Project Nursemaid

Judith Merril

I

THE GIRL IN the waiting room was very young, and very ill at ease. She closed the magazine in her lap, which she had not been read-ing, and leaned back in the chair, determined to relax. It was an interview, nothing more. If they asked too many questions or if anything happened that looked like trouble, she could just leave and not come back.

And then what... ?

They wouldn't, anyhow. The nurse had told her. She didn't even have to give her right name. It didn't matter. And they wouldn't check up. All they cared about was if you could pass the physical.

That's what the nurse had said, but she didn't like the nurse, and she wished now that she had bought a wedding ring after all. Thirty-nine cents in the five-and-ten, and she had stood there looking at them, and gone away again. Partly it was knowing the salesgirl would think she was going to use it for a hotel, or some-thing like that.

Mostly, it was just--wrong. A ring on your finger was supposed to mean something, even for thirty-nine cents. If she had to lie with words, she could, but not with...

That was silly. She should have bought it. Only what a ring meant was one thing, and what Charlie had meant was something else.

Everybody's got to learn their lesson sooner or later, honey, the nurse had said.

But it wasn't like that, she wanted to say. Only it was. It was for Charlie, so what difference did it make what she thought?

'I still say, it's a hell of a way to run an Army.'

'You could even be right,' said the Colonel, and both of them smiled. Two men who find themselves jointly responsible for a vitally important bit of insanity, who share a strong, if reluctant, mutual respect for each other's abilities, and who disagree with each other about almost everything, will find themselves smiling frequently, he had discovered.

The General, who was also a politician, stopped smiling and added, 'Besides which, it's downright immoral! These girls--kids! You'd think...'

The Colonel, who was also a psychologist, stopped smiling too. The General had a daughter very much the same age as the one who was waiting outside right now.

'It's one hell of a way to run an Army.'

The Colonel nodded. His concept of morality did not coincide precisely with the General's, but his disapproval was not one whit less vehement. He had already expressed his views in a paper rather dramatically entitled 'Brave New World???'

which dealt with the predictable results of regimentation in prenatal and infantile conditioning. The manuscript, neatly typed, occupied the rearmost position in a folder of personal correspondence in his bottom desk drawer, and he had no more intention of express-ing his view now to the General than he had of submitting the paper for publication. He had discovered recently that he could disapprove of everything he was doing, and still desire to defend his right to do it; beyond doubt, it was better than supervising psych checks at some more conventional recruiting depot.

'A hell of a way,' he agreed, with sincerity, and glanced mean-ingfully at his appointment pad.

Thursday was apparently not the General's day for accepting hints gracefully from junior officers; he sat down in the visitor's chair, and glared. Then he sighed.

'All right, so it's still the way we have to run it. Nobody asked you. Nobody asked me. And I'll say this, Tom, in all fairness, you've done a fine job on one end of it.

We're getting the babies, and we're delivering them too...'

'That's more your work than mine, Hal,' the Colonel lyingly demurred.

'Teamwork,' the General corrected. 'Not yours or mine, but both of us giving it everything we've got. But on this other business, now, Tom--' His finger tapped a reprimand on the sheaf of papers under his hand. '--Well, what comes first, Tom, the chicken or the egg? All eggs and no hens, it just won't work.'

The General stopped the chuckle, and the Colonel followed suit.

'The thing is, now we've got the bastards--and I mean no dis-respect to my uniform, Colonel, I'm using that word literally--now we've got 'em, what're we going to do with 'cm?'

His fingers continued to tap on the pile of reports, not im-patiently, but with emphasis.

'I don't say it's your fault, Tom, you've done fine on the other end, but if you're going to bounce everybody who can pass the physicals, and if everyone who gets by you is going to get blacked out by the medics, well--I don't know, maybe the specs were set too high. Maybe you've got to--well, I don't want to tell you how to do your job, Tom. I don't kid myself about that; I know I couldn't fill your shoes if I tried. All I can do is put it squarely up to you. You've got the figures there in front of you. Cold figures, and you know what they mean.'

He stopped tapping long enough to shove a neatly typed sheet an inch closer to the other man. Neither of them looked at the sheet; both of them knew the figures by heart. 'Out of three hundred and thirty-six applicants so far, we've accepted thirty-eight. We've had twenty-one successful Sections to date,' the General intoned.'

'And six of those have been successfully trans-ported to Moon Base. Three have already come to term, and been delivered, healthy and whole and apparently in good shape all around.

'Out of one hundred and ninety-six applicants, we have so far accepted exactly three--one, two, three--foster parents. Only one of those is on the Base now. She's been on active duty since the first delivery--that was August 2z, if I remember right, and that makes twenty-five days today that's she's been on without relief.

'Mrs. Kemp left on the rocket this morning. She'll be on Base--let's see--' He shuffled rocket schedules and Satellite-Moon Base shuttles in his mind.

'--Wednesday, day after tomorrow. Which makes twenty-seven days for Lenox. If Kemp's willing to walk in and take over on a strange job, Lenox can take a regular single leave at that point; more likely she'll have to wait for the next shuttle--thirty-one days on duty, Torn, and most of it carrying full responsibility alone. And that's not counting the two days she was there before the first delivery, which adds up to--let's see--thirty-three altogether, isn't it?'

The Colonel nodded soberly. It was hard to remember that the General happened to be right, and that the figures he was quoting were meaningful, in terms of human beings. Carefully, he lowered mental blinds, and managed to keep track of the recital without having to hear it all. He knew the figures, and he knew the situation was serious. He knew it a good deal better than the General did, because he knew the people as well as how many there were... or weren't.

More women on more rockets would make the tally-sheet look better, but it wouldn't provide better care for the babies; not unless they were the right women.

He waited patiently for a break in the flow of arithmetic, and tried to get this point across. 'I was thinking,' he began. 'On this leave problem--couldn't we use some of the Army nurses for relief duty, till we catch up with ourselves? That would take some of the pressure off and I'd a lot rather have the kids in the care of somebody we didn't know for a few days than send up extra people on one-year contracts when we do know they're not adequate.'

'It's a last resort, Tom. That's just what I'm trying to avoid. I'm hoping we won't have to do that,' the General said ominously. 'Right now, this problem is in our laps, and nobody else's. If we start asking for help from the Base staff, and get their schedules fouled up--I tell you, Tom, we'll have all the top brass there is down on us.'

'Of course,' he said. 'I wasn't thinking of that angle...' But he let it go. No sense trying to make any point against the Supreme Argument.

'Well, that's my job, not yours, worrying about things likethat,' the General said jovially. But all the time, one finger, as if with an independent metronomic existence of its own, kept tap-ping the pile of psych reports. 'But you know as well as I do, we've got to start showing better results. I've talked to the Medics, and I'm talking to you. Maybe you ought to get together and figure how to...

'No, I said I wouldn't tell you how to do your job, and I won't. But we've got to have somebody on that December 8 rocket. That's the outside limit, and it means you've got three weeks to find her. If nobody comes up, I don't think we'll have any choice but to reconsider some of the rejects, and see if we can settle on somebody between us.'

The General stood up; so did the Colonel. 'I won't keep you any longer, Tom. I believe there's a young--lady?--outside waiting for you.' He shook his head. 'It's a good thing I don't have to talk to them,' the General said feelingly.

The Colonel, again, agreed.

They both smiled.

The intercom phone on the Wac's desk buzzed. The girl sat up straight, watching.

The Wac picked up the receiver and listened and said crisply, 'Yes, sir,' and hung up and pushed back her chair and went through the door behind the desk, into the Colonel's office.

The girl watched, and when the door closed, her eyes mo,ved to the wall mirror over the long table on the opposite wall, and she wondered if she would ever in her life achieve the kind of groomed smartness the Wac had. She was pretty; she knew that without looking in the mirror. But it seemed to her that she was bulky and shapeless and unformed. Her hair was soft and cloudy-brownish, where the Wac's was shiningly coifed and determinate in colour; and where the Wac was trim and tailored, the contours of her own body, under the powder-blue suit, were fluid and vaguely indistinct.

It's just a matter of getting older, she thought, and she won-dered what the Wac would do in the spot she was in. But it wouldn't happen. A woman like that wouldn't let it happen. Anybody who could keep each hair in place that way could keep a hold on her emotions, too; or at least make sure it was safe, ahead of time.

The door opened, and the Wac smiled at her. 'You can go in now, Mrs. Barton,' she said, a little too kindly.

She knows! The girl could feel the heat flame in her cheeks. Of course! Everybody here would know what was the matter with the girls who went in to see Colonel Edgerly. She walked stiffly past the other woman, without looking at her.

'Mrs. Barton?' The Colonel stood up, greeting her. He was too young. Much too young. She could never talk to him about--there was nothing to talk about. She didn't have to tell him about anything. Only he should have been older, and not so nice-looking.

He pulled up a chair for her, and went through all the ordinary gestures of courtesy, getting her settled. He was wearing a Colonel's uniform all right, but he didn't look like one, and he didn't act like one. He took a pack of cigarettes out of his desk drawer, offered her one, and lit it for her. All that time, she didn't have to say anything; and by then, she was able to talk.

The application form was a necessary formality. He wrote down the name and address she gave, and a little doubtfully, after AGE, nineteen. She surprised him by claiming student as her occupation, instead of the conventional housewife, but every-thing else went according to expectations. She had had measles and mumps, but no chicken pox or scarlet fever or whooping cough. No operations, no previous pregnancies, no congenital conditions. He checked down the list rapidly, indifferently. When she'd had her physical, they'd know the accurate answers to all these things. Meantime, the girl was answering familiar questions that she had answered a hundred times before, in less frightening places, and they were getting near the bottom of the sheet.

He looked over at her, smiling a little, frowning a little, and his voice was apologetic with the first personal, and pertinent, ques-tion. 'Have you had a medical examination yet?'

'No, they said the interview was first .. . Ohl You mean for...? Yes. Yes, of course.'

'Do you know how far along you are?' His eyes were on the form, and he scribbled as he talked.

She took a deep breath. 'Eleven weeks,' she said. 'The doctor said last week it was ten, so--so I guess it's eleven now,' she finished weakly.

'Do you think your husband would be willing to come down for a physical? We like to get records on both parents if we can...' There was no answer. He looked up, and she was shaking her head; her face was white, and she wasn't breathing at all.

'You're quite sure?' he said politely. 'It's not necessary; but it does work to the advantage of the child, if we have as much information as possible.'

'I'm sorry,' she said tightly. 'He--' She paused, and made up her mind. 'He doesn't know about it. We're both still in school, Colonel. If .I told him, he'd think he had to quit, and start working. I can't tell him.'

It sounded like the truth, almost, but her face was too stiffly composed, and the pulse in her temple beat visibly against the pale mask. Her words were too precise, when her breath was coming so quickly. She wasn't used to lying.

'You realize that what you're doing here is a real and im-portant contribution, Mrs.

Barton? Don't you think he might see it that way? Maybe if I talked to him... ?'

She shook her head again. 'No. If it's that important, I guess I better...' The voice trailed off, almost out of control, and her lips stayed open a little, her eyes wide, frightened, not knowing what the end of that sentence could possibly be.

The Colonel pushed the printed sheet away from him, and looked at her intently. It was time for the last question.

'Mrs. Barton-- What do people call you, anyway? Cccille? Cissy? Ceil? Do you mind... ?'

'No, that's all right. Ceil.' It was a very small smile, but she was obviously more comfortable.

'All right, Ceil. Now look--there's a line on the bottom there that asks your reason for volunteering. I wish it wasn't there, because I don't like inviting lies. I know, and everybody con-nected with this project knows, that it takes some pretty special motivation for a woman to volunteer for something like this. Occasionally we get someone in here who's doing it out of pure and simple--and I do mean simple--patriotism, and then I don't mind asking that question. I don't think that applies to you... ?'

She shook her head, and tried a smile.

'Okay. I wanted to explain my own attitude before I asked. I don't care why you're doing it. I'm damn glad you are, because I think you're the kind of parent we want. You'll go through some pretty rugged tests before we accept you, but by this time I can usually tell who'll get through, and who won't. I think you will.

And it's in the nature of things that if you are the right kind, you'd have to have a pretty special personal reason for doing this... ?'

He waited. Her lips moved, but no sound came out. She tried again, and when she swallowed, he could almost feel in his own throat the lump that wouldn't let her lie come out. He pulled the application form closer to him, and wrote quickly in the last space at the bottom, then shoved it across, so she could see: I think I'm too young to raise a child properly, and I want to help out.

'All right?' he asked gently. She nodded, and there were tears in her eyes. He opened the top drawer and got her some Kleenex. Again she started to say something, and swallowed instead; then the dam broke. He wheeled his chair over to her, and reached out a comforting hand. Then her head was on his shoulder, and she was crying in loud snuffly childish sobs. When it began to let up, he gave her some more Kleenex, and got his chair back in posi-tion so he could kick the button under the desk and dim the light a little.

'Still want to go through with it?' he asked.

She nodded.

'Want to tell me any more?'

She did; she obviously wanted to very much. She kept her lips pressed firmly together, as if the words might get out in spite of herself.

'You don't have to,' he said. 'If you want to, you understand it stops right here. The form is filled out already. There's nothing else I have to put on there. But if you feel like talking a little, now that we're--' he grinned, and glanced at the damp spot onhis shoulder, '--now that we're better acquainted--well, you might feel better if you spill some of it.'

'There's nothing to tell,' she said carefully. 'Nothing you don't already know.' Her face was expressionless; there was no way to tell what she meant.

'All right,' he said. 'In that case, sit back and get comfortable, because I've got some things to tell you. The Colonel is about to make a speech.' She smiled, but it was a polite smile now; for a minute, she had warmed up, now they were strangers again.

He had made the same speech, with slight variations, exactly 237 times before.

Every girl or woman who got past him to the medics heard it before she went. The wording and the manner changed for each one, but the substance was the same.

All he was supposed to do was to explain the nature and purposes of the Project.

Presumably, they already knew that when they came in, but he was supposed to make sure. He did. He made very sure that they understood, as well as each one was able, not only the purposes, but the nature : what kind of lives their children might be expected to lead.

It never made any difference. He knew it wouldn't now. Just once, a woman had come to them because she had been warned that carrying a child to term would mean her death and the baby's, both. She had listened and understood, and had asked soberly whether there were any similar facilities available privately. He had had to admit there were not. The process was too expensive, even for this purpose, except on a large-scale basis. To do it for one infant would be possible, perhaps, for a Rocke-feller or an Aga Khan--not on any lesser scale. The woman had listened, and hesitated, and decided that life, on any terms, was better than no life at all.

But this girl with her tremulous smile and her frightened eyes and her unweathered skin--this girl had not yet realized even that it was a human life she carried inside herself; so far, she understood only that she had done something foolish, and that there was a slim chance she might be able to remedy the error without total disaster or too much dishonour.

He started with the history of the Project, explaining the reasons for it, and the thinking behind it : the psychosomatic problems of low-gray and null-weight conditions; the use of hypnosis, and its inadequacies; the eventual recognition that only those conditioned from infancy to low-gray conditions would ever be able to make the Starhop... or even live in any comfort on the Moon.

He ran through it, but she wasn't listening. Either she knew it already, or she just wasn't interested. The Colonel kept talking, only because he was required to brief all applicants on this material.

'The problem was how to get the babies to the Base. So far, nobody has been able to take more than four months of Moon-grav without fairly serious somatic effects, or else a total emo tional crackup. It wasn't practical to take families there, to raise our crop of conditioned babies, and we couldn't safely transport women in their last month of pregnancy, or new-born babies, either one.'

She was paying attention, in a way. She was paying attention to him, but he could have sworn she wasn't hearing a word he said.

'The operation,' he went on, 'was devised by Dr. Jordan Zamesh, of the Navy..?

'I'm sorry,' she said suddenly, 'about your uniform.'

'Uniform... ?' He glanced at the spot on his shoulder. 'Oh, that's all right. It's almost dry, anyhow. Dacron.' Damn! He'd miscalculated. She was too young to stew over a brief loss of control this way--but she'd been doing it anyhow, and he hadn't noticed. Which was what came of worrying about your boss when you were supposed to have your mind on the customers. Damn!

And double it for the General. She might have been ready to talk, and he'd rushed into his little speech like an idiot while she sat there getting over the sobbing-spell. All by herself. Without any nice sympathetic help from the nice sympathetic man.

'I guess,' she was saying, 'I suppose you're used to that?'

'I keep the Kleenex handy,' he admitted.

'Does everybody--?'

'Nope. Just the ones who have sense enough to know what they're doing. The high-powered patriots don't, I guess. All the others do, sooner or later, here or some place else.' He looked ather, sitting there so much inside herself, so miserably determined td sustain her isolation, so falsely safe inside the brittle armour of her loneliness. She had cried for a minute, and cracked the armour by that much, and now she hated herself for it.

'What the hell kind of a woman do you think you'd be?' he said grimly. 'If you'll pardon my emphasis--what the hell kind of woman could give a baby away without crying a little?'

'I didn't have to do it on your uniform.'

'You didn't have to, but I'm glad you did.'

'You don't have to feel...' She caught herself, just in time, and the Colonel restrained a smile. She had almost forgotten that there wasn't any reason to feel sorry for Mrs. Barton.

She smoothed out her face, regained a part of her composure. 'I'm sorry,' she said. 'All I do is apologize, isn't it? Now I mean I'm sorry, because I wasn't really listening to you. I was too embarrassed, I guess.

'I'll listen now.'

He'd lost her again. For a moment, there had almost been contact, but now she was gone, alone with her shell of quiet politeness. The Colonel went on with his speech.

'... the operation is not dangerous,' he explained, 'except in-sofar as any operation, or the use of anaesthesia, is occasionally dangerous to a rare individual. However, we have managed to cut down on even that narrow margin; the physical exams you'll get before the application is approved will pretty well determine whether there is any reason why you should not undergo opera-tive procedure.

'Essentially, what we do is a simple Caesarian section. There are modifications, of course, to allow the placenta and membrane to be removed intact, but these changes do not make the opera-tion any more dangerous.

'There is a certain percentage of loss in the postoperative care of the embryos. Occasionally, the nutritive surrogate doesn't "take", whether because of miscalculations on our part, or un known factors in the embryo, we can't tell, but for the most part, the embryos thrive and continue to grow in normal fashion, and the few that have already been transported have all survived the trip--'

'Colonel... ?'

He was relieved; he hadn't entirely misread her. She was a nice girl, a good girl, who would be a good wife and mother some day, and she interrupted just where she ought to.

'Yes?' He let himself smile a little bit, and she took it the right way.

'Does-- Is-- I mean, you said, the operation isn't dangerous. But what does it do as far as--having babies later goes?'

'To the best of our knowledge, it will not impair either your ability to conceive or your capacity to carry a baby through a normal pregnancy. Depending on your own healing potential, and on the results of some new techniques we're using, you may have to have Caesarians with any future deliveries.'

'Oh!'

As suddenly as it had happened before, when she cried, the false reserve of shame and pride and worry fell away from her. Her eyes were wide, and her tongue flickered out to wet her upper lip before she could say, 'There'll be a scar! Won't there? This time, I mean?'

