Man, it had been known that
certain plants--mushrooms, certain cacti--produced intense
hallucinations. In the mid-twentieth century, scientists--and others
less scientifically minded--had begun to extract those hallucinogenic
compounds, chiefly mescaline and psilocybin. The next step was the
synthesis of hallucinogens--L.S.D. 25 was the first, and it was far
more powerful than the extracts.

[Illustration]

In the next few centuries, more and more different hallucinogens were
synthesized--L.S.D. 105, Johannic acid, huxleyon, baronite.

So by the time the Solar Government had decided that the crew of ship
Number Thirteen would attempt to cope with the terrible reality of
interstellar space by denying that reality, they had quite an
assortment of hallucinogens to choose from.

The one they chose was a new, as-yet-untested ("Two experiments for
the price of one," explained economy-minded officials) and
unbelievably complex compound tentatively called Omnidrene.

Omnidrene was what the name implied--a hallucinogen with all the
properties of the others, some which had proven to be all its own, and
some which were as yet unknown. As ten micrograms was one day's dose
for the average man, it was the ideal hallucinogen for a starship.

So they sealed five men and five women--they had given up on sexually
unbalanced crews--in ship Number Thirteen, along with half a ton of
Omnidrene and their fondest wishes, pointed the ship towards
Centaurus, and prayed for a miracle.

In a way they could not possibly have foreseen, they got it.

* * * * *

As starship Thirteen passed the orbit of Pluto, a meeting was held,
since this could be considered the beginning of interstellar space.

The ship was reasonably large--ten small private cabins, a bridge that
would only be used for planetfalls, large storage areas, and a big
common room, where the crew had gathered.

They were sitting in All-Purpose Lounges, arranged in a circle. A few
had their Lounges at full recline, but most preferred the upright
position.

Oliver Brunei, the nominal captain, had just opened the first case of
Omnidrene, and taken out a bottle of the tiny pills.

"This, fellow inmates," he said, "is Omnidrene. The time has come for
us to indulge. The automatics are all set, we won't have to do a thing
we don't want to for the next eight years."

He poured ten of the tiny blue pills into the palm of his right hand.
"On Earth, t