I am now relieving you of duty--"

"Just a minute," Tiger Martin burst out.

The Black Doctor looked up at him. "Well?"

"This is ridiculous," Tiger said. "Why are you picking on _him_? Or do
you mean that you're relieving all three of us?"

"Of course I'm not relieving all three of you," the Black Doctor
snapped. "You and Dr. Alvarez will remain on duty and conduct the ship's
program without a Red Doctor until a man is sent to replace this
bungler. That also is provided for in the code."

"But I understood that we were operating as a diagnostic and therapeutic
team," Tiger protested. "And I seem to remember something in the code
about fixing responsibility before a man can be relieved."

"There's no question where the responsibility lies," the Black Doctor
said, his face darkening. "This was a surgical problem, and Dal Timgar
made the decisions. I don't see anything to argue."

"There's plenty to argue," Tiger said. "Dal, don't you see what he's
trying to do?"

Across the room Dal shook his head wearily. "You'd better keep out of
it, Tiger," he said.

"Why should I keep out of it and let you be drummed out of the patrol
for something that wasn't even your fault?" Tiger said. He turned
angrily to the Black Doctor. "Dal wasn't the one that wanted the
hospital ship called," he said. "I was. If you're going to relieve
somebody, you'd better make it me."

The Black Doctor pulled off his glasses and glared at Tiger. "Whatever
are you talking about?" he said.

"Just what I said. We had a conference after he'd examined the patient
in the operating room, and I insisted that we call the hospital ship.
Why, Dal--Dal wanted to go ahead and try to finish the case right then,
and I wouldn't let him," Tiger blundered on. "I didn't think the patient
could take it. I thought that it would be too great a risk with the
facilities we had here."

Dal was staring at Tiger, and he felt Fuzzy suddenly shivering violently
in his pocket. "Tiger, don't be foolish--"

The Black Doctor slammed the file down on the table again. "Is this
true, what he's saying?" he asked Dal.

"No, not a word of it," Dal said. "I wanted to call the hospital ship."

"Of course he won't admit it," Tiger said angrily. "He's afraid you'll
kick me out too, but it's true just the same in spite of what he says."

"And what do _you_ say?" the Black Doctor said, turning to Jack Alvarez.

"I say it's carrying this big brother act too far," Jack said. "I di