There were two things he could say, and the one that would comfort her would also seal her away again behind the barrier of proper manners and assumed assurance. He spoke slowly and deliberately : 'Perhaps you'd better tell your husband beforehand, Ceil....'

She stared at him blankly; she'd forgotten about the husband again. Then she sat up in her chair and looked straight at him. 'You know I'm not married!' she said. She was furious.

The Colonel sat back and relaxed. He picked up the application blank he had filled out, and calmly tore it down the centre.

'All right,' she said tiredly. She stood up. 'I'm sorry I wasted your time.'

'You didn't,' he said quietly. 'Not unless you've changed your mind, that is.'

Half-way to the door, she turned around and looked at him. She didn't say anything, just waited.

He took a fresh form out of his drawer, and motioned to the chair. 'Sit down, won't you?' She took a tentative half-step back towards him, and paused, still waiting. He stood up, and walked around the desk, carefully not going too close to her. Leaning onthe edge of the desk, he said quietly, in matter-of-fact tones : Look, Ceil, right now you're confused. You're so angry you don't care what happens, and you're feeling so beat, you haven't got the energy to be mad. You don't know where you're going, or where you can go. And you don't see any sense in staying. All right, your big guilty secret is out now, and I personally don't give a damn--except for one thing: that it had to come out before we could seriously consider your application.'

He watched the colour come back to her face, and her eyes go wide again. 'You mean--?' she said and stopped. Looked at the chair; looked at the door; looked at him, waiting again.

'I mean,' he said, 'bluntly, that I used every little psychological trick I know to get you to make that Horrible Admission. I did it because what we're doing here is both important and expensive, and we don't take babies without knowing what we're getting. Besides which, I think you're the kind of parent we want. I didn't want to let you get away. I hope you won't go now.' He reached out and put a hand on her arm.

'Sit down, won't you, Ceil? It won't hurt to listen a while, and I think we can work things out.'

This time he pretended not to notice the tears, and gave her a chance to brush them away, and get settled in the chair again, while he did some unnecessary rummaging around in his closet. After that it went smoothly. They stuck to the assumed name, Barton, but he got her real name as well, and the college she was going to. She lived at school; that would make the arrangements easier.

'We can't do it till the fifth month,' he explained. 'If everything goes all right till then, we can probably arrange for an emergency appendectomy easily enough.

You'll come in for regular check-ups meanwhile; and if things start to get too--obvious, we'll have to work out something more complicated, to get you out of school for a while beforehand. The scar is enough like an appen-dix scar to get away with,' he added.

The one thing he had really been disturbed about was her age, but she insisted she was really nineteen, and of course he could verify that with the school. And the one thing she wouldn't break down about was the father's name. He decided that could wait. Also, he left out the unfinished part of his speech : the part about the training the children would have. For this girl, it was clear, the only realities were in the immediate present, and the once-removed direct consequences of present acts. She was nineteen; the scar mattered, but the child did not. Not yet.

He took her to the outer office and asked Helen, at the desk, to make an appointment for her with Medical and to give her the standard literature. Helen pushed a small stack of phone mes-sages over to him, and he riffled through. Just one urgent item, a woman in the infirmary with a fit of postoperative melancholia.

They're all in such a damn hurry to get rid of the babies, he thought, and then they want to kill themselves afterwards! And this nice girl, this pretty child, would be the same way....

Helen had Medical on the phone. 'Tell them I'll be right down,' he told her, 'for Mrs. Anzio. Ten-fifteen minutes.'

She nodded, confirmed the time and date for Ceil's appoint-ment, and repeated the message, then listened a minute, nodding.

'All right, I'll tell him.' She hung up, pulled a prepared stuffed manila envelope out of her file, and handed it to the girl. 'Four-fifteen, Friday. Bring things for overnight.

You'll be able to leave about Sunday morning.' She smiled professionally, scribbling the time on an appointment-reminder slip.

'I'll have to get a weekend pass--to stay overnight,' the girl said hesitantly.

'All right. Let us know if you can't do it this weekend, and we'll fix it when you can.' The Colonel led her to the door, and turned back to his secretary inquiringly.

'They said no rush, but you better see her before you leave today. They're afraid it might get suicidal.'

'Yeah. I know.' He looked at her, smart and brisk and shiny, the perfect Lady Soldier. She had been occupying that desk for three weeks now, and he had yet to find a chink or peephole in the gleaming wall of her efficiency. And for an old Peeping Tom like me, this is going some! The thought was indignant. 'You know what?' he said.

'Sir?'

'This is a hell of a way to run an Army!'

'Yes, sir,' she said; but she managed to put a good deal of meaning into it.

'I take it you agree, but you don't approve. If it will make you feel any better, I have the General's word for it. He told me so himself. Now what about this Browne woman?'

'Oh. She called twice. The second time she told me she wants to apply for FP. I told her you were in conference, and would call her back. She was very--insistent.'

'I see. Well, you call her back, and make an appointment for tomorrow. Then...'

'There's another FP coming tomorrow afternoon,' she reminded him. 'A Mrs.

Leahy.'

'Weill Two in one day. Maybe business is picking up. Put Browne in first thing in the morning. Then call the Dean of Women at Henderson, and make an appointment for me--I'll go there--any time that's convenient. Sooner the better. Tell her it's the Project, but don't say what about.' There were three more messages; he glanced at them again, and tossed them back on her desk. 'You can handle these. I better go see that Anzio woman.'

'What shall I tell General Martin, sir?' She picked up the slip with the message from his office, and studied it with an air of uninformed bewilderment.

The Perfect Lady Soldier, all right, he decided. No bucks passed to her. 'Tell his secretary that I had to rush down to Medical, and I'll ring him back when I'm done,'

he said, and managed to make it sound as if that was what he'd meant all along.

II

IN THE MORNING, very slightly hung over, he checked first with the Infirmary, and was told that Mrs. Anzio had been quiet after he left, had eaten well, and had spent the night under heavy seda-tion. She was quiet now, but had refused breakfast.

'She supposed to go home today?'

'That's right, sir.'

'Well, don't let her go. I'll get down when I have a chance, and see how she sounds. Who's O.D. down there? Bill Sawyer?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Well, tell him I'd suggest stopping sedation now.'

'Yes, sir.'

He hung up and buzzed Helen. 'You can send Miss Browne in now.'

Miss Browne settled her bony bottom on the edge of the visitors' chair. She was dressed in black, with one smart-looking gold pin on her lapel to show she was modern and broad-minded--and a mourning-band on her sleeve, to show she wasn't too forgetful of the old-fashioned proprieties. She spoke in a faintly nasal whine, and used elegant, refined language and diction.

It took about 6o seconds to determine that she could not be seriously considered for the job. It took another 6o minutes to go through the formality of filling out an application blank, and hearing her reasons for wanting to spend a year at Moon Base in the service of the State. It took most of the rest of the morning to compose a report that might make clear to the General just why they could not use an apparently healthy woman of less than thirty-five years, with no dependents or close attachments (her father had just died, after a long illness, during which she had given up 'everything' to care for him), with some nursing experi-ence, and with a stated desire to 'give what I can for society, now that there is nothing more I can do for my beloved father.'

Give, he thought. Give till it hurts. Then give a little more, till it hurts as much as possible. It was inevitable that this sort of job should attract the martyr types; inevitable, but still you won-dered, when nine-tenths of the population had never heard of the Project, just how so many of this kind came so swiftly and unerringly to the waiting room.

He wrote it down twice for the General: once with psycho-logical jargon, meant to impress; and again with adjectives and examples, and a case history or two, meant to educate. When he was done, he had little hope that he had succeeded in making his point. He signed the report and handed it to Helen to send up.

Mrs. Leahy, in the afternoon, was a surprise.

She walked into his office with no sign of either the reluctance-and-doubt or the eagerness-and-arrogance that marked almostevery applicant who entered there. She sat down comfortably in tl'e visitors' chair, and introduced herself with a friendliness and social ease that made it clear she was accustomed to meeting strangers.

She was a plump--not fat--attractive woman, past her first youth, but in appearance not yet what could be called middle-aged. He was startled when she stated her age as forty-seven; he was further startled when she stated her occupation.

'Madam,' she said, and chuckled with pleasure when he couldn't help himself from looking up sharply. 'You don't know how I've been waiting to see your face when I said that,' she explained, and he thought wearily, I should have known. Just another exhibitionist. For a few minutes, he had begun to think he had one they could use.

'Do you always show your feelings all over your face like that?' she asked gleefully. 'You'd think, in your job-- The reason I was looking forward to saying it was--well, two reasons. First, I figured you'd be one of these suave-faced operators, profession-ally unshockable, and I wanted to jolt you.'

'You did, and I am,' he said gravely. 'Usually.'

She smiled. 'Second, I'm not often in a position to pull off any-thing like that.

People would disapprove, and what's worse, they'd refuse to wait on me in stores, or read me lectures, or--anyhow, it seemed to me that here I could just start out telling the truth, seeing that you'd find out anyhow. I don't suppose the people you accept get sent up before you've checked them?'

'You're right again.' He pushed his chair back, and decided to relax and enjoy it.

He liked this woman. 'Tell me some more.'

She did, at length and entertainingly. She was a successful businesswoman. She had proved that much to her own satisfac-tion, and now she was bored. The house ran itself, almost, and was earning more money than she needed for personal use.

She had no real interest in expanding her operations; success for its own sake meant nothing to her. She had somehow escaped the traditional pitfalls of Career; maybe it was the specialized nature of her business that never let her forget she was a woman, and so preserved her femininity of both viewpoint and personality.

It was harder to understand how she had managed to escape the normal occupational disease of her world : the yearning for respectability and a place in conventional society. Instead she wanted new places, new faces, and something to do that would make use of her abilities and give scope to her abundant affections.

'I've never had children of my own,' she said, and for the first time lost a trace of her aplomb. 'I--you realize, in my business, you don't start out at the top? A lot of the girls are sterile to start with, and a lot more get that way. Since I started my own place, the girls have been almost like my own--some of them, the ones I keep--but ... I think I'd like to have some real babies to take care of.' Her voice came back to normal: 'Getting to grandmother age, I guess.'

I see.' He sat up briskly, and finished the official form, making quick notes as she parried his questions with efficient quiet answers. When he was done, he looked up and met her eyes, unwillingly. 'I may as well be frank with you, Mrs. Leahy--'

'Brush-off?' she broke in softly.

He nodded. 'I'm afraid so.' She started to get up, and he reached out a hand, involuntarily, as if to hold her in her seat. 'Don't go just yet. Please. There's something I'd like to say.'

She sat still, waiting, the bitterness behind her eyes veiled with polite curiosity.

'Just...' He hesitated, wanting to pick the right words to get through her sudden defences. 'Just that, in my personal opinion, you're the best prospect we've had in six months. I haven't got the nerve to say it in so many words, when I make my report. But I didn't fill out that form just to use up more of your time. If it were up to me, you'd be on your way down for a physical exam right now. Unfortunately, I am not the custodian of moralities in this Army, or even on Project.

'What I'm going to do is send in a report recommending that we reserve decision.

I'll tell you now in confidence that we're having a hard time getting the right kind of people. The day may come--' He broke off, and looked at her almost pleadingly.

'You understand? I can't recommend you, and if I did, I'd be over-ruled. But I wish I could, and if things change, you may still hear from us.'

'I understand.' She stood up, looking tired; then, with an effort, sho resumed her cheerful poise, and took his offered hand to shake good-bye. 'I won't wish you bad luck, so--good-bye.'

'Good-bye. And thank you,' he said with sincerity, 'for coming in.'

Then he wrote up his report, went down to see the Anzio woman, cleared her for release, and went home where a half-empty bottle waited from the night before.

There was no summons from the General waiting for him in the morning, and no friendly, casual visit during the hour before he left to see Dean Lazarus at Henderson. He didn't know whether to regard the silence as ominous or hopeful; so he forgot it, temporarily, and concentrated on the Dean.

He approached her cautiously, with generalizations about the Project, and the hope that if she were ever in a position to refer anyone to them, she would be willing to co-operate, etc., etc. She was pleasant, polite, and intelligent for half an hour, and then she became impatient.

'All right, Colonel, suppose we come to the point?'

'What point did you have in mind?' he countered warily.

'I have two students waiting outside to see me,' she said, 'and I imagine you also have other business to attend to. I take it one of our girls is in what is called "trouble"? She came to you, and you want to know whether I'll work with you, or whether the kid will get bounced out of school if I know about it. Stop me if I'm wrong.'

'Go on,' he said.

'All right. The answer is, it depends on the girl. There are some I'd grab any chance to toss out. But I'd guess, from the fact that she wound up coming to you, she either isn't very experienced or she is conscientious. Or both.'

'I'd say both, on the basis of our interview.'

She looked him over thoughtfully. Lousy technique, he thought, and had to curb a wicked impulse to ham up his role and confuse her entirely; it wasn't often he had a chance to sit in the visitors' chair.

That studying look of hers would put anybody on the de fensive, he thought critically, and then realized that maybe it was meant to do just that. Her job didn't have the same requirements as his.

'Let me put it this way,' she said finally. 'I'm here to try to help several hundred adolescent females get some education into their heads, and I don't mean just out of books. I'm also here to see to it that the College doesn't get a bad reputation : no major scandals or suicides, or anything like that. If the girl is worth helping, and if you want my co-operation in a plan that will keep things quiet and respectable, and make it possible for her to continue at school--believe me, you'll have it.'

That left it squarely up to him. Was the girl 'worth helping'? or rather : would Dean Lazarus think so?

'I think,' he said slowly, 'I'll have to ask you to promise me first--since your judgment and mine may not agree--that you won't use any information you get from me against the girl. If you don't want to help, when you know who it is, you'll just sit back. All right?'

She thought that over. 'Providing I don't happen to acquire the same information from other sources,' she said.

'Without going looking for it,' he added.

'I'm an honest woman, Colonel Edgerly.'

'I think you are. I have your word?'

'You do.'

'The girl's name is Cecille Chanute. You know her... ?'

'Cell! Oh, my God! Of course. It's always the ones you don't worry about! Who's the boy? And why on earth don't they just get married, and... ?'

He was shaking his head. 'I don't know. She wouldn't say. That's one thing I thought you might be able to help me with....'

He left shortly afterwards. That part, at least, would be all right. Unless something unexpected turned up in the physical, the only problem now was getting the necessary data on the father.

When he got back to the office, the memo from the General was on his desk.

TO: Edgerly 'FROM: Martin

[No titles. Informal. That meant it wasn't the death-blow yet. Not quite.]

RE: Applicants for PN's and FP positions.

After reading your reports of yesterday, 16/g, and after giv-ing the matter some thought, bearing in mind our conversa-tion of 15/9, it seems to me that we might hold off on accepting any further PN's until the FP situation clears up. Suggest you defer all further interviews for PN's. Let's put our minds to the other part of the problem, and see what we can do. This is urgent, Tom. If you have any suggestions, I'll be glad to hear them, any time.

It was signed, in scrawly pencil, H. M. Just a friendly note. But attached to it was a detailed schedule of PN acceptances, opera-tions, shipments, and deliveries to date, plus a projected schedule of operations, shipments, and theoretical due dates for deliveries. The second sheet was even adjusted for statistical expectations of losses all along the line.

What emerged, much more clearly than it had in the General's solemn speechmaking, was that it would be necessary not only to have one more Foster Parent trained and ready to leave in less than three months, but that through January and February they would need at least one more FP on every bi-weekly rocket, to take care of the deliveries already scheduled.

Little Cell didn't know how lucky she was. Just in under the wire, kid. She was lucky to have somebody like that Lazarus dame on her side, too.

And that was an idea. People like Lazarus could help.

He buzzed Helen, and spent most of the rest of the day dictat-ing a long and careful memo, proposing a publicity campaign for Foster Parent applications. If the percentage of acceptances was low, the logical thing to do about it was increase the totals, starting with the applications. Now that he'd have more time to devote to FP work, with the curtailments on PN, he might fruitfully devote some part of it to a publicity campaign: discreet, of course, but designed to reach those groups that might provide the most useful material.

The Colonel was pleased when he had finished. He spent some time mapping out a rough plan of approach, using Dean Lazarus as his prototype personality. Social workers, teachers, personnel workers--these were the people with the contacts and the judg-ment to provide him with a steady stream of referrals.

Five women to find in two months--with this programme, it might even be possible.

The reply from the General's office next morning informed him that his suggestion was being considered. For some weeks, apparently, it continued to be considered, without further discus-sion. During that time, the Colonel saw Ceii Chanute again, after her Med report came through okayed, and then went to see Dean Lazarus once more.

Neither of them had had any luck finding out who the boy was. They worked out detailed plans for Ceil's 'appendectomy', and the Dean undertook to handle the girl's family. She felt strongly that they should not be told the truth, and the Colonel was content to let her exercise her own judgment.

At the end of the two weeks, another applicant came in. The Colonel tried his unconscientious best to convince himself the woman would do; but he knew she wouldn't. This time it took less than an hour for an answer from the General's office.

A phone call, this time.

'... I was just thinking, Tom, until we start getting somewhere on the FP angle--I notice you've got six PN's scheduled that aren't processed yet. Three-four of them, there are loopholes. I think we ought to drop whatever we can... ?'

'If you think so, sir.'

'Well, it makes sense to me. There's one the Security boys haven't been able to get a complete check on; something funny there. And this gal who won't tell us the father's name. And the one who was supposed to come in last week and postponed it. We can tell her it's too late now... ?'

'Yes, sir. I'll have to see them, of course. These women are pretty desperate, sometimes. They--well, I think it would bebetter to consider each case separately, talk to each one-- There's no, telling what some of them might do. We don't want any unfavourable publicity,' he said, and waited for some response to the pointed reminder.

There was none. 'No, of course not. You use your judgment, Tom, that's all, but I'd like to have a report on each one--just let me know what you do about it. Every bit of pressure we can get off is going to help, you know.'

And that was all. Nothing about his Memo. Just a gentle warning that if he kept on being stubborn, he was going to be backed up a little further--each and every time.

He got the file folders on the three cases, and studied two of them. The 'Barton' folder he never even opened. He found he was feeling just a little more stubborn than usual.

Sergeant Gregory came in, and he dictated a letter of inquiry to the woman who had failed to keep her appointment, then in-structed the Sergeant to call the other one, and make an appoint-ment for her to come in and see him. 'But first,' he finished, 'get me Dean Lazarus at Henderson, will you?'

III

WAITING OUT THERE in the room with the Wac and the mirror was almost as it had been the first time. Something was wrong. Some-thing had happened to spoil everything. It had to be that, or he couldn't have got her called out of class. Not unless it was really important. And how did he explain it to Lazar anyhow?

She sat there for five minutes that seemed like hours, and then the door opened and he came out with a welcoming smile on his lips, and all of a sudden everything was all right.

'Hi. You made good time, kid. Come on in.'

'I took a cab. I didn't change or anything.' It couldn't be very bad; if he looked so calm.

