oduced that nasty
little nickname, which has stuck, and which expresses very well the
attitude of the men toward the new service.

"As I say, fleet discipline is very bad, and the men simply would not
accept orders from such officers. There are numerous cases on record
where they killed them when there was no other way out.

"Now, as far as discipline itself is concerned, the best procedure would
be to pull an entire fleet out of the defense perimeter and retrain
them, because the newly trained recruits can be made to accept Psi Corps
officers as commanders. But our situation is far too desperate to permit
anything like that. Therefore, we must use whatever devices we can think
of to do the job.

"The ship you are going to is staffed by veterans. They were incredibly
lucky. From the outset, they had a CO who was a man highly gifted in psi
without he or anyone else knowing about it until a few months ago when
we ran a quiet little survey. But he got killed in a recent encounter,
along with their executive officer, so we are now sending them a new
captain and a new exec as well. But those men simply will not accept
orders from a Psi Corps officer. Furthermore, they have heard the
rumors--soundly based--that the Psi Corps, as a result of its
opposition, has gone underground, so to speak. They know that its
personnel has been largely disguised by giving them special commissions
in the regular Space Combat Service. As a result, they will most
certainly suspect any new commanding officer no matter what insignia he
wears.

"Of course, now and then you will find one of the old hands who will
accept the Psi Corps, so long as it isn't jammed down his throat. Just
pray that you have somebody like that aboard your new ship, although I
must admit, it isn't very likely."

* * * * *

"All right, all right," the commander growled with irritation.
"But--with your permission, sir--I still think my particular method of
assignment is a lousy approach and I don't like it. I still think it
will make for very bad discipline."

"Whether you like it or not, commander, that is the way it will have to
be accomplished. We are simply recognizing a real situation for what it
is, and compromising with it."

"But couldn't this change in command personnel be postponed until--"

"If it could be postponed," the captain replied acidly, "you may rest
assured we would not be employing disagreeable--and somewhat
que