sign out for this shift?"
he demanded. "Look, poor old Rugel's passed out again. He just won't
admit he can't take it--but one idiot on a watch is enough! Some people
just feel as if the bottom's dropped out of the ship, and that's all
there is to it."

Bart hauled his head upright, fighting a surge of stinging nausea. His
bones itched inside and he was damnably uncomfortable, but he was alive.

"I'm--fine."

"You look it," Ringg said in derision. "Think you can help me get Rugel
to his cabin?"

Bart struggled to his feet, and found that when he was upright he felt
better. "Wow!" he muttered, then clamped his mouth shut. He was supposed
to be an experienced man, a Lhari hardened to space. He said woozily,
"How long was I out?"

"The usual time," Ringg said briskly, "about three seconds--just while
we hit peak warp-drive. Feels longer, so they tell me, sometimes--time's
funny, beyond light-speeds. The medic says it's purely psychological.
I'm not so sure. I _itch_, blast it!"

He moved his shoulders in a squirming way, then bent over Rugel, who was
moaning, half insensible. "Catch hold of his feet, Bartol. Here--ease
him out of his chair. No sense bothering the medics this time. Think you
can manage to help me carry him down to the deck?"

"Sure," Bart said, finding his feet and his voice. He felt better as
they moved along the hallway, the limp, muttering form of the old Lhari
insensible in their arms. They reached the officer's deck, got Rugel
into his cabin and into his bunk, hauled off his cloak and boots. Ringg
stood shaking his head.

"And they say Captain Vorongil's so tough!"

Bart made a questioning noise.

"Why, just look," said Ringg. "He knows it would make poor old Rugel
feel as if he wasn't good for much--to order him into his bunk and make
him take dope like a Mentorian for every warp-shift. So we have this to
go through at every jump!" He sounded cross and disgusted, but there was
a rough, boyish gentleness as he hauled the blanket over the bald old
Lhari. He looked up, almost shyly.

"Thanks for helping me with Old Baldy. We usually try to get him out
before Vorongil officially takes notice. Of course, he sort of keeps his
back turned," Ringg said, and they laughed together as they turned back
to the drive room. Bart found himself thinking, _Ringg's a good kid_,
before he pulled himself up, in sudden shock.

He _had_ lived through warp-drive! Then, indeed, the Lhari had been
lying all al