'Well, don't change next time either,' he said, closing the door behind them. 'Jeans are more your speed. And a shirt like that coming in here once in a while does a lot to brighten up my life.'

The main thing was, he had said next time. She let out a long breath she didn't know she'd been holding, and sat down in the big chair.

'All right,' he said, as soon as he had gone through the pre-liminary ritual of lighting cigarettes. 'Now listen close, kid, be-cause we are in what might be called a jam. A mess. Difficulties. Problems.'

'I figured that when you called.' But she wasn't really worried any more. Whatever it was, it couldn't be very bad. 'I was wondering--what did you tell the Dean?'

'The Dean... ? Oh, I told her the truth, Ceil. About two days after you first came in.'

'You what?' Everything was upside down; nothing made sense. She had been asked to one of Lazar's teas yesterday. The old girl had been sweet as punch today about the call, and excusing her from classes. 'What did you say?' she asked again.

'I said, I told her the truth, away back when. Now, listen a minute. You're nineteen years old and you're a good girl, so you still respect Authority. Authority being people like Sarah Lazarus and myself. Only it just so happens that people like us are human beings too. I don't expect you to believe that, just because I say it, but try to pretend for a few minutes, will you?' There was a smile playing around the corners of his mouth. She didn't know whether to be angry or amused or worried. 'I went in to see Mrs. Lazarus in the hope that she'd co-operate with us in planning your "appendectomy". It turned out she would. She thinks a lot of you, Ceil, and she was glad to help.'

'You took an awful chance,' she said slowly.

'No. I made sure of my ground before I said anything. A lot surer than I am now.

I think when you get back, you better go have a talk with the lady. And after that, you better remember that she's keeping her mouth shut, and it would be a good idea if you did the same. You realize the spot she'd be on, if other girls found out...?'

She flushed. 'I'm not likely to do much talking,' she reminded him, and immediately felt guilty, because Sally knew. It was Sally who had sent her to that doctor....

'Everybody talks to somebody,' he said flatly. 'When you feellike you have to talk, try to come here. If you can't, just be careful who it is.'

His voice was sharp and edgy; she'd never heard him talk that way before. I didn't do anything, she thought, bewildered. He cleared his throat, and when he spoke again, his voice sounded more normal.

'All right, we've got that out of the way. Now: the reason I asked you to come in such a hurry--well, to put it bluntly, and without too much detail, there've been some policy changes higher-up here, and there's pressure being put on me to drop as many of the PN's coming up as I can find excuses for.'

PN's? she wondered, and then realized--Pre Natal.

'... I didn't want to do this. I hoped you'd tell me in your own time.' She'd missed something; she tried to figure it out as he went along. 'If you didn't--well, we've handled two-three cases before where the father could not be located.'

Oh!

'Till now,' he went on, 'I thought if we couldn't convince you that it was in the best interests of the child for you to let us know, we might be able to get by without insisting. But now I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to tell me whether you want to or not. I'll promise to use every bit of tact and discretion possible, but--'

'I can't,' she broke in.

'Why not?'

'Because... I can't.' If she told the reason, it would be as bad as telling it all.

'Not even if it means you can't have the operation?'

That's not fair! There was nothing she could say.

'Look, Ceil, if it's just that you don't want him to know, we might be able to work it that way. Most people have physical exams on record one place or another, and the little bit more that we like to know about the father, you can probably tell us--or we can find out other ways. Does that change the picture any?'

She bit her lip. Maybe they could get all the information without--not without going through the Academy, they couldn't. It was there, that was true enough.

Charlie wouldn't have to know at all--not till they kicked him out of school, that is!

She shook her head.

'Look,' he said. He was pleading with her now. Why didn't he just tell her to go to hell and throw her out, if it was all that important? Why should it matter to him?

'Look, I'm supposed to be sending you a regretful note right now. But the fact is, if I can put in a report that you came in today, before I could take any action, and that you voluntarily cleared up the problem... do you understand?'

'Yes,' she said. 'I think I do.'

'You're thinking that this is a trick? I tricked you once before, so that you told me what you didn't mean to, Now I'm doing it again? Is that it?'

'Aren't you?'

'No.' His eyes met hers, and held there. She-wanted to believe him. He had admitted it the other time--but not till after he found out what he wanted to know.

'Maybe I don't know,' she said spitefully. That was silly, a childish thing to say.

Suddenly she realized he hadn't spoken since she said it, and Migod! Suppose he believes it! She looked up swiftly, and found a smile on his lips.

'Why on earth would you tell me a thing like that?' he asked mildly. 'Are you feeling wicked today?'

All right, she thought, you win. But she needed a few minutes; she had to think it out. 'Thank you,' she said, stalling, but also because she meant it.

'You're welcome I'm sure. What for?'

'At the doctor's I went to--they asked me if I knew who it was.'

The Colonel smiled. 'You're a nice girl, Ceil. Don't forget it. You're a nice girl, and it shows all over you, and anybody who can't see it is crazy. That doctor should have his head examined.'

'It wasn't the doctor. It was the nurse.'

'That explains it.' When he grinned like that, he seemed hardly any older than she was.

'You mean she was just being--well, catty?'

'That's one way of putting it.' He opened his bottom desk drawer, and pulled out a round shaving mirror, with a little stand on it. She took the mirror hesitantly, when he handed it to her.

Jonathan Jo had a mouth like an 0, And a wheelbarrow full of surprises... or a desk drawer. She held the mirror gingerly, not sure what it was for.

'I'm sorry,' she giggled. 'I don't shave yet. I'm too young.' He smiled. 'Take a look.'

She didn't want to. She looked quickly, and tried to hand it back, but he didn't take it. He left it lying on the desk. 'All right,' he said. 'Now : do you remember what the other' lady looked like? The nurse?'

'She was blonde,' Cell recalled slowly. 'Dyed-blonde, I mean, and her skin was sort of--I guess she had too much powder on. But she was kind of good-looking.'

'Was she? How old do you think she was?'

'Oh, maybe, I don't know--forty?'

'And why do you suppose she was working in a place like that?'

She sat there, and tried to think of an answer. What kind of reason would a woman have for working for that kind of a doctor? All she could think of was what her mother would have said: Well, you know, dear, some people just don't care. I don't suppose she thinks about it, just so long as she earns a living. They're well paid, you know.

That's what was in the back of her own mind, too--until she stopped to think about it; and then she couldn't figure out an answer. She couldn't think of any reason that could make her do it.

She looked at him hopelessly, like a child caught unprepared in grammar school, and she saw he was grinning at her again. Not in a mean way; it was more as if he were pleased with her for trying to answer than making fun because she couldn't.

Maybe the important thing was just to try. That's what he'd been trying to tell her.

That was the way he thought about people, all the time.

'I can't tell you his name,' she said, and took a deep breath and let out a rush of words with it, all run together: 'He's-a-cadet-at the-Space-Academy-they'd--' She had to stop and breathe again. 'They'd throw him out.'

'I don't think so,' he said thoughtfully. 'I think we could manage it so they...' His voice trailed off.

PROJECT NURSEMAID

'You don't know how tough they are there--' she insisted, and then stopped herself. 'I guess you do.'

He was silent for a moment, and then he said unexpectedly, 'Nope. You're right.'

His voice was bitter. 'That's exactly what they'd do.' He sat and thought some more; then he smiled, look-ing very tired. 'All right. All we really care about with the father is the physical exam. If you want to get in touch with him yourself, and ask him to come in, using any name he wants, that would do it. Or if you'd rather, you can tell me, off the record, and I'll get in touch. But either way, you have my word his name won't get any farther than this chair without your permission.'

She thought about that. She ought to do it herself, but... 'I'd trust you,' she said.

'If that's all right. If you don't mind. I'd--just as lief not--I don't really want to see him, if I don't have to.'

'Any way you want it, kid.' He wrote down the name, when she told him, on a piece of paper from his memo pad. Charles Bolido. He drew a line slowly under the two words; then he looked up at her, and down at the pad again, and drew another line, very dark and swift, beneath the first.

'Look, Ceil, it's none of my business if you don't want to talk about it, but--well, are you sure you know what you want to do? Before I get in touch with the boy--well, put it this way: are you giving him a fair break? I gather you're not on very good terms any more, and you say he doesn't know about the baby. Maybe--'

'No,' she said.

He smiled. 'Okay, kid. It's your life, not mine. Only one thing: what do I do if he wants to see you? Suppose he wants to quit school and get married?'

'He won't,' she said, but she had to clear her throat before the words came out right. 'He won't.' And she remembered....

...the grass was greener than any grass had ever been, and the water was bluer, and the sky was far and high above and beyona while he talked about the rockets that would take him on top co) the fluffed-out clouds, and away beyond the other side of the powder-puff daytime moon. The sun trailed across the vaultinf heaven. and the shade of the oak tree fell away from them. The)were hot and happy, and he jumped up, and took her hands, and she stood up into his arms.

'Love you, babe,' he whispered in her ear.

She leaned back and looked up at him and in the streaming sunlight he seemed to be on fire with beauty and strength and youth and she said, 'I love you, Charlie,' savouring the words, tasting them, because she had never said them before.

She thought a frown crossed his face, but she wouldn't believe it, not then. He took her hand, and they ran together down into the water.

It wasn't till later, in the car, that she had to believe the frown; that was when he began explaining carefully, in great detail, what his plans were, what a Spaceman's life was like, and why he could not think about marriage, not seriously about any girl.

He never even knew it had been the first time for her, the only time....

She couldn't explain all that. She sat still and looked at the man across the desk, the man with the nice smile and the under-standing eyes and the quiet voice. Charlie has wavy black hair, she remembered; the Colonel's was sandy-coloured and straight, crew-cut. Charlie had broad shoulders and his skin was bronzed and he had a way of tilting his head so that he seemed to be looking off into the distance, too far for her to see. The Colonel was nice enough looking, but his skin was pale and his shoulders a little bit round--from working indoors, at a desk, all the time, she supposed. Only, when he looked at you, he saw you, and when he listened, he understood. She couldn't explain the whole thing, but of course she didn't have to... not to him.

'He won't want to,' she said quietly; she had no trouble talking now. 'If he says so, he won't really mean it. He--he couldn't give up the Space school. That's all he ever wanted. It's the only thing that matters to him.' She said it evenly, in a detached objective way, just the way she wanted to, and then she sat absolutely still, waiting for what he'd say.

He tapped his pencil, upside down, on the top of the desk. She couldn't see his face at all. Then he looked up, and he had a made-up smile on his face this time, a smile he didn't mean. He nodded his head a little. 'I see.' Then he stood up, and came around to the side of the desk where she was sitting, and put both his hands on her shoulders, and with his thumbs against the sides of her jaw, he tilted her face up, so she was looking straight at him.

'You're a good girl, Ceil.' He meant that. 'You're a hell of a good girl, and the chances are Charlie is a lot better than you give him credit for. Therefore--' He laughed, and let go of her shoulders, and leaned back against the desk. '... I am not going to give you the fond paternal kiss I had in mind a moment ago. You might misunderstand.' He grinned. 'Or you might not.'

He wanted her to go now. She stood up, but there was a feeling of something more she had to say. 'I wish you had,' was what she said, and she was horrified. She hadn't even thought that.

'All right,' he said. 'Let's pretend I did. Didn't you wear a coat?'

'I had a jacket. I guess I left it outside.'

He had the door open. 'I'll let you know how it turns out,' he promised her, and then he turned around and started talking to the Wac.

He didn't even see her out of the other door.

IV

ONCE EACH MONTH, on the average, a Miracle came to pass, and a woman entered Colonel Edgerly's office who seemed, in his judg-ment, emotionally fit to undertake a share of the job of giving 200 homeless, motherless, wombless infants the kind of care that might help them grow up to be mature human beings.

He had thought the Miracle for this month was used up when Mrs. Leahy came in.

It was a Major Miracle, after all, when one of these women could also pass the Medical and Security checks, as well as his own follow-ups with the formal psych tests. To date, in almost nine months of interviewing, there had been only three such Major Miracles.

Mrs. Serruto, the colonel suspected, was not going to be the fourth. But if she failed, it would likely be in Medics; meantime,he , could have the satisfaction at least of turning in one more favourable preliminary report.

She came in the morning after his interview with Ceil, without an appointment, and totally unexpected--a gift, he decided, directly from a watchful Providence to him.

Virtue had proved an inadequately self-sufficient reward through a restless night; but surely Mrs. Serruto had been Sent to make recompense.

Little girls with big blue eyes should keep their transferences out of my office, he wrote rapidly on a crisp sheet of white paper. He underlined it, and added three large exclamation points. Then he filed it neatly in his bottom desk drawer--the same one that held his unpublished article--and turned to Mrs. Serruto with a smile. She was settled and comfortable now, ready to talk; and so was he. He pulled over an application pad, and began filling things in, working his way to the bottom, and the im-portant personal questions.

He paused a moment at ocCUPATtoN--but it couldn't happen twice. It didn't.

'Housewife,' she said quietly; then she smiled and added, 'but I think I'm out of a job. That's why I came.'

He listened while she told him about herself and her family, and he actually began to hope. Her son was in the Space Service already, on the Satellite. He'd just passed his year of Proba-tionary, and now the daughter-in-law had qualified for a civilian job up there. The young wife and the two grandsons had been living with her; the grandmother kept house, while the mother went to school, to learn astronomical notation.

Now the girl was going up to be with her husband and to work as an Observatory technician and secretary; the boys would go to Yuma, to the school SpaSery maintained for just that pur-pose.

'We weren't sure about the boys,' Mrs. Serruto explained. 'We talked it over every which way, whether they'd be better off stay-ing with me, or going to Yuma, but the way they work it there, the children all have a turn to go up Satellite on vacations, and they have an open radio connection all the time. And of course, it's such a wonderful school.... It was just they seemed awfully young to be on their own, but this way they'll be closer to their own parents than if they were with me.'

'What made you decide on a Foster Parent job, Mrs. Serruto?' Let her just answer right once more, he prayed, to whatever Providence had sent her there. Just once more... 'Most of the applicants here are a good deal younger than you are,' he added. 'It's unusual to find a woman of your age willing to start out in a strange place again.' He smiled. 'A very strange place.'

'I-- Oh, it's foolish for me to try to fool you, isn't it? You're a trained psychologist, I guess? Well, all the reasons you'd think of are part of it : I'm not young, but I still have my strength, thank the Lord, and I kind of like the idea of something new. Lots of people my age feel that way; look at all the retired people who start travelling. And keeping house in the same town for thirty-two years can kind of give you a yen to see the world. But if you want the honest answer, sir, it's just that I heard, I don't know if it's true, but I heard that if you get one of these jobs, you spend your leaves on Satellite... ?'

She was watching him anxiously; he had to restrain his own satisfaction, so as not to mislead her. She wasn't in yet, by a long shot--but he was going to do everything he could to get her there.

'That's right,' he told her. 'In theory, you get four days off out of every twenty.

The shuttle between Base and Satellite is on a four-day schedule, and one FP out of every five is supposed to have leave each trip. Actually, that only gives you about 45 hours on the Satellite, allowing for shuttle-time. And at the beginning, you may not get leave as regularly as you will later on.' He realized what he was doing, and stopped himself, switching to a cautious third-person-impersonal. 'There's been a good deal of research done on what we call LGT, Mrs. Serruto--that's short for Low Gravity Tolerance. We don't know so much yet about no-grav, but they're collecting the data on that right now. There's a pamphlet with all the information we have so far; you'll get a copy to take home with you, and then if you still want to apply, and if you can pass the tests, there's a two-months' Indoctrination Course, mostly designed to prepare the candidate for the experi-ence of living under Moon-gray conditions.

'The adjustment isn't easy, no matter how much we do to try and simplify it. But the leave schedule we're using has workedout, for regular SpaSery personnel. That is to say, we've cut down the incidence of true somatic malfunctions--'

She made a funny despairing gesture with hands and shoul-ders. He smiled. 'Put it this way: Low-gray and no-gray do have some direct--call it mechanical effects on the function of the human body. But most of these problems are cumulative. It takes--let's see, at Moon-gray, which is about one-sixth of what you're used to, it takes from ten to twelve months, in the average case, for any serious mechanical malfunctions to show up--1 should have let you read the pamphlet first,' he said.

'They've got it all explained there, step by step.'

He paused hopefully, but she obviously didn't want to wait; she wanted to hear it now. 'Anyhow,' he went on, 'we found, by experimenting, that the total tolerance could be extended con-siderably by breaking up the period. To put it as simply as possible : the lower the gravity, the shorter the time before serious "structural" malfunctions begin to appear--you under-stand? When I say "structural" I mean not only that something isn't working right, but that there's been actual physical damage done to the body in some way, so that it can't work right.'

The faint frown went away, and she nodded eagerly.

'All right. The lower the gravity, the quicker the trouble. Also, the shorter the time-span, the more you can take. That is, a person whose total tolerance at any particular low gravity is, say, six weeks--taken at a stretch--can take maybe ten or twelve weeks if he does it a few days at a time, with leaves spent at normal, or at least higher, gravity.

'The reason for this last fact is that even before the structural malfunctions begin to appear, most people start suffering from all kinds of illnesses--usually not serious, at first, but sometimes pretty annoying--and these are psychogenic....'

He looked at her inquiringly, and she nodded, a little uncer-tainly.

'Very few of the body functions actually depend on gravity,' he explained. 'I mean internal functions. But all of us are con-ditioned to performing these functions under a normal Earth-gravity. A person's digestive system, for instance, or vasc--cir-culatory system, will work just as well with low gravity, or none; but it has to work a little differently. And the result is a certain amount of confusion in the parts of the brain that control what we call "involuntary" reflexes : so that the heart, for instance, tries to pump just as hard as it should to suit the environment it's in--and at the same time it may be getting messages from the brain to pump just as hard as it's used to doing.

'When that happens you may--or anyone may--develop a heart condition of some kind; but it's just as likely that the patient might come up with purely psychological symptoms. Or any one of the various psychogenic diseases that result from ordinary internal conflicts, or anxiety states, may develop in-stead--'

Now she was shaking her head in bewilderment again. 'Look,' he said. Enough was enough. 'This is all in the reading matter you'll get when you leave today. And it's a lot clearer than I can make it. For now, just take my word for it, on account of the psych end of it, four months has been set as the limit of unbroken Moon duty.

However, we've found that people can take up to a year there with no bad effects at all, if they get frequent enough leave. That's why it's set up the way it is now.'

'You mean one year is all?' she asked quickly. 'That's the most?'

He shook his head. 'No. That's the standard tour of duty on the present leave system. Here's how it works : You sign a year's contract, which is really for sixteen months, except the last four months are Earth leave. During the twelve months on the moon, you get twenty per cent Satellite leave. That means you spend one-fifth of your time at a higher gravity. Not Earth-normal : the Satellite's set at threequarters--you know that?'

She shook her head. 'I didn't know. I knew it was less than here on Earth, but the way Ed described things there, I thought it was a lot less than that.'

