, tossing down his
own duffel bag and looking around the cramped quarters. "Not exactly a
luxury suite, I'd say. Wonder where he is?"

"Let's look up forward," Dal said. "We've plenty to do before we take
off. Maybe he's just getting an early start."

They explored the ship, working their way up the central corridor past
the communications and computer rooms and the laboratory into the main
control and observation room. Here they found a thin, dark-haired young
man in a bright blue collar and cuff, sitting engrossed with a
tape-reader.

For a moment they thought he hadn't heard them. Then, as though
reluctant to tear himself away, the Blue Doctor sighed, snapped off the
reader, and turned on the swivel stool.

"So!" he said. "I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to get
here."

"We ran into some delays," Tiger said. He grinned and held out his hand.
"Jack Alvarez? Tiger Martin. We met each other at that conference in
Chicago last year."

"Yes, I remember," the Blue Doctor said. "You found some holes in a
paper I gave. Matter of fact, I've plugged them up very nicely since
then. You'd have trouble finding fault with the work now." Jack Alvarez
turned his eyes to Dal. "And I suppose this is the Garvian I've been
hearing about, complete with his little pink stooge."

The moment they had walked in the door, Dal had felt Fuzzy crouch down
tight against his shoulder. Now a wave of hostility struck his mind like
a shower of ice water. He had never seen this thin, dark-haired youth
before, or even heard of him, but he recognized this sharp impression of
hatred and anger unmistakably. He had felt it a thousand times among his
medical school classmates during the past eight years, and just hours
before he had felt it in the council room when Black Doctor Tanner had
turned on him.

"It's really a lucky break that we have Dal for a Red Doctor," Tiger
said. "We almost didn't get him."

"Yes, I heard all about how lucky we are," Jack Alvarez said sourly. He
looked Dal over from the gray fur on the top of his head to the spindly
legs in the ill-fitting trousers. Then the Blue Doctor shrugged in
disgust and turned back to the tape-reader. "A Garvian and his Fuzzy!"
he muttered. "Let's hope one or the other knows something about
surgery."

"I think we'll do all right," Dal said slowly.

"I think you'd better," Jack Alvarez replied.

Dal and Tiger looked at each other, and Tiger shrugged. "It's all
right," he