ot. Calhoun lay relaxed in a
chair which at the touch of a button became the most comfortable of
sleeping-places. Murgatroyd remained in his cubbyhole, his tail curled
over his nose. There were comforting, unheard, easily dismissable
murmurings now and again. They kept the feeling of life alive in the
ship. But for such infinitesimal stirrings of sound--carefully recorded
for this exact purpose--the feel of the ship would have been that of a
tomb.

But it was quite otherwise when another ship-day began with the taped
sounds of morning activities as faint as echoes but nevertheless
establishing an atmosphere of their own.

* * * * *

Calhoun examined the plastic block and its contents. He read the
instruments which had cared for it while he slept. He put the block--no
longer frosted--in the culture-microscope and saw its enclosed,
infinitesimal particles of life in the process of multiplying on the
food that had been frozen with them when they were reduced to the spore
condition. He beamed. He replaced the block in the incubation oven and
faced the day cheerfully.

Maril greeted him with great reserve. They breakfasted.

"I've been thinking," said Maril evenly. "I think I can get you a
hearing for--whatever ideas you may have to help Dara."

"Kind of you," murmured Calhoun. "May I ask whose influence you'll
exert?"

"There's a man," said Maril reservedly, "who--thinks a great deal of me.
I don't know his present official position, but he was certain to become
prominent. I'll tell him how you've acted up to now, and your attitude,
and of course that you're Med Service. He'll be glad to help you, I'm
sure."

"Splendid!" said Calhoun, nodding. "That will be Korvan."

She started.

"How did you know?"

"Intuition," said Calhoun drily. "All right. I'll count on him."

But he did not. He worked in the tiny biological lab all that ship-day
and all the next. The girl remained quiet.

On the ship-day after, the time for breakfast approached. And while the
ship was practically a world all by itself, it was easy to look forward
with confidence to the future. But when contact and--in a
fashion--conflict with other and larger worlds loomed nearer, prospects
seemed less bright. Calhoun had definite plans, now, but there were so
many ways in which they could be frustrated! Weald's political leaders
could not oppose hysterical demands for action against blueskins, after
a deathship arrive