'It probably would be,' he told her, 'if we didn't use the Satellite for leaves for Base personnel and people from the asteroid stations. Down to about one-half-gray, the bad effects are hardly noticeable, and there are technical reasons why we'd prefer to have to maintain less spin on Satellite. But three-quarters is just about optimum for the short leaves : high enough to restore yourpeace of mind, and low enough to make it comparatively easy to readjust each time.

'We used to have less frequent longer leaves on Earth--usually a fifty per cent system, one month there, one here. We changed it originally so as to avoid having our LG people constantly exposed to high-gray in acceleration, as well as to save rocket space, and travel time, and things like that. Afterwards, we found out that we were getting much easier adjustments back to LG after the short leave at threequarters, instead of the longer one on Earth.'

'That makes sense,' she said thoughtfully. 'If you were picking the people who could take the low gravity best, they'd maybe have the most trouble with the acceleration.'

'Yes and no. Strictly, physiologically, it tends to work that way; psychologically it's just the opposite, usually. And all this is in the prepared literature too.' He smiled at her, and determinedly changed the subject. 'Now what we've got to do is arrange for your physical. If it's all right with you, I'd like to get an appoint-ment set up right away, for as soon as possible. Frankly, that's going to be your toughest hurdle here.

If you get past that, I don't think we'll have too much more to worry about. But don't kid yourself that it's going to be easy.'

'I'm pretty healthy, Colonel.' She smiled comfortably. 'My people were farmers, over there and over here; I think they call it "peasant stock"? And I've been lucky. I always lived good.'

'For fifty-two years,' he reminded her gently. 'That's not old--but forty is old in SpaServ. Remember, the whole reasoning be-hind this Project is that if we catch 'em young enough, we think we can train the kids to get along under no-gray conditions.

And at your age, even acceleration can be a problem. Anyhow--'

He stood up, and she started gathering her coat and purse together. She was wonderful, he thought, almost unbelievable, after most of the others who came in here: a woman, no more, no less--a familiar, likable, motherly, competent, womanly kind of woman. When it came to psych tests (if it got that far, he had to remind himself, as he'd been trying to remind her), he knew she'd come up with every imaginable symptom and psychic dis-order... in small, safe quantities. A little of this, and a little of that, and the whole adding up to the rare and 'balanced' per-sonality.

'Anyhow,' he said, 'there's no sense talking any more till after you see the Medics.'

He led her out to Helen's desk, got her appointment lined up, and made sure she was provided with duly informative literature. Then he saw her out, and went back to his desk, to plot.

The routine report he kept routine. That was no place to urge special allowances or special treatment. He mentioned the SpaSery connections, of course, but did not emphasize them. If the General read carefully, that would be enough. But he had to be sure.

He laid out his strategy with care, and found two items pend-ing in his files that would serve his purpose : neither very urgent, either capable of assuming an appearance of immediate im-portance. Satisfied, he went out to lunch, and from there over to Henderson College to see the Dean again. He outlined to her his conversation with Ceil the day before--or at least some of it. The only part of that interview that concerned Sarah Lazarus was in connection with the young man at the Academy.

'When I thought it over,' he explained, 'it seemed to me it might cause some embarrassing questions all around if I were to approach the boy myself. I'm not in a position to say, "Personal", and not be asked any more. So I wondered if you...' He let it slide off, waiting to see what she'd offer.

'What was it exactly you wanted me to do?' she hedged.

'Write to him. That's all that would be necessary. They don't censor incoming mail there. Or if you'd rather not have anything down on the record, a phone call could do it.'

She nodded thoughtfully. 'I suppose...' she began slowly, then made up her mind.

'Of course. I'll take care of it. What's the young man's name?'

'I'm afraid,' he smiled, 'we'll have to get Ceil's permission before I tell you that. I made some powerful promises yesterday.'

'I know,' she said, and he looked at her, startled. 'Cecille came in to see me yesterday evening,' she explained, enjoying her moment of superior knowledge. 'She said she wanted to thank me for--for "being so wonderful", I think she said. I believe shemeant for not tossing her out on her ear as soon as I had heard the awful truth.'

'She comes from a--rather old-fashioned family?'

'That's one way of putting it. Her father is a very brilliant man in his line of work, I understand--something technical. He is also a boss-fearing, Hell-fearing, foreigner-fearing, bigoted, narrow-minded, one-sided, autocratic, petty, self-centred domestic tyrant. He spoils his wife and daughter with pleasure, as long as they abide by his principles--and his wife is a flexible, intelligent, family-loving woman who decided a long time ago that his principles had better be hers. Yes--I'd say it was an old-fashioned family. A fine family, if you stick to the rules.'

He nodded. 'That's about the way I figure it.'

The Dean cleared her throat. 'Anyhow, Cecille spent an hour or more with me last night, and after she got done telling me how wonderful I was, she started on what really interested her.'

'She's already told you about him? Well, good. That makes it easier.'

'No.'

Again he was startled, but only for an instant. He knew what was coming now, and he had time to cover his responses. Her technique was still lousy--but maybe it worked on her students.

'No,' she said. 'The rest was all about you.' She was watching him closely--of course. 'I suppose,' she asked thoughtfully, 'that happens fairly often? A girl in trouble comes to see you, and finds you a sympathetic saviour, and promptly decides she's in love?'

'Sometimes,' he admitted. 'I didn't think Ceil had quite reached that stage yet. I was even hoping she might avoid it.'

'She didn't put it that way herself.'

'It's annoying most of the time,' he told her. 'Sometimes, it's flattering as all hell.'

He grinned, and refused further comment; when she laughed, he thought he detected a note of relief. He hoped he had said enough, and not too much.

'If you want to wait a minute,' she said, 'I'll get her up here now, and we can get this settled.'

He glanced at his watch. 'Fine!' And it was. Ceil came up, looked in horror from one to the other, and, as soon as she could breathe out again, asked, pleading, 'What's wrong?'

His own laughter and the Dean's mingled, and when the girl had gone again, much relieved, the faint edge of doubt or sus-picion between the man and the woman was gone too. He promised to get in touch with her as soon as he heard from the boy, and got back to his own office in plenty of time for the afternoon's carefully mapped campaign.

About 3:30, and for an hour afterwards, there was usually a lull in the General's afternoon. At 3 : 45, the Colonel went upstairs with his knotty-looking little problem, and got his expected sequence of responses : irritation at being bothered when no bother was looked for, followed by the gratification at having so easily solved a really minor difficulty the Colonel had apparently been unable to untangle for himself.

'Takes the organizational mind, Tom,' the General said jovi-ally. 'I guess you have to get older, though, before you begin to get the broad view most of the time.' He took his 4 o'clock cigar from the humidor, and offered one to the Colonel.

'No thanks. I think I'll have to get older to appreciate those, too.' He lit himself a cigarette, and held the lighter for the other man.

'You'll get there,' the General puffed. 'See you finally broke down,' he added, grunting around the fat cigar. 'Let one of those ladies get past you.'

'I got tired of saying no. I'm afraid she won't get too far, though.'

The General raised an inquiring eyebrow. 'Haven't studied the report yet, but looked okay, quick glance.' Fragrant smoke rolled over the words, and swallowed up some of them.

'She's not young,' the Colonel said hesitantly. 'I--well, frankly, I was making some allowance for the fact that her son and daughter are stationed in Satellite--'

'Oh? SpaServ?' He was interested now.

'The boy is. Five-year hitch, I think. I thought it might make her more likely to stick with us, if she lasts out one year.'

'Tom, you got a positive talent--' The General even took the cigar out of his mouth to indulge himself in the lately rareluxury of using the faintly Southern-Western-home-folks manner that had done so much to put him where he was today. '--a talent, I tell you, for seein' things wrong-end hind-to.'

Edgerly made the politely inquiring sound that was indicated.

'Naturally, I mean, we want re-enlistments. But that's next year, and frankly, Tom, off the record, by the time we can get her up there and she's worked a year and had her four months' leave, you and me, we're going to be wearing the skin off our back-sides some place else altogether. But don't get me wrong.' He chuckled warmly, and reinserted the cigar. 'You wan' make 'lownces, you make 'em, any reason you want.'

The Colonel stayed a few more minutes, till his cigarette was finished and he could politely leave. But on the way home, he stopped down in Medical, and dragged Bill Sawyer out with him for a drink.

It took two before Bill got around to it.

'That dame you called us on today--what's her name, Sor-rento?'

'Serruto.'

'Yeah. Did you put a bug in the Old Man's ear, or what?' 'Me? What kind of bug?'

'Oh, he was dropping gentle hints all over me this afternoon. Real gentle. One of them hit my toe, and I think the bone's broken. He thinks she ought to pass her Medic?

'She's not young,' Edgerly said judiciously.

'No. But she's got a son in SpaServ, and after all, we do try to make some allowances, keep family together--hell, you know!' The Colonel grinned. 'What you need is a drink.'

'You know, I never thought of that!' The doctor chuckled. 'Hey! Remember that babe you were all steamed up about? Canadian. She'd lost her forearm... ?'

'Yeah, Buonaventura. And I still don't see what damn differ-ence sixteen inches of good honest plastic and wire instead of flesh and blood could make on the Moon.'

'Regulations, son, regulations. That's what I was thinking about. Maybe if you could fix it for her to get a son into SpaServe...'

'About twenty years from now, you mean?'

'Well, she wasn't exactly a knockout, but she wouldn't be hard to take. Maybe I'd co-operate myself.'

'Leave those little things to us bachelors,' the Colonel said sternly. 'No married man should have to sacrifice that way for the Service.'

The waiter came with fresh drinks, and they concentrated on refreshing themselves for a short time. 'Just the same,' Edgerly said seriously, 'I wish we could get more young ones like that.... I guess it's six of one and you-know-what of the other. The young ones wouldn't want to stay more than a year or maybe two... this Buonaventura gal, for instance. You know, her husband was killed in the same accident where she lost her arm. Honeymoon and all that. So she wanted to go be real busy for a while, till she could start thinking about another man. But any young woman who was healthy enough in the head to trust up there would just be putting in time, the same way..?

'Okay, but these grandmas you're sending up aren't going to be able to take any more than one or two tours, anyhow,' Sawyer put in.

'That's what I meant. You can't win.'

'What you need,' said the doctor, 'is a drink.'

'You know, that's an idea....'

V

FOR A LITTLE while, there was the illusion that things were im-proving, all around. Tuesday, the same day Serruto was winding up her 38-hour session in Medic, there was a letter from one Adam Barton, asking if an appointment for the necessary exam-inations could be arranged sometime between November 27 and 30.

Thanksgiving leave, the Colonel realized, and phoned down himself to set it up.

They'd been trying to keep the weekend free for the staff, but this one would have to go through.

He managed to keep himself from asking about Mrs. Serruto; they wouldn't have a final answer till late afternoon. Then, on impulse, he phoned Sarah Lazarus, and asked her to have lunch with him.

'Celebration. Space Service owes you something,' he explained.

'More than you know,' she replied, but wouldn't say any more on the phone, except to suggest that in her own opinion she was entitled to a good lunch.

Over hors d'oeuvres, and the remains of a ladylike Dubonnet, she explained : she had neither written nor telephoned to Barton-Bolido; she had gone to see him instead.

'When I thought it over, it seemed too awkward any other way,' she said. 'It's only about a three-hour drive, and I under-stood they had visiting Sunday afternoon.'

'We can reimburse you for the expense,' the Colonel offered. 'We have a special fund for that kind of thing....'

'So do we,' she said. 'The expense was the least of it. If you could reimburse me for the--what do they call it--"mental agony"... ?'

'I take it you had something of a heart-to-heart talk?' He was very genuinely curious. 'Is Ceil's impression of him anywhere near accurate?'

'1 don't know what Ceil's impressions are,' she said drily. 'Which kind of evens the score, doesn't it?' She attacked a casse-role of beef-burgundy saute, with apparent uninterest in con-tinuing the conversation.

'All right,' he laughed. 'I surrender. One betrayal deserves another. He wouldn't be very likely to talk to me, you know.' He told her what the girl had said, and she nodded.

'That's about it--except he happens to be crazy about her, so this bit of news has really got him in a tizzy. He'd managed to "forget" about her, he said, since the summer--convincing him-self that it was best to let the whole thing drop--don't see her any more, don't write--you know? And it makes sense. He does have his handsome little heart set on SpaServ--see, I'm learning the lingo? I'll have the pastry,' she told the waiter, with no change of tone or tempo. 'Anyhow, he can't marry for the next two years, till he graduates. And after that, there's a four-year... hitch?'

He nodded soberly.

'Hitch, before he can even hope to get permission to have his family with him, wherever he is--provided it's some place where he can have a family.'

'It will be,' he told her. 'Policy is shaping up that way. They're encouraging wives to go up Satellite now, and any station with enough grays for moderate good . health will be opened for families as fast as possible. The boys seem to last longer that way, and work better.'

She was interested. He would have liked to hear more about Charles, but that was personal curiosity, which would in any case be satisfied later on. There was more urgent business for this luncheon, and it was already getting late. He answered her ques-tions, more or less completely but always with a direction in mind, and eventually they came round to the Foster Parent problem.

'I'm sweating one out today,' he told her. 'Maybe that's why I decided to use you as an excuse for a good lunch. It's not easy to find the right people, and half the time, when I do get someone I'm satisfied with, she can't get past the Medics.

Stands to reason : the kind I want are likely to have led pretty busy lives, and mostly they run to older women--old, that is, in SpaSery terms--forty and fifty. The one I'm waiting to hear about is fifty-two. If her heart will stand up to blast-off acceleration, she may make it. But you never know what kind of ruination those boys can pull out of their infernal machines.'

'What you need is a good old-fashioned diagnostician,' she said, laughing. 'The kind that looked you over and told you in five minutes what was wrong--and turned out to be right.'

He shook his head sadly. 'We're not even allowed to do that in psych clinics any more. If you can't tab it up on IBM or McBride cards, it just ain't so.' He sipped at his coffee, which was cold, but--by design--not yet empty. 'I'll tell you what we do need, though,' he said seriously.

'What?'

'More Foster Parents.'

She gave him that studying look again. 'Just what is it you're trying to tell me, Colonel?'

'Nothing at all,' he said steadily, returning her look. 'Just chit-chat over lunch. I did have a notion about how to publicize our problem in the quarters where it might do the most good: educators, social workers, people like that. But I haven't been able to get official authorization for it yet, so...'

Deliberately, he paused and sipped again at the cold coffee.

so naturally, this is all just idle talk. I'm not trying to tell you anything; I'm just answering your questions.'

She was sipping her own coffee when he tried to get a look at her face. When he dropped her off at the College, she hadn't revealed any reaction. They said a friendly good-bye, and he thanked her again for her efforts with the young man, then drove back fast. It was mid-afternoon already, and the report on Mrs. Serruto The report was on his desk when he got back. He read it through, and sank back in his chair to find out what it felt like to relax.

The General had given him till October 9 to find a satisfactory FP. Today was the seventh.

He swivelled his chair around to look out of the window, at the wide sweep of the mountain range, the dark shapes, green-blue and purple, pushing up into the pale-blue sky of the mesa country. Life was good. For some minutes, he did nothing at all but fill his vision with colour and form, and allow his excellent lunch to be digested. Finally he turned back to the desk and riffled through papers in the Hold basket till he found the Schedule that had come with the General's last memo.

Mrs. Serruto would be ready for the rocket on December 9. They didn't have to have another one till January 6. After that, one on each bi-weekly shipment, at least through February.

January 6, less two months' training, left him 30 days. Serruto had been blind luck; he couldn't count on that again. He buzzed Helen, and dictated a brief memo for the General, asking for a conference, soon, on his proposals about publicity. Half-way through, the phone rang in the outer office. He picked it up on his desk, and it was Sarah Lazarus.

God is on my side, he thought. He had hardly expected to hear from her so soon, after her stubbornly non-committal silence during lunch.

She had enjoyed the luncheon, she said, and wanted to thank him again.

'You earned it,' he told her. 'Besides which, the pleasure was at least half mine.'

Or will be, when you get around to what's on your mind....

'The other thing I wanted to ask you about,' she said, 'was whether Thanksgiving weekend would be all right for our girl's visit?'

Not with the Medics it wouldn't, but he assured her it would. They had the boy coming in that Friday anyhow. The Colonel mentally apologized to God for his presumption.

'You said five days, I think?'

'Fi--oh, for the... visit. Yes. She ought to be here two days ahead of time, and then it's usually best.to wait at least two days afterwards.'

'Well--maybe she'd better come in at the beginning of the week. That will give her a chance to get dramatically ill in class. And it will work out better when I tell her parents, I think.'

'Any way you want it,' he assured her. 'It's far enough ahead so the schedule's pretty open. Especially with our present curtail-ments....' He waited.

'Oh, yes,' she said. 'That's right. I'd forgotten.' Then, very sweetly, she asked him if he would care to come to dinner at her home on Saturday evening.

It's your deal, lady, he thought; all he could do was pick up the cards and play them as they came.

'Cocktails start at six,' she said, and gave him an address. He hung up, trying to remember whether he had ever heard any reference to a Mr. Lazarus. That cocktail-chatter sounded like a big party, but her tone of voice didn't. He shrugged, and turned back to his secretary, who was waiting with an inevitable expres-sion of intelligent detachment.

'Make a note, Sergeant. Remind me to buy a black tie. I'm in the social whirl now.'

She made the note, too. Nothing he could do now would save him from being reminded. He favoured the Perfect Lady Soldier with a look of mingled awe, horror, and affection, and got on with the business of dictating his reminder to the General....

Brigadier General Harlan Foley Martin, U.N.S.S., resplendent in full uniform, with the blazing-sun insignia of SpaSery shining on his cap, was conducting a party of visitors through his per-sotlal domain : the newest, cleanest, finest building in the entire twenty-seven acres that made up the North American Moon Base Supply Depot--which was beyond doubt the biggest, cleanest, fastest and generally bestest Depot anywhere on Earth.

It was of particular importance that these (self-evident) facts should be brought to the attention of the visitors, against the time when they returned to their respective Depots in South Africa, North Asia, and Australia, to establish similar centres in which to carry out their share of the important and inspiring work of Project Nursemaid.

Half a dozen duly humble seekers after knowledge followed at his heels (metaphorically speaking; in actual practice, the General politely ushered them ahead of him through doors and narrow passageways), drinking in wisdom, observing efficiency, and utter-ing appropriate expressions of admiration.

The General felt it was time for a bit of informality, and there was no better way than in a display of that indifference to rank and protocol for which the Normerican Section was famous. Accordingly, he headed straight for the office of his Psychological Aide, Colonel Edgerly. There were times when it was possible to place a good deal of faith in the Colonel's judgment and be-haviour.

Edgerly rose to the occasion. He showed them through his Department, explained the psych-testing equipment in three lan-guages, and excused himself from accompanying them further on account of the press of his own work.

In the waiting-room, as they took leave of the Colonel, the General drew the attention of the visiting gentlemen away from the admirable example of Normerican soldiery behind the recep-tion desk with a typical display of typical Normerican in-formality.

