and store them in one of the holds."

Vinson, sweating and unhappy now, had visions of a black mark on his
record, and determined to make his point.

"But about Kieran, sir--he was only frozen. Suppose there was a chance
to bring him back?"

"Bring him back? What the devil are you talking about?"

Vinson said, "I read they're trying to find some way of restoring a man
that gets space-frozen. Some scientists down at Delhi University. If
they succeeded, and if we had Kieran still intact in space--"

"Oh, hell, that's just a scientific pipe-dream, they'll never find a way
to do that," Meloni said. "It's all just theory."

"Yes, sir," said Vinson, hanging his head.

"We've got trouble enough here without you bringing up ideas like this,"
the captain continued angrily. "Get out of here."

Vinson was now completely crushed. "Yes, sir. I'll bring the bodies in."

* * * * *

He went out. Meloni stared at the door, and began to think. A commanding
officer had to be careful, or he could get skinned alive. If, by some
remote chance, this Delhi idea ever succeeded, he, Meloni, would be in
for it for having Kieran buried. He strode to the door and flung it
open, mentally cursing the young snotty who had had to bring this up.

"Vinson!" he shouted.

The lieutenant turned back, startled. "Yes, sir?"

"Hold Kieran's body outside. I'll check on this with Mexico City."

"Yes, sir."

Still angry, Meloni shot a message to Personnel at Mexico City. That
done, he forgot about it. The buck had been passed, let the boys sitting
on their backsides down on Earth handle it.

Colonel Hausman, second in command of Personnel Division of UNRC, was
the man to whom Meloni's message went. He snorted loudly when he read
it. And later, when he went in to report to Garces, the brigadier
commanding the Division, he took the message with him.

"Meloni must be pretty badly rattled by the crash," he said. "Look at
this."

Garces read the message, then looked up. "Anything to this? The Delhi
experiments, I mean?"

Hausman had taken care to brief himself on that point and was able to
answer emphatically.

"Damned little. Those chaps in Delhi have been playing around freezing
insects and thawing them out, and they think the process might be
developed someday to where it could revive frozen spacemen. It's an iffy
idea. I'll burn Meloni's backside off for bringing it up at a time like
this."

Garces, after a