t.
Everyone has such a breaking point, and arrives at it just that way if
he's pushed far enough."

"Everyone?"

Paresi looked from face to face, and nodded somberly. Anderson asked,
"What knocked him out? He's trained to take far more strain than that."

"Oh, he isn't suffering from any physical or conscious mental fatigue.
The one thing he wanted to do was to get away from a terrifying
situation. He convinced himself that he flew out of it. The next best
thing he could do to keep anything else from attacking him was to sleep.
He very much appreciated my suggestion that he was worn out and needed
to stretch out."

"I'd very much appreciate some such," said Ives. "Do it to me, Nick."

"Reach your breaking point first," said the doctor flatly, and went to
place a pillow between Johnny's head and a guard-rail.

Hoskins turned away to stare at the peaceful landscape outside. The
Captain watched him for a moment, then: "Hoskins!"

"Aye."

"I've seen that expression before. What are you thinking about?"

The engineer looked at him, shrugged, and said mildly, "Chess."

"What, especially?"

"Oh, a very general thing. The reciprocity of the game. That's what
makes it the magnificent thing it is. Most human enterprises can gang up
on a man, slap him with one disaster after another without pause. But
not chess. No matter who your opponent might be, every time he does
something to you, _it's your move_."

"Very comforting. Have you any idea of how we move now?"

Hoskins looked at him, a gentle surprise on his aging face. "You missed
my point, Skipper. _We_ don't move."

"Oh," the Captain whispered. His face tautened as it paled, "I ... I
see. We pushed the airlock button to get out. Countermove: It wouldn't
work. We tried the manual. Countermove: It broke off. And so on. Now
we've tried to fly the ship out. Oh, but Hoskins--Johnny broke. Isn't
that countermove enough?"

"Maybe. Maybe you're right. Maybe the move wasn't trying the drive
controls, though. Maybe the move was to do what was necessary to knock
Johnny out." He shrugged again. "We'll very soon see."

The Captain exhaled explosively through his nostrils. "We'll find out if
it's our move by moving," he gritted. "Ives! Paresi! We're going to go
over this thing from the beginning. First, try the port. You, Ives."

Ives grunted and went to the ship's side. Then he stopped.

"_Where is the port?_"

Anderson and Paresi followed Ives' flaccid, shocked gaz