one which we poor humans cannot reach unassisted. Someone has to
build the shell for us to occupy, which is the reason humans dwell
together in fellowship and harmony--"

"You purposely got Harkaway to take you aboard the _Herringbone_,"
Iversen interrupted wrathfully. "You--you stowaway!"

Bridey's laugh rang through the ship, setting the loose parts quivering.
"Of course. When first I set eyes upon this vessel of yours, I saw
before me the epitome of all dreams. Never had any of our kind so
splendid an encasement. And, upon determining that the vessel was, as
yet, a soulless thing, I got myself aboard; I was born, I died, and was
reborn again with the greatest swiftness consonant with comfort, so that
I could awaken in this magnificent form. Oh, joy, joy, joy!"

"You know," Iversen said, "now that I hear one of you talk at length, I
really can't blame Harkaway for his typically imbecilic mistake."

"We are a wordy species," Bridey conceded.

"You had no right to do what you did," Iversen told him, "no right to
take over--"

"But I didn't take over," Bridey the _Herringbone_ said complacently. "I
merely remained quiescent and content in the knowledge of my power until
yours failed. Without me, you would even now be spinning in the vasty
voids, a chrome-trimmed sepulcher. Now, three times as swiftly as
before, shall I bear you back to the planet you very naively call home."

"Not three times as fast, please!" Iversen was quick to plead. "The ship
isn't built--_we're_ not built to stand such speeds."

The ship sighed. "Disappointment needs must come to all--the high, the
low, the man, the spaceship. It must be borne--" the voice
broke--"bravely. Somehow."

"What am I going to do?" Iversen asked, turning to the first officer for
advice for the first time ever. "I was planning to ask for a transfer or
resign my command when we got back to Earth. But how can I leave Bridey
in the hands of the IEE(E)?"

"You can't, sir," the first officer said. "Neither can we."

"If you explain," Harkaway offered timidly, "perhaps they'll present the
ship to the government."

Both Iversen and the first officer snorted, united for once. "Not the
IEE(E)," Iversen said. "They'd--they'd exhibit it or something and
charge admission."

"Oh, no," Bridey cried, "I don't want to be exhibited! I want to sail
through the trackless paths of space. What good is a body like this if I
cannot use it to its fullest?"

"Have no fear," Ivers