'Oh, by the way, Tom, before I forget it--I've been too busy the last day or two, but I saw your memo on that idea of yours, and I want the two of us to get together some time and talk it over. Some time soon....' He smiled, and the Colonel smiled back.

'Well, let's set up a date now.' Edgerly turned to the Sergeant behind the desk.

'Oh, no need for that, Tom. Just give me a ring, or I'll drop in on you. Any time, any time at all...'

The General and his party proceeded to examine the hospital facilities on a lower floor.

Colonel Edgerly reknotted his tie, adjusted the angle of his cap, and stepped out of his car in front of one of the city's better apartment houses. A doorman led him to the proper elevator, and pushed the appropriate button for him. He stepped out into a foyer done in walnut wood and cream-coloured plaster. As the elevator door closed, a chime rang softly in a room behind the floral-printed draperies, and he had hardly time to savour the nostalgia the decor had produced before his hostess pulled the drapes aside and asked him in.

She was wearing a black dinner dress that displayed, among other things, a rather different personality from the one she wore in her office. However, there was a Mr.

Lazarus, and five or six other guests besides.

They drank cocktails and engaged in party conversation until one more couple arrived. The dinner was well-cooked and well-served, and eaten to the accompaniment of some remarkably civilized table talk, plus an excellent wine and subdued back-ground music. Afterwards, three more couples came in, and by the time the last of them arrived, the Colonel's opinion of his hostess--already improved by her home, her dress, her food and drink--had reached a peak of admiration and appreciation. Out of thirteen persons present that evening, every one except three escorting husbands--every other one was an upper-echelon executive of some social service agency, woman's club, child care organization, or adult educational centre.

The Colonel did not proselytize, nor did he mention any specific difficulties the Project was having. There was no need to do either. The guests that evening had come specifically to meet him, because they were curious and interested and felt them-selves inadequately informed about Project Nursemaid. He had nothing to do but answer eager intelligent questions put to him by alert and understanding people--and in the course of answer-ing, it took no more than an occasional shift of emphasis toconvey quite clearly that the Project's capacity for handling PN's must necessarily depend in large part on its success in finding satisfactory Foster Parents.

'Did you say before that you preferred older women for these jobs, Colonel?' He looked around for the questioner: a slim tailored woman with a fine-drawn face and clean, clear skin; she looked as though she belonged on a country estate with dogs and horses and a prize-winning garden. For the moment, he couldn't remember her name, or which outfit she was connected with.

'No. Not at all. If I mentioned anything like that, it should have been by way of complaint. The fact is that most of the people who satisfy our other requirements are older women--older in SpaSery terms, anyhow. Most of our candidates are, for that matter. Women under the age of forty, if they're healthy, well-balanced personalities, are either busy raising their own families, or else they're even busier looking for the right man to get started with. From the Medical viewpoint, we'd a lot rather get younger people. And for that matter, I think they might suit our purposes better all around--the right kind, that is...'

'I see. I was particularly interested, because we've been doing some intensive work lately on the problem of jobs for women over thirty-five, and I thought if we knew just what you wanted... ?' She let it drift off into a pleasant white-toothed smile, one feathery eyebrow barely raised to indicate the question-mark at the end.

He remembered now--Jane Somebody, from Aptitudes, Inc., the commercial guidance outfit. He struggled for the last name.

'I think Miss Sommers has a good point there, Colonel.' This was the dumpy little woman with the bright black eyes, sitting on the hassock across from him. Sommers, that's right! Next time I'll put Sergeant Gregory in my pocket to take notes. 'I hate to pester you so much on your night out, but I think several of us here might be able to send you people occasionally, if we knew a little more about just what you want.'

This one he remembered : she was the director of the Beth Shalom Family Counselling Service. 'Believe me, Mrs. Goldman, I can't think of any way I'd rather be pestered. I just wish I'd known beforehand what I was getting into. I'd have come pre-pared with a mimeographed list of requirements to hand out at the door.' With complete irrelevance, the thought flashed through his mind that the Sergeant never had reminded him about that black tie. You're slipping, old girl! he thought, and smiled at Mrs. Goldman. 'As it is--well, it takes about a week to complete the testing of an applicant. If I tried to tell you in detail what we want, Mrs. Lazarus might get tired of our company after a while. I think you probably know in general what per-sonality types are suitable for that kind of work. Beyond that, probably it would work better for you to ask any specific ques-tions you have in mind, and let me try to answer them.'

'Well, I was wondering--are you only taking women, or are you interested in men too? There's one couple I had in mind; they're young and healthy and what psychological problems they've got are all centred on the fact that they can't have any kids of their own, and because he's a freelance artist with no steady income, they can't adopt one. I think they might like to go, for a year or two... ?'

There was no point in telling her that the chances were a thousand to one they'd never pass the psychs. Nobody had ever proved that most cases of sterility were psychogenic, but the Project had, so far, built up some fascinating correlations be-tween certain types of sexual fears and childlessness; and then the 'free-lance artist'... He satisfied himself with answering the question she'd asked, and the other important one implied in her last sentence.

'We'd be delighted to have couples, if we can get them. We haven't taken any men so far, but we've got a couple on our reserve list. We want them later on, but for the immediate future, we need women in the nursery. One other point, though... what you said about "a year or two".

'We're signing people up for one-year contracts. One year's duty, and four months' leave, that is. We're doing it that way for several reasons : we want to be able to retest everyone medically before we renew contracts; and we want to check actual records of behaviour on duty and psychosomatic responses against our psych tests. A few other things, too, but all of 'em boil down tothe fact that we think we know what we're doing, but we're not sure yet. However 'If it weren't for the special problems of LGT, we'd--well, obviously, if it weren't for those problems, the Project wouldn't be necessary at all--but since it is necessary, we're still hampered by the same limitations. We'd like to provide permanent Foster Parents for each group of children. We can't do that, for the same reason we can't just send whole families up there: the adults can't take it that long.

Even with the present leave system, five years is probably going to be the maximum--five years' duty, that is, with four-month intervals on Earth between each tour.

'Right at this point, we're just not in a position to insist that anyone who goes should agree to put in the maximum number of tours--I mean whatever maximum the Medics decide on for the individual person. We can't do it, because it's more important just to get people up there. But we would if we could.'

He broke off, uncomfortably aware that he was monopolizing the floor. 'I'm sorry.

I seem to be making a speech.'

'Well, go ahead and make it,' Mrs. Lazarus said easily. 'It's a pretty good one.'

'I'm just letting off steam,' he laughed. 'This is my pet frustra-tion. Right now, the Project, or our division, has the specific job of supplying personnel, and we're not supposed to worry about the continuation of the Project five or ten years from now.

But I'm the guy who's supposed to pick the right people to do the job--and I can't pick them without thinking in terms of what will happen to those kids when they're five years old and fifteen and twenty.'

'I think I understand your difficulty a little bit, Colonel.' It was a quiet, very young-sounding voice from across the room. 'We have something of the same problem to face.' He picked her out now: the nun, Mother Mary Paul. One of the orders specializing in social work; Martha... ? Yes : Order of Martha of Bethany.

'Some of the children who come to us are orphans; others are from homes temporarily unable to care for them; some are day students; some are students who live in the convent. Most of them, in one way or another, are from homes where they have not received--well, quite as much as one might hope a happy home could provide. We want to give them the feeling of having a home with us--and yet, we know that most of them will be leaving us and going to their own families, or adopted families, or other schools. It's--rather a harder job, I think, to give a small child a sense of security and of belonging, when you know your-self that the time will come when the child must be handed over to someone else's care. I know I tend to demand a good deal more of the sisters going into orphanage work than a family qualifying for adoption.'

'You've said that better than I could have--' What were you supposed to call her?

Not Sister; he gathered she was too high up in her order. Mother? Your Reverence?

He compromised by omitting any title, and hoped the omission was not an offence.

'About the sense of belonging. Ideally, of course, the children should be in families, with permanent adoptive parents. But we have to juggle the needs of the children against the limitations of the adults. The kids need permanence; but the grown-ups just can't last long enough under the conditions. So to even up the books, an FP, Foster Parent, has to be something pretty special : a mature woman with the health of a young girl--a sane and balanced personality just sufficiently off keel to want to go to the Moon--someone with the devotion of a nun, who has no very pronounced doctrinal beliefs... I could go on and on like that, but what it all comes down to is that the kind of people we want are useful and productive right here on Earth, and mostly much too busy to think about chasing off to the Moon.'

There was a general laugh, and people started moving about, shifting groups, debating the wisdom of one more drink. The Colonel debated not at all. He took a refill happily, and turned away from the bar to find himself being converged upon.

Mrs. Goldman, Mother Mary Paul, and a Dr. Jonas Lutwidge, pastor of the local Episcopal Church, and a big wheel of some kind in the city's interdenominational social welfare organization.

They did not exactly all speak at once, but the effect was the same : What, they wanted to know, had he meant by 'no pro-nounced doctrinal beliefs'?

The Colonel drank deeply, and began explaining, grateful that this had come up, if it had to. in a small group, and equally gladthat he had thoughtfully provided himself with a double shot of whisky in this glass.

The broad view first : '... you realize that there will be, alto-gether, one thousand babies involved in this Project. Two hun-dred of them will come through our Depot.

The rest will be from every part of the world, from every nationality, every faith, every possible variation of political and social background. The men and women who care for them, and who educate them, will not necessarily be from the same backgrounds at all....' And world governments being still new, and human beings still very much creatures of habit and custom, there was no guarantee that bias and discrimination could be ruled out in the Project except by the one simple device that would make anything of the sort impossible.

From the individual viewpoint : 'These kids are going to grow up in an environment almost entirely alien, from the Earth view-point. They'll spend their time half on Moon Base, and half on the no-gray training ship. They won't have parents, in the sense in which we use the term, or families, or any of the other factors that go to forming the human personality. Maybe we could grow us a thousand supermen this way, but frankly we don't want to find out. We might not like them; they might even not like us....' Therefore every effort was going to be made to provide a maxi-mum of artificial 'family' life. The babies would be assigned, shortly after birth, to a group of five 'brothers and sisters'; Foster Parents in the group would necessarily change from time to time, but whenever a contract was renewed, the parent would go back to the same group. There would be a common group-designation, to be used as a last name; even first names were to be given by the first FP to assume the care of each baby. 'It's all part of what you were saying before, Mother,' he pointed out. 'We want the Foster Parents to feel and act as much as possible as if these were their own children; unfortunately, the physical setup is such that the opportunities to create such situations are few enough. We have to use every device we can.'

Obviously, under these circumstances, religious training could not be given in accordance with the child's ancestry. The solution finally decided upon had been to invite all religious groups to select representatives to participate in the children's education. They would all be exposed to every form of religious belief, and could choose among them. A compromise at best--and one that could work only by a careful system of checks and balances, and by making certain, insofar as possible, that the proselytizing was done only by the official representatives, and not by evangelical Foster Parents.

Mother Mary Paul and Mrs. Goldman both seemed tentatively satisfied with the explanation. Dr. Lutwidge was inclined to argue, but Sarah Lazarus came to the Colonel's rescue with a polite offer of coffee which drew their attention to the noticeable absence of the other guests.

It was almost one o'clock when Edgerly got home, in a glow of pleased excitement, and in no mood for bed. He stalked through the four rooms of his bachelor cottage, surveying everything with profound distaste, and sat up for an hour more, making sketches and notes about the improvements he meant to effect.

Next morn-ing, on his way to work, he stopped at a florist's for the brown jug and yellow roses that he had felt, all evening, should have been on the table in that foyer.

Briefly, he debated drawing on the Special Account to cover the cost, and decided against it; he had made his gesture now towards Better Living, and could leave his own home alone.

Within a week, the number of FP applicants in his office began to increase; within three weeks, he had another successful candi-date. His working day, which had for a short time been quiet and peaceful, resumed its normal pace, an hour or two behind schedule. And if the General still had failed to authorize the publicity campaign which the Colonel had already unofficially initiated, at least the Old Man had done nothing to impede it, and was showing a remarkable tendency to stay entirely out of the Psych Dept.'s hair.

This was good, up to a point. But by the middle of November, when the first rush of applicants referred by the Dean's friends had begun to diminish and he had found only one more accept-able candidate, the Colonel began to feel the need of an official authorization that would make it possible to carry his campaignfarther abroad. The people he'd met were all local; some had state-wide influence, others only in the immediate area. The Depot represented a territory that covered all of what had once been Canada, Alaska, and the U.S.A., plus part of Mexico.

The Colonel chafed a while, then sent another memo, asking for a conference on his suggestions of five weeks ago. For some days afterwards, he watched and waited for a response. Then another satisfactory applicant turned up, and he was busy with psych-tests and briefing interviews for the better part of a week. He checked off the second January rocket on his schedule, and offered up a brief prayer to whatever Deity had been looking out for him, that another such woman should come his way before the third of December.

And then it was Thanksgiving week.

VI

MONDAY AFTERNOON, Cell Chanute was admitted to the Project infirmary.

Tuesday morning, Dean Lazarus called to report that she had informed the girl's family of her illness, and had success-fully headed off any efforts at coming out to visit her. Wednesday morning, the day her operation was scheduled, the Colonel came in early and had breakfast with Ceil in the Med staff-room. He saw no reason to tell her that this was standard practice whenever possible, and when he went upstairs he was basking in the glow of her evident pleasure at what she thought a special attention.

He spent most of the morning dealing swiftly and efficiently with correspondence; the only time he hesitated was over one handwritten letter, from a town a hundred miles away. This he read carefully, then slid it into his pocket, to handle personally later on.

At 4 :30 that afternoon Ruth Mackintosh came in. She was the most recent of his successful candidates, now in her first week of regular training, and part of the process was a daily hour in his office, mostly to talk over any problems or questions of hers--partly to allow him continuous observation of her progress and her attitudes.

At five-oh-four the Sergeant, out at the desk, buzzed him with the news that the operation on the Chanute girl was completed, without complications, and she would be coming out of anaes-thesia shortly. The Colonel repeated the news for his visitor's benefit, explaining that he might have to leave in a hurry, if Cell began to wake up.

'Oh, of course--maybe you'd rather go down now?'

He would. For some idiotic reason, he said instead; 'It'll be ten or fifteen minutes anyhow.'

'I wish I'd known,' she said. 'I was going to ask you if I could see an operation before I went up.'

That was a new one. 'Have you ever watched an operation before?'

'Well, I used to be a practical nurse; I've seen plenty of home deliveries, and I saw a Caesarian done once--oh, you mean, will it upset me? No.' She laughed. 'I don't think so.'

That wasn't what he'd meant. 'Why do you want to see it?' he asked slowly. With some people the best way to get an answer was to ask a direct question.

'I don't know--I just want to see as much as I can, know as much as I can about the babies and what's happened to them already, and where they come from, and--if you people weren't so obviously oriented in the opposite direction, I'd want to meet the mothers, too, as many as I could.'

Wonderful--if true. He scribbled a note to check over certain of her tests for repressed sadistic leanings, and told her, 'We're not oriented the other way entirely.

In fact, we've changed our feeling about that several times already. Just now, I don't think it would be possible for you to meet any of the parents, but I think we can manage a pass to see a section performed. I'll check.'

He reached for the phone, but it buzzed before he could get to it. He listened, and turned back to Mrs. Mackintosh.

'I'm afraid I am going to have to run out on you.' He stood up. 'The kid downstairs is coming out of it now--you understand?'

'Of course.' She stood up, and followed him to the door. 'Do you want me to wait, or... ?'

'If you'd like to. Check with Sergeant Gregory here. She'll give you all the dope about getting that pass. And if you want to wait,that's fine, unless the Sergeant says I'm going to be busy. She knows better than I do.' He wanted to get out of the other door and downstairs. The feeling of urgency was unreasonable, but it was there.

'Helen,' he said briskly, 'you get things worked out with Mrs. Mackintosh. I'll be downstairs if you want me. Sorry to rush off like this,' he told the other woman again. 'Helen'll set up another appointment for us. Or wait if you want.' That's the third time I said that, he thought irritably, and stopped trying to make sense, or to say anything at all.

He had the satisfaction, at least, as he went out of the door, of one quick glimpse of the Perfect Lady Soldier, out of control. Helen was flabbergasted... and it showed.

Waiting for the elevator, he wondered what she thought. Going down in the elevator, he was sure he knew. And striding down the corridor on the hospital floor, he was dismayed to consider that she might possibly be right.

He had some news for Cell Chanute, tucked away in his jacket pocket--news he had withheld all morning, uncertain what effect it might have on her, and therefore unwilling to deliver it before the operation. True enough, he ought to be on hand when she woke up; it might be what she'd want to hear. True, but not true enough--not enough to warrant his indecent haste.

He made himself slow down before he reached the nurse's cubicle outside the Infirmary. When he went inside, he had already made up his mind that his concern about his own be-haviour was ridiculous anyhow. An occasional extra show of interest in an individual case--any case--was not necessarily the same thing as an unprofessional personal involvement.

Not necessarily, echoed a sneaky, cynical voice in the back of his mind.

He reached the bed, and abandoned introspection. She was awake, not yet entirely clear-minded, but fully conscious. He sat down on the chair right next to her head, and picked up her limp hand.

'How's the girl?'

'I'll live.' She managed a sort of a smile.

'Feeling bad?'

'All right...'

'Hungry?'

She shook her head.

'Thirsty?' She hesitated, then nodded. 'Water? Tea? Lemon-ade? Ginger ale?' She just smiled, fuzzily. The nurse, standing at the foot of the bed, looked to him for decision. 'Tea,' he said, but the girl shook her head. 'Something cold,' she murmured.

The nurse went away, and the Colonel leaned back in the chair, to an angle where he could watch her face without making her uncomfortably aware of it. 'I've got some news for you,' he said.

She turned her head to look at him, suddenly worried.

'Take it easy, kid. If it was anything bad, I wouldn't tell you now. Just that you'll have some company tonight--if you want to., 'Company... ?' Her eyes went wide, and she seemed to come out of the post-operative daze entirely.'Not my mother!'

'Nope. Gentleman who gave his name as Adam Barton.'

It took her a moment to connect; then she gasped, and said uneasily, 'How did he know--? But how could he get here tonight? Isn't he at school? How--'

'One at a time. He's coming for his physical on Friday. I guess Dean Lazarus told him you were being operated on today. I had a note from him this morning.' He took it out of his pocket, and held it out, but she shook her head in vigorous refusal.

'Look, kid: he's leaving there at five this evening; left already. He'll be here about eight, and he's going to phone when he gets in. He'd like to see you.'

She didn't say anything, but he could see the frowning in-tensity of her face. 'Do you want to see him, Cell? It's up to you, you know. I thought--in case you wanted to, you might like to know about it right away, when you woke up. But...'

'No!'

'Whatever you want, gal. I wouldn't decide right away, if I were you. He'll phone when he gets in. I'll tell the nurse to check with you then.'

'No,' she said again, less violently, but just as certainly. 'No. She doesn't have to ask me. Just tell him no.'

'Okay. If you change your mind, tell her before eight. Other-wise. she'll tell him no. iust like the lady said. Here's your drink.'

