the drawbacks and disadvantages I know of, but there may be
a lot more that I haven't thought of yet. So think it over for a few
days and when each of you has definitely made up his or her mind, let me
know." He jumped down off the table.

* * * * *

His listeners, however, did not need days, or even seconds, to decide.
Before Hilton's feet hit the floor there was a yell of unanimous
approval.

He looked at his wife. "Do you suppose _we're_ nuts?"

"Uh-uh. Not a bit. Alex was right. I'm going to just _love_ it!" She
hugged his elbow ecstatically. "So are you, darling, as soon as you stop
looking at only the black side."

"You know ... you could be right?" For the first time since the
"ghastly" transformation Hilton saw that there really was a bright side
and began to study it. "With most of BuSci--and part of the Navy, and
selectees from Terra--it _will_ be slightly terrific, at that!"

"And that 'habit-forming-drug' objection isn't insuperable, darling,"
Temple said. "If the younger generations start weakening we'll fix the
Omans. I wouldn't want to wipe them out entirely, but ..."

"But how do we settle priority, Doctor Hilton?" a girl called out; a
tall, striking, brunette laboratory technician whose name Hilton needed
a second to recall. "By pulling straws or hair? Or by shooting dice or
each other or what?"

"Thanks, Betty, you've got a point. Sandy Cummings and department heads
first, then assistants. Then you girls, in alphabetical order, each
with her own husband or fiance."

"And my name is Ames. Oh, goody!"

"Larry, please tell them to ..."

"I already have, sir. We are set up to handle four at once."

"Good boy. So scat, all of you, and get back to work--except Sandy,
Bill, Alex, and Teddy. You four go with Larry."

Since the new sense was not peyondix, Hilton had started calling it
"perception" and the others adopted the term as a matter of course.
Hilton could use that sense for what seemed like years--and actually was
whole minutes--at a time without fatigue or strain. He could not,
however, nor could the Omans, give his tremendous power to anyone else.

As he had said, he could do a certain amount of reworking; but the
amount of improvement possible to make depended entirely upon what there
was to work on. Thus, Temple could cover about six hundred light-years.
It developed later that the others of the Big Eight could cover from one
hundred up to four hundre