can't walk out on your contract. If it's a matter of
credits--"

Tee shook his head. "That's not it at all. I just can't stay that long."

Jenner looked at him angrily. "Well, your contract isn't up till the
end of the week anyway. We'll see what we can do about a replacement
then."

* * * * *

After Jenner had left, Tee sat smoking in the darkness. He placed his
elbow on the couch arm and cupped his chin in his palm. Then restlessly,
he snuffed out his cigarette and rubbed his hands together. They felt
moist and clammy. He jerked nervously as a click sounded out in the
hall. Only a door opening across the way. He bit the fleshy part of his
middle finger and then began to worry his ring with his teeth. He lit
another cigarette and dropped it into the disposal almost immediately.

He got up and began to pace the room. Six steps forward. Turn. Six steps
back. Turn. Six steps forward--or was it five this time? The walls
seemed to be closing in, constricting. His head felt light and his
tongue and palate grew dry. He tried to swallow, and a feeling of nausea
came over him. His throat grew tight and he felt as though he were
choking. Rubbing his forehead with the back of his hand it came away wet
with perspiration. He rushed to the window and struggled futilely with
it, forgetting it was sealed shut in the air-conditioned hotel. He flung
himself at the door, wrenching it open and took the escalator three
steps at a time falling to his knees at the ground floor. A surface cab
was sitting outside just beyond the entrance. He flung himself in,
breathing heavily and fumbling to drop a coin in the slot, pulled the
control lever all the way over.

Twenty minutes later, the _Starduster_ hovered for a moment over Aurora,
then shimmered and vanished as it went into subspace.

* * * * *

OCTOBER 2, 435th Year GALACTIC ERA

The _Starduster_ materialized just outside the atmosphere of the planet
Elysia, and fluttered erratically downward, like a wounded bird. A
hundred feet from the surface, the ship hesitated, shuddered throughout
her length, then dropped like a plummet, crashing heavily into a grove
of trees.

For Tee there was a long period of blessed darkness, of peace, of
non-remembering, then his mind clawed upward toward consciousness. The
fear and uncertainty were with him again--nagging, nibbling, gnawing at
his reason.

He fought to close his mind and