He took the cold glass from the nurse's hand, and put in on the table. 'Can you sit up?' She tried. 'Here.' He lifted her head, cradling her shoulders in his arm, and helped her steady the glass with his other hand. It didn't feel like anything special.

She was female, which was nice, and well-shaped, which was better. Otherwise, he couldn't find any signs of great emotion or excite-ment in himself. He eased her down gently, and stood up.

'I'll be around till six if you want me,' he said. 'Anything you get a yen for, tell the nurse. If she can't fix you up, she'll call Colonel Edgerly, of the Special Services Dept. We aim to please. The patient is always right. If you want to get sat up some more, you can use the nurse, but it's more fun if I do it.'

She giggled weakly, and the nurse produced a tolerant smile. Out in the hall, he left instructions about the phone call. 'She may change her mind,' he finished. 'Nobody says no that hard unless they meant to say yes at the same time. Let me know if she has any sudden change of mood--up or down. I'll be at my home phone all evening, if you want me--or if she does.'

Going back in the elevator, he didn't worry about his own emotions; he pondered instead on what 'Adam Barton's' must be.

She lay flat on her back in the neat hard white bed, and felt nothing at all.

Delicately, she probed inside herself, but there was no grief and no gladness; not even anger; not even love. It was all over, and here she was, and that was that. After a while, she'd be getting up out of the bed, and everything would be just the same as before.

No. Not quite everything. They had taken out more than the--the baby. She thought the words, thought them as words. Baby. They had taken out more than that, though. Whatever it was Charlie had meant, that was gone too. Out.

Amputated. Cut away.

She couldn't see him, because he would be a stranger. She didn't know him. She wouldn't know what to say to him, or how to talk. What had happened long ago had happened to a different girl, and to some man she didn't know.

Adam Barton!

Her hand came down hard on the mattress. and Tarred her. so that she became aware of pain. That was a relief. At least she could feel something. She saw the clenched fist of the hand, and was astonished: it hadn't fallen on the bed; she'd hit the mattress with her fist!

Why?

She couldn't remember what she was thinking about when she did it. The pain in her pelvis was more noticeable now, too, and no longer something to be grateful for.

She didn't remember calling the nurse, but somebody in a white uniform handed her a pill, and lifted her head so she could sip some water.

He was right. It was more fun when he did it. She wished he would come back.

She wanted him to stroke her head, the way her daddy used to do when she was very little, and then she was waking up, and very hungry.

The nurse came in right away; she must have been watching through the glass at the end of the room. But when she brought the tray, there was nothing on it except some junket and a glass of milk. When she insisted she was still hungry, the nurse agreed doubtfully to some orange juice. Then she lay there with nothing to do but dream about a full meal, and try to sort out memories: The terrible moment when they put the cone over her face in the operating room--the dazed first wakening--the Colonel ...

'Nurse!'

The white uniform popped through the door.

'What time is it?'

'Seven twenty-four.'

'Oh. Is--Colonel Edgerly wouldn't be here now, would he?'

'No. But he left word for us to call if you wanted him.'

'Oh, no. It's not important. It can wait.' It wasn't important; it wasn't even anything. I was just--just wanting to know if he was here. No, it wasn't, because she felt better now. It was wanting to know he hadn't forgotten about her. Well, he didn't! she scolded herself happily. He wouldn't, either. He wasn't the kind of man who took on responsibilities and then walked out on them, like...

Like I did, she thought suddenly.

The telephone out in the nurse's room was ringing. It cut off half-way through the second ring. She listened, but you couldn'thear the nurse's voice through the wall.

He could be calling to find. out how she was. Or her father--if her father knew...

She giggled, because her father would bawl her out for day-dreaming and 'woolgathering'. That's what he called it when he talked to her, but she'd heard him telling her mother once, when he didn't know she could hear, 'Mental masturbation, that's all it is ! Poking around inside herself till she wears herself out. There's no satisfaction in it, and all it does is make you want more of the same. Plenty of good men, men with ability, starving to death right now because they couldn't stop themselves from doing just that.' It was funny how she remembered the words, and just the way he'd said them; it was years and years ago, and she'd hardly understood it at the time. 'If that girl spent half the time think-ing about what she's doing than she does worrying about what she already did and dreaming about what she's going to do,' he'd finished indignantly, 'then I wouldn't worry about her at all!'

He was right, she thought tiredly, and a moment later she thought it again, more so, because she remembered that it was Charlie who had called. She should have talked to him; she could have done that much, at least. She'd been lying here thinking he was the kind of person who walked out on his responsibilities, and that wasn't fair, because she didn't know what he would have done if she'd told him.

Well, why didn't I tell him? she wondered, and...

Stop it! she told herself. If you have a toothache, you won't make it better by worrying it with your tongue all the time.

Her father had said that, too, she remembered, and suddenly she was furious.

That's not what I was doing, she told him coldly, but she didn't try to explain, not to him. Only there was a difference. She wasn't just worry-warting or daydreaming now; she was trying to find out why--a lot of why's.

That was the way he thought, all the time: Why? It was think-ing that way that made him the kind of person he was....

She giggled again. Every time she thought about him, she thought he, and never a name. Colonel didn't fit at all. and Mister wasn't right, and just plain Edgerly was silly, and she didn't dare think Tom.

The nurse came to give her a pill.

'Is that to make me go to sleep?' she asked warily.

'It's a sedative,' the nurse said, as if that was different.

'I slept all day,' she said. Will it bother anybody if I read a while?' She didn't want to read, especially, but she didn't want to sleep yet either. The nurse handed her the pill, and held out the water, and obediently, because she didn't know how to argue about it, she lifted her head and swallowed twice. When she moved like that, she remembered what it was she was trying so hard not to think about. It didn't hurt so much any more, but there was a kind of empty-ache.

The nurse turned on her bed light, and got some magazines from the table across the room. 'If you want anything, the bell's in back of you,' she said.

Ceil let her hand be guided to the button, but there was some-thing she wanted right now. 'Was it--' she started, and tried again. 'What was it?'

'It's a boy,' the nurse said, and laughed. 'Or anyhow, it will be, we think. You can't always tell for sure so soon.'

Is... will be...

Her head was swimming, from the pill probably.

Not was. Will be.

It's alive, she thought. I didn't kill it. She smiled, and sank back into the pillow, but when she woke up she was crying, and she couldn't stop.

VII

THE PHONE WOKE him at 3:43, according to the luminous figures on the dark clock-face. By the same reckoning, he had had exactly one hour and fifty-eight minutes of sleep. It was not enough.

He drove down to the Depot at a steady thirty-five, not trusting his fuzzy reflexes for anything faster; he made up for it by ignor-ing stop signs and traffic signals all along the way. The streets were empty and silent in the darkest hour of a moonless night; in the clear mountain air, the rare approach of another set of headlights was visible a mile or more away. He drove with the window downand his sports shirt opened at the neck, and by the time he got there he was wide awake.

They had taken her out of the infirmary into one of the consultation rooms, where the noise would not disturb the other woman who was waiting for an operation the next day. She was crying uncontrollably, huddled under a blanket on the couch, her shoulders trembling and shaking, her face turned to the wall, her fingers digging into the fabric that covered the mattress.

He didn't try to stop her. He sat on the edge of the couch, and put a hand on her shoulder. She moved just enough to throw it off. He waited a moment, and rested the same hand on her head. This time there was a hesitation, a feeling of preparation for movement again, and then she stayed still and went on crying.

After a little while he began stroking her head, very softly, very slowly. There was no visible or audible reaction, yet he felt she wanted him to continue. He couldn't see his watch. The dial was turned down on the arm that was stroking the girl's hair, but he thought it must have been a long time. He began to feel over-whelmingly sleepy.

The sensible thing would have been to lie down next to her, and take her in his arms, and both of them get some sleep....

No, not sensible. Sensible was what it wouldn't be. What it would be was pleasant and very reasonable--but only within the limits of a two-person system of logic.

From the point of view of the Depot, the General, the nurse, the Space Service's honour, and the civilized world in general, it would be an unpardonable thing to do.

If I were in uniform, he thought sharply, it would never have occurred to me!

She hadn't quite stopped crying yet, but she was trying to say something; the words got lost through the sobs and the blanket, but he knew what they would be.

Apologies, embarrassment, explanations. Tie stood up, opened the door, called down the corridor for the nurse and asked for some coffee.

If I were in uniform, she'd have said,'Yes, sir!' clickety, clack.

When he turned back, Ceil was sitting up on the couch, the blanket wrapped around her, covering everything but her face, which was a classical study in tragi-comedy : tear-stained and grief-worn, red-nosed and self-consciously ashamed.

'I--I'm sorry. I don't know what--I don't know what was the matter.'

He shrugged. 'It happens.' When the coffee came, he could try to talk to her some, or get her to talk. Now he was just tired.

'They woke you up, didn't they?' She had just noticed the sports shirt and slacks; she was looking at him with real interest. 'You look different that way. N--' She cut it off short.

'Nicer?' he finished for her. 'How do? My name is Tom. I just work here.'

'I'm sorry I made you get out of bed,' she said stiffly.

No you're not. You feel pleased and important and self-satis-fied. He shrugged.

'Too much sleep would make me fat.' 'What time is it?'

He looked at his watch. 'Ten to five.' The nurse came in with a tray. 'Time for breakfast. Pour some for me, will you? I'll be right back.'

He followed the nurse down the corridor, out of earshot of the open door. 'Did the kid call last night--Barton?'

'Not since I've been on; that was midnight.'

He walked back to the little cubicle with her and found the neat notation in the phone log at 2003 hours, with a telephone number and extension next to the name.

He turned to the nurse, changed his mind, and picked up the phone himself. There was a distinct and vengeful satisfaction in every twirl of the dial; and a further petty pleasure when the sleepy, resentful voice at the other end began to struggle for wakefulness and a semblance of military propriety as soon as he said the word 'Colonel.'

'I'm not certain,' he said briskly, 'but if you get out here fast, Ceil just might want to see you this morning.'

'Yes, sir.'

'You have a car?'

'Yes, sir, I dr--'

'Well, it should be about twenty minutes from where you are. Come to the main gate at the Depot. You have any identification, Mister Barton?'

'I... no, sir. I didn't think about...'

'All right. Use your driver's licence.'

'But that has my own na--''Yeah, I know. You're permitted civvies on leave, aren't you?' 'j'es, sir.'

'Okay. You ask for me. Personal visit. I'll leave word at the gate where they can find me. You know how to get out here?' 'I think so, sir.'

'Well, let's make sure.' He gave careful instructions, waited for the boy to repeat them, and added a final reminder: 'You'll only need identification to get in the main gate. Understand?'

'Yes, sir.'

The Colonel hung up and picked up the other phone, the in-side system. He left word at the gate that he was expecting a visitor, and could be found in the Infirmary.

Then he went quickly back to the little room where Ceil waited, before the creeping dark edge of a critical conscience could quite eclipse the savage glow of his ego.

With a cup of coffee steaming in his hands and the comfort of an armchair supporting him, he decided it was certainly unjust, but not at all unreasonable, for a man who had barely napped all night to take a certain irritable delight in awakening another man at five--even if there was no element of masculine com-petition--which of course there wasn't, really. This last point he repeated very firmly to himself, after which he could give his full attention to what Ceil was saying.

She was talking in a rambling steady stream; words poured through the floodgates now with the same compulsive force that had produced the violent tears and wracking sobs of an hour earlier. He didn't have to answer; he didn't even have to listen, except to satisfy his own interest. She had to talk; and she would have to do a lot more of it, too. But not all at once, he thought drowsily, not all of it at five o'clock in the morning.

Sometimes it happened this way. A single shock--and having one's abdomen cut open is always a shock--was enough to jolt an individual over a sudden new threshold of maturity. Ceil had been crying for a double loss : her own childhood, as well as the baby she hadn't known she wanted till it was gone. Now she had to discover the woman she was becoming. But not all in the next half-hour.

The nurse came to the door with a meaningful look. He stood up, realizing he had waited too long to tell the girl, uncertain now which way to go.

The nurse retreated from the doorway, and he stepped over to the couch, sat down on the edge, and put his hand on Ceil's arm.

'Look, kid, I have to go see somebody now....'

'Oh, I'm sorry!' She didn't look sorry; she looked relaxed and almost radiant, under the tousled hair and behind the red eyes. 'That other woman... she's being operated on today, isn't she?'

'Yes.' And he'd damn near forgotten that himself. 'Yes, but that's not... There's somebody here to see you, really.'

This time she didn't think of parents. This time she knew.

'Charlie... !'

'Adam.' He smiled.

'I don't... I don't know... ?'

He didn't smile, but it was an effort. 'Well, you'll have to de-cide. I've got to go talk to him anyhow.' He stood up and re-luctantly left his half-full cup of coffee on the tray. At the door he turned back and grinned at her. 'While you're making up your mind--we might be a few minutes--you'd have time to comb your hair a little if you wanted to, and things like that....'

He watched her hands fly, dismayed, to her head, and saw her quick horrified glance in the wall mirror. Her mind was made up....

The boy was in the waiting room, at the end of the corridor, standing with his back to the door, staring out of the window. He was tall--taller than Edgerly--and built big; even in rumpled tweeds there was an enviable suggestion of the heroic in his stance and the set of his, shoulders. Empathy, the Colonel de-cided, was going to be a bit harder to achieve than usual. He took a step into the room, a quiet step, he thought, but the boy turned immediately, stepped forward himself, then paused.

Eagerness turned to uncertainty in his eyes, and then to dis-appointment. He started to turn back to the window.

'Barton?' the Colonel asked sharply, and as the boy started forward again, the man was suddenly genuinely annoyed with himself. Of course the kid didn't know who he was; you don't spring to attention and salute a lounging figure in wrinkled slacks and open-necked shirt. For that matter, they were both in civvies.

His irritation had been based on something else altogether.

'I'm Colonel Edgerly,' he said, and was gratified to hear the trained friendliness of his own voice. 'I've been looking forward to meeting you.' A little stiff, but all right ... He extended a hand, and the boy took it, doubtfully at first, then with increasing eager pressure.

'It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. Mrs. Lazarus told me about you and how much you'd done for--for Ceil. I was hoping I'd get to see you while I was here.'

'Nothing much to see now but an empty shell.' The Colonel produced a smile.

'Ceil will see you in a few minutes, I think. Might as well sit down and take it easy meanwhile....' He dropped into an overstuffed chair, and waved the boy to another.

'I've been in there with her since three o'clock, or somewhere around there. You'll have to excuse it if I'm not at my brightest.' Sure, excuse it. Excuse me for being fifteen years older and two inches shorter. Excuse her for being seductive as all hell with a red nose. Excuse you for being so damn handsome! Excuse it, please....

'Is she... is everything all right?' The kid was white under his tan. 'They said last night she was resting comfortably. Did any-thing... ?'

'She's fine. She had a fit of the blues. It happens. Better it happened so quickly, while she was still here....' He hesitated, not sure what to say next. The boy on the other chair waited, looking polite, looking concerned, looking intelligent.

A regular little nature's nobleman! the Colonel thought angrily, and gave up trying to generate any honest friendliness; he would be doing all right if he could just keep sounding that way.

'Now look,' he said, 'there are a couple of things I ought to tell you before you go in. First of all, she didn't ask to see you. It was my own idea to call you. I thought if you were here, she'd be--glad.'

'Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.'

Quite all right. No favours intended. As long as he allowed himself full inner consciousness of his resentment, he could maintain a proper surface easily. 'I don't know how she'll act when you go in. She's been having a kind of crying jag, and then a talking spell. If she wants you to stick around, you can stay as long as the nurse lets you, but you ought to bear in mind that she didn't have much sleep last night, and she needs some rest. It might be better if you just checked in, so to speak, and let her know you're available, and come back later for a real visit--if she wants it. You'll have to decide that for yourselves. She...'

He stopped. There was so much the boy ought to know, so much more, in quality and subtlety both, than he could con-vey in a short talk in the impatient atmosphere of a hospital waiting room--or perhaps more than he could possibly convey to this particular person in any length of time anywhere. And he was tired--much too tired to try.

'Look,' he said. 'There's another patient I have to see while I'm here. The nurse will come and get you as soon as Ceil's ready for company. Just--sort of take it easy with her, will you? And if I'm not around when you're done, ask the nurse to give me a ring. I'd--like to talk to you some more.'

'Yes, sir.' The boy stood up. There was an easy grace in his movements that the Colonel couldn't help enjoying. 'And--well, I mean, thank you, sir.'

The Colonel nodded. 'I'll see you later.'

He spent half an hour being professionally reassuring at Nancy Kellogg's bedside, while she ate her light preoperative meal. With a clinical ear, he listened to her voice more than her words, and found nothing to warrant the exertion of a more personal and demanding kind of listening. As soon as he could, he broke away and went upstairs to his office, striding with determined indif-ference past the little room where Cell and Charlie were talking.

There was a spare uniform in his closet. He showered and shaved in the empty locker room at the Officers' Club, and emerged feeling reasonably wide-awake and quite unreasonably hungry. It was too early yet for the Depot cafeteria to be open--not quite seven.

The Infirmary had its own kitchen, of course.... So that's it) More understandable now, why he was so hungry. He usually got along fine on coffee and toast till lunch; and lunch was usuallylate--a good deal more than four or five hours after he woke up.

He stood undecided in the chill of the mountain-country morn-ing, midway between the Officers' Club, the Nursemaid building, and the parking lot. All he had to do was get into his car and drive downtown to a restaurant. Not even downtown : there was an all-night joint half a mile down the road.

On the other hand, he ought to be around, for the Kellogg woman as much as Cell....

The Psychologist, the Officer, the Man, and a number of identifiable voices held a brisk conference, which came to an abrupt conclusion when the Body decided it was too damn cold to argue the matter out. The composite individual thereupon uttered one explosive word, and Colonel Edgerly headed for the Infirmary.

The nurse said, Yes, sir, they could get him some breakfast. Yes, sir, Mrs. Barton had seen Mr. Barton, and she was now back in bed, asleep or on her way to it. Yes, sir, Mr. Barton was wait-ing. In the waiting-room. She had tried to call the Colonel, but he was not in his office. Mr. Barton had decided to wait.

'I told him you'd probably gone home, sir, and I didn't know if you'd be back today or not, but...'

Home? There was more about the boy insisting that the Colonel wanted to see him, but he lost most of it while the realization dawned on him that it was Thanksgiving Day. He was officially not on duty at all. He could have...

He could have gone away for the weekend; but not having done so, he couldn't have refused the call in the middle of the night; nor could he leave now, with Young Lochinvar waiting to see him, and Nancy Kellogg expecting him to be around when she was done in the operating room.

'... anything in particular you'd like to have, sir?'

Break fast, he remembered. He smiled at the nurse. 'Yeah. Ham and eggs and pancakes and potatoes and a stack of toast. Some oatmeal maybe. Couple quarts of coffee.' She finally smiled back. 'Anything that comes easy, but lots of it,' he finished, and went off to find Barton.

