was there, but he'd had no to himself about it before. Now he read with every of absorption.
The girl ate daintily. Murgatroyd with interest. But she looked uncomfortable.
Calhoun with the Directory. He got out the which more information. He was after the Med Service history of all the in this sector. He through the record of every on Weald and on Dara. But Sector Twelve had not been well-run. There was no account of a which had out three-quarters of the population of an planet! It had after one Med Ship visit, and was over another Med Ship came by. But there should have been investigation, after the fact. There should have been a of material and a complete and study of the agent. It hadn't been made. There was some other at the time, and it by. But Calhoun—whose career was not to be in this sector—resolved on a report about this and its consequences.
He himself busy, the girl. A Med Ship man has of study and with which to himself travel from one to another. Calhoun use of those resources. He as if he were of the stowaway. But Murgatroyd her with attention.
Hours after her discovery, she said uneasily;
"Please?"
Calhoun looked up.
"Yes?"
"I—don't know how stand."
"You are a stowaway," said Calhoun. "Legally, I have the right to put you out the airlock. It doesn't necessary. There's a cabin. When you're sleepy, use it. Murgatroyd and I can make out well here. When you're hungry, you now know how to something to eat. When we land on Orede, you'll go about you have there. That's all."
She at him.
"But—you don't what I've told you!"
"No," Calhoun. But he didn't add to the statement.
"But—I will tell you," she offered. "The police were after me. I had to away from Weald! I had to! I'd stolen—"
He his head.
"No," he said. "If you were a thief, you'd say anything in the world that you were a thief. You're not to tell the truth yet. You don't have to, so why tell me anything? I that you some sleep."
She rose slowly. Twice her as if to speak again, but then she into the other and closed herself in.
Murgatroyd at the place where she'd and then up into Calhoun's lap, with complete of welcome. He settled himself and was for moments. Then he said;
"Chee!"
"I you're right," said Calhoun. "She doesn't on Weald, or with the she'd have had, there'd be only one place she'd than Orede, and that would be Dara. But I she'd be to land on Dara."
Murgatroyd liked to be talked to. He liked to that he on a conversation, like humans.
"Chee-chee!" he said with conviction.
"Definitely," Calhoun. "She's not doing this for her personal advantage. Whatever she thinks she's doing, it's more to her than her own life. Murgatroyd—"
"Chee?" said Murgatroyd in an tone.
"There are wild on Orede," said Calhoun. "Herds and of them. I have a that somebody's been them. Lots of them. Do you agree? Don't you think that a of have been on Orede lately?"
Murgatroyd yawned. He settled himself still more in Calhoun's lap.
"Chee," he said drowsily.
He to sleep, while Calhoun the of information. Presently he looked up the normal of increase, with other data, among of in a wild state, on where they have no natural enemies. It wasn't unheard-of for a world to be with useful of Terran and it was to be colonized. Terran life-forms play the with systems, very much to humanity's benefit. Familiar microörganisms and a added to the of settlements on otherwise worlds. But sometimes the results were strange.
They weren't often so strange, however, as to some hundreds of men to pack themselves a cargo-ship which couldn't possibly them, so that every man must die while the ship was in overdrive.
Still, by the time Calhoun in on a mattress, he had calculated that as as a dozen of cattle, on a planet, would have to of thousands or or hundreds of thousands in much less time than had elapsed.
The Med Ship on in solidity, with no from without, with no to be outside, with no at all that it was not in the of a of through at a speed so great as to have no meaning.
Next ship-day the girl looked at Calhoun when she appeared in the control-room. "Shall I—have breakfast?" she asked uncertainly.
"Why not?"
Silently, she the food-readier. She ate. Calhoun gave the that he would respond when spoken to, but that he was with that him from stowaways.
About noon, ship-time, she asked;
"When will we to Orede?"
Calhoun told her absently, as if he were of something else.
"What—what do you think there? I mean, to make that in the ship?"
"I don't know," said Calhoun. "But I with the on Weald. I don't think it was a planned of the blueskins."
"Wh-what are blueskins?"
