ra VI was waiting eagerly for the arrival of the
new "green" crew, knowing full well that the doctors aboard would hardly
be able to stumble out of their bunks, much less to cope with medical
problems. The outpost men had concocted a medical "crisis" of staggering
proportions to present to the _Lancet_'s crew; they were so clearly
disappointed to find the ship's Red Doctor in full command of himself
that Dal obligingly became violently ill too, and did his best to mimick
Jack and Tiger's floundering efforts to pull themselves together and do
_something_ about the "problem" that suddenly descended upon them.

Later, there was a party and celebration, with music and food, as the
clinic staff welcomed the pale and shaken doctors into the joke. The
outpost men plied Dal for the latest news from Hospital Earth. They were
surprised to see a Garvian aboard the _Lancet_, but no one at the
outpost showed any sign of resentment at the scarlet braid on Dal's
collar and cuff.

Slowly Jack and Tiger got used to the peculiarities of popping in and
out of hyperspace. It was said that immunity to star-drive sickness was
hard to acquire, but lasted a lifetime, and would never again bother
them once it was achieved. Bit by bit the Earthmen crept out of their
shells, to find the ship in order and a busy Dal Timgar relieved and
happy to have them aboard again.

Fortunately, the medical problems that came to the _Lancet_ in the first
few weeks were largely routine. The ship stopped at the specified
contact points--some far out near the rim of the galactic
constellation, others in closer to the densely star-populated center. At
each outpost clinic the _Lancet_ was welcomed with open arms. The
outpost men were hungry for news from home, and happy to see fresh
supplies; but they were also glad to review the current medical problems
on their planets with the new doctors, exchanging opinions and arguing
diagnosis and therapy into the small hours of the night.

Occasionally calls came in to the ship from contract planets in need of
help. Usually the problems were easy to handle. On Singall III, a tiny
planet of a cooling giant star, help was needed to deal with a new
outbreak of a smallpox-like plague that had once decimated the
population; the disease had finally been controlled after a Hospital
Earth research team had identified the organism that caused it,
determined its molecular structure, and synthesized an antibiotic that
could destroy