Colonel Edgerly put his coffee cup down, lit a cigarette, and sank back into the comfortable chair, savouring the fragrance of the smoke, the flavour of food still in his mouth, the overall sense of drowsy well-being.

On the edge of the same couch where Ceil had huddled under a blanket earlier the same morning, Ceil's young man sat and talked, with almost the same determined fluency. But this time, the Colonel had no desire at all to stop the flow.

He listened, and the more he heard, the harder it got to maintain his own discomfort, or keep his jealous distance from the boy. Barton-Bolido was a good kid; there was no way out of it. And Ceil, he thought with astonishment, was another. A couple of good kids who had bumped into each other too soon and too hard. In a couple of years No. That's how it could have been, if they hadn't met when they did, and if the whole train of events that followed had never occurred. The way it was now, Charlie would be ripening for marriage in two or three more years; but Cell had just this early morning crossed into the country of maturity--unaware and unsuspecting, but no longer capable of turning back to the self-centred innocence of last summer or last week.

Briefly, the Colonel turned his prying gaze inside himself and noted with irritation, but no surprise, that the inner image of the Ceil-child was still vividly exciting while the newer solider Ceil evoked no more than warm and pleasant thoughts. Well, it wasn't a new problem, and unless he started slapping teen-age rumps, it wasn't a serious one. He returned his attention to the young lady's young man, and waited for a break in the flow of words to ask : 'I take it you and Ceil are on... speaking terms again?' 'Yes, sir.'

'Good. It was important for her, I think.'

'How do you mean, sir?' The boy looked vaguely frightened now.

'Just--oh, just knowing that you came, that you give a damn....'

'I guess she had a pretty low opinion of me,' the boy said hesitantly.

I wouldn't put it that way,' the Colonel told him, profes-sionally reassuring.

'Well, she did. And I'm not so sure she was wrong. Frankly, sir, I'm glad it turned out the way it did. I mean, if she had to--to get pregnant, I'm glad she came here. I don't know what I would have..?

'Well, we're glad too,' the Colonel interrupted. 'And right now, it doesn't really matter what you would have done, if things worked out any other way. You could be a blue-dyed skunk or a one-eyed Martian and the only thing that would make any real difference is what Ceil thought you were. She's gone through a tough experience, and her own opinion of herself, her ability to pull out of this thing, is going to depend a lot on whether it all seemed worthwhile--which means, in part, her opinion of you.' He stood up. 'Well, I suppose as long as I'm here, I might as well get some work done....'

'I didn't mean to take up so much of your time, sir.'

'You didn't take it. I donated it. You going back to the hotel, or stick around here?'

'I'd like to stay around if it's all right.'

'All right with me. Major Sawyer--Dr. Sawyer to civilians like you, boy--should be in soon. If he kicks you out, you'll have to go. Otherwise, don't get in the nurse's way, and I don't imagine anyone will care. I'll be down later myself.'

He was in the doorway, when the boy called, 'Colonel .. He turned back.

'Colonel Edgerly, I just wanted to say--I guess I said it before, but--I want to thank you again. In case I don't see you later. Ceil--Ceil told me how much you've done for her, and how you arranged for Dean Lazarus to get in touch with me, and--well, I want you to know I appreciate it, sir.'

'Aw 'twarn't nothin'.' The Colonel grinned, and added, 'After all, that's what I'm here for.' He went on down the corridor to the elevators, and up to his office, comfortably aware of a full stomach and a fully distended sense of virtue.

Everybody would live happily ever after, and to top it all, he had a full day ahead to catch up on the neglected paper work of months behind.

The phone was ringing when he entered the office. He had heard it all the way down the corridor, buzzing with tireless mechanical persistence.

'Hello. Edgerly speaking.'

'Oh, Tom. Good. They told me you were in, but switchboard couldn't find you.

Told 'em to keep ringing till they got you. Could you run up for a minute? Couple things to talk over.'

'Yes, sir. I'm free now, if you'd like...'

'Fine. Come right up.'

The Colonel looked at the overstuffed Hold basket, and smiled. The paper work could wait. He didn't know what the General was doing there on Thanksgiving Day, and he didn't care. This con-ference was long past due.

VIII

THE GENERAL WAS doing the talking; the Colonel sat in stunned silence, listening. Not the smallest part of his shock was the realization that the General not only sounded, but really was, sincere.

'... when you're running an outfit like this, Tom, the biggest thing is knowing who to put the pressure on and when to ease up. You're a psychologist. You're supposed to be able to see some-thing like this, even when you're the one who's concerned.

These last couple months, now, you had a pretty free hand. You realize that?'

The Colonel nodded. It was true. He hadn't thought of it that way. He'd been champing at the bit, waiting for some kind of recognition. But it was true.

'Okay, I think I did the right thing. I told you what we had to have, and I told you I wasn't going to tell you how to do it. I put some pressure on, and then I left you alone. I got the results I wanted. We had three successful applicants the first nine months, and three more in less than nine weeks afterwards.

'I didn't ask how you were doing it, and I didn't want to know. It's your job, and the only time I'll mess around with what you're doing is when you're not getting results. The only trouble was, I didn't ask for enough, or I didn't do it soon enough.

I shouldhave allowed for a bigger margin of safety, and I didn't. That was my fault, not yours--but we're both stuck with it now.'

Again the Colonel nodded. There were questions he should ask, ideas he should generate, but all he could feel at the moment was overpoweringly sleepy.

The General surprised him again.

'I take it you had a rough night. Suppose you take a copy of the transcript with you. Look it over. If you get any ideas, I'll be right here. I've got to have an answer Monday morning, and it better be a good one.'

The Colonel took the stapled set of onionskins, and stood up. 'Sorry to spoil your holiday,' the General rumbled.

The Colonel shrugged. 'At least the holiday gives us a few days to figure things out.'

The General nodded, and they both forgot to smile.

Back in his office, with a container of coffee getting cold on his desk, the Colonel read the transcript of the telephone conversa-tion all the way through, carefully, and then through again.

The call had been put through to the General's home phone at 7:28 that morning, from the Pentagon in Washington. Appar-ently there had been some sleepless nights on that end too, after the arrival of the Satellite Rocket the evening before.

The conversation ran to seven typed pages. The largest part of it was a gingerbread facade of elaborately contrived informalities and irrelevancies. Behind the facade of jovial threats and omin-ous pleasantries, the facts were these : For reasons as yet unknown, there had been three 'premature' deliveries of PN's on the Base: that is, the babies had come to term and been delivered from their tanks, healthy and whole, several weeks in advance of the expected dates. The three 'births', plus two that were expected, had all occurred within a 36 hour period, at a time when only two or three FP's were on Base. Mrs. Harujian was on Satelleave; and to complicate matters, Mrs. Lenox, the first one to go up, was suffering at the time from an attack of colitis, a lingering after-effect of her first long un-relieved spell of duty.

Armv nurses had had to nut in extra time. snelline the two women in the nursery. The extra time had been sufficient to foul up the Satelleave schedule for the regular Army staff on Base. A four-star General who had gone on the rocket to Satellite, for the especial purpose of conferring with a Base Captain, whose leave was cancelled without notice, inquired into the reasons therefor, and returned on the rocket without having accomplished the urgent business for which he had submitted his corpulent person to the discomforts of blast-off acceleration.

The rocket had hardly touched ground, before the voice of the four stars was heard in the Pentagon. Channels were activated. Routine reports were read. Special reports analysing the reports were prepared--and somewhere along the line, it became known that the PN schedule at the Depot was not what it should be.

The phone call to General Martin therefore informed him that on Monday morning a small but well-starred commission would set forth from Washington to determine the nature of the diffi-culties at the Depot, and make suggestions for the improvement of conditions there.

For some time the Colonel sat in his office digesting these pieces of information.

At noon he went down to the infirmary; said hello to Ceil, who was awake and looking cheerful; spent half an hour talking to Mrs. Kellogg, who was being prepared for the operating room; left word that he would be with the General, if not in his own office, when she came out of anaesthesia; declined, with thanks, an invitation from the staff to join them in Thanksgiving dinner; and went upstairs to see his boss.

The conference was shorter than he had expected. The General had also been doing some thinking, and had arrived at his con-clusions.

'We took a gamble, and we lost, that's all,' he said. 'I figured by the time the shipments began to fall off enough so anybody would notice, we'd be back on a full schedule of operation again. Somebody noticed too soon, that's all. Now we have to get back to schedule right away. As long as we do that there won't be any heads rolling....

'Now this Serruto woman is ready to go on the next trip, that right?'

The Colonel nodded, waiting.

'Then you've got, what's-er-name, Breneau? She's scheduled for 'January 6, that right? And Mackintosh just started training, she goes January 20? Okay, I want those two accelerated. I'll give you any facilities or help you need, but I want them ready for December 23 and January 6 instead.'

The Colonel did some quick figuring, and nodded. 'We can manage that.'

'Okay. The next thing is, I want somebody else started right away. You got a back file of maybe nineteen-twenty names that are open for reconsideration. Couple of 'em even had medicals already. I want one started next week. She goes up with Mackin-tosh January 6.'

'You realize, sir, you're asking me to send up a woman I've already rejected as unsatisfactory, and to do it with only five weeks' training instead of two months?'

'I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. That's an order, Colonel. You'll get it in writing tomorrow.'

'Yes, sir.'

'Oh, hell, Tom, take it easy, will you? I'm sorry I had to put it that way, but I'm taking responsibility for this. You don't have to agree; all you have to do is produce.

You give me what I want, I give them what they want, and after things settle down, you can get things going more the way you want 'em.'

'May I say something, sir? Before I start doing what I'm told?'

'Sure. Go ahead.'

'You were talking about a margin of safety. I'm worried about the same thing. You want to make sure we have enough people up there to handle a normal scheduled flow of shipments. I want to see the same thing. But sending up ten or twenty or fifty un-qualified women isn't going to give us any margin... sir.

'I'd tell the Pentagon boys what we're doing, and why, and stick with it. I wouldn't start more PN's till we're sure we have enough FP's. And I'd start doing some scouting around for the FP's.'

'Oh, we got back to that? The publicity campaign?'

'I still think it's a good idea.'

'Okay, Tom let's get a couple of things straight. You made a suggestion, and I didn't pay any attention, and you went ahead and tried it out anyhow. Yeah, sure I know about it. What do you think I meant this morning about knowing when to put on pres-sure? You did it the right way. You were discreet and sensible, and it worked--a one-man campaign, fine.

'But what you could do that way wasn't enough, so you sent me another little note, because you wanted to get it set up officially, and expand it. Well, look, Tom, I don't want to sound insulting. I know you know a lot about people, that's your job.

But you know 'em one-at-a-time, Tom, and it's been my business for a hell of a long time to know them all-in-a-bunch, and believe me 'You start a big full-scale publicity campaign on this thing, and we'll be out of business so fast, you won't know what hit you. The American people won't stand for it, if they know what's going on here.'

'They know now, sir. We're not Secret.'

'Yeah. They know. If they subscribe to The New York Times and read the science column on page thirty-six. Sure we're not Secret; the Project is part of the knowledge of every well-in-formed citizen. And how many citizens does that include? Look at the Satellite itself, Tom. It was no secret. The people who read the small print knew all about it way back some time in the 1940's when it was mentioned in a congressional budget. But it sure as hell surprised the citizens when it got into the sky--and into the headlines. We can't risk the headlines yet. If people knew all about us... well, probably we could win over a good majority. But if all they see is the headlines and the lead paragraphs and the editorials in the opposition papers... and don't think they aren't going to make it sound as if the government was running a subsidized abortion ring! Does that make it any clearer?'

'Yes, sir. A lot clearer.'

'Okay. I'll get official orders typed up in the morning, and a new schedule for trainees. Now you might as well knock off, and enjoy what's left of the holiday. Start worrying tomorrow....'

Colonel Edgerly sat in a chair by the head of a hospital bed and listened to fears and complaints, and was grateful that Nancy Kellogg was really married, and had three children and ahusband at home, and was not going to go off any deep ends in the immediate future. He made little jokes and reassuring noises, and held the little pan for her when she was sick the second time.

With the surface of his mind he listened to everything she said and could have repeated a perfect catalogue of all her aches and pains. When she moved on to the subject of previous deliveries, he asked interested questions at appropriate intervals.

She wanted to talk, and that was fine, because as long as he kept the top surface busy he didn't have to pay attention to what was going on farther down.

When she began to get sleepy, he went and found Ceil, who was watching television out in the staff-room. She turned off the set and started a stream of nervous small talk, from which he could gather only that she had been doing some heavy thinking and had a lot to say, but didn't know how to say it. Whatever it was, it did not seem to be particularly explosive or melancholy; when the nurse came to tell her it was time to be back in bed, he ignored the girl's hopeful look, and said he would see her next day.

He started off up the corridor, knowing what he was heading for and hoping something or someone would stop him. Nothing and nobody did. He stepped through the wide door at the far end of the hall, and waited while the student nurse encased him in sterile visitors' coveralls. Inside, he wandered up and down the rows of tanks, stopping occasionally to stare through a glassed top as if he could see through the membrane and the liquids, or even perhaps through pale flesh and cartilage and embryonic organs, to some secret centre of the soul, to the small groupings of undeveloped cells that would some day spell mind and psyche in the walking, living, growing, feeling, thinking bodies of these flat-faced fetal prisoners.

Charlie, the Kaydet, had said to him wistfully, 'I wish the kid could have my name.' To carry to the stars, he meant. But not right now, not here on Earth, oh no, that would be too em-barrassing....

On the tanks there were no names: just numbers. And in the office down the hall, a locked file case contained a numbered folder full of names and further numbers and reports and charts and graphs of growth and in every folder of the 37, one name at least appeared. His own.

They're not my babies, he thought angrily, and with reluct-ance : Yes they are.

You need to get married, he told himself clinically. Have one of your own.

That would be an answer, one kind of answer. But not an answer to the problem now at hand. It was an answer for girls like Cell, and later for boys like Charlie--for the people who had listened to his promises and pledges, and walked away, and left their babies here.

They walked out. So can I.... The job the Generals wanted done was not a job that he could do. So quit! It could be done. The typed-out request for a transfer was in his pocket now. Quit now, and let them find him a job that wasn't too big for a merely human being. Get married, have some kids. Let somebody else...

He couldn't.

If he knew which somebody, if there were a Colonel Edgerly to talk to him and reassure him and promise him, so he'd believe it, that his babies would be cared for...

He laughed, and the vapour forming on the face-plate of the sterile suit made him aware that he was uncomfortably warm and had been in there too long. He went out and stripped off the coveralls. His uniform was wet with sweat, and he smelled of it.

Through empty halls he went upstairs, avoiding even the ele-vator, grateful to meet no one on the way. In his own office, he stood and stared out of the window at the faint edge of sunset behind the mountains, no more than a glow of red shaping the ridges against a dark sky.

He took the wilted sheet of paper from his pocket and would have torn it up, but instead he opened the bottom desk drawer and filed it with all the other unfulfilled acts of rebellion.

The parents of these children could walk out, and had done so. But the man who had cased the responsibility from their shoul-ders, who had used his knowledge of human beings and his trained skill in dealing with them to effect the transfer of a living human embryo from its natural mother to a tank of surrogatenutrient, the man who had dared to determine that one par-ticular infant, as yet technically unborn, would be one of the thousand who would grow up not-quite-Earthmen, to become the representatives of Earth over as yet-uncoverable distances--the man who had done all this could not then, calmly, doff his Godhead, hand it to another man, and say, 'I quit,' and walk away.

He changed his clothes and got his car from the near-empty parking lot and drove.

Not home. Anywhere else. He drove to-wards the mountains, off the highway, on to winding dirt roads that needed his full attention in the dark. He kept the window down and let the night wind beat him and when, much later, he got home, he was tired enough to sleep.

The blessing of the Army, he thought, as he slid from wake-fulness, was that there was always someone over you. Whatever authority you assumed, whatever responsibility came with it, there was always some higher authority that could relieve you of a Godhead you could not surrender.

IX

IN THE MORNING, he felt calm and almost cheerful. His own personal decision was made, and the consequences were clear to him, but the career that had mattered very much at one time seemed comparatively unimportant at this juncture.

He checked off the list of appointments for the day--Kellogg, Barton, Mackintosh, two new names, FP applicants; he read the mail, and read the typed orders and schedule that came down from the General's office; he went efficiently through the day's routine, and whenever there was ten minutes to spare, he worked on the report the General required for Monday morning.

Saturday was an easier day. He talked to Cell in the morning, and signed her release, and told her to come see him any time she felt she wanted to. Then he went upstairs, and finished the report. Read it through, and tore it up, half-angry and half-amused at the obvious intent of his defiance. Making sure you get fired is not at all different from ouittine.

He went carefully through the card-file of rejects and selected half a dozen names, then started the report again. Along towards mid-afternoon, he buzzed the Sergeant to order a belated lunch sent up, and not till after he had hung up did he stop to wonder what she was doing at her desk. She was supposed to go off duty at noon on Saturdays. He picked up the phone again.

'Hey, Sarge--didn't you hear the noon whistle?'

'Noon... ? Oh. Yes, sir.'

'You don't have to stick around just because I do, you know. They don't pay overtime in this man's Army any more.'

'I... don't mind, sir. There's nothing special I have to do today. I thought if I stayed to answer the phone, you could... you'll want that report typed when you're finished, won't you, sir?'

Well, I'll be damned! He was surprisingly touched by her thoughtfulness. 'It was good of you to think of it, Helen.' As soon as the words were out, he realized how wrong they were. Too formal, and then her first name--it didn't sound like what he meant. 'I appreciate it,' he added, even more stiffly.

'That's all right, Colonel. I really don't mind. I didn't have anything special to do, and I just thought...'

He put the receiver down, got up quickly, and opened the con-necting door. She was sitting there, still holding her phone, look-ing slightly baffled and faintly embarrassed. He grinned, as the click of the door-latch startled her. 'You're a good kid, Sarge, but there's no sense hanging on to a phone with nobody on the other end.'

She flushed, and replaced the receiver on its hook. Apparently anything he said was going to be wrong--but this was hardly surprising when, after four months of almost daily association, he suddenly found a person instead of a uniform sitting at the out-side desk.

'Tongue-tied schoolboy, that's me,' he said defiantly. 'I just never learned how to say Thank You politely. Even when I mean it. I think it was damned decent of you to stay, and I appreciate what you've done so far, but I'm not going to let you toss away the whole weekend just because I'm stuck in the mud. Look... did you order that stuff yet?'

'No... no, sir.'

'Could you stand to drink a cup of coffee?' He grinned. 'With a su ierior officer, I mean?'

Almost, she smiled. The Almost Perfect Lady Soldier, he thought with relief.

'Yes, sir, I think I could.'

'All right. Pick up your marbles and let's get out of here. I could use a break myself. After that,' he finished, 'you're going home. I'll tell the switchboard I've gone myself, and let them take any calls. And as far as the typing goes, I don't know when I'm going to have this thing finished. It could be three o'clock in the morning... and I can always get one of the kids from the pool to type it up tomorrow, if I'm too lazy to do it myself.'