Calhoun around and looked at her directly.
"When lying," he said mildly, "you tell as much by what you isn't, as by what you is. You know what are!"
"B—but what do you think they are?" she asked.
"There used to be a called smallpox," said Calhoun. "When people from it, they were marked. Their skin had little scar-pits here and there. At one time, on Earth, it was that would catch sooner or later, and a large would die of it. And it was so much a of that if they printed a of a criminal, they mentioned it if he were pock-marked—scarred. It was no distinction. But if he didn't have the markings, they'd mention that!" He paused. "Those pock-marks weren't hereditary, but otherwise a is like a man who had them. He can't be anything else!"
"Then you think they're—human?"
"There's yet been a case of evolution," said Calhoun. "Maybe had a monkey uncle, but no monkey."
She away. But she at him often that day. He to himself with those which make a Med Ship man's life with sanity.
Next day she asked without preliminary;
"Don't you the planned for the ship with the men to arrive at Weald and spread there?"
"No," said Calhoun.
"Why?"
"It couldn't possibly work," Calhoun told her. "With only men on board, the ship wouldn't arrive at a place where the landing-grid it down. So that would be no good. And plague-stricken men wouldn't try to that they had the plague. They might ask for help, but they'd know they'd be killed on Weald if they were to be plague-victims. So that would be no good, either! No, the ship wasn't to land on Weald."
"Are you—friendly to blueskins?" she asked uncertainly.
"Within reason," said Calhoun, "I am a well-wisher to all the race. You're slipping, though. When using the word 'blueskin' you should say it uncomfortably, as if it were a word no person liked to pronounce. You don't. We'll land on Orede tomorrow, by the way. If you to tell me the truth, there's not much time."
She her lips. Twice, the of the day, she him and opened her mouth as if to speak, and then away again. Calhoun shrugged. He had ideas about her, by now. He them tentative, but no girl and on Weald would go to Orede, with all of Weald that a of death to there. It in, like else that was unpleasant, to blueskins. Nobody from Weald would of landing on Orede! Not now!
A little the Med Ship was to out from overdrive, the girl said very carefully;
"You've been—very kind. I'd like to thank you. I—didn't I would—live to to Orede."
Calhoun his eyebrows.
"I—wish I tell you you want to know," she added regretfully. "I think you're—really decent. But some things...."
Calhoun said caustically;
"You've told me a great deal. You weren't on Weald. You weren't there. The people of Dara—notice that I don't say blueskins, though they are—the people of Dara have at least one space-ship since Weald them with extermination. There is a new food-shortage on Dara now, leading to pure desperation. Most likely it's to make them landing on Orede to kill and freeze to help. They've out."
She and to her feet. She out the in her pocket. She pointed it at him.
"I—have to kill you!" she desperately. "I—I have to!"
Calhoun out. She at the blaster's trigger. Nothing happened. Before she that she hadn't off the safety, Calhoun the from her fingers. He back.
"Good girl!" he said approvingly. "I'll give this to you when we land. And thanks. Thanks very much!"
She at him. "Thanks? When I to kill you?"
"Of course!" said Calhoun. "I'd guesses. I couldn't know that they were right. When you to kill me, you every one. Now, when we land on Orede I'm going to you to try to put me in touch with your friends. It's going to be tricky, they must be well about that ship. But it's a thing to done!"
He to the ship's control-board and sat it.
"Twenty minutes to break-hour," he observed.
Murgatroyd out of his little cubbyhole. His were anxious. Tormals are little creatures. During the days in overdrive, Calhoun had paid less than the amount of attention to Murgatroyd, while the girl was fascinating. They'd friends, on the girl's part, very on Murgatroyd's. But only moments ago there had been in the air. Murgatroyd had to his to it. He was distressed. Now that there was again, he out unhappily.
"Chee?" he plaintively. "Chee-chee-chee?"
Calhoun said matter-of-factly;
"It's all right, Murgatroyd. If we aren't as we try to land, we should be able to make friends with and something accomplished."
The was inaccurate.
