ot repetition instead of thinking for himself, that they
didn't realize that they were being nudged out of the ship, down its
ramp, and out on the field.

"Don't think it hasn't been educational, and all," Frank murmured to
them as he got them off the ramp. "You get the how of it figured out,
you let me know."

The two looked at him as if he might be an interesting phenomenon,
decided he wasn't, and wandered away, back toward the school
dormitories, still arguing.

"Sometimes I think a quiet milk run out to Saturn would have its
brighter side," Frank muttered to Tom when he came back inside the ship.
Tom grinned at him in wordless understanding.

There was no tension between them. They had worked together so long that
they had got over all the attraction-repulsion conflicts which operate
far beneath the surface mind to cause likes and dislikes. Now they
accepted one another in the way a man accepts his own hands--proud of
them when they do something with extra skill, making allowances when
they fumble; but never considering doing without them.

"Wonder who the E will be this time?" Frank asked, without too much
concern. It didn't really matter. An E was an E, for better or for
worse.

"Haven't heard," Tom answered. "Probably not decided yet. If the Senior
E's think it isn't much of a problem, they might send a Junior. Or if
they don't want to be bothered, they might send a Junior who's up for
his solo problem."

"Whoever, or whatever, I'm sure it will be interesting," Frank commented
with a grin. Tom returned the grin. There wasn't any malice in it, nor
any of the basic enmity and destructiveness of the stupid toward the
bright, just a recognition that an E was an E. They had a vast respect
for an E, but you couldn't get around it that some of them were--well,
maybe eccentric was the word.

"I hear there's trouble on that planet we're going to--Eden, isn't it?"
Frank commented.

"You think we'd be hauling an E out there if there weren't?" Tom
countered wryly.

They continued to check over each item in the generator room, their
flying fingers making sharp contrast to their slow, idle conversation.
They gave the room extra care this time because there had been some
quick-fingered students around who just might have got it into their
heads to improve the machinery. Satisfied at last that there had been no
subtle meddling, they snapped the cowl of the generator back into
position. They took one more sharp look