She frowned faintly; then her face smoothed out again into its customary unruffled surface of competence. 'You're the boss.' She smiled and shrugged almost imperceptibly. 'Let's go!'

He had thought he wanted company. A short break would be good. Generalized conversation--enforced refocusing of attention --sandwich and coffee--twenty minutes of non-concentration. Fine. But all the way to the commissary he walked in silence, and when they found a table and sat down, it took only the simplest query--'How's it coming?'--to set him off.

He talked.

For an hour and a half, while successive cups of coffee cooled in front of him, he talked out all he meant to say. Then when he finally looked at the clock and found it read almost five, he said, abashed, 'Hey--didn't I tell you to go home?'

'I'm glad I didn't,' she said.

There was a note of intensity in the saying of it that made him look more closely.

She meant it! It wasn't a proper secretarial remark.

'So am I,' he told her with equal seriousness. 'I got more done yakking at you here than I would have in five hours, crumpling up sheets at my desk. Thanks.'

He smiled, and for an instant he thought the uniform would slip away entirely, but the answering smile was only in her eyes. At least, he thought, she'd refrained from giving him her stan-dard Receptionist's Special....

He didn't do any more that day. Sunday morning, he went into the office early, and started all over again, this time knowing clearly what he meant to say, and how.

When the phone rang at eleven, he had almost completed a final draft.

'This is Helen Gregory, sir. I thought I'd call, and find out if you wanted that report typed up today... ?'

Bless you, gal! 'As a matter of fact, I'm just about done with it now,' he started, and then realized he had almost been betrayed by her matter-of-fact tone into accepting the sacrifice of the rest of her weekend. 'It's not very long,' he finished, not as he'd planned. 'I'll have plenty of time to type it up myself. Take yourself a day off, Sarge. You earned it yesterday, even if you didn't have it coming anyway.'

'I... really don't mind.' Her voice had lost its easy certainty. 'I'd like to come in, if I can help.'

Ohmigod! He should have known better than to crack a sur-face as smooth as hers. Yesterday afternoon had been a big help, but if she was going to start playing mama now...

'That's very kind of you, Helen,' he said. 'But there's really no need for it.'

'Whatever you say...' She sounded more herself again--or her familiar self--but she left it hanging, clearly not content. He pretended not to notice.

'Have a good day; he said cheerfully. 'Tomorrow we maybe die. And thanks again.'

'That's all right, sir. I really-- I suppose I'm just curious to see how it came out, really.'

'Pretty good, I think. I hope. I'll leave a copy on your desk to read in the morning.

Like to know what you think-- Hey! where do you keep those report forms?'

'Middle drawer on the left. The pale green ones. They're quadruplicate, you know--and onionskin for our file copy is in the top drawer on that side.'

'It's a good thing you called. I'd have had the place upside down trying to figure that out. Thanks, Sarge--and take it easy.'

He hung up thoughtfully; then shook his head and dismissed the Sergeant, and whatever problems she might represent, fromhis immediate universe. He spent another half-hour changing and rewording the final paragraph of the report, and when he was satisfied that he at least could not improve it further, found the forms and carbon sheets neatly stacked where she'd said. A hell of a good secretary, anyhow.

Nothing wrong in her wanting to mother-hen a little bit. He was the one who was over-react-ing....

The father-pot calling the mother-kettle neurotic, he thought bitterly. And that was natural enough too. Who could possibly resent it more?

He stacked a pile of sheets and inserted them in the typewriter, wishing now he'd been rational enough to trade on the girl's better nature, instead of rejecting so hard.

It would take him a couple of hours to turn out a decent-looking copy. She could have done it in thirty minutes....

The phone jangled at his elbow; he hit two keys simultane-ously on the machine, jamming it, and reached for the receiver. 'Colonel Edgerly... ?'

Excited young female type. Not the Lady Soldier.

'Speaking.'

'Oh... Tom. Hello. This is Ceil.' She didn't have to tell him; he knew from the breathless way she said his first name. 'I tried to call you at home, but you weren't there.... I hope I'm not bust-ing into something important?'

'Well, as a matter of fact--' Whatever it was she wanted, this wasn't his day to give it out. 'Look, kid, will it keep till to-morrow? I've got a piece of work here I'm trying to finish up--' Maybe she could type, he thought, and reluctantly abandoned the idea.

'... really what I wanted anyhow,' she was saying. He had missed something and, backtracking, missed more. '... only time we're both free, and I wanted to check with you ahead of time...' Who was both? Charlie maybe? Coming to ask for his blessing?

I'm getting hysterical, he decided, and managed to say good-bye as calmly as if he knew what the call had been about. Tomorrow. She'd come in tomorrow, and then he'd find out.

One isolated phrase jumped out of the lost pieces: '... called yesterday...' The Sergeant had been turning away calls all day, and he hadn't looked at the slips when he left, because he thought he was coming back.

He found them on her desk, neatly stacked. Cell had called twice : no message. A Mrs. Pinckney of the local Child Placement Bureau wanted to speak with him about a matter of importance; he dimly remembered meeting her at the Lazarus' party. Two candidates for FP had made appointments for next week. The rest were interdepartmental calls, and the Sarge had handled them all.

His hand hesitated briefly over the phone as he considered calling Sergeant Gregory and giving them both the gratification of allowing her to do the typing for him. Then he took himself firmly in hand, and headed back to the inner office and the typewriter. No need to pile up future grief just to avoid a couple of hours of tedium.

He settled down, unjammed the stuck keys, and started again with a fresh stack of paper.

In the morning, over his breakfast coffee, he read again through the carbon copy he had brought home, and decided it would do. He had managed to give the General what he'd asked for, and at the same time state his own position, with a minimum of wordage and--he hoped--a maximum of clarity.

The report began by complying with the specific request of the General. It listed the names of six rejected candidates who might be reconsidered. The first three, all of whom he recommended, included Mrs. Leahy, the madam; Mrs. Buonaventura, who had failed to be sent through for further testing because she had only one arm; and a Mr. George Fitzpatrick, whose application had been deferred, rather than rejected, since they planned to start sending men later.

He pointed out that in the first two cases the particular dis-abilities of the ladies would not, in practice, make any difference to their effectiveness; and in the case of the man--if the pro-gramme were to be accelerated other ways, why not this way too?

There followed a list of three names, conscientiously selected as the least offensive of those in his file who might be expected toqualify on Medic and Security checks; in these three cases he uhdertook, as Psychological Officer, to qualify any or all for emergency appointments of two months, but added that he could not, in his professional capacity, sign his name to full-term con-tracts for any one of them.

The next section was a single page of figures and statistics, carefully checked, recommending a general slow-down for the Project, based on the percentage of acceptable FP candidates encountered so far. A semi-final paragraph proposed an alternate plan : that if the total number of applicants for FP positions could be increased, by means of an intelligently directed publicity programme, the number of acceptable candidates might be ex-pected to be large enough to get the Project back to its original schedule in three months.

And then the final paragraph :

'It should be remembered, in reviewing this situation, that on this Project we are dealing with human beings, rather than inanimate objects, and that rigid specifications of requirements must in each individual case be interpreted by the judgment of another human being. As an Officer of the Space Service, whose duty it is to make such judgments, I cannot, in all conscience, bring myself to believe that I should include in my considerations any extraneous factors, no matter of what degree of importance. My official approval or rejection of any individual can be based only on the qualifications of that individual.'

He read it through, and drove to work, wondering what the chances were that anyone besides the General would ever see it.

The day was routine, if you discounted the charged air of sus-pense that circulated through the building from the time the three star-studded Washingtonians drove into the parking lot and disappeared into the General's office. The Colonel conducted the usual number of interviews, made minor decisions, emptied a box of Kleenex, and replaced it.

For the Colonel, there was a feeling of farce in every appoint-ment made for the future and every piece of information care-fully elicited and faithfully recorded. But the Sergeant, at least, seemed to have come back to normal, and played the role of Lady Soldier with such conviction that the whole absurd melodrama seemed, at times, almost real. She complimented him gravely on the report when she handed him his list of appointments; there-after, the weekend and its stresses seemed forgotten entirely in the familiar routine of a Monday morning.

At 10:30, Mrs. Pinckney called again. It seemed she was going to a social welfare convention in Montreal next month; would the Colonel like to work with her on part of a paper she meant to present there, in which she could 'plug' the Project?

He couldn't tell her, through the office switchboard, that the boss had rapped his knuckles and threatened to wash his mouth with soap if he kept talking about indelicate matters outside the office. He suggested that they get together during the week; he'd call her when he saw some free time. She hung up, obviously chagrined at the coolness of his tone, and immediately the phone buzzed again.

This time it was the Sergeant. 'I just remembered, sir, there were some phone slips from Saturday that you didn't see.' 'Thanks. I picked 'em up yesterday.'

'Oh. Then you know Mrs. Barton called? She seemed very eager--'

'Yuh. She called again yesterday. That's what made me check the slips. Oh, yes.

She's coming in today, sometime.'

'She didn't say when, sir?'

'No. Or I'm not sure. If she did, I don't remember.' And what difference did it make?

'Shall I call her back and check, sir?'

'I don't see why.' It was getting irritating now. Apparently, the Sergeant was going to remain slightly off keel about anything connected with the weekend. Well, he thought, one could be grateful at least for small aberrations--if they stayed small.

'She'd be in class now, anyhow,' he added sharply.

'Yes, sir. It's just that I understand you'll probably be going up to the Conference right after lunch. So if it was important...'

'It wasn't,' he said with finality. 'If I'm busy when she comes in, she can wait.'

'Yes, sir.'

He hung up, wondered briefly about the exact nature of therumour channels through which the secretaries of the Depot seemed always to know before the decisions were actually made just what was going to happen where and when, gave it up as one of the great insoluble mysteries, and went back to the ridiculous business of carrying on the normal day's work.

At noon, the General's secretary informed Sergeant Gregory that the General and his visitors were going out to lunch and that the Colonel's presence was requested when they returned, at 1330 hours. The Sergeant reported the information to her superior. He thanked her, but she didn't go away. She stood there, looking uncomfortable.

'Something else?'

'Yes, sir, there is. It's... not official.'

There was an urgency in her tone that drove away his first quick irritation. He focused on her more fully, and decided that if this was more of the mothering act, it was bothering her even more than it (lid him. 'Sit down, Sergeant,' he said gently.

'What's on your mind?'

'No, thanks. I... all right.' She sat down. 'I... just wanted to tell you, sir... just wanted to tell you, sir... I mean I thought I ought to let you know before you go up..?

'Yes?' he prompted. And where has my little Lady Soldier gone?

'It's about your report. I can't tell you how I know, sir, but I understand the General turned it over to the other officers. Maybe I should have..?

'Excuse me.' He was beginning to feel a burst of excitement. His first reaction to the idea of being included in the Conference at all had been a sinking certainty that Edgerly was going to play Goat after all. But if they'd seen his report... 'I won't ask you how you know, but I do want to find out just how reliable your source is,' he said eagerly. It was possible, just barely possible, that his ideas might be given some serious consideration by the Investigating Committee!

'It's reliable,' she said tightly and paused, then went on with quick-worded determination: 'Perhaps I should have said some-thing before, when I read it, but it was too late by then to make any changes, so I... I mean, if you'd agreed with me, sir. But theway you wrote the report, it does--excuse me, sir, but it makes such a perfect out for the General! I know you've been co-operat-ing with him, and he knows it, but anyone who just read the report...' She stood up, not looking at him, and said rapidly, 'I just thought I ought to let you know before you go up, the way it looks to me, and how it might look to them. I'm sorry if I should have spoken up sooner.'

She turned and almost ran for the door.

'That's all right, Sarge,' he said, almost automatically. 'It wouldn't have done any good to tell me this morning. I should have let you come in yesterday....'

Just before the door closed, he had a glimpse of a shy smile in which gratitude, apology, and sympathy merged to warm friendliness. But the marvel of this, coming from the Sergeant, was lost entirely in the hollowness of his realization that he was going to get what he wanted. He was going to get fired. The General had passed the buck with expert ease, and Tom Edgerly would be quietly relieved of a post that was too big for him, and... He felt very very sick.

X

THE TWO GIRLS walked in through the open door, just how much later he didn't know. He'd been sitting with his back to the desk, staring out of the window, remembering the care he had taken to write that report in such a way as to defeat his own acknow-ledged weakness, and marvelling bitterly at the subconscious skill with which he had composed the final document.

He heard the noise behind him, a hesitant cough-and-shuffle of intrusion, and turned, realizing that Helen would have gone out for lunch and left the doors open.

It was Ceil; the other girl with her was the last PN before her. They had met in the Infirmary, he supposed; Janice had gone home last Tuesday; Ceil came in Monday.

Yeah.

They both looked very intense. Not today, kids. Some other time. He stood up, and smiled, and began rehearsing the words to get rid of them.

Cell stepped forward hesitantly. 'Was this a bad time to come? If 'you're busy, we could make it tomorrow instead. It's just lunch hour is the only time we're both free, and we wanted to come together. Jannie works late....'

She was chattering, but only because she had sensed something wrong.

'It's not a good day,' he said slowly, and glanced at his watch and back at the girls, and knew defeat again. Whatever it was, it was important--to them.

'Well, we can come in tomor--'

'You're here now,' he pointed out, and formed his face into a smile. 'I have some time now, anyhow.' The time didn't matter to him. He had more than half an hour yet before he had to go upstairs and get put to sleep in the mess of a bed he had made.

'Sit down,' he said, and pulled the extra chair away from the wall over to the desk.

They sat on the edge of their seats, leaning forward, eager, and both of them started talking at once, and then both stopped. 'You tell him,' Ceil said. 'It was your idea first.'

'You can say it better,' the other one said.

For God's sake, one of you get to it! 'Spit it out,' he said brusquely.

They looked at each other, and Ceil took a deep breath, and said evenly, 'We want to apply for Foster Parent positions.'

He smiled tolerantly. Then he stopped smiling. It was im-possible, obviously. A couple of kids.

'Why?' he asked, and as a jumble of answers poured out, he thought, with mounting elation, Why not?

'My mother acts like I committed a sin....' That was Janice. 'In two years, Charlie can get married....'

'... maybe I did, but if I helped to take care of some of them...' .. I'd know more about how to manage in a place like that, in case we did...' Ceil.

'...even if it wasn't my own...'

That was the catch, of course. They'd play favourites. They'd--if they didn't know--Mrs. Mackintosh had said, if you weren't so obviously oriented in the opposite direction....

Janice--she was the one who'd had an affair with her boss. He was going to marry her of course, but when she found out she was pregnant, it turned out he already had a wife. No job, no man. He would pay for her to get rid of it--but she wouldn't. She couldn't. And she couldn't stay home and have it; it would kill her mother, she said....

Ceil--Ceil came in as a child, not knowing, not understanding, and downstairs, in a hospital bed, she grew up.

A couple of kids, sure. But women, too. Grown women, with good reason for wanting to do a particular job.

He heard the Sergeant come in, and flew into a whirlwind of activity. It was i : t 5.

By 1:27, they had both applications neatly filled out and the already-completed Medical and Security checks out of the folders. The psych tests for FP's were more compre-hensive than the ones they'd had, but he knew enough to figure he was safe.

He took another twenty seconds to run a comb through his hair and straighten his tie. Then he went upstairs.

The Colonel sat at his desk, and filled in an application form neatly and quickly.

He signed his name at the bottom and stood up and looked out of the big window and laughed without noise, till he realized there was a tear rolling down his cheek.

It was all over now, but it would all begin again tomorrow morning, and the next day, and the next. The visiting Generals had accomplished their purpose, which was to goose Nursemaid into action, and had gone back home. The resident General had come through without a blot on his record, because it was all the Colonel's fault. The Colonel had come through with a number of new entries in his record, and whether they shaped up to a blot or a star he could not yet tell.

The interview had been dramatic, but now the drama was done with and the last piddling compromise had been agreed on : the two new candidates; plus the man, Fitzpatrick; plus consideration for men from now on; plus reviewing the backfiles of PN's to see how many more were willing; plus the trickle that could be expected from this source in the future; plus an over-all zo per cent slowdown in the original schedule; plus policy conferences in Washington on the delicate matter of publicity; plus a reprimandto the Colonel for his attitude, and a commendation to the CAloncl for his work....

He pushed the buzzer, and the Sergeant came in.

'Sit down,' he told her.

She sat.

'It just occurred to me,' he said, 'that the--uh--dramatic state-ments on those applications you typed up were... extraordinarily well put.' He kept the smile back, with a great effort.

'What statements did you mean, sir?' The Perfect Lady Soldier had her perfect deadpan back.

'The last questions, Sergeant. You know-- "Why do you desire to..." The answers that were all about how Colonel Edgerly had inspired the applicants with understanding, patriotism, maternal emotion, and--similar admirable qualities.'

'I--' There was a faint, but not quite repressed, glint in the Sergeant's eye. 'I'm afraid, sir, I suggested that they let me fill that in; it would be quicker, I thought, than trying to take down everything they wanted to say.'

'Sergeant,' he said, 'are you aware that those applications be-come a part of the permanent file?'

'Yes, sir.' Now she was having trouble not looking smug.

'And are you also aware that it is desirable to have truthful replies in those records?'

'Yes, sir.' She didn't feel smug now, and for a moment he was afraid he'd carried the joke too far. He meant to thank her, but... 'Yes, sir,' she said, and looked directly at him, not hiding anything at all. 'I wrote the truth as I saw it, sir.'

The Colonel didn't answer right away. Finally he said, 'Thanks. Thanks a lot, Sergeant.'

'There's nothing to thank me for.' She stood up. 'I hope it--helped?'

'I'm sure it did.'

She took a step, and stopped. 'I'm glad. I think--if you don't mind my saying so, sir, I think they'd have a hard time finding anybody else to do the job you're doing. I mean, to do it as well.'

He looked at her sharply, and then at the filled out form on his desk.

'I guess I have to say Thank You again.' He smiled, and realized her embarrassment was even greater than his own.

'I'll--is there anything else you want, sir? I was just going to leave when you buzzed--' Her eyes were fixed one foot to the right of his face, and her cheeks were red.

'Yes; he said. 'There is something else--unless you're in a hurry. It can wait till tomorrow, if you have a date or anything.' 'No, sir. I'm free.'

'All right, then. What do you like to drink, and where would you prefer to eat? I have lousy taste in perfume, and I owe you something, God knows--besides which, it's about time we got acquainted; we may be working together for a while after all.'

She was still embarrassed, but she was also pleased. And his quick glimpse before had not fully prepared him for how sweet her smile was, when she wasn't doing it professionally.

There was just one more thing he had to do before he left. He took the application for a Foster Parent position from the top of his desk--the one with his own name signed to it--and filed it in the bottom desk drawer. There was a job to be done here--a job he couldn't possibly do right. The requirements were too big, and the limitations were too narrow. It was the kind of job you could never be sure was done right--or even done. But the Sergeant-. who was in a position to know--thought he could do it better than anyone else.

Time enough to go traipsing off to the Moon when he finished as much of the job as they'd let him do, here.