." But he could not help being impressed, too, by the
enormous size and the graceful lines of the luxury ship. Unlike Alice,
he was not seeing it at close range for the first time. He had met the
ship scores of times in his reporting job, interviewing famous and
well-known personages as they departed or arrived from the fabulous
playgrounds of Mars.

"If you look carefully," Mel pointed out, "you'll see a lot of faces
that make news when they come and go."

Alice's face glowed as she clung to Mel's arm and recognized some of the
famous citizens who would be their fellow passengers. "This is going to
be the most fun we've ever had in our lives, darling."

"Like a barrel of monkeys," Mel said casually, enjoying the bubbling
excitement that was in Alice.

The ship was so completely stabilized that the passengers did not even
have to sit down during takeoff. They crowded the ports to watch the
land and the water shoot past as the ship skimmed half the length of
Lake Michigan in its takeoff run. As it bore into the upper atmosphere
on an ever-increasing angle of climb, its own artificial gravity system
took over and gave the illusion of horizontal flight with the Earth
receding slowly behind.

Mel and Alice wandered through the salons and along the spacious decks
as if in some fairyland-come-true. All sense of time seemed to vanish
and they floated with the great ship in timeless, endless space.

He wasn't quite certain when he first became aware of his own sense of
disquietude. It seemed to result from a change in the members of the
crew. On the morning of the third day they ceased their universal and
uninterrupted concern for their passengers' entertainment and enjoyment.

Most of the passengers seemed to have taken no note of it. Mel commented
to Alice. She laughed at him. "What do you expect? They've spent two
full days showing us the ship and teaching us to play all the games
aboard. You don't expect them to play nurse to us during the whole trip,
do you?"

It sounded reasonable. "I suppose so," said Mel dubiously. "But just
what _are_ they doing? They all seem to be in such a hurry to get
somewhere this morning."

"Well, they must have some duties to perform in connection with running
the ship."

Mel shook his head in doubt.

* * * * *

Alice joined him in wandering about the decks, kibitzing on the games of
the other passengers, and watching the stars